2021 Life Logs, Day 213: New Month, New Training
Date: Sunday, August 1, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Weatherwise, this first day of August on Cape Cod was much like yesterday—sunny and warm. Not as hot as I like it, but it was a lovely day. Ian, The Reliable Dog Trainer, offered an e-collar training starting today and I decided to give it a try. I am probably just throwing more good away as other training attempts with my little wild man have not worked. Some people view e-collars as cruel, but the way Ian does the training makes it feel okay to me. During the class today, Shadow was a super star. It was when we got home and I tried to mimic what Ian had done in class, that it didn’t work. Shadow is a smart dog and the minute he saw that I had the remote controller in my hand, he recognized it and evidently decided he would just glue himself to my leg. I was supposed to walk in front of him and say “come, come” while feeding him treats. After a few round of that, I was to add a slight zap, zap with the controller while still constantly giving him treats. When I did that, he stayed right next to me the whole time and then he laid down. Ian mentioned that as a possibility for some dogs. He called it Velcro dog and it usually means the zap is too strong, but it was only on a 4 out of 100 levels of stimulation. He had not reacted that way in class using the same setting. I stopped for today and will try again tomorrow using only treats. Then on Tuesday, I’ll add the zaps and see what happens. Maybe all I need to do is just hold the remote as he obviously doesn’t want me to use it. We were trained not to use the stimulation as a negative for now but simply train the dog to come using food as a reinforcer. Only after a few weeks of this can I use it train him not to jump on people. It is long process and I sincerely hope it works. I love my little wild man and he is such a good dog when I am the only other person in his life. But when you add anyone else, he immediately wants to jump up on them and lick them in the face. Training Shadow has been more challenging that I would ever have thought, but I really don’t know what I would do without him. I shall persist.
Ollie and I will spend tomorrow afternoon together and then I will begin my two weeks without grandchildren. I started the house cleaning this afternoon, one of my goals for the two weeks. Today I mostly I only thought about it while watching the Olympics. Tuesday I will seriously attack the job. And when I am not cleaning, I will do gardening and spend more time working with Shadow. At least that is the plan.
