Monday, November 6, 2017

Deaf Dog Training

Today at lunch, a few of my coworkers were asking me about what it's like to train a deaf dog. Essentially, it's just like training a hearing dog. Except for the parts where it's not.

So I videoed part of today's lesson on mat work so I could show you what I meant. And then I cropped out the bits where I look like an idiot.

The goal of mat work is to have a dog who settles on a mat - in this case, a fleece blanket - in a variety of different environments. For my normal dogs, I use their mats as a place to be when we're out in public and I need to split my attention between them and another activity. For example, I have them lay on their mats while eating outside with friends. For my, um, less normal dogs, the mat is a safe space where nothing bad will happen to them. Having a portable safe space is invaluable for places like the vet.



In this video, I'm using a thumbs up as a marker - a way to communicate to Kaylee that she's done something I like and want her to repeat. For my hearing dogs, I use a clicker or a verbal "yes." I've found that the problem with the thumbs up is, of course, that Kaylee needs to see it. This is a bit of a problem because the first step in mat training is to mark the dog for looking at the mat.

It's possible you see my dilemma.

I miss my clicker. But we persevere! The goal of a marker is to give the dog instant feedback on their behavior, and so in situations like this where I can get food into her mouth while she is doing what I want, sometimes I skip the marker. You can see in the video that it's working. Kaylee definitely has some idea that interacting with the mat makes cookies happen. And so learning happens.

However, the real lesson here is much more subtle and much, much more important than simple mat work. Kaylee is learning one of the most crucial concepts of her entire life - that working with me is interesting, fun, and very worth her while. Kaylee is not a particularly food motivated dog. She likes food, but she's also very invested in her environment, the other dogs, other people, and oh, hey, look! A shiny, tinfoil squirrel!

Building a strong foundation of enjoyable work - an investment in working together as a team - is going to take us a lot further in competition and life than any amount of cookies or punishment or shiny tinfoil squirrels ever will.


1 comment:

  1. So happy to find your new blog. And Kaylee. I've learned a lot from you, Ruby and the rest over the years; looking forward to learning more.

    ReplyDelete