Getting In the Groove

There are some dogs who love training, learning new stuff, and responding to cues at pretty much any hour. This probably describes a dog that may be well suited to be a service dog. It is probably not how I would describe See Kao or Boon. For different reasons each of these two dogs would easily fall out of practice of being learners and I would need to make a concerted effort to get each of them back into the groove.

In a prior blog “What I Learned About Our Dogs From A Box”, I shared that See Kao was hesitant about novel things and situations. Like humans, our dog learners will draw upon their past experiences to guess whether they have opportunities for control in a new environment. When presented with something new including learning a new behavior or cue, See Kao would sometimes display hesitation. For See Kao, being cautious about something new may be very adaptive behavior: why investigate something new in the environment if in the past it meant something bad might happen or she might “get in trouble”, with resulting negative consequences?

For See Kao I found if I set up predictable times or a sequence that we were going to have a training session, she was much more likely to “be in the groove”, or in other words, be more all in with learning a new behavior or cue. This sometimes looked like having a time of day when we’d practice learning something new or setting up the environment so she’d know that’s what we were doing, e.g. a training location in the house, doing the same warm-up before diving into new learning and having something like a snuffle mat out so she could opt out if she wanted and still earn reinforcements. I also noticed if we hadn’t done training in a while that she was more likely to be out of practice and I’d see some of the hesitancy creep in.

Boon on the other hand, I think would sometimes show hesitancy for different reasons than having a strong need for predictability and a need for agency. For Boon I think a primary reason for responding with hesitancy is what I would call the “Boon being Boon” factor. Trust me, most people who know Boon will say at some point, “well that’s Boon being Boon” lol. I am not going to anthropomorphize her behavior like she’s being stubborn, etc but rather I think it’s very likely that there are times when Boon just doesn’t physically feel ok given her various issues and the hesitancy reflects feeling off and not being able to otherwise communicate to me like “hey, I’m not really into this today cause I feel like crap”. I also think if we haven’t done training in a while, Boon gets out of practice and for her too, some hesitancy would creep in. I find if I can fit in some training on a regular basis then it’s more likely for Boon to get in the groove and this seems to help modulate the Boon being Boon factor.

This next time you are trying to teach your learner pooch a new behavior or cue and there is some hesitancy, I encourage you not to jump to thoughts like “she’s being lazy” but possibly to consider some of the above reasons why your pooch may not be in the groove.

Cheers, Tracy