Distractions and generalizations and judgement calls, oh my!
One of the ‘games’ I play in class is ‘sit from a distance’. After we have done ‘sit’ for weeks and weeks and weeks and dog knows it VERY well, we play. I take dog to the middle of the training ring, and have parent sit on a stool across the room, and tell their dog to ‘sit Almost all of them lunge. They think they heard ‘come!’
Because come is what we ask them to do from across the room. Silly humans!
- I’m heading your way, right now!
Dogs don’t generalize well, so we have to add in lots of distractions and lots of places. Really. Just because they know ‘sit’ in the training area doesn’t mean they know it two foot outside the training area, or in the parking lot, or in your kitchen or back yard. Or when you are not directly in from of them. Really! New place, new command. Honest!
Once they ‘get’ that sit means sit no matter where or what, they will ‘have’ that command and then they will realize, most generally, that they are to sit on command no matter where they or you are. But you throw that distance thing in there…and well. There you go.
Hang on, I'm heading your way! Really!
Before I add in much distance, I add distractions. Distractions can be from very mild – breaking eye contact or moving my head is the first one I add, to the very exciting – another dog trotting past. If I’m across the room when this happens, there just isn’t much I can do. But if I’m right There to offer a gentle ‘whoops!’ then we can redirect to what we do want.
Puppy class is GREAT for distractions!
Dogs are not robots. They will make judgment calls in the course of their life. One of my dogs went with me everywhere, mostly leash free. He was under ‘voice control’ he would do what I asked when I asked. I didn’t worry about him – other dogs, sure, but I was okay knowing mine would come, or sit, or do what I asked when. One day when he was about ten years old, we were out in the unfenced front yard like we had been hundreds of times – and that dog took off. He left the yard and was across the road and down the street before my astonished mind could comprehend. I yelled and he DID NOT come back. I have no idea what he saw or what possessed him to do that, and he never did it again, but he sure did that time. Something was more important and more exciting than me at that moment.
Something more exciting than my mom? You're kidding, right?!
Can you stop something like that? Hopefully!! By proofing your dog in as many situations, spots, areas, places and times as you can. But just remember, even the best trained dogs ‘think’ and will sometimes make their own judgment calls. We just hope its a good one.