Tag Archive for: drive

As Good As It Gets

Before I get too involved in this post, let me just start by saying that there is a big difference in my mind between training dogs for competition obedience, and doing what I term “Real world dog training.” Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of similarities as well, the most important being that both are grounded in the use of learning theory and classical and operant conditioning. However, understanding the differences can be very important especially for the individual who is filtering through the masses of conflicting information about training methods out there, and trying to determine what is best for their dog.

In my view, one of the most important distinctions in this matter is the Type of dogs used for the competition style training. When I say type, I am not referring to breed, but rather to individual traits that can vary across breeds. Most importantly, the overall motivation level, or drive, of the dog. Since most modern competition style training is founded primarily on the use of positive reinforcement, the drive of the dog is an extremely important factor.

How much overall motivation your dog may have is in large part (not entirely) determined by genetics, and it matters because the more the dog wants what you have, the harder he will work to achieve it. In other words, the higher the dog’s motivation or drive state, the more you can do with positive reinforcement alone. The average pet dog can vary widely on this singular trait, and where your dog falls on this spectrum will in a large part determine how successful you may be in a positive only training program. This does not make the dog “better” or “worse”, it just means that we need to balance our training accordingly with the use of positives and negatives to achieve the optimum result (my philosophy on balance in dog training is a separate topic).

The flip side of all this is that although the more motivated dogs can often be easier to teach, they also are often the more difficult dogs to live with. They tend to be more active, more curious (which often leads them into trouble), and more in need of physical and mental stimulation.

O.k. you may be wondering where I’m going with all this. So, with all that being said,  This Link is of a video of one of my favorite dog trainers, Michael Ellis, and his competition dog Pi. Pi currently holds a Modio Ring III title (very tough competition), and Michael plans on competing with him at the national and international level. Pi is a very high drive dog, and Michaels use of positive reinforcement training is about as good as it gets. This video is an awesome example of how, if you have a highly motivated dog, you can combine playing an training to create a beautiful and almost artistic activity. This is the Craft of dog training

Thank you to Ed Frawley of Leerburg.com for producing this video making Michael Ellis’ expertise available to a wider audience.

Dante’s Morning Workout

This is Dante at 15 weeks during his morning bitework session. This is his first time on a harness and tie back, and I am very pleased with his intensity, and commitment to the bite. I like to do his bitework first thing in the morning for a few reasons:

1) He is very intense in the morning, and is at his peak energy level.

2) He has not eaten yet. Remember, a dog always has more drive on an empty stomach.

3) The sun is not as hot, so he will not tire as quickly.

I keep these sessions very short (under five minutes), and I always make sure I leave him wanting more. Dante prefers a leather rag to jute or burlap, so I am using the leather bite rag from Elite K9 . I always follow the session with about five minutes of calm affection in his kennel run. I sit with him and calmly pet him while letting him know in a soft voice that he did a good job. I almost never give any affection before the workout. Finally, after he has calmed, I give him his breakfast (food is also a form of affection). It’s a great way to start the day!

Puppy Training With K-9 Connection

This is a quick video of my new Belgian Malinois puppy ‘Dante’ taken at 10 weeks. He has only been training for about 1 week but you can see that he has already learned quite a bit. Right now Dante and I do our obedience training exercises 3 times a day for about 10 minutes when he gets his meals. He pretty much works for every bit of food that he gets, only occasionally eating out of the bowl if there is some left over. I believe that this helps to instill a very strong work ethic in the dog at a young age.

Dante is being raised to be a working dog, so I am not too concerned with control right now. I just want to start imprinting the meanings of these basic commands. So far we are working on sit, down, stand, heel, and come with food for motivation. Dante has also already begun his Bite-work training with helper Marcus Hampton. We’ll get some video of that too and post it as soon as we can.

Pit Bulls Love To Learn!

King Ready For Class!

King Ready For Class!

Many People, even some professional dog trainers, think that the Pit Bull is a very difficult breed. In my opinion, nothing can be further from the truth. Although they are a very strong dog, Pit Bulls are in general very loyal and have an incredible desire to please their human companions.  All you need know is how to tap in to this desire and build on it. What this means is that if the training is done right, these can be amazingly fun dogs to work with.

Many Pit Bulls can also be very high drive dogs. Drive in dogs can be loosely translated as the dogs natural desire and commitment to do or achieve something. Since this breed was originally used to hunt rats, they can have a very strong prey drive. Prey drive is the same drive that motivates a dog to chase a ball, or to play tug, or to play with toys in general. Many working dogs such as German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Malinois, dobermans, and herding dogs such at Border Collies and Australian Shepherds will also have strong prey drive.

If your dog is equipped with this type of drive, it can be used as a very powerful training tool for achieving high levels of obedience. For this type of dog, prey drive will override food any day of the week. Therefore training with the dog’s  drives can allow you to teach faster, and push the dog through higher levels of distraction. It also allows you to have a lot of fun with your dog during training, which means that training itself becomes rewarding, thus eliminating the need to constantly carry treats with you every where you go.

Below is a video of Josh Moran, one of our lead dog trainers here at K-9 Connection, and his dog King. King has great prey drive, so Josh often uses a toy to motivate him to perform. This video was shot at Delaware park here in Buffalo NY and shows Josh and King just loosely having some fun and working in some cool commands. Nothing too formal here, after all, isn’t that what dog training is all about – being able to take your dog anywhere and have fun!