Have you ever asked your dog to sit in public, knowing full well that he is reliable 100% of the time in your living room, only to have him completely blow you off? Have you ever said the words, Oh, hes just being stubborn.? Adding distractions, changing locations (even simply from room to room), building duration and working at distances are all things that need to be built up gradually in a variety of situations. Also, the human should be teaching their dog these cues while remaining in a myriad of different physical positions (standing, sitting, kneeling, etc.), before a dog can be expected to perform these behaviors reliably in public or other situations outside the home. From the perspective of learning, generalization can be described as an extension of a concept (or behavior) from a familiar situation to a less familiar situation. To give an exaggerated example, a dog may understand the cue “Sit” and do so diligently when it is requested of him at home. Given that he has had lots of practice and has been rewarded for sitting at home in the past, this is a familiar situation. If this same dog were asked to sit outdoors, and had never been asked to do so in this environment before – there is a good chance he would not understand what is expected of him. The reason for this is that his behavior of sitting has not been generalized to the unfamiliar outdoor situation appropriately. Great post by The Science & Art of Training Dogs. Read on...
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 15:41:58 +0000
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