Being Honest About Ourselves

My last post was entitled Being Honest About Our Dogs and told of the pact I have with my friends to call each other when we start making excuses about our dogs' behavior or issues. However, I guess I took it for granted that being honest about our dogs should go hand in hand with being honest about ourselves and examining how we may have reinforced, encouraged and/or enabled our dogs' behaviors. If we take credit for the good, then we have to at least take partial credit for the not so good, right? Granted, there certainly are behavior issues that can't be directly attributed to training, environment, or our relationship and human interaction with our dogs, such as some fears and phobias that really do seem to come out of nowhere. For example, my beloved Dalmatian Tucker developed a fear of thunder and loud noises around the age of 5. Up until that time he never exhibited any sound sensitivity and then all of a sudden, he became fearful of those two specific sounds. Now, even though the fears weren't the result of trauma or a training issue, could I have helped him get better over the years? Possibly. There were times when I committed to sitting quietly with a lap full of treats and praised/rewarded him when he was calm and didn't react to the sounds, but clearly I didn't do it enough. Did I go out and purchase a recording of thunder or firecracker sounds (like I advise my students and clients to do), so that I could set up the situation enough to provide the necessary repetitions? No, I did not. What I chose to do is manage it. It was something that happened infrequently enough that it was fairly easy to manage. So while I didn't have a part in causing the issue, I have to accept responsibility for not doing enough to try to resolve it.

During a discussion the other day someone asked why her dog seems to forget how to sit when in the rally ring, and then someone summed it up to the dreaded "R" word. Ringwise. Yuck, I dislike that term because it implies a dog chooses not to comply only because he knows he's in the ring. The term and concept of a dog becoming ringwise has been around for years as away to blame a dog for sloppy or lack of compliance in the ring because he has learned he can get away with it there. Well that was back in the day when competition dogs were overwhelmingly trained with methods that employ aversives such as positive punishment and negative reinforcement. Corrections and punishment have never been allowed in the ring, and thus, a ringwise dog supposedly has figured that out and decides to give the handler the doggy finger in the safety of the ring. The remedy was to take the dog to matches and run thrus and just when the dog thinks he's safe and starts refusing to comply, bang zoom, show 'em who's boss. Ugggh. But sometimes that appeared to work, and the concept of the ringwise dog was perpetuated.

But what about dogs that have been trained using positive methods? There are plenty who exhibit classic ringwise behavior. What's that about? If the dog has been taught that offering a desired behavior will only bring good things, why would he choose to forego those good things simply because he's "in the ring?" Some say dogs do this because they know they won't really get what they want in the ring since many venues and dog sports do not allow food or toy rewards. Enter APDT rally, and C-WAGS, and St. Hubert's CDSP obedience! Food rewards are allowed in the ring in each of those competition venues, and still there are dogs that appear "ringwise." So, what gives? This is where honesty about ourselves comes in. If we're going to accept and attribute when our dog does well in the ring to how we've trained and cultivated our relationship with him, then again I ask, don't we also need to do the same when they don't do well? Some ringwise behaviors are indeed avoidance and stress related (or release) behaviors. In some cases it's just a matter of the dog offering alternate behaviors just because, but unlike during training when we mark it with a "whoops" or "oh oh" and repeat the cue or exercise, we just continue on trying to remain neutral and don't offer any feedback. But come on, dogs can sense our frustration, fear, or egads, anger, and then anything can happen from that point! I see this happen a lot in rally because you can repeat cues and most things a dog will do, other than leaving or soiling in the ring, are not non-qualifying offenses. Even if the dog starts wandering, barking, or you have to continually repeat cues, there's still a chance you can qualify. Hey, you've paid your entry fee, sometimes traveled a great distance to the trial, goshdarnit, you're going to finish that run no matter what. And that's exactly what you're teaching your dog. As a judge, I've actually stepped in and advised exhibitors not to continue when things are going very badly.

So if we're looking for the key to ending ringwise behaviors, we need look no further than ourselves and examine what we're doing to reinforce those behaviors. I think attending matches and run thrus is a great idea, however if we want a dog to enjoy being in the ring, we need to be really careful about what we teach and reinforce while there. And just like the dog makes choices, we need to make choices too. Let me state unequivocally, I don't mind Andrew's occasional zoomies in or out of the ring. It happens so infrequently that it really doesn't bother me. What's more important to me is that he is happy and willing to keep playing these crazy games I come up with, and I don't want to risk damaging that in any way. My name is Laurie, and I am an enabler, reinforcer and encourager of Andrew's zoomies!