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“Vet Finds Narcotics in Puppy’s System”
I’m reading the Toronto Star article about the incident in the subtitle. The writer quotes a Toronto Humane Society team member about this. “Train your dog to drop items on command.”
I disagree with that suggestion because prevention can be much simpler to train: teach your dog to ignore items on the ground without a cue.
Many dog trainers instruct owners to teach their dogs to “leave it” which is a cue. Any cue tells your dog to do something. Which means your dog is already doing something else. Often, something you don’t want your dog doing.
Have you ever told your dog to sit after your dog jumps up on someone?
Do you see the problem? Think about how you taught the sit using positive reinforcement. Chances are you used a food treat held above your dog’s nose to get the sit. Then you gave your dog the treat.
After the word was added during the education, your dog understood what would get him a treat: you say sit, she plants her butt on the ground and the treat follows.
All cues reinforce the behavior happening immediately beforehand.
Reinforced behaviors repeat (BF Skinner)
Telling your dog to “leave it” reinforces your dog ignoring you to investigate an area for something to sniff and consume. Throughout your dog’s life, you have to be actively be involved in everything your dog does. That is stressful.
I was just consulting with a couple about reinforcement going wrong. The couple thought about this and realized whenever the dog investigates the backyard and picks up acorns in her mouth, the owners ask the dog to “drop it.” The dog complies every time, releasing the acorn and gets a treat for doing exactly that.
In my mind, I could visualize the clients doing this when they recognized what was going on.
(Editors note: As we head into peak mushroom season, think of how dangerous it can be for a dog to investigate and pick up a bad mushroom. You’ll want to encourage the dog to seek you for reassurance before anything!)
I’m glad I had a chance to detail the reinforcement process for them.
Thanks for reading!