Honey is a damn good dog. Certainly the best trained dog I’ve ever lived with. But she’s not perfect.
And after seven years training her, I’ve discovered the secret that would make her perfect. Do you want to know what it is? It’s to not let people mess up her training.
Keep The Humans Away From The Dog
Honey walks beautifully on leash. She stays close off-leash. She sits, lies down, and stays on cue.
But if you want to see her misbehave, just dangle her two favorite things in front of her nose: treats and human attention.
In fact, if I could keep all other humans away from Honey I’m sure she’d be perfect.
Of course, no one would be around to appreciate it.
Puppy Training Good Intentions
When Honey came home with us, I had big plans for her.
I wanted her to be nearly as good in public as a service dog. For that reason, I decided to never feed her human food from the table.
Why start off by teaching a dog to beg?
Seven years on, what do you think Honey does when we’re eating?
I’ll give you a hint. There’s a big drool stain on the boat carpet next to our dining table.
Why do you think that is?
Here’s another hint. The big drool stain is suspiciously close to where my husband sits to eat.
You’re smart. You don’t need me to spell it out. You already know why Honey begs.
It’s because I couldn’t keep one particular human away from her.
Humans On Shore Leave
Our live on the boat takes us to popular tourist areas. We can’t walk ten yards in St. Augustine, Florida or Jekyll’s Island, Georgia without some vacationer who left their dogs in a kennel coming running up to us.
“Can I pet your dog?”
Or even worse, “Can I give your dog a treat?”
That dog-loving human is a dog trainer’s worst nightmare. Because what they teach Honey is that if she wiggles around and gets over-aroused, she’s going to get some attention.
And even better (from Honey’s point of view), some bacon.
Argghhhh!
Finally, I’ve had to start disappointing people. I don’t allow them to pet Honey until she sits calmly for the attention. And I no longer allow any strangers to give her treats.
The last thing I need is for my overenthusiastic golden retriever to bounce a small child or somebody’s grandmother into the water because they wanted to offer her a treat at dockside.
Training The Perfect Dog When Humans Get In The Way
I’ve thought about this a lot. And I’ve come up with a few secrets to keep humans from getting in the way of training the perfect dog.
Just Say No
I’ve gotten very good at telling people, “No, I’m sorry. You can’t give Honey a treat. It makes her too excited.”
Sometimes the person insists on giving me a little something for Honey to have later. Then I use it for a training treat when she behaves calmly or follows a cue.
Pick Your Battles
The human-who-will-not-be-named and who sits on the boat beside a big drool stain on the carpet gets a lot of gratification from sharing little nibbles with Honey.
I’m obviously not going to retrain him to “neglect” Honey when she’s obviously starving.
But I can channel the feeding in a new direction. Since I’ve asked the human-who-will-not-be-named to only feed Honey when she’s lying down calmly, she has been acting much better around the dinner table.
Redirect The Human
Redirection works with strangers too.
Yes, people find it gratifying to feed Honey. But it’s even more fun when she gives them a big “high-five.”
I haven’t done a lot of trick training with Honey. But I’m very glad I taught her to “high-five.”
No one has ever complained about not giving Honey a treat or a big squeeze once I tell her to tap their hands with her paw.
Nobody’s Perfect
I guess Honey won’t be perfect as long as humans aren’t. And I can live with that.
As I said, she’s a smart and talented girl and I’m thrilled every day to have her in my life.
But if I feel an urgent call to train her to be perfect, I know the secret.
I just have to sail off to a remote island where there aren’t other humans to mess up her training.
And then if she isn’t perfect, I know it’s all my fault.
Photo Credit: The image of Honey and Mike is by Alice G Patterson.
Your Turn: How do you deal with humans who hinder your training goals?
We are pleased to be joining the Positive Pet Training blog hop with Tenacious Little Terrier, Wag ‘n Woof Pets, and Travels with Barley. The hop remains open through Sunday. Our theme this month is “Training the Humans”. How do we get strangers or even our own family members to help and not hinder with training?”, however, you may share any positive pet training story, whether it’s on our theme or not!
One Big Secret To Make You A Successful Dog Trainer
hahaha! I have the same problem with my ‘person-who-shall-not-be-named’. The very same person who said no feeding from the table, no dogs on the bed, no dogs on the sofa!
As you say, you have to pick your battles ;o)
Ha ha! Did you get all those rules on tape? 🙂
Mom isn’t real picky about leash behavior, so it isn’t a big deal for us. Our biggest problem is our instructors because we all love them so much. They do things during class when we are training that distracts us and gets us to run to them. Mom is working hard on motivational work with us for that reason. Every human has their battles with their dogs.
Instructors are very exciting and important people. I can see why you find them distracting.
Honey almost failed her canine good citizen test because our trainer was one of the “strangers”she was supposed to ignore.
Since I am am far from perfect myself, I don’t expect perfection in my dogs either. Mostly, I just let them be themselves. Of course, Cardigan Corgis are definitely not the attention hogs (said in the best possible way 😉 ) that Goldens are. They accept attention from strangers but don’t seek it. That makes my job much easier in public. Of course if that stranger is eating a bacon sandwich, all bets are off!
I see no reason not to expect perfection from everyone else just because I’m not perfect. 😉
When Merlin was a pup he would cry to get strangers attention. As an adult he dances and whines and wiggles when he sees people/dogs.
I think with training the trick is to be consistent, but when a yellow lab gives you the whole body wiggle it’s hard to say no.
When a yellow lab gives you the whole body wiggle, it can even be hard to remain standing. At least if Merlin adds in a little “lean” like Honey does.
I make strangers nervous if I’m bouncy, so I learnt as a large puppy that it was better to sit quietly if I wanted attention. The bipeds said I was in danger of dislocating their arms before I worked that out!
Unfortunately, there is only one visitor that has consistently broken the rules about feeding me. I never bother anyone else about food, but I know that person wants to share with me!
I bet you love that one rule breaker a lot, eh Clowie? 🙂
Oh, you just solved a mystery for me! We have trained all of our dogs not to beg, but lately when I sit down to dinner, Luke is next to me trying to stick his nose on my plate. He immediately lies down when I tell him to, but still I wondered why he’s been doing this. You made me realize it’s because my hubby doesn’t think when he sits down for lunch or a snack by himself that it counts. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you!
Great post – I think you really hit the nail on the head with what the problem is with most dogs, and I guess we do just need to accept that imperfection. I love your idea of using redirection on the humans – why not use the same training tricks we use with the dogs? 🙂
I actually do try to use positive reinforcement with humans as well. I just wish I could get away with clicking and popping a treat in one’s mouth. It’s a much faster process. 🙂
Love this, and I do have to say I completely blame Laika’s extra whining on my own person-who-shall-not-be-named. For some reason he loves encouraging her when she whines (like when you stop petting her…), but I did manage to train him to not give her table scraps so I guess we win some we lose some.
Two people with different habits gives us hard proof that dogs are always learning. It also appears that dogs are making some choices about which person they will choose to follow. Sounds like a good research topic for someone.
Ryder is actually in a study at Yale. It’s to help understand how dogs think and reason. And they have done tests like this, I should write about it one of these days.
My dogs learned early to target the youngest or messiest person at the table and take their positions. I don’t worry about my dogs being perfect since I got them all as adults and can blame their former owners although if I’m honest they probably came better behaved than they are under my tutelage. I tend to get amused by what some might consider bad behavior.
I also get amused by “bad behavior” as long as it’s happening in our home. But it’s pretty embarrassing when you’re out at a restaurant and your 50 pound dog crawls onto someone’s lap. 🙂
Maybe we need to stay home more?
I don’t find this as big of an issue, most of the collies are friendly towards strangers, but not enthusiastic. (With the exception of one particular collie)
I’ve observed that people “think” they like a friendly golden retriever. But once Honey actually starts leaning on them and getting excited, they start wishing she was a nice friendly collie instead. 🙂
I blame myself for B’s manners. When I first got her – she had not a bit of interest in my food. I considered it a challenge (how sick am I?) to get her to change her ways. I created a monster. Where we go hiking, before we get to the trailhead, there are picnic tables and usually – people at those tables. With FOOD. And it is like trying to move a huge boulder. She will stand there and stare at them. I have been known to use up half a treat pouch to lure her away from the area and onto the hiking trail. When she approaches strangers on the trail that may smell like food or if they have food in their packs – they will think she is being friendly when she walks right up to them and puts her nose in their hand. But really – she’s just checking for food.
No one really hinders my training goals. Of course, I go out of my way to avoid people – Blueberry and I both really prefer the company of each other and the wide open spaces of the desert. 🙂
I laughed out loud picturing Blueberry staring at someone’s picnic table. Does she drool, like Honey does?
Of course, since you and Blueberry enjoy the desert together that makes you just perfect for each other.
Great post. I hate when people give Lucy a treat because then all she cares about is that person. She won’t listen to me at all after that. I need to be more strict about telling people no. I agree… it would make her a much better behaved dog.
Here’s a little trick–if strangers are giving Lucky milk bones, you need to be giving her liverwurst. I can guarantee she will always pay more attention to you then. 🙂
We avoid other people and when we do run into them with the dogs, it becomes a training opportunity. Since our dogs aren’t people crazy, any outside socialization is welcome. And I don’t mind someone giving the dogs a treat, it just makes for a more positive response.
Although I hear ya about the -nameless- one. I have one of them too. lol Our issue is the leash vs. the harness. He won’t walk the dogs in a harness b/c they are better behaved and he likes the dogs wild. lol He drives me crazy!
One day, the pups will pull your “nameless one” onto the ground and drag his face through a big pile of mud or worse. I guarantee he’ll start loving the harness then. 🙂
We live in a tourist city just a couple of blocks away from a street that’s always filled with visitors who have left their dogs at home, so our daily walks become a bit of a training challenge. When visitors want to pet the dogs, I often ask them to give the girls some commands first–sit, down, watch me–and then the dogs can have pets. It gets the dogs focused (and calm) and usually works well. As for treats, our dogs are much more likely to be offered beer by our dear tourists, which is definitely a no-no. As for the food-giving-human in our house, I’ve come to the conclusion that he is untrainable.;-)
That is such a good idea. And it also teaches people the great things you can teach a dog to do.
It seems there are a lot of dog lovers out there who don’t know you can actually teach a dog to do specific behaviors.
Jaxson is like that child from older parents, the ones that don’t have the energy so they let you slide a bit. LOL Jaxson has terrible leash manners and I just don’t have the energy. There I said it. He’s controllable with the harness but I don’t always have it with me, together we’re hopeless….
Happy sails my friend
Jaxson is still quite young. One day you’ll look up and realize that he has developed perfect leash manners and you’ll ask yourself, “Now when did that happen?”
BTW, I thought Jaxson did great on the leash when I had them briefly at BlogPaws. You must have especially high standards. 🙂
I loe the redirection idea for the human(s). ☺️ Great advice. Funny how saying ‘no’ is so empowering. I’ve had to employ it more frequently as we do our pet therapy work. Most treats well meaning nurses offer upset Sam’s digestion and he loses focus if treated too much at the hospital. P.S. A little vinegar and baking soda should probably take care of that drool mark nicely. Happy sails.
I wonder if it’s easier to get people to accept a “no” when it’s obvious your dog is doing a job?
People are also very happy to high five Mr. N instead of doing whatever I don’t want them to do. I do let strangers give him food as long as it’s decent but he doesn’t get super aroused by food usually. Now dogs on the other hand…
Do you find many strangers offering decent dog treats? We see an awful lot of milk bones.
TOTALLY! I used to deal with this with Emmett a lot because he was insane about treats. All his good behavior, his nice manners, his training would FLY out the window the second someone had a piece of food. Eventually I figured out your point re: the high fave and asked folks to wait until he had done a couple tricks first, but it never really fixed the issue. He was just food-bonkers through and through!
Emmett and food, Honey and people. When a dog is highly motivated by something, we just have to work with it as best we can, eh?
I’m also a big fan of the just say no. Especially on walks. With Shermie especially I have people ask (or not) if they can say hello and sometimes it’s just better to say no. Out of the three he’s the best with humans but I had an Amazon driver walk down a drive way and over to us on the street and for whatever reason I saw Sherm tense up right away and just saying no is safer.
Yep, your first priority is to keep your dogs happy, not some stranger.
It’s always nice when people understand that not all dogs are ready to greet strangers.
OMD! I can sooooo relate to the part about “the human who will not be named”!! My doG, I’ve been dealing with the same thing since Kissy and I moved in with Sam!! I had her trained not to beg, but Sam and Jason did their best to un-train her (which really ticked me off). Anyway, Jason has grown up and has his own family – and dog, which he has trained to not beg thanks to my influence during his childhood – so now I just have his father to deal with. And it’s a constant battle. But, for the most part I put an end to it by telling him that the next time either of the girls upchucks people food, he is going to clean it up not me. He still sneaks them tiny tidbits; but lucky for him, their tummies aren’t quite as sensitive as they used to be. And, for the most part, Ducky listens to me when I say “place”. (Shadow sleeps through it all.)
I feel so lucky that Honey doesn’t have a sensitive stomach. That would make our issue so much worse!
Sounds like “positive punishment” was the key to training your human. Dog vomit is a powerful motivator. 🙂
I’m usually the only human here eating meals, but the second another person comes over or we go to my parents’ house, the dogs zero in on the other people in case they might not know the rules about when they can have people food, so I know exactly what you mean about the drool puddles! I think being the only human in our house most of the time definitely helps with keeping my girls close to perfect (although I think they have a long way to go to reach Honey status!), so I also get what you mean about running away to an island!
Oh, how helpful it must be to be the sole trainer in the house. Of course it puts a lot of pressure on you to always make wise decisions because it’s amazing how quickly our little snickerdoodles will learn something entirely new if we lapse just once.