Remembering Valor: How to train humans to let you eat table muffins
Quinn had an appointment with his talking doctor (speech therapist) today. These appointments are in the doc's house, and her two-year-old Golden Retriever, Madison, entertains us while Quinn is with the doc. Madison is a good girl, but the doc is working on some of her behaviors to help her be even better.
While Quinn was with the doctor today, Madison took it upon herself to grab her brother's shoe and chew it. I told her "uh uh," and called her over to me. Madison takes some queues very well. She understands "uh uh." She understands it when I turn my head to "ignore" her. She understands "down," and she gets that she's supposed to calm down with calming strokes. The shoe was saved.
When Quinn and the doc came back, Madison went back to the shoe. "Mom's here, maybe I can chew the shoe now," she seemed to think. The doc took the shoe away. I told the doc about what Madison and I did while she was working with Quinn.
The doc asked a few questions and I told her about some of the stuff the Guide Dog leaders drilled into me when I was raising Guide Dog puppies. I explained the importance of not repeating yourself, reserving "come" for emergencies, how to train "come," and other dog stuff.
Then the doc asked the really tough question. "How do you train the dog to not steal off the counter?" I laughed a little and explained to her that I never successfully taught that skill to Valor. I told her how the Guide Dog people train dogs to not steal off of the counter. Then I told her a Valor story.
Valor was a super smart dog. Valor knew he was not supposed to take food off of the table. But, being a dog, he didn't understand forensic evidence and some basic "who dunnit" logic.
If I left food on the kitchen table and left the house, Valor would eat it. This was a fact with 100% certainty.
Leon and I decided to observe this, so he set up the video recorder and aimed it at the table. He set a fresh, blueberry muffin on the table, and we all got in the car and left.
Leon played the recording back when we came home. This is what was on the recorder:
I gave up on training Valor not to steal food off the table. I decided that since there was a 100% correspondence to food being left out and Valor stealing it that it was my job to not leave muffins out. If I left food out, I blamed myself and not Valor.
Besides being really smart, Valor was an excellent human trainer.
While Quinn was with the doctor today, Madison took it upon herself to grab her brother's shoe and chew it. I told her "uh uh," and called her over to me. Madison takes some queues very well. She understands "uh uh." She understands it when I turn my head to "ignore" her. She understands "down," and she gets that she's supposed to calm down with calming strokes. The shoe was saved.
When Quinn and the doc came back, Madison went back to the shoe. "Mom's here, maybe I can chew the shoe now," she seemed to think. The doc took the shoe away. I told the doc about what Madison and I did while she was working with Quinn.
The doc asked a few questions and I told her about some of the stuff the Guide Dog leaders drilled into me when I was raising Guide Dog puppies. I explained the importance of not repeating yourself, reserving "come" for emergencies, how to train "come," and other dog stuff.
Then the doc asked the really tough question. "How do you train the dog to not steal off the counter?" I laughed a little and explained to her that I never successfully taught that skill to Valor. I told her how the Guide Dog people train dogs to not steal off of the counter. Then I told her a Valor story.
Valor was a super smart dog. Valor knew he was not supposed to take food off of the table. But, being a dog, he didn't understand forensic evidence and some basic "who dunnit" logic.
If I left food on the kitchen table and left the house, Valor would eat it. This was a fact with 100% certainty.
Leon and I decided to observe this, so he set up the video recorder and aimed it at the table. He set a fresh, blueberry muffin on the table, and we all got in the car and left.
Leon played the recording back when we came home. This is what was on the recorder:
- The sound of the garage door opening.
- The sound of the garage door closing.
- One minute of nothing.
- Valor putting his front paws on the table and grasping the muffin in his jaw.
I gave up on training Valor not to steal food off the table. I decided that since there was a 100% correspondence to food being left out and Valor stealing it that it was my job to not leave muffins out. If I left food out, I blamed myself and not Valor.
Besides being really smart, Valor was an excellent human trainer.
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