At dog training this weekend a 5 month old pup decided it was much more important to romp around, poo, and act silly that to actually come back to his mommy. His mom called him, went and got him, and carried him back to training. Held him on his back like a baby and made cuddly, smoochy noises at him. Our trainer wondered how this was going to help teach the pup that coming when called is a good idea, and ignoring mom a bad one. We all sort of giggled, knowing that cuddling a puppy for an undesirable behavior will only get more of the same and that he had just got reinforced for exactly the wrong behavior.
A half hour later, when the same puppy took off, blissfully unaware of his mom calling him, trainer said “Oh, look, he’s not coming, maybe he needs another hug.”
Posted on September 19th, 2007 by michelle
Filed under: Not my dogs, Training
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