Molly and Learning to Sit
Sweet tan/grey/blonde Molly. New to our world and after living her first year of life in an aquarium, she came to us from a pet store we just couldn't walk away from her, she seemed to be lost in the concept of language. Her training was non existent and if it wasn't for the fact that she was such a sweet soul, and keyed on Pepper our black lab golden retriever cross we would have been lost on how to train her. But by following Pepper's example about everything, she in essence trained herself in the end.
But we had our own fumbling attempts at training. And of course where else but to start with the sit command.
Now Molly is a chow hound. Show her food and she gets herself in a tizzy. I think having to fight with her brothers and sisters for food resources for an entire year, set this standard for her for the rest of her life. So it was a natural fit to use clicker training to begin her training process.
Of course training sit and having food in my hand got her instant attention. She bounced, she spun, a whirlwind and she caught on so quickly we were left with no doubt to her innate brilliance as if we had any doubt with the speed that she adapted to her new home or with her ability to self train herself by her keen observation.
The next day she quivered in excitement the moment we called her over into the living room. The scene of the crime, or at least where it was quiet and there were no distractions, and taking her back to the place she had learned it the first time making it easier for her to associate that we were going to be working on much the same thing. And again she showed how clever she was and knew right away what we wanted because she was dang well going to get that food treat. She knew what we wanted and as with any command first taught in clicker training the association was powerful in her mind.
With her quivering eagerness and staggering brilliance it was going amazingly well with her training.
Then one day I was making super and she was underfoot and concerned for her safety and mine, I didn't want to trip over her with a pot of boiling water in my hands I asked her to sit and it wasn't there. The command had disappeared. The command was non-existent. Not even within the realm of possibility. Perplexed and confused we struggled. Molly obviously becoming more and more agitated and more and more stressed. I was frustrated myself, struggling to understand why something that came so easily now seemed impossible to achieve.
The next thing I knew I watched completely perplexed as she scrambled backwards and immediately plunked down in a quivering sit.
Oh she got so many sweet words of praise.
Such a sweet girl. I went over to give her some scritches and to rub her belly as she flopped over.
The next sit request was perfectly executed.
The next day we were back in the kitchen Molly darting nimbly back and forth between my feet because after all I was handling her very favorite thing in the world, food.
A quick request for sit had the weird repetition of the same behaviour she had done the day before. As fast as her four paws could move she scrambled backwards her butt halfway to the floor in anticipation of the sit that finally came.
Oh my aching head. What a bizarre response to a command for sit. I couldn't begin to comprehend what she was doing and definitely had no idea whatsoever why?
The future results of her training sessions had her doing a normal sit in the living room, the quick scramble backwards with a prompt sit at the end of the scrambling in the kitchen and no sit but lots of spinning and running in circles in the dining room which had me burying my face into the palms of my hand not sure what to do next.
Absolute and complete confusion was all that I was left with, with the beginnings of laughter. The entire situation was just too ridiculous.
Then one day we again tried to get her to do her sit in the dining room which is right next to the kitchen and this time not only did she scramble backwards but she scrambled across the entire room backward all the way into the kitchen.
And very proudly planted her butt in the perfect sit.
On the edge of the kitchen rug.
Of course being completely dense human beings it took us a few days to figure out that we have not actually taught Molly to sit on command but we had accidentally actually taught her to sit on a rug on command and because she was so eager to please us she was going to scramble backwards for any distance to get her cute little butt on that soft cushy rug.
Of course the lesson being taught here was to the humans not to the dog and that lesson is you can never be completely sure what you are actually teaching to the dog. You think you might be teaching sit but from their perspective they can be learning something completely different.
It is with this in mind that we must always approach our training with our dogs with an open mind and never assume anything but especially don't assume that they understand us. This is a really difficult lesson to take into our training and keep with us through every moment. It is easier to become frustrated when they stop doing what we think they know how to do, not understanding how they are seeing it from their own reality, which can be so incredibly different from our own.
Knowing this it is up to us to keep grace and compassion with us every moment within our relationship and through our efforts to increase our communication and training with our dogs.
So take that moment to pause when things do not go the way we think they should when they stop listening, when they stop responding , because there is a very good chance it is probably because at some level they are confused and it is up to us to help them through that confusion.
It is important to remember that the more they are confused the harder it is for them because they get stressed within that confusion. Frustration is not the answer.
And if it helps just remember Molly and the rug.