Less Noise and Less Movement for More Clarity

Ryan O'Meara, has written an excellent article on why For Some Dogs a Small Grunt is Reward Enough.  He talks about visiting a Pointer-Retreiver man in Northern Scotland:

In the morning when we first went out with his dogs, I had my tiny mind blown at just how adoring his dogs were toward him. From the get-go, he never said a word to them. He silently strode about the moorland with his dogs following him like a supernatural idol. They really did think he was God. I may as well have been invisible. These dogs never paid me even the most minute glance. HE was IT as far as they were concerned.

He put his dogs to work, using whistle commands only, and I got a great lesson. Less, in the way of noise, is more when it comes to dogs.

In the afternoon we did some actual training on a young dog (8 months old).

What struck me was the reward part of his process. A soft grunt, a very light touch under the dog's chin and BOY that was enough for that dog to just melt.

I had to ask: "Is that it?" "That's all you do to reward them?"

"Yes. At this age, they know when they've done good." "When they're very young puppies, I'm a little more animated."

I imagined his version of animated is probably quite different to mine!

Read the whole thing (link)!  

For the record, Ryan was one of the behavioural assessors on the BBC's dog training show Dog Borstal and he has just come out with new book, Clever Dog: Life Lessons From Man's Best Friend.  Check it out!

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