Best Friend

The tongue-in-cheek caption Dupont posted with the pic said: "Having a conversation with Dexter about the way he sits around the house." Adorable.

Andrew Dupont with Dexter

Dexter is a 4-year-old Shih-Poo, a Shih Tzu and Poodle mix.
"He only sits like that when hes on the couch with me," Dupont said. "Weve taught him several tricks, including how to sit up but everywhere besides the couch he extends his hind legs.
"We thought it was really funny the first time he did it, so I rewarded him."
Now, whenever Dexter thinks his owner might have a treat or toy for him, hell sit like that.
"He will stay upright like that for about 30 seconds or so," Dupont said.
Get ready for the most adorable part: "If he starts to lose his balance, he will extend his arms like he is trying to grab onto something to brace himself."
From a behavior perspective, this is a perfect example of the positive consequences rendered from rewarding behaviors you like in your dog as they occur.
Rather than thinking about dog training from the perspective that youre going to take your dog to a class or set up defined "sessions" in which you train specific commands, think instead how any ol minute can serve up a good training opportunity.
Do you like it when your dog lies nicely by your feet? Reward it. Catch your dog doing something really adorable off the cuff? Reward it.
Give your dog positive feedback for the things he does that you like and who knows? Maybe youll end up with a photo this adorable too. And if you do, please share them with me!

At a quick glance, it seems that a dog takes many repetitions to grasp a lesson. According to �dogma�, a dog has to practice a behavior many times until the lesson seeps into his limited mind. Then, once a lesson is mastered, it becomes so ingrained in the dog's brain that it becomes a habit. That dogs require repetition to learn from an experience is particularly noticeable when we are trying to train the dog to do something that isn't natural for him, such as walking nicely on a lead in an area full of interesting sights, sounds, and smells. It would seem that this exercise is difficult for a dog to learn and would require many practice sessions for it to become a reliable habit.

Therefore, traditional thinking holds that it's best to start practicing the lesson with puppies before they might have the opportunity to practice the undesirable habit of pulling hard on the lead and also while they're small and easy to out-muscle.

A clue that repetition, while part of learning, isn't fundamental to learning is revealed by other observations that people commonly make that contradict this traditional premise. For example, we don't think of ball playing as something mastered through repetition. It looks like the dog is having fun, and that seems a sufficient explanation. The first time the owner attracted his dog's attention to the ball and rolled it away, the dog immediately chased it, grabbed it, and then carried it around proudly. The lesson took one repetition and had a permanent effect for the rest of the dog's life.

This pure example of learning shows us the formula at the core of the process. If an activity is natural, the dog gets it immediately without the need for repetition. And, since the most natural activities involve the prey instinct, we find the best examples of quick learning in this regard. In ball playing, what determines each individual dog's enthusiasm and rate of progress is how much prey value he invests in the ball. That some dogs may take longer to build an attraction to the ball is not due to a need for repetition, but because the prey instinct isn't yet turned on. Through repetition, as the dog grabs the ball, his sensitivity to its novelty or his owner's influence starts to relax until drive starts to flow into prey making. Once uninhibited, the ball no longer has a being to which the dog needs to appeal for access, which initially thwarted his drive to chase and bite it.

A habit is like a riverbed: The stronger the flow that courses through it, the deeper the bed is carved, and the more water it will be able to channel. When the full current rushes through the organism, a completely mature behavior emerges as if learned. In truth, the lesson was gained in the first instant of making contact through the prey instinct, no matter how feeble the first trickle. It just took time for the pathway to be scoured deeply enough in the dog's brain and body to handle the full load of drive.

As far as I can tell there isnt a dog in the world who doesnt love dried liver treats. They are inexpensive and easy to make, too, if you have the time (if you dont, we sell them for £1.99 a bag including p&p). All you do is take the liver, cut it into little cubes and bake them in the oven at a lowish heat until they are - um - dried. Liver shrinks quite a lot, incidentally, so cut roughly 1" cubes. Weve been testing different ovens. Vicky has a posh Aga thingy and they come out really, really well in that. She read somewhere that wild dogs prize a preys liver over everything else - presumably because of the nutrient content. Anyway, dried liver is - without doubt - nectar of the dogs. Oh, hang on, nectar is a drink. Well, you get the idea. I use dried liver treats for training but NOT when I am teaching dogs to come. This is because once they know you have some in your pocket they tend to stick to you like glue.