What a week

This week has been emotional, for me though rather than Pigdog. 

I won't go into the details, but Pig's training has been a little hindered by it. 

I have however, had an idea. One of the ways I might try to teach him to be ok giving things up, is teaching a retrieve with objects that aren't toys. My theory is, if I get him picking things up and bringing them to be for the reward rather than the value of the item, it will make the giving up far, far more reinforcing than the holding onto. I'm going to try it, I'll let you know how that goes.

One thing we've made progress with, is 'on your mat'. He's reliably going to his mat, lying down, and staying there amidst distractions. I've got to the point where I can drop hot dog in front of him, and he won't move. 

The end result is 'lie on your mat and relax until released'. However, he's not relaxed at all! He will lie there and stay still, but he's ready to break at any second. I purposefully don't reward on the release cue, I want it to be something he's almost disappointed to hear, so many good things happen when he's on the mat! I toyed with only rewarding when he's chilled on it, but that seems to excite him more because he's getting frustrated waiting for his reward. 

I may have to really work on the settle separately. He's generally a pretty chilled dog until food comes out or we go somewhere new. I think I might try keeping food on me more often. I bought some little tuppaware tubs so it's fairly easy to carry something high value  around with me, and capture and reward calm behaviour.

I could also use less high value rewards for the mat exercise, but I want it to be super reinforcing to lie on that mat and have good things happen. 

I think I'll teach 'do not obsess about what food I have' as a separate thing along with the settle. They're pretty good life lessons rather than specific behaviours. I may even treat myself to a swanky treat bag that I can easily attach to me during the day, that'll make it easier to reward impromptu good behaviour. 

The goal for this week, is to find the perfect reward. I would LOVE it if he would work for his normal kibble, but he's just not bothered. I think I may experiement with different kibbles and see if I can find one he really likes. I would like him to earn all his dinner through training, at the moment he earns tasty sweets through training, but then isn't hungry to eat any of his dinner. Not an ideal situation.

Happy to hear any recommendations for a tasty and healthy kibble!