He Rocked the Roll!

Three days before his "big exam", Chew and I began cramming. Along with the four other trainers whose dogs are projected to graduate in December, I was given a list of commands (on Friday) that the Chew would be expected to perform in front of the class the following Monday. Each behavior was divided into three levels of difficulty. For instance, let's take the command for LIGHT. The easiest of the three called for Chew to simply "purposely nose up light switch on command". The second said "Dog noses up switch when sent from five feet", and the third asked for the behavior from fifteen feet. Some other of the behaviors included SWITCH (pulling the light switch down with the dog's teeth); GO IN (go under a desk - or under anything - curl up and lay down); UP (dog stands on hind legs and puts paws on wall or side of grooming table); and many others.

Asking for a behavior from 2 feet versus five versus fifteen makes a much bigger difference than one would think. The reason for this is that when you ask for a behavior in a different CONTEXT than that in which you taught the behavior, the dog has to think a lot more in order to put two and two together. Because animals/dogs - as renown autistic behavioral scientist Temple Grandin would say - "think in pictures", it is a significant context change for Chew when I stand several feet away from him while giving a command, versus standing right in front of him.

During the test, the idea is to ask for the command you are confident your dog can perform successfully. There were two or three behaviors I asked Chew to do at only the first level of difficulty. There were another couple of behaviors that we worked really hard to master over the weekend preceding the test, using Chew's highest value treat as a motivator: POPCORN! One such command was for the behavior ROLL.

Having Chew do the behavior from greater distances apart, I realized that it wasn't going to be easy to get these context changes into his mind in time for the test. I would ask him to roll from right in front of me, no problem. Then I would step back 3 feet, ask for a roll, and he would just stand there staring at me.

So, Monday came and it was the moment of truth. The exam began and got off to a great start. I walked through a handful of behaviors, all of which Chew did nearly perfectly. I generally asked for the highest level of difficulty, with a few exceptions. Chew WENT TO BED, TUGged the refrigerator open, PUSHed it closed with his nose, and RETRIEVEd a cell phone, BROUGHT it back and GAVE it to me. He was just awesome!

finally it was time to do ROLL. First I asked him to roll from in front of me, he did it no problem. I Asked him to WAIT, turned around and walked about 15 feet. I turned back around to face him, looked directly into his eager eyes and said "Chew, ROLL." At first he just stood there. I thought it was going to be a repeat of our practice sessions. But then, the light turned on in his mind. I could see it shining from within him as he remembered what it was that he was supposed to do. He dropped to the floor, with gusto and pizzazz, and rolled all the way onto his back, so that gravity forced his jowls into a giant grin. He was so proud of himself, and I couldn't have been more proud of him!