I’d see Jonathan lose his temper, yell at the dog, and pull Spot forcibly through the poles by the neck, the dog giving a frightened squeak.
When Spot finished his basic obedience lessons and his trainer Jonathan declared him “graduated,” I was frustrated. The past 3 months I’ve had my eye on the hurdles at the doggy playground and never once did Spot take a leap over any of them. The playground, it turned out, was for the training of protection and guard dogs.
But I wasn’t finished with things. I had paid for something I wasn’t getting. One day, I brought a book with a photo of a mini schnauzer clearing a bar jump and showed it to Jonathan.
“What is that dog doing? “ I demanded, pointing to the photo.
“That’s dog agility, “Jonathan replied, recognizing it as once. “The dog goes through an obstacle course.”
“That’s what I wanted Spotty trained for!” I almost yelled at him.
First Signs of Trouble
So that was dog agility. It was a sport. I wanted Spot to get into that. But as I looked around the metro, the activity was non-existent. The trend of the urban dogs was conformation. I had invested time and money for my dog’s training but I knew conformation would be barred from him. Spot had no papers. He was not a purebred. His father was a pure blue-eyed Dalmatian with a magnetic presence but his mother had a mix. What can I use my dog’s training for if I can’t show him? Dog agility was the answer.
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| A young Spot rises over a broad jump while training at the dog school. |
Getting started was extremely difficult because we had no source to refer to except the books. I got on the internet and connected with a number of dog trainers abroad. I even ordered a video of a world championship competition of the sport held in France in 2003.
But over all of this Jonathan lorded it over my plans because he was the trainer. I didn’t know how to train at that time.
I’d leave Spotty at Jonathan’s school sometimes for days on end because Jonathan advised it. Some times it would be for a "refresher course." As expected, since treating dogs as a member of the family was new to us, we'd mess things along the way, confuse the dog and end up bringing Spot back to his untrained ways. A few days at the school and Spot is back obedient and manageable again. (I didn't know then the dog has always been trained -- it was the owners who were not!)
We bought materials for our first bar jumps, I downloaded endless drawings and photos of agility equipment, re-designed some of them to fit in the trunk of my car. . . and Spotty continued with his next batch of training this time directed towards agility.
By that time, I was getting used to seeing the dog yanked by the neck with the choke chain. I didn’t like to see it in the beginning because it seemed to distress Spot. His neck was longer and slimmer compared to the strong muscular necks of our Boxers (who didn’t react to the tug). But I knew of no other option. Jonathan wasn’t producing any either.
The first crossroad about this training controversy came when the dog was being taught the weave poles. It was a battle. Spotty resisted the unusual weaving motion demanded of him and would skip poles every time he was commanded to clear it. Jonathan always won, of course, because he had the choke chain – and Spotty’s neck at one end of it. It seemed the dog would never master it. Finally I’d see Jonathan lose his temper, yell at the dog, and pull Spot forcibly through the poles by the neck, the dog giving a frightened squeak.
I didn’t like what I was seeing but I didn’t know of any other way.
The next time Fred Alimusa, my canine behaviorist consultant was in town, I called on him. Fred though based in Thailand at that time, was a Filipino and was the country's first in the field of canine psychology. I asked him to evaluate Spot’s performance on the weave poles – and if he can help hasten the training. Something was talking inside of me already. Something was wrong.
I told Jonathan I had made an appointment with Fred and that we were going to assemble the weave poles on an empty field at Fort Bonifacio. Jonathan didn’t say anything. That was early in 2004.
Compulsion Training
We met Fred that windy afternoon at a grassy field at Fort Bonifacio and after the set-up I told Jonathan to make Spot do the weave poles for Fred to see.
Spot refused to do the poles. The dog played with the leash, laid down and rolled about, coaxed Jonathan to play with him, while Fred and I stood there waiting for the dog to do the poles. Fred stared. I was embarrassed because the dog refused to cooperate. Spot ran around in circles, inviting any of us to a game of chase.
Finally Fred spoke up. “Your dog is doing a diversionary tactic,” he said. “He’s trying to delay you. He doesn’t want to do the weave poles.”
It was my turn to stare. Huh?
“What does your dog like to do?” he asked me. “You have to make the dog like what he’s doing. Does he like to chase balls? Does he like food?”
“Food,” I said. But nobody brought food with them.
Fred then disappeared to get something from his car – a long string of tug toys. He showed it to Spot and pulled it in a jerky manner away from him. The dog did not react.
“Food is stronger,” I reiterated. “He used to run after balls but not anymore. He gets tired of toys fast.”
Fred finally uttered the words that ruffled Jonathan’s proud feathers.. “Spotty was compulsion trained,” he said. “He was trained to obey because he was forced to. You must find something that the dog likes to do then integrate the agility training into it.”
He suggested we play ball with the dog then lead the dog to a bar jump while in the middle of play. Play ball again, then another bar jump. That will make the dog associate agility with play.
Regardless, back home Jonathan still persisted with his method. Fred’s advice involved our searching for the dog’s motivation and because Spot’s inspiration was food, Jonathan didn’t believe in food treats (they poo in the ring, he explained). Besides, from his experience, Jonathan believed compulsion training achieves faster results.
But a new trend to dog training was slowly entering the metro. It was called Positive Reinforcement Training.
(next post below)
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