Making coffee and listening to the radio this morning.
I always bring Rachael her coffee in bed (especially now being five months prego) but had to stop and listen to what I was hearing.
The person reporting the news described how some guy in Arizona butt dialed 911 and discussed the complete details of a house that he broke into. He gave a description, details of the robbery AND the address.
A police officer checked it out and found that the house was robbed. He tracked down the moron who did it and arrested him and his crew.
He unintentionally turned himself in.
He unintentionally punished himself.
Which leads us to an important lesson for we dog lovers.
We unintentionally punish our dogs all the time and that destroys our training.
Let me share this little ditty to make my point.
A few years back my friend got a boxer puppy. The definition of fun and frolic.
He went to the local beach and let little boxer off leash to run and play. Little boxer puppy was having a ball. Running in the dunes, rolling on dead fish and playing in the water.
After an hour or so, said friend decides to leave the beach.
He calls little boxer puppy. Little boxer looks at him, ears perked up with the goofy look that only boxer puppies can make.
And like a rocket, little boxer puppy races back to my friend.
My friend is impressed at how fast and responsive his little puppy is. He envisions many happy hours walking along the beach with his new pal.
Little boxer puppy gets to him and in a split second my friend reaches down, grabs his collar and…
….puts the leash on.
UNintentional punishment!
In that instant my friend punished his dog for coming to him. Little boxer puppy was having fun and once he got to his owner fun was stopped, freedom was taken away and an important lesson was learned by little boxer puppy.
Stay away from pops on the beach. When he calls “Come,” stay away and prolong the fun as long as possible.
“Well how do I ever leave the beach, Mr. Amazing Dog Training Man?”
I can hear some of you thinking that and (GASP) have doubts about me and my techniques.
Shame on you.
The answer is simple. I would have advised my friend to call little boxer puppy to him. Put the leash on and released him. Let him go back to playing with the leash on and when it was time to go to step on leash and walk off beach.
Now there is no connection with coming to you and ending the fun and free time.
As the puppy gets older and matures you won’t have to do this, but in the beginning you have to be very careful of unintentional punishment
Happens all the time.
Ok, enough. To make sure you’re not making any other mistake you should head over to The Ultimate Online Recall Course and check out my step-by-step system for teaching this very important command.
Here’s where to go NEXT:
Best,
Eric