Laugh It Off!

A couple of months ago I was watching a fellow trainer work with her service dog. She was teaching her mobility assistance dog to go around an object in her path, in this case, it was an ottoman. She was asking her to go one direction, then go back around the other direction. The dog was nailing the behavior going one way but couldn’t get it going the other way. We were confused as to why she wasn’t getting the behavior going both ways; then I noticed something. There was a paper on the floor on one side of the ottoman but not on the other side. I asked my friend to pick up the paper; she did, and she placed it on the ottoman and resumed the training session. The next time she asked her dog to go around the object it promptly jumped up and placed a paw on the paper that was now located on top of the foot rest. This particular dog had done a lot of paw targeting, and SHE thought that we were teaching her to touch the paper, even though WE thought she was learning the “go around” behavior. We got a laugh out of being proven wrong by the dog and the fact that her paw target, even though that is not what we though she was learning, was spot on! Remember to enjoy training; even if things don't go as planned.

#Laughitoff