(VICT) Re: Our Latest Adventure: Things I am Still Learning
- From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:49:51 -0700
Hear! Hear!
Gisele, I'm glad you stuck to your guns and didn't correct the old-fashioned
way.
There will always be people -- instructors or casual passers by -- who will
insist that if you're not "correcting" you're not doing anything and will
thus feel free to lecture you extensively on how important it is that you
"really get after that dog" and the like. I used to smile through these
encounters and imagine myself beating the interfering moron in question
vigorously about the head and shoulders with my cane. Now I pretty much
stare grimly at the interfering moron in question and imagine myself beating
him/her over the head with a steel-reinforced bully stick. Sigh.
Okay, so I try to educate first in a calm and courteous manner. After that,
there's not much to do but wait for the dumb jerk to get out of my way so I
can get on with working my dog or getting wherever I was going until they
came along...
I confess that I've corrected negatively (though not nearly strong enough to
suit!) to appear to be "doing something." I know better, and of course it
never works. In fact, my dog always reacts badly, so then I have more
problems to deal with. Then I imagine beating myself vigorously about the
head and shoulders... /smile/
Hang in there!
Tami Smith-Kinney
-----Original Message-----
From: vi-clicker-trainers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vi-clicker-trainers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Karyn and
Thane
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 10:06 AM
To: Vi-clicker
Subject: (VICT) Re: Our Latest Adventure: Things I am Still Learning
Hi Gisele
Thankyou so much for your kind words. They mean a lot to me. We have worked
hard these past 10 months to get here. It is an exhilarating feeling. I have
also worked hard on my confidence and willingness to go beyond what I was
doing with Met- to see what the world had to offer. Though I am paying
dearly for that trek, the memories it has left me with are priceless.
The way you handled Katie is the clicker trainer way. Most programs are
still caught up in the *pop and jerk* mentality being required to learn by.
I think it would be hard working with an instructor who believes that is how
they learn. If I were to treat Thane in that manner, he would be totally
confused and eventually I can see that he could be one that might melt down
from it. He is a softer nature dog (not quite as soft as Met). For us its
all about making the experience a positive one. Work is made fun this way.
Karyn and Thane
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