04/17/2023
What beautiful weather we are having today! This morning Georgia and I went on a hike up at a new spot for Georgia. There was a lot of new things to investigate, new smells, new plants, new birds and other animals. I like proofing (not proving) behaviors in new environments.
Proofing is simply practicing a behavior (successfully) in new environments with new distractions and stimuli. THIS IS NOT A BEGINNING STEP! Proofing in behavior is rather similar to proofing in baking, this is where the dog rises to maturity in the skill, the last step before baking a beautiful cake, the last step before complete mastery of a skill. Before you proof you combine the ingredients, stretch the dough every which way, knead it into shape, and let it rest, then let it rise (proof). Before a single cue (we will be using sit as an example) has been proofed, there are many build up steps that all combine together.
How many of you have tried to get your dog to sit, and find yourself repeating it over and over with no success, maybe not even their attention? We need the building blocks first, attention/focus, motivation, understanding of the cue (shaping/practice), and basic reliability. Once all of those ingredients are combined we can start to stretch our DOuGh (see what I did there?). We start asking our dog to sit in different places, with different body language ourselves. Sit in front of us, sit beside us, sit behind us. Tell them to sit from them in a standing position, from laying down, or walking. Tell them to sit from YOU in a standing position, sitting position, back turned, lying down, in a different room, etc. As I stated earlier, we will stretch our dough in every possible way we can think of. Now we knead.
Kneading sets us up for success when we proof, we start finding routines with our cues, and bring the cue outside to more places. In my house, Georgia sits at all doors before entering or exiting, she sits before meals, she sits before I let her out of the crate, sits before saying 'Hi' to someone, these are our routines. We extend our kneading outside of the house, when we go to the pet store, she sits at the counter while I pay, so I do not have to worry about my dog doing anything crazy, she continues to sit before and after all doorways (yes including automatic doors), she still sits before anyone pets her. After all of this is routinely successful, we rest. Relax, training can burn the dog out just as much as it burns you out, and that is okay, take a break and let your dog absorb it.
Time to proof: Pick a dog friendly place with minimal distractions to start, take your pup out there and start with a lot of engagement towards them. This will help get their mind engaged with you and keep the progress ROLLing (I did it again). After bringing the energy up, calm down immediately, and give a kind yet firm 'sit' cue. AS SOON as your pup's rear hits the floor, RELEASE, and PRAISE! PRAISE THE RAISE! Your dog has just proofed a behavior in a new location. Repeat this in more and more dog friendly places with growing intensity (as long as they are still succeeding). If they are not succeeding go back to your ingredient list, check and see if you added salt instead of sugar. That wasn't the issue? Did you stretch and knead your dough enough? Chances are one of those two needed more development. Failure is a necessary part of any successful recipe. I know strange, right?
Today Georgia and I went for a hike, we proofed some behaviors, and others I, myself saw I didn't spend enough time stretching and jumped ahead a few steps. Training is not linear, training is a hike, and I am glad to hike with you all!
