I've been posting a lot of fun stuff about DuPont, but the purpose of this blog originally was to show potential adopters the bare naked truth about DuPont. He is who he is and when that right family comes along, they will be getting one fun, bad ass. beautiful, entertaining companion.
But they will have to understand him first, and that is why this blog exists.
Like the first time I brought him home, we gave DuPont a couple of days to settle before attempting any sort of real training. Now that he's no longer sleeping constantly, it's probably safe to assume that he's ready to work.
I've had several obstacles to overcome in regards to training DuPont.
1) Finding a suitable reward.
I love clicker training. Shape/Lure training is my favorite because it's positive and it's fun and it requires the dog to use his underutilized brain. Nine times out of ten, I can use food rewards and get great results because let's face it, how many dogs do you know that don't want food? My own dogs will work for their everyday dog food kibble. If we're working on something particularly difficult, I will step it up a notch and add chopped up Natural Balance rolls.
DuPont doesn't go crazy for food though and that's been a little discouraging for me.
2) Reading DuPont.
DuPont, who is exuberant by nature in everything he does, goes very calm and quiet when we work with food and I still haven't figured out if it's because he's just using his brain and needs to be quiet to do so, or if it's because he's remembering some past trauma that is causing him to shut down a little bit. I recall one time when we were working on a 'down' (lay down) when I would gesture with my hand, he would get incredibly uncomfortable. My gesture was simply a flat hand, thumb tucked under my palm holding the clicker, and then motioning towards the floor. This gesture would cause DuPont to move around me and his body language suggested that he was not comfortable with what I was doing. But on the flip side, when I changed it so that I gestured with a fist full of treats, he would remain in front of me and work. Is the clicker bothering him? I don't think so because he's fine with the sound and it's presence when I hold it in the other hand. Why does a flat hand bother him but a closed fist doesn't?
Even before noticing his training discomforts, hubby and I both came to the conclusion that he's been mishandled at some point in his life. DuPont has been known to shut down if there is any yelling or arguing going on. (Check out my post 'Mister Sensitivity') He doesn't seem to have any aversions to men vs women. My husband is nearly six and a half feet tall and built like a freight train with a very deep voice and DuPont never flinched. In fact when I brought him back home Saturday, Josh was sitting in his recliner and DuPont jumped on him and tried bathing his face.
I can understand why angry yelling would trigger that anxiety, but a flat hand pointed at the floor is a new one for me. I'll try to capture that on video for you. I don't want to purposely push his buttons to make him shut down, but at the same time I feel it's important to figure out what's bothering him because as we progress in training, I cant avoid the trigger if I don't know what it is and I don't want him to begin associating what should be fun and educational as something that is going to make him uncomfortable.
3) Toys
Parallel with #1, DuPont is crazy for toys, and I believe toys could make for a great reward. He especially loves toys that he can play tug with. His absolute favorite game in the whole wide world is tug. Tug with me, tug with my hubby, tug with the other dogs. He doesn't give a rip who is at the other end, as long as they are tugging.
The only issue with this is that DuPont is one grabby mo-fo. If you manage to get his toy from him, you better be lightning quick or you will get chomped on, because he reacts so quickly that his only single goal is to get his mouth back on his toy. If your hand is in the way, well, you should have moved faster. This can't continue. We had a pretty good start before, but in the month that he's been away, nobody did anything with him apparently so he's back to being an obnoxious, mouthy puppy. Um, a 60lb mouthy puppy.
This is a major turn off for most people. Nobody wants to get bit and even though his intention is not to cause you harm, it hurts the same and could eventually get DuPont into some serious trouble.
Using toys to reward Pont is where I would like to be. But this won't happen unless I can convince DuPont to stop being so impulsive. When there are toys present, he doesn't use his brain. My Aussie girl is the same way. She loses all sense of body awareness when there is a toy in my hand. But DuPont takes it a step further and launches his hulking body, teeth first, towards it to try and get it.
So, I guess that's where we'll start! As always, I'll attempt to get it at least photographed, if not videotaped. I can yap all I want but I'm sure some of you would prefer to see it in action.
Stay tuned!
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