06/02/2022
This is a story I like to call âopening the fridgeâ
My Doberman has a baseline of being a medium drive dog, with the ability to get to very aroused, high drive states at times. When she was a puppy and I opened the fridge, one or two times she probably tried to sniff or put her head in the fridge. All I used was my body language to block her. This was enough for her to âget the messageâ and now she politely stands a good few feet back from the fridge as itâs opened. Thatâs not to say she might not âair sniffâ to check out the goods!! I never rewarded her for not putting her head in the fridge, despite being a âPAWsitive Pursuitâ based trainer.
Enter my very high drive Malinois puppy who is now 6 months old. Her baseline, let's say, is âcrackedâ at all times. When I open the fridge, she has near enough strength to bulldoze me out the way if she tries, and wow, the fridge smells good, so thereâs a lot of desire to get into it!
Now, there are a variety of management techniques (keeping her out of the kitchen, tethering her, stay on a place etc), but it doesnât completely solve the issue. If I reward her for a sit stay (in position, or throwing the food away from the fridge), I might create expectant behaviour and condition; fridge opening noise = treat.
Milder body language like standing in the way is less effective, her desire to override my signals is strong! How far am I willing to go? Mildly verbally correcting her (âahh-ahhâ) might not be enough and I'm unwilling to escalate to intimidating her by shouting. I AM willing to hold her back as she tries to bulldoze. This technique will work and itâs clear communication that the fridge is out of bounds. She may find this frustrating and if she gets a little spicy, I'm patient, fair and understanding about this.
So why might a balanced trainer be more ready to correct a high drive dog? I think itâs because their desire is so strong, that often they dismiss subtle body language signs we can give them, that other dogs might listen to readily.. A positive trainer doesnât have to be permissive, but maybe we donât have to correct either.