Dogs learning to learn - a ramble
You're making me THINK! Maybe I should say, you're stimulating me to think, instead of "making me" think. Maybe it's not "think," but - "consider." Which would mean, reviewing, going over, what I've learned in the past, or - maybe - what I THINK - no, BELIEVE - I learned in the past.
Confused yet? HAHA!
Maybe my biggest trade secret for myself is that I ask this question of myself:
What if I'm wrong? I'll have to look up the article on my own site (a very large site) in which I remark on this situation. If I find it, I'll post a link.
Then there's also the question, "What if my (professional) TRAINER is wrong?" Yikes!
Aren't professional trainers supposed to be right?
And speaking of being right, what about veterinarians? My last animal-companion-dog before Camellia was diabetic. Wow; on the k9diabetes online forum, we learn that many, many vets are ill-educated in canine diabetes, with a result that some forum members have to change vets, searching out one who (for whatever reason) has a strong background in canine diabetes. And in the meantime, the truly well-educated forum owner/administrator is one of the best-educated lay-persons I ever "met."
Well, I think it's true that it's good for dogs to learn to learn, and, good for us to learn to learn, and wonderful for the dogs when we combine cues (we take cues from them, too), to ALLOW them to learn to learn. Really healthy and well-raised dogs (well-bred, too) have the most WONDERFUL capabilities for learning to learn, and sometimes I think, I should pay more attention to, how can I work out ways to teach my dog that don't GET IN THE WAY of their learning capabilities, but rather, enhance them?
So, a reason I like working with the principles of clicker-training, whether we use the clicker itself (an event-marker) or use a word instead, or some other sound, is that marking events (what the dog is doing) depends on - you guessed it - what the DOG is doing. Which typically arises from the DOG's thoughts and perceptions. In short, on their volitions. Which we can influence with various kinds of cues!
On my web site, I emphasize that the Eye of Dog is upon you. (Us.) Because, I'm sure we all notice, our dogs know so very much about what to expect, based on their watching of us.
Which is why I have difficulty catching Camellia for her weekly bath. I'm still ruminating about easing those difficulties.
Is that rambly enough for you? (Apologies, but it's very typical of my early investigations into learning - and my LATER ones, too!)
Finally, a remark on learning; this applies to dogs, and to humans too. My belief is that we - dogs and humans learn in little flashes of insight and comprehension (which may later need testing within the dog-or-human brain, to check for veracity or alterations) - but we do, I think, have these flashes of understanding. Then what's further required is, time to absorb those flashes, without being disturbed or distracted. Plain old time is our ally in teaching our dogs, ourselves, our students, our children.
Probably this ramble is long enough already, to put it mildly.
Enough, already!
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 07:53:09 (PST)