Training Story Cases

Lisa has an adorable bulldog named Butch that she really loves. She has been living with Butch for a year now. Butch is a kind, friendly and fun to be around puppy. Yet self-reflecting, she says “the honeymoon phase is over.” After a year of living together she finds herself getting more and more irritated with him. When she sits down and contemplates what is the big thing that is bothering her. “He is just dirty.” Comes into her head. She is sick of seeing his mess all over. Every time he comes home from outside, he makes a mess in the living room. The whole house is tracked in with his mud and dirt. Then he jumps on the bed with all that mud. “It drives me crazy,” she says. She has been yelling at him about the mud. Though afterwords he just seems to mope around all day, like an ashamed puppy. He is no longer the fun puppy that she used to have. She knows what behavior is bothering her. She also knows what behavior she misses in him.

 

Overall Objectives

 I want a clean puppy.

 I want a puppy that likes to play.

 

Over the year, she has gotten to understand Butch much more. When she is calm, she quietly reflects. She knows that he is trying to please her. She knows that he is not always messy. He just has bad habits. She realizes that he cannot change all his dirty habits quickly. She understands that her irritation at him was bringing him down. Further reflecting, she realizes that her unconscious looks of disgust at him have affected his happiness. She has become less fun to be around as well. She suddenly realizes how glad she is to have Butch. She also remembers how fun it was to be around him when he was playful. She is also coming to understand how her responses have affected them both. She wants to do better at making him feel appreciated and happy again.

Puppies Capabilities

 He is naturally playful and fun.

 He needs to feel appreciated to be playful again.

 It will take time to build clean habits.

 Regardless, he will still forget to be clean sometimes.

 

With her new insights acquired, Lisa looks at defining the duration for the first training interval to be an arbitrary three months. She is looking to focus on just two goals for this first training interval. She wants to put priority to Butch’s natural strength of playfulness. Yet she also wants to make strides in moving him to cleaner habits. She has thought hard about some very specific goals that she believes he can reasonably achieve.

 

Goals for Training Interval

My puppy will come to me to initiate play at least 3 days a week, after the first 2 months of training.

My puppy will track mud into the house no more than 5 times within a month period after the first 2 months of training.

 

Training Interval Begins

For the first two months Lisa focuses on returning to positive reinforcement. When her puppy comes in with mud all over his paws, she does not overreact. She shows a small frown but then quickly moves along. The next day when he wipes his paws and comes inside clean, she showers him with affection and praise. To her surprise her puppy quickly catches on. He is noticeably better at keeping things clean. Not only that, but his general happiness level has also improved. He is much more playful and fun to be around. However, one day when she had a particularly stressful day, she saw tracked in mud in the living room. She immediately screams in rage. She thought to herself. Why is he so dumb? Why after all this time? It is not fair; I work so hard and yet he still can’t do even this simple thing. She takes a deep breath. She slows down for a minute. She remembers the training. “It is not about who is dumb or what is fair, it is about creating a happy life together.” She remembers all the progress that Butch has made so far. By the time Butch comes rolling around, she has calmed down considerably. The two go outside and play to help relieve the stress of the day.

End of Training Interval

Butch initiates play now almost every day of the week. The goal has succeeded, He is back to his old self again.

While he missed the goal of tracking mud inside by one time, he has made great progress. He will need further training in future intervals.