LwL5 Practicing Transitions

My primary goal in working with Luna was to continue to add value, safety, and learning to being ‘with me’. I wanted curiosity and exploration to be fun, rewarding and without big environmental surprises. I functioned as the placeholder for her family who also worked with her so everything she and I worked on needed to be translatable to them. In any event, the goal was always practicing functionality in a variety of locations. Teamwork was an inherent reinforcer for Luna as long as it was not abused or misused.

A couple words about the potential for a training or teaching session or set up becoming an objectifying event for your dog. I learned that trust with Luna would be diminished and therefore both our confidence levels would be decreased if I objectified her by putting her in situations where it was either up to her to figure out what to do or where I was going to ‘see how she did’ and then try to manage her to a better place after it became apparent that she wasn’t doing well or ‘as expected/anticipated’.

If you are going to choose to separate from your dog in any situation to ‘see what they decide to do’ your dog needs to be able to make decisions on their own that you will be comfortable with them making. Just like most people, dogs need to be prepared for things that may happen next. In my opinion, separating from them is objectifying them by standing back to see what they may or may not decide to do. The risk involved in this decision is partially contingent upon what your dog is capable of deciding to do. The spectrum varies on a dog to dog basis.

The following video is happy, simple and brief. Here we practice approximately five different skills and transition from obedience type practice to the life skill of light handling/husbandry practice.

Practicing Transitioning

There are two transitions made in this practice session that include Luna staying with me as we change what we’re doing. Since I’m the creature with age, language, thumbs and the ability to plan for future events, I’m in charge of all of what is being presented to Luna and what she has the ability to learn within the confines of what and how I’m choosing to teach her.

Diversifying practice is a technique employed in classes where it has tangible value. We often don’t think about taking the practice of transitions into our work at home with our dogs. Practicing new life skills and obedience ‘type’ skills can be like story telling with your dogs. You're telling the story of all things you can do together and by explaining this you’re letting your dogs know they can trust and rely on you to make safe choices.

In short, with Luna’s genetics and character in mind, I wanted to give her as much preparation for decision making as I could with her day to day life in mind. Had I wanted to teach her to present as bullet proof in any number of situations and to turn to me in the face of multiple distractions I believe I would have taken a very similar path with her. Here’s the thing, if you want a dog to trust you, making them walk the plank sets a poor precedent.

Often the root of misunderstanding with and disconnection from our dogs, objectification occurs when a person has a location, training goal, life skill in mind and they have not given their dog the skills to process the information as it becomes something relevant to their ability to self regulate and/or cope. It is also something that we absolutely all do with every dog we meet, regardless of relationship with the dog. The best way to protect ourselves and our dog from the fallout of objectification is to be mindful when we practice new skills or entering ‘new to our dog’ environments .

Three points helpful to working ‘with not at’ your dog:

1. Do reconnaissance of all locations your planning to take your dog to visit, learn and explore. Know the lay of the land before you discover it with them.

2. Mapping possible environmental contrast events helps the human plan for surprises so helps to know which skills might be needed.

3. Something not planned for will happen!! It will be a good, ungood or mostly neutral event. All your practice pays off in surprise situations!

Copyright Emily Rogeness 2021