The Power of the Liver Treats
Confession: Jack is not always the best dog on a leash. Oh, he knows how to heel. He knows the auto-sit. He will walk to either side.
But I'm not that much of a disciplinarian. When we walk, I tend to let the dogs wander and sniff. Maddie is polite when free on a leash; she'll trot ahead or behind but not pull. Jack can be all over the place. He lags to sniff and he love to run up and greet his many friends from the area (dog and human) that he sees all the time. He's not a loose-leash relaxed kinda dog.
I normally (not always) carry treats on a walk for impromptu training opportunities. Usually something like Charlie Bears or Zukes.
Today, we finally had decent weather so we decided to take them on a long trail through the woods where they can run off-leash. I wanted to practice recall training, so I put some liver treats and string cheese in a zip-lock baggie. Liver treats (and hot dogs) are only used for emergency recall training in my house. Cheese is a high-value reward for off-leash training, nail trimming, and the like. The dogs both saw me put the treats in my pocket. I sealed the zip, put on a warm coat (it's still chilly here), put the treats in my pocket and zipped that.
We set out. The dogs pottied and puttered around. They sniffed. We walked a ways. They did their normal meander. And then we saw one of the neighborhood friends, a guy and his big black lab.
Jack immediately offered obedience-ring-level heeling. Watching my face the whole time. I hadn't said a word, hadn't asked for heel, nothing. We walked up to say hi to our friends and Jack ignored them completely, eyes on my face, heeling the whole way. That little stinker remembered I had the extra-good treats in my pocket (it was now some time since we'd left the house and he'd seen them), and instead of running up smiling to go greet as he almost always would, he decided he'd offer his bestest behavior (we had to practice TONS to ignore a friendly dog to get our CGC, and he nearly blew the test wanting to say hello) in the hopes of getting some goodies.
He's too clever by half. When I say he decides whether or not to come when he's found something to eat in the leaves by weighing what he's eating against the best treats I'm likely to be carrying, I'm not kidding!
Anyone else's Corgi behave differently based on what treats they saw you stash in your pocket? Maddie listens no matter what; she's not the type to weigh what she's doing against the value of treats (or lack thereof) and once she knows something, she'll just do it. But Jack is clearly weighing pros and cons. If he could talk, we'd be in trouble!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Sparty does not appear to be discriminating at all. Any treat even a green bean will cause him to focus on my pocket and nothing else. He will go out in the yard and wait to see if a treat is offered to come in because there have been occasions when we were in a hurry and bribed him to get him in. He is just too focused on food! I would love to have a conversation with him because usually I have no idea what is going on in his little brain.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Yes and no...they don't necessarily remember what went in my pocket BUT they do discriminate. They will do much more if they smell the good stuff and even at the pet store will refuse the cheap doggie bisquits because the know someone will have Bill Jacs...last time we were there Livvy really did refuse 4 treats even one from her favorite person/corgi owner.It's actually embarassing to have to say "she's holding out for the Bill Jacs"...but that time her favorite peson opens a pkg of turkey jerkey and she was VERY happy! They also check behind each check out counter on the way in to see what back there...
At home cheese is the best but they will accept Charlie Bears and Natural Choice crunchy treats. Some dogs don't seem to care but mine do...did I cause this???
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I think it's just the dog. Once we had some people over and were serving some veggies and dip and a cheese platter for munchies.
I gave Jack a carrot (he likes them) and he had just taken it when someone dropped a piece of cheese. He spit out the carrot, ate the cheese, sniffed around to make sure there was not more, then went back to the carrot.
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Sounds like a true Corgi beth....haha!
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Permalink Reply by Edison on
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I couldn't help laughing as I read this- corgis are ridiculously smart, aren't they? :D
Edison's discipline actually tends to crumble in the face of a really high value treat. He'll get frantic and start doing all of his tricks in succession out of sheer desperation. Sometimes, he works better for a cracker than for a piece of hot dog.
I've also watched him weigh the pros and cons of coming when called, which we fixed by irregular treating; when he does come, sometimes he gets one treat, sometimes he gets five. He doesn't know which it'll be, but he became more consistent about coming, knowing that he could win the lottery at any point. (There's some terribly scientific name for it with "conditioning" at the end, but I forget what it is. The trainers at our dog club called it "jackpot treating".) It's really fun seeing the hope in his little face as he dashes over! :)
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Permalink Reply by Roger/Laurie on
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Tenby considers every thought in his head. The reward and its value is the most important thing. This can range from what treat do I get, which chair can I steal to sleep in, what is going to get my in the least trouble. You can just see the wheels going around every time he has to make a decision.
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