Today's Sunshine

Today I finally managed to start some of the training I'd been planning! Monster and I did three sessions today focusing on impulse control. Obviously we've trained in that area before, but I've decided to put more focus on it for a while. I've sort of just been skimming the surface, mostly because Monster is surprisingly difficult to "tease" like this. Since he doesn't really care all that much for food rewards, putting a treat on the floor (or on his paws or nose) and asking him to not go for it until given permission isn't that big of a challenge. We did it once when he was a puppy, he figured out the basic idea, and since then he knows what it's about and pretty much just sits there and waits. Tug toys and similar are more of a temptation, but even with them he gets the basic principle and it's not much of a challenge. Also, due to his general lack of focus (on me...) while out for a walk, we've mostly been doing this training at home - even easier!

Wait, are you trying to say I'm not this good because I'm smart!?

But, again, looking closer at this it's all just a bunch of lazy excuses, right? Right. Impulse control is important, Monster is good at the training we've been doing but he's not so good at actual impulse control when it counts. What this means is that I have to use my superior intellect

What!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

and think of ways to make it more challenging for him. So, today I've put the harness on him for a walk, brought out a high value tug toy, and just stressed him out and wound him up to the point of actually biting my hands to get it (see?! lack of impulse control!), and then quickly taking him and the tug toy out for a walk. Whenever he seems to start to wind back down, we do a bit of impulse control with the tug toy (dangle it in front of his face, throw it away, play with it myself, put it down between his paws, leave it behind as we walk away, etc), and make sure to reward with some stressing tug of war. It's a bit too early to say if I can see any general results from it, but I can say that it at least works in the sense that it's a lot harder for him to ignore the teasing. See, I am smarter than him!

HAHAHAHA, oh please stop! You're killing me!