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Hi Marcus,
I was wondering how you are progressing with Illidan’s training? One thing I’m learning is if you don’t wean your dog off the treat rewards then the dog could start to believe it’s entitled to them, becoming demanding and treat aggressive to get them. It’s important to follow the steps to weaning the dog off the treats – watch phrase 1 sit video, the section where she talks about “variable Reward System”. You will notice she starts to replace the food treats with praise “good boy” and patting at variable times. (remember “good boy” before treat reward – the “good boy”/pat will become the reward and not the treat). Then you can move to the next step of durations where the dog only receives the treat reward after holding the position and when dog is given the command “free”. Eventually if you keep following step by step through phrase 1 sit you wont need to use food treat rewards as “good boy”/pats will replace the food reward. Further to make your commands more reliable is the premack principle – recognising what the dog wants most at that moment and using it as the reward for obeying your command. Example – my GSD loves coming out with me in the car so when we get to the car I give the command to “sit” before I open the car door to let her in. She knows if she sits when commanded then she gets what she wants to come with me – when I don’t give her the command to sit then she knows she won’t be coming with me. (I generally tell her “no” instead and put her inside – she understands this means she’s not coming with me). If you like to know more about the permack principle you can find the information in the “obedience chart” under the “quick chart” that is in the “knowledge base”. You can find the “knowledge base” on the home page here or click on the white dashes in the blue bar up the top of the page on right then click on “knowledge base”.
Later on in phrase2 your dog will learn he no longer has the option whether he obeys your commands or not as in this phrase the dog learns consequences will occur for disobedience. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this information with you. Being a member of this community, I try to help out wherever possible.
