Answers to Everyday Questions : Help with question please!? About dog obedience?

Help with question please!? About dog obedience?

6 Responses to “Help with question please!? About dog obedience?”

1. BYBs cause suffering and death said :
   October 28th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

   Seems like a straightforward question to me.
2. Single Worker 1230 said :
   October 28th, 2010 at 10:21 pm

   I’m not sure that I understand your question. It the dog responds properly to the command as it was trained, it is both, it I understand the question correctly.
3. DeeDawg said :
   October 28th, 2010 at 11:07 pm

   interesting….
   i’d say yes- although the dog isn’t necessarily obeying the handler, he’s obeying instincts to learn from past experiences….
   but then again no…

   hell i dont’ know- i’m just a hick. theory eludes me- application is what i understand best.
4. Jessie said :
   October 28th, 2010 at 11:40 pm

   Do you understand anything about learning theory?

   Are you trying to drag people into a debate? I’ve seen an awful lot of questions on YA begin like this and then the asker turns nasty in a series of edits when answerers disagreed with their hidden opinion…
5. Linda L said :
   October 28th, 2010 at 11:48 pm

   At the APDT conference last year one of the speakers pointed out that obedience training does not guarantee that the dog will behave in the desired fashion, but highly improves the chance that the dog will do so. So to answer your question, I would say that although giving a hand signal or verbal cue results in a dog doing what you are asking, the dog’s action (as with a human ‘obeying’), is the result of a choice. Thus it depends on the perspective. From the handler’s viewpoint it may be defined as obedience. It’s what’s happening in the moment; I cue – you do. From the dog’s point of view it’s picking a choice that historically has worked for him/her — thus a conditioned response.
   I hope this helps. Linda Lelak, CPDT-KA
6. colliegirl said :
   October 29th, 2010 at 12:20 am

   Ok I’ll have a go. Anything any animal does in response to a known stimuli is a conditioned response. This could be seen as obedience if we regard a command as a stimulus. However I would suggest that a conditioned response becomes ‘obedience’ when the animal
   a) responds in anticipation of a reward after the action, b) sustains the response beyond the initial moment, c) performs the response with ‘understanding’ i.e. the competitive dog who maintains the heel position regardless of pace, turns, and the location in which it is asked to perform.