I'm always interested in how dogs learn and think. Nothing shows the differences between dogs' thought processes more than watching my two dogs learn the same behavior. They learn very differently.
For instance, Bentley has been doing agility for 2 years now. He has never loved the table, but usually eventually (read: slooowly) lays down. He has given me trouble with the table once, but like I said, he usually slowly falls into place.
Lexi, on the other hand, gets to the table and throws herself into a down. She is usually in the act of laying down before she even gets on the table.
We went out tonight to practice the dogwalk, but couldn't use it (there was a class running late), so we did some table work. Lexi's table is excellent. You can run to the table and past it, and she will lay down immediately, no problem. Bentley, on the other hand, doesn't get it. He will run to the table, and if you run past, he'll either jump off, or stand there looking confused. His downs are SO slow.
It's just interesting how differently they process the commands.
It makes me wonder why it's learned so differently. I'm assuming you're training it the same? Koji is like Bentley.....SLOW! He does try to stop though, but it's fun to watch him fly off the table. In your opinion, do you think Lexi is just more confident?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's confidence...or just a totally different approach to things. Bentley is cautious, wants to do it right, slow, careful...plodding. Lexi will do everything once...and then she'll probably do it again, regardless of the initial consequence. Her downs are incredibly fast (just on the flat) because she's so anxious to DO IT! Bentley's downs are slow and methodical. He'll get there, and he'll do it right...eventually. :)
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