Teacher Assistants

I have two canine helpers that live in the trunk of my car. Rex is a handsome young Husky, and Maxine (named for a certain neighbor dog) is an affable Golden mix. Before you report me the ASPCA, have a look at my TAs:

These life-sized stuffed dogs come in handy when I work on polite leash walking with my canine students. How? It’s an exercise I call “walking towards a goal.” When most dogs see something intriguing on the horizon they gun their engines and pull full tilt until they reach their prize, whether it’s another dog or a tipped over garbage can. Unfortunately, that strategy usually works for dogs: they pull, we follow.

The object of my “walking towards a goal” exercise is to teach dogs that pulling towards a very obvious and intriguing goal (Rex and Maxine, set up a distance down the road) no longer works, and the only way to get closer to those bizarre statue-like dogs is to walk politely without tugging.

The reactions from my canine students are hysterical. Most of them don’t realize that Rex and Maxine are stuffed when they first see them, and a few never realize that they’re fake dogs! (These tend to be the more nervous, cautious dogs that can’t understand why Rex and Maxine aren’t acknowledging their various appeasement gestures.)

After we’ve worked through the lesson and politely bridged the gap between student dog and fake dogs, the hilarity continues. Most of my student dogs approach the stuffed dogs with standard ritualistic dog postures. Cautious sniffs are common:

Then we get the takedown for crotch sniffing. “Who are you? WHAT are you?”:

After they determine that Rex and Maxine smell and taste suspiciously like their squirrel toy from inside the house, the play begins:

To be honest, the exercise is really geared more towards the owner, so that he or she can better understand the mechanics and timing of polite leash walking. It’s a silly way to work on a very common training challenge.