Monday, November 15, 2010

Reinforcing bad behavior

Parker and I had a nice long walk this morning. Not nearly as long as what he gets with Mike, but pretty damned good for me -- almost a mile in dark, dark, dark fog. Then a romp out in the backyard.

A few minutes ago (it seemed so much longer at the time), we went back outside. He had been up for five hours and had yet to pee. He was behaving so well, I took his leash off and we played some vigorous chase games. I found an old football of Tilly’s and he was quite enthusiastic about chasing it when I’d throw it. No concept of picking it up and bringing it back, but that will come. And, for the first time, he lifted his leg to pee! No more squat pissing for this big boy!

But then it was time to come inside. And he was having none of it. Even when I went back in with the girls.

So (here’s the reinforcement), I got a bowl of chicken pieces and went back out, both Tilly and Emmy right at my heels, of course. And we did some sits and dancing for treats while Parker looked on, tail very slowly wagging. Finally he came up for some himself and I leashed him with a barely audible ‘Good boy.’ And marched him right inside.

Bad Mommy. Bad Mommy!

No comments:

Post a Comment