Operator error.

Let me preface this by saying that I thoroughly believe 99% of pet behavior "problems" are our fault.  A dog usually misbehaves not because it is "bad", but because the owner has ignored what it has tried to tell us, misread its body language, or given the dog incorrect or conflicting information.

This is the case with Mona.  When we first brought her home, she had two accidents.  Both were because my husband and I failed to see the that she needed to go out.  By attaching bells to the back door, this is no longer an issue.  She now clearly communicates with us when she needs to go potty by nudging the bells with her nose.

Now that she is potty trained and knows some basics (watch me, touch, sit, down, stay, leave it, high five), I want to teach her to "smile".  Mona smiles constantly--any time she meets new people or gets excited, she scrunches her nose, pulls up her lips, and shows her front teeth.  It is in no way an aggressive behavior, but to people who don't know her, being greeting by a dog baring its teeth can be a little unnerving.  So being able to teach her to smile on cue would allow me to show people that she is not being mean, but simply doing a silly trick.  It would also be fun to be able to show people why she is named after the famous Mona Lisa.  :)

So, on the quest for the elusive "smile", which I have been unable to "catch" during training, a friend suggested clicker training.  It's something I've known of for a long time, and I always knew it could be a great training tool.  I just never had a reason to try it until now.  I have read quite a lot on clicker training, in particular, Karen Pryor's method of clicker traning.  I feel more than comfortable in my knowledge of clicker training.  Great, right?

Wrong.  This is where a classic case of Operator Error occured.  I had just brought the clicker home, and in my excitement to try it out, I made several mistakes.  First, I forgot that full dogs are not as treat-motivated as hungry dogs, and Mona had just eaten a very hefty 9 ounce meal only a couple hours previously.  She had little interest in the chicken gizzard pieces I was offering (Tomorrow, I will try again BEFORE she eats).  Second, I did not introduce the clicker correctly.  She had never seen or heard it before, so when I called her to me and clicked it fairly close to her, it startled her.  She became scared of the sound of the clicker and would not come near me.  So instead of getting anything useful accomplished today, I spent about 15 minutes attempting to desensitize her to the sound of the clicker.

So, is Mona un-clicker-trainable?  Of course not.  But I have set us back a few notches, and our progress on clicker training will probably be slower than I'd like.  I think this is pretty similar to raw feeding... When something goes wrong (vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, etc.) it is not because raw feeding isn't right.  It's because we have messed up somewhere--overfeeding, too much bone, too little bone, too much organs, etc. Here's hoping for less Operator Errors in the future.  :)