As Fire grows...

Most of the litter went to their new homes by 12 weeks of age. Due to his leg issue,Fire remained by my side. My heart was attached, and my head had accepted that this dog didn't have to achieve anything in his life. He was pet quality, long term soundness was in question. No future goals of a championship, agility titles, or even a CD existed. Fire's only purpose in life was to be my companion.

In spite of this, I made a few attempts to train him. His puppy aptitude test did indicate that he had the highest aptitude for obedience training/work of the entire litter. I was pretty sure the evaluator was wrong though, once I actually tried training him! I would sit in the living room, as I had with Twist, Tuisku, Georgia, and others through the years...clicker in hand and treats on the crate waiting for a behavior to reinforce. Try as I might, I couldn't shape much. We did get a weak hand touch with shaping. But for the most part Fire just looked at me as if he simply wasn't capable of figuring it out. He couldn't even find the treats when I dropped them on the floor! I resorted to lure/reward and taught him sit and down. But even that wasn't great. He did a good old fashioned "rocked sit" rather than the "tucked sit" I now strive for and teach all of my students to develop. His down was perched as if he would spring back up at any minute. Since he still had problems with his right leg, I left it alone. Afterall Fire would never have to step into an obedience ring! I did have a break through when I taught him "spin" and "here", which were partly lured and partly shaped. But in general his learning rate was slow as was his progression. I eventually stopped working him at home. However during this time I was being asked to fill in for Kaye ( kayeames.com ) in her puppy classes quite often and since Fire was always with me, I naturally started using him as my demo dog.


Fast foreward a few months and somewhere along the way Fire changed. He now catches onto behavior shaping super fast! In fact if I'm not quick enough he'll offer additional behaviors or resort to his favorite default behavior Down! (Down used to be difficult for him) I truly have no idea what switch I flipped or if I am even responsible for the change. I just know I stopped caring about the results and simply took him everywhere with me and asked only for good manners. We had no set training times, but simply worked on reinforcing attention and good manners. In class I would ask him to do things, always reminding my class that he "was not trained". And somewhere along the way he became just that..."Trained"! (as trained as I expect a young Doberman to be) Now he amazes me with his uniqueness. I can be working with him one day and he simply isn't "getting it". I'll try it again the next day and the behavior is there as if trained with much effort and focus. It's been an interesting journey with Fire. His learning style and mental capabilities are very different from any other dog I've had the pleasure of working with. The moral of this post, no matter how many dogs you've worked with...the next one may be very different. They are here to teach us if we are open to learning.