The "Leave It" command and other lessons from dog training #1

Okay.

I know I'm totally going to offend some people with what will likely become repeated analogies between dog training and child rearing, but I do think some important lessons can be imparted from one to the other (see also this--but I made this association long before I ever read the article).

One vital lesson in dog training is to teach multiple types of negatives, so that you can save "NO" for very serious offenses or problems.

For example:

"Leave it" when you want the creature to not pick something up.

"Phooey" when you want the creature to not put something in its mouth.

"Quit" when you want the creature to stop doing some sort of behavior.

So I have been implementing these with EV, and the results have been excellent. The other day, in fact, she started to dig in the bathroom trash (she likes to pull things out of the trash cans), and my "leave it" plus moving her gently to somewhere else in the room "training" paid off. She left the moisturizer box in the trash and moved on to something else. (Flushing the toilet, actually, which both startled and amused her). Lots of praise ensued.*

This morning it worked again when she started to rummage in the bedroom trash. A simple "leave it" resulted in a thoughtful look and a move on to finding pacifiers that had been flung out of the crib and on to the floor. A quick praise from me, smile from her because she knows she understood what I meant, and no garbage on the floor!

Gentle, consistent commands, redirection, and positive reinforcement are the keys!

Now "NO" can be better saved for when EV is about to put her hand in a fireplace, or about to run into the street, or whatever really serious thing might merit it!

[I am also looking forward to seeing if this might avert the infamous "no" stage when kids realize the power of this word, but that will remain to be seen...]

*In retrospect, I realize that flushing the toilet is probably not the best alternate behavior since it is a huge waste of water, but in the heat of the moment it seemed like a much better alternative to picking garbage out of the trash...