Small Strokes Big Oaks

Last night was Penny’s first obedience class.  We signed her (and us) up for obedience classes at the local Petsmart even though she’s already a really, REALLY good dog.  I used to think obedience classes were only for dogs who were serious problems, or for owners who were serious control freaks.  Boy, was I wrong.  Obedience classes are just as important for dogs as teaching younger (and sometimes older) students in our classes how to behave in social situations.  There are a lot of myths about caring for and training a dog, and I have found – in my limited experience – that most of these match up with myths about teaching.  Allow me to explain.

Myth #1: It is unfair to the dog to put him or her in a crate while you are gone.
I used to believe this until I did a little research.  I mean, crates are like cages!  No one wants to be caged up all day!  Let them roam free!

Well, sure, people don’t like cages and it is totally wrong to keep a person in a cage, but some animals are different.  Dogs are den-dwelling animals.  They feel comfortable in small spaces.  If you let them have free reign of the house, multiple things can happen.  They can get overwhelmed with the space and start chewing or marking territory; they can become very territorial of their space which could cause problems when you come home or have visitors; they can start barking at people and animals outside of the windows, which makes them feel like they are protecting their space and chasing off intruders and can make them even more territorial and encourage them to bark in the yard or on a leash.  They like smaller, covered spaces because they’re easier to protect, and this will also train the dog to be a nicer, less aggressive pet.

In short, dogs like boundaries.  Believe it or not, students do, too.  Like I said, obviously you are not going to lock them in a cage, but think about how often your students become completely different people when you change the setting of your classroom.  You have different challenges in the library versus in your own classroom.  When you switch your classroom setup around, the students come in and every single one of them comments on how they are shocked at the new setup and how they liked the old one better.  Similarly, when you allow them free reign of the classroom rather than asking them to remain seated in their desks, that’s when things get broken, stolen, or “rearranged.”  It’s almost like, when they have too much space to work with, they get overwhelmed with it.  Sound familiar?

Myth #2: Reward all positive behavior.
When we brought Penny home, we gave her so many treats that she gained five (much needed) pounds in the first four weeks we had her here.  Our idea behind treating her so much was that we wanted her to recognize that she’d done something good and then keep up with that behavior.  Similarly, we as teachers are often asked to consistently reward our students, and some people (myself included) reward students for every little thing.  I know a school, for example, that rewards students for simply walking down the correct side of the hallway.  We all know what happens then, right?  The students start asking for rewards.  They do something correctly, and they say, “Miss, can we get some extra credit for that?”  My response is always, “I don’t give extra credit for something that wasn’t extra.”  However, how can they tell the difference between adequate and extra when they’re constantly being rewarded for everything they do?

At our obedience class last night, we learned not to treat randomly, but ask for a specific action, then verbally acknowledge the specific action that was performed, then give a treat quickly to associate the behavior with the reward.  This isn’t a bad example to follow for humans, either.  Ask for something specific, verbally acknowledge the student did something good, then give an immediate and tangible reward.  The key here is to be specific.  If I want Penny to sit, and she rolls over, I’m not going to reward her just for being cute (which I was doing).  Similarly, if I ask for a three page paper, I shouldn’t reward a 1.5 page paper with a passing grade.

Myth #3: Don’t give your dog rules.  Let them go, and they will figure it out for themselves.
I have seen people with so many rules for their dogs that they are so constantly disciplining the dog that they cannot have a conversation with anyone while the dog is in the room.  I believe these people just want a dog when the dog is sitting quietly in the corner looking cute.  And part of that may be true, but if you don’t give dogs any rules at all, they will just continue to push the envelope and see what they can get away with.  If you let them get away with everything, they’ll just continue to do it.

Similarly, I have seen teachers with so many rules, even the teacher can’t keep them all straight.  These teachers usually end up spending more time disciplining than actually teaching.  On the flip side, though, I just had a year where most of my rules went out the window.  With weddings and contest plays and all sorts of other life things going on at once, I just tried to get through the year.  I’d impose rules, then back off of them, then my attitude was if they get the work done well, whatever. This made for an awful year.  I still had control of my classroom because they knew I did have limits, but my limits were so much more lenient than they had been in years past.  This coming year, I know what I have to do: Set rules at the beginning of the year and stick to them.  Same with Penny.

Myth #4: Dogs are fine if you leave them alone for a really long time.  They’ll entertain themselves.
Sure they will.  They will entertain themselves by chewing up your entire $900 couch and peeing on your favorite pair of shoes.  Dogs, especially terriers like Penny, need to be intellectually stimulated.  She needs to play, chase things, run, take walks outside, play fetch, tug on ropes, etc.  When we don’t play with her or give her adequate exercise outside because of the weather, etc. she gets obnoxious.  She’ll act restless or bark at us or nudge our hands so we’ll pet her.  In short, she won’t leave us alone until we do something so she’s not bored.

Students also really like to be intellectually stimulated, believe it or not!  They might tell you they’d rather sit and be bored listening to the teacher lecture, but we all know that’s not true.  They like activities that make them think, and when they’re thinking, time flies.  If you can get your students intellectually involved in a majority of your lessons, I guarantee you will not only be teaching them a heck of a lot more, but you will have fewer behavioral problems, as well, because their minds will be too engaged with what they’re doing to think about how they can break the rules.

Not only do dogs need intellectual stimulation, they need intellectual payoff.  This is actually something that is up in the air as far as truth, but I believe it.  We have all these toys for Penny that squeak and have all sorts of tails and ropes and you name it on them.  Then, we discovered that she would actually chase a laser pointer more than all of the toys combined.  However, when we put the laser pointer away, she knew we had put it away, but still searched for the light.  For hours.  She didn’t even want food.  The problem here is that there was no intellectual payoff. 
There was nothing to grab, shake, or hide.  She needs that.  Students need that, too.  How many times have you been asked, “What do we need this for?”  They want to know because they need some sort of intellectual payoff.  And when you can answer that question, they become even more engaged in learning.

Myth #5: Just say no.  When you see them doing something you don’t want them to do, say “No!”
This goes back to Myth #2 – you must be specific.  If Penny is sitting on the bed (where she is not allowed), I cannot just yell “No!”  If I do that, she’ll know she did something wrong, but not what she did wrong.  The odds of her getting on the bed again are pretty good, then, if she doesn’t know that sitting on the bed was what she did wrong.  So you have to be specific and say, “No bed!” and eventually she’ll know that sitting on the bed was what was wrong.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen a student doing something inappropriate and have just said, “Knock it off!”  9 times out of 10, when I say something nondescript like that, the student says, “What did I do?” which then has a tendency to launch you into a conversation you didn’t want to have about what the student was doing and why it was inappropriate.  It is much more effective to be specific.  “Stop throwing wads of paper on the floor” is much more effective than “Stop it!” for obvious reasons.

Let’s be clear, though…
I am not saying the methods you use with a dog to train it (squirt bottle when they do something wrong, crate training, bacon-flavored treats) are the same methods you should use when dealing with behavior issues in class.  I am, however, saying that the concepts are similar.  In fact, most of the ideas here are things I’ve noted from my own teaching experience that I believe make me a good dog owner, not the other way around.  Students are humans, not dogs, and should be treated as such.  However, when people say having a dog is a good test for having a baby, this might be what they mean.  And we all know raising a child and teaching a child are very similar, too, so I think it fits.