Nash And Smart X 50

You are probably wondering what the heck Smart X 50 is referring to. I know when I first read the term in the book Plenty In Life Is Free (Reflections on Dogs, Training, and Finding Grace) by Kathy Sadao I was very intrigued by the premise.

Here is the idea as I understand it. When working with our dogs we think of training the dog "to do/not do" something.  Sit, stay, come when we call or stop barking, stop jumping up, stop running out the door for example. Kathy suggests a new way to approach all these requests we have for our dogs.

First identify how it is you want your dog to behave and/or cute things you would like to encourage your dog to continue, and these are the things you will be rewarding throughout the day.

See (the behavior you are looking for),
Mark (with a click or word, I use "yes or good")
Reward (give one of the 50 treats to your dog) (I use his mealtime kibble soaked in a broth to make it softer and quicker to eat and also adds a bit more yumminess)(I also use tiny bits of organic hotdog for an added bonus surprise!)

So it's this simple, any behavior you don't want (aside from something dangerous that you need to manage) just ignore. Your dog barks at the person walking by, ignore it. BUT the fun part is looking for behaviors you WANT to reinforce. You sit down to have a snack and your dog lies down on a dog bed instead of jumping on you, mark and reward. Your dog is hanging out in a different room when you are busy in the kitchen, go to the dog, mark and reward. If you are finding 50 things you like that your dog is doing every day, some can be the same thing multiple times, this really changes the perception of your dog's behavior in your mind. It's like  HEY, my dog did 50 things today that were really great! Rather than my dog barked at the cat he was bratty today.

OK so I decided to really give this a go with Nash. Nash being part JRT has been a bit more challenging than I am used to as compared to my other foster dogs who have been mostly ratties or rat/chis, but the thing I realize is he is so smart and I was not capitalizing on that. Instead I was feeling like he was more dog than I could handle. Turns out I was oh so wrong! I was not being creative or thinking outside the box, and because it is important to me to be a good foster mama to my foster dogs, I made the shift in thinking to putting into action what I had been reading about. In just a few days I am seeing some remarkable changes in our relationship.

Here is a wanted behavior, resting while I am on the computer, as opposed to him out on the porch looking for the cat to surface so he can bark at him or worse figure a way out to run after him. He got a few of the 50 rewards today for this behavior and he seems to be hanging out in this bed just a bit more.

1) I reward him for checking in with me on walks, in the house or when we are in the yard, and he is checking in much more regularly
2) I reward him for just standing calmly next to me without being anxious and jumping up.
3) I  reward him when he is lying down quietly on a dog bed
4) I reward him when he sits in front of me for no apparent reason
5) And for fun I reward him when he plays with a toy on his own, to encourage him to get his energy out by playing by himself.

Here Nash is standing by me while I work in the yard, more rewards!

We had been working on this a bit and you will see Nash playing with Pig then he comes to me for his reinforcement.

In this clip you can see he was playing with Pig and I tossed a treat to him rewarding him for his playing on his own.

It is important when doing these exercises to cut back on the meals you feed your dog or they can gain weight fast! Nash needs to gain a little so we don't have to worry about that right now too much.

Just in the few days we have been doing this, Nash is so much more attentive to me. He is checking on me more throughout the day, coming when I call much more frequently, and seems to be relaxing a bit too. 

Nash is one smart boy and we will make sure he gets the credit he deserves!