Comments on: Drive Shaping

By: Deb

Deb — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:18:00 +0000

I’ve never heard of this! This is interesting. I have two dogs, and one has a harder time “coming down” than the other.

By: skeet’s stuff » Living a dog’s life

skeet’s stuff » Living a dog’s life — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:42:43 +0000

[...] My friend Cynthia Blue found a way to fill that need for herself. She works a straight job, too, but when she’s not working for a living, she’s working for and with her dogs. I found her blog a acouple of weeks ago when I was stumbling around the net. She had written a post about Drive Shaping, a control method I had never heard of before. My own Lance gets excited too easily and I think I’d like to try the method with him. It looks likes it’s easy to learn but would take time to master. Cynthia also blogs a lot about how her dogs are doing in competition. If you look at the top of her sidebar you’ll see her four dogs listed: Lucy, Levi, Angel and Chase. Each has a series of letters after their names that have something to do with their qualifications and all of the accolades they’ve won. I don’t know what those letters mean, except that Cynthia and her dogs have worked hard and it’s brought them all some honors. I do know what CH before Levi’s name means: he’s a champion! There’s a picture of him right there, too, sitting among some of his ribbons. Go visit Cynthia and her very special friends at Tip Tail: From Agility to Zen. I’m looking forward to more stories about the her dogs, and maybe to learning a few things, too! [...]

By: skeet

skeet — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:35:15 +0000

It’s a question I’ve pondered, too, and I think they do want structure. I was a handler for working dogs for about a decade and know that they seemed much more contented when working than they did on a boring weekend. I haven’t followed the dog scene since I left that job. You’ve spurred my interest in drive shaping. My “rescue with baggage” is now pretty laid back (he’s about twelve years old) but the beagle – ai, ai ai! The boy needs calming for sure. I’m going to try the exercise you mentioned and see if it works as well with him.