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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to The Houndation's podcast. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all about the ways

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Speaker 1: in which we train our dogs to do certain things

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Speaker 1: when we don't even realize it. Oftentimes, something will happen

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Speaker 1: in my life and I'll just kind of like start

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Speaker 1: to think about why, and then I'll realize that somewhere

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Speaker 1: in that event is the makings of an article or

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Speaker 1: a podcast. Well, this happened to me recently as I

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Speaker 1: listened to my wife lightly scold my five year old

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Speaker 1: lab for not being downstairs and in bed with one

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Speaker 1: of my daughters. It occurred to me that our dogs

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Speaker 1: learn a hell of a lot of behaviors that we

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Speaker 1: don't teach them, and those behaviors shape the course of

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Speaker 1: our lives with them. This is important stuff, so listen

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Speaker 1: up because it's what I'm going to talk about right now.

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Speaker 1: The usage of tools in nature is one of those

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Speaker 1: things that humans are fascinated by, and rightly so. It's

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Speaker 1: a big differentiator between an animal that has figured out

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Speaker 1: to some extent how to manipulate something that isn't part

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Speaker 1: of its body and its environment to use it to

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Speaker 1: its advantage. This is sort of considered a skill that

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Speaker 1: represents a higher level of cognition, and for a long time,

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Speaker 1: surprise surprise, humans thought we were the only ones who

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Speaker 1: did it. Well, we aren't, and now we know that

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Speaker 1: some species of birds and fish and mammals and insects

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Speaker 1: and cephalopods are all tool users, and of course so

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Speaker 1: are some primates. Some simple examples when it comes to

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Speaker 1: monkeys include species that eat nuts and crabs, because both

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Speaker 1: can be easier to eat if you figure out how

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Speaker 1: to smash them with a stone. Now, that might not

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Speaker 1: be super impressive to you, but it's essentially kind of

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Speaker 1: a hammer without a handle. It gets more impressive when

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Speaker 1: you realize that several species of primates use what is

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Speaker 1: essentially a hammer and anvil set up, because some of

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Speaker 1: the stones they use can weigh up to seventy percent

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Speaker 1: of the monkey's body weight. In nature, there is a

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Speaker 1: constant push for quality food without excessive energy output to

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Speaker 1: obtain it, and it seems like tool use in this

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Speaker 1: case doesn't result in an overabundance of food according to research,

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Speaker 1: but access to really quality food. It's worth it. Now.

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Speaker 1: Other primates have been observed using sticks to fish for

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Speaker 1: termites and mounds and eat them, or to pry seeds

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Speaker 1: from fruit. Tool use extends way beyond our closest relatives

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Speaker 1: in the animal kingdom, though bottlenosed dolphins have been seen

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Speaker 1: to use sponges to rouse up snacks from the seafloor.

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Speaker 1: Elephants will grab the right branch to swat away insects

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Speaker 1: or give themselves a little scratch, and also to plug

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Speaker 1: up water holes when they have to dig them out,

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Speaker 1: so that they won't drain and there'll be water there

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Speaker 1: when they come back. I think that one's pretty interesting.

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Speaker 1: Crows and other corvids will use twigs in pieces of wood,

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Speaker 1: and if they can get their beaks on it, metal

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Speaker 1: wire to create tools to impale larva tucked into tree trunks.

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Speaker 1: Some types of woodpeckers exhibit similar behavior. Researchers have observed octopus,

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Speaker 1: which are cool as hell, using coconut shells and other

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Speaker 1: specific stones to act as shields when dealing with predators

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Speaker 1: or to construct shelter in some cases, and even build

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Speaker 1: little hunting blinds in areas where crabs frequent. You might

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Speaker 1: have noticed so far that this list is pretty light

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Speaker 1: on canines, but that might not be fair to certain wolves.

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Speaker 1: At least some wolves that live up in British Columbia

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Speaker 1: that were observed hauling in crab traps along the beach. Now,

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Speaker 1: these traps set up by members of the heightsig nation

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Speaker 1: to catch European green crabs. I'm pretty sure I said

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Speaker 1: that wrong, but I don't know how to say it right,

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Speaker 1: so bear with me. These people found that their crab

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Speaker 1: traps keep getting torn up and they couldn't figure out

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Speaker 1: who was the culprit. Now, some of the traps were mangled,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of them were missing bait cups, you know,

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Speaker 1: the netting was torn and some were just totally destroyed.

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Speaker 1: The usual suspects in this type of crab caper are

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Speaker 1: sea lions, seals, and otters for reasons I'm sure you

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Speaker 1: can imagine. But it wasn't some seafaring mammal. It was

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Speaker 1: gray wolves. Camera traps first recorded a female wolf in

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Speaker 1: the spring of twenty twenty four emerging from the water

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Speaker 1: with a booie in her mouth, which was attached to

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Speaker 1: a crab trap. She managed to get that trap up

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Speaker 1: on the beach, which was probably fun for her because

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Speaker 1: it's sort of a version of Tuggle war. When she

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Speaker 1: had that trap on the beach. She tore open the netting,

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Speaker 1: grabbed the bait cup, and stood there munching away on

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Speaker 1: the fish that were meant to lure in the crabs.

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Speaker 1: You can watch this on YouTube. It's incredible, trust me. Now,

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Speaker 1: the debate around this is whether this is actual tool use,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to leave that up to the scientists.

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Speaker 1: What it is, at least to a fellow like me,

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Speaker 1: is really freaking cool. You have to wonder what the

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Speaker 1: timeline is for the first wolf to make the connection

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Speaker 1: that the buoy was attached to something that might have

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Speaker 1: a snack worthy of the effort it would take to

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Speaker 1: tuget from the ocean. Most likely, everything involved in crab

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Speaker 1: netting operations smells a little like something a wolf would

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Speaker 1: snack on, particularly a wolf that lives right on the

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Speaker 1: coast and undoubtedly has a fair amount of seafood mixed

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Speaker 1: into its diet, much like how if you live in Florida,

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Speaker 1: you probably eat more shrimp than us upper Midwesterners who

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Speaker 1: are too busy chugging ranch dressing and noomming on cheese curds.

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Speaker 1: When you dive into this case of wolves and crab traps,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting because a lot of people fall all over

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Speaker 1: themselves to declare these wolves smarter than humans thought they were.

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Speaker 1: I think it's awesome behavior. But I also think the

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Speaker 1: average bird dog trainer could get a lab to pull

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Speaker 1: a crab trap out of the water to eat a

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Speaker 1: snack in about three sessions. Now could a wild pack

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Speaker 1: of laborator retrievers figure that out on their own? That's

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Speaker 1: a different story, my guess is though, probably. And the

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Speaker 1: reason I say that is because we look at dog

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Speaker 1: training only one way, the usual way, which is, we

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Speaker 1: have some behavior in mind that we'd like to see

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Speaker 1: happen on common, so we figure out how to get

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Speaker 1: our dogs to offer that behavior while tying it to

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Speaker 1: a verbal command or a hand signal or both. And well,

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Speaker 1: that's just how it goes. And it works pretty well too,

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Speaker 1: if you're consistent and understand how to ask the right

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Speaker 1: questions of your dog. But there is a catch here

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Speaker 1: that can kind of be explained by thinking about negative

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Speaker 1: space and art. Maybe you've seen some art that exploits

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Speaker 1: this reality, or at the very least you've probably seen

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Speaker 1: someone who has a tattoo that uses it. Essentially, artists

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Speaker 1: use positive space and negative space to balance out the

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Speaker 1: composition of a piece. Think of the positive space as

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Speaker 1: the subject of the art, and then negative space as

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Speaker 1: the area around and between the subject. A black and

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Speaker 1: white drawing of a fish, for example, you know, with

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Speaker 1: a fish being the subject and then just a couple

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Speaker 1: of crude bubbles or the outline of some rocks or seaweed,

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Speaker 1: could effectively convey a sense of an entire underwater scene,

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Speaker 1: while most of what's actually around the fish is just nothing.

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Speaker 1: Our brains fill in the rest, which is the trick

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Speaker 1: to a lot of art. When it comes to dog training.

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Speaker 1: The positive space that's the retrieving drill you set up

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Speaker 1: the treat training for, you know, the sit command with

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Speaker 1: a young pup, and all the actions you take to

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Speaker 1: encourage and reward a specific behavior. The negative space is

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Speaker 1: everything you allow that foster's behaviors you don't condone or

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Speaker 1: even understand, are being reinforced. That example I gave in

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Speaker 1: the intro for this podcast, which I'll reiterate because most

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Speaker 1: of you probably skipped right through. It was about how

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Speaker 1: my lab Sadie, is supposed to sleep with one of

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Speaker 1: my daughters every night. It means a lot to my daughter,

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Speaker 1: and it means a lot to my wife, since my

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Speaker 1: daughter is on a different floor from us, and if

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Speaker 1: anyone breaks in, that pup will let us know, but

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Speaker 1: it will not, I assume, do anything more than bark.

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Speaker 1: What really got me thinking about this is a couple

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Speaker 1: of things. First off, Sadie knows she's supposed to be

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Speaker 1: downstairs at night, yet she will sneak upstairs to snooze

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Speaker 1: on the couch as soon as she thinks she can

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Speaker 1: get away with it. Now, once she hears anyone wake

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Speaker 1: up and start moving around in the house, she will

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Speaker 1: sprint back downstairs and hop into bed with my daughter.

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Speaker 1: She also learned that when we say get down there,

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Speaker 1: that she is supposed to well get down there. But

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Speaker 1: I didn't train her for the get down their command.

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Speaker 1: She just picked it up and learned what we meant.

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Speaker 1: When you think about our dogs, they do this kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff a lot. If you don't believe that and

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Speaker 1: you own a dog, go grab yourself a piece of bread,

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Speaker 1: or go open the cupboard where you keep the dog treats.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that just caught me way off

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Speaker 1: guard when I had to put my last dog down

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Speaker 1: was the absence of the sound of her nails on

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Speaker 1: the kitchen floor and her furry golden butt hitting the

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Speaker 1: ground behind me every time I went to make some toast.

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Speaker 1: You know, these are conditioned responses, but also demonstrate some

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Speaker 1: level of reason. An easy way to understand this is

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Speaker 1: to think of, perhaps how your dog listens to you

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Speaker 1: versus how that very same dog handles the exact same

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Speaker 1: commands from your spouse or your children. Whoever, when my

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Speaker 1: kids want ice cream, they ask me first for this

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Speaker 1: very reason. Now, their mother will let them have ice cream,

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Speaker 1: but it will almost always be predicated on them eating

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Speaker 1: some carrots or picking up one of the seventeen thousand

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Speaker 1: yogurt containers or half full bubbler cans around our house.

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Speaker 1: The girls know I'm usually distracted by something and less

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Speaker 1: likely to make their ice cream options contingent upon them

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Speaker 1: doing something they don't want to do. Dogs do this too,

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Speaker 1: and they learn how to get things they want by

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Speaker 1: doing the least amount that they can to get it.

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Speaker 1: Take a retriever here, for example, if you don't make

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Speaker 1: them stay and wait for a release command, they are

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Speaker 1: one hundred percent going to break and run to where

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Speaker 1: they think the bumper or the ball is going to

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Speaker 1: end up. Why would they wait, if they don't have to,

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Speaker 1: they'll also test this at every stage they can, way

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Speaker 1: beyond what I just mentioned about not following strict orders

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Speaker 1: from one family member when they would with another. They'll

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Speaker 1: also test this. You know, when you go from a

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Speaker 1: bumper to a ball, to a frisbee to some kind

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Speaker 1: of other dummy maybe that has some feathers zip tied

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Speaker 1: to it, to actual ducks on the water, and every

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Speaker 1: step where the rules of that same game might change

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Speaker 1: ever so slightly. The thing about this is that what

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Speaker 1: we allow is a permission slip to keep doing that behavior,

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Speaker 1: but also lots of behaviors we don't know we are

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Speaker 1: giving permission for. I keep running into this with the

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Speaker 1: cat people in my life, who will casually say something

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Speaker 1: like mister Whiskers has started breaking into my room at

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Speaker 1: three thirty am to bat me in the face and

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Speaker 1: claw my lips until I wake up and feed him. Me,

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Speaker 1: who is not really a cat person, finds that behavior

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Speaker 1: insane on a few different levels, not the least of

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Speaker 1: which is rewarding absolutely trash behaviors out of your pet

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Speaker 1: in the name of short term convenience. Now I've mentioned

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Speaker 1: this a few times on here, but one of my

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Speaker 1: daughters figured out how to treat train Sadie to yawn

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Speaker 1: on command, which at first I thought was super cool.

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Speaker 1: But she didn't do it just with treats, but any

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Speaker 1: time that she was eating a meal or a snack. So,

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Speaker 1: guess what my dog begs so bad right now? And

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Speaker 1: even though she knows she's not supposed to when I'm around,

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Speaker 1: I'm not around a lot, that behavior is not likely

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Speaker 1: to ever go away, And that was a big mistake

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Speaker 1: on our part. A lot of this kind of boils

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Speaker 1: down to trying to figure out what you're ok tolerating

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Speaker 1: and what you just don't want to have to deal with.

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Speaker 1: And then you have to figure out what your dog

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Speaker 1: is learning when you aren't trying to teach them something

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Speaker 1: now is through some glitch in the matrix. A dog

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Speaker 1: trainer from say, nineteen seventy three could hear this podcast

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Speaker 1: up to this point, he'd say, we'll light that sound

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Speaker 1: bitch up till it's terrified of that behavior. Then he'd

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Speaker 1: probably take a poll on a Marlboro Red and maybe

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Speaker 1: pop the tab on a Schlitz beer or something. And

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Speaker 1: while he'd also be technically correct that you could correct

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Speaker 1: just about any behavior out of a dog. Most of

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Speaker 1: us don't have it in ourselves to do that, to

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Speaker 1: do what it would take. That leaves prevention again as

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Speaker 1: the best medicine here. And I know this is just

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Speaker 1: in a way dog training at a basic level, But

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Speaker 1: the secret here is to think about the training that's

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Speaker 1: happening when you're not training. That stuff will actually play

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Speaker 1: a much bigger role in your life than the hunting

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Speaker 1: stuff will. Since most of us spend most of our

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Speaker 1: time not hunting with our hunting dogs, there are basically

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Speaker 1: unlimited ways in which we can teach our dogs to

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Speaker 1: do things that we don't intend that could plague us

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Speaker 1: for their entire lives. How they get into your vehicle

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Speaker 1: and out, how they are allowed to greet strangers when

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Speaker 1: they have dogs with them or not. How they are

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Speaker 1: expected to act when someone comes to the house or

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Speaker 1: you're on your deck in the summer and the neighbor

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Speaker 1: who the dog absolutely loves goes into his backyard to

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Speaker 1: fire up the grill. When they eat, where they sleep,

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Speaker 1: whether they are allowed to growl if someone decides to

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Speaker 1: grab their food dish halfway through their dinner, how they

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Speaker 1: should behave on the boat. If you take them fishing

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Speaker 1: what they are expected to do. When you're out for

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Speaker 1: an off leash walk on a barely used gravel road

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Speaker 1: and you see a grain truck heading your way, the

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Speaker 1: thing to remember is that they don't want to be

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Speaker 1: controlled anymore than we do, but they have to be

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Speaker 1: for their safety and for our sanity. This is obviously

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Speaker 1: huge with the puppy phase, because if you can get

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Speaker 1: ahead of not super desirable behaviors, you can save yourself

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Speaker 1: a lot of grief later. But you can also train

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Speaker 1: this stuff out of adult dogs. It just takes some

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Speaker 1: work and a hell of a lot of consistency. That

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Speaker 1: last part is the most important, And while it's a

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Speaker 1: common theme in dog training advice because without consistency, you

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Speaker 1: really kind of don't have dog training, it's also the

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Speaker 1: reason this stuff falls through the cracks all the time.

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Speaker 1: Just like it's easier for them to keep testing us

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Speaker 1: to see what they can get away with, it's easy

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Speaker 1: for us to talk ourselves into believing it's not that

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Speaker 1: big of a deal if our four year old German

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Speaker 1: short hair totally ignores the recall command every time another

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Speaker 1: dog is around. Now, when that happens at the park

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Speaker 1: and we are bsing with one of our neighbors. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't feel like that big of a deal, but it

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Speaker 1: sets a precedent that will follow you and your dog

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Speaker 1: into the CRP next season, and when that happens, it's

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Speaker 1: a different story. While this is relevant to all dog owners,

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Speaker 1: and certainly all bird dog owners, it also becomes something

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Speaker 1: more pressing as spring kicks in and we actually start

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Speaker 1: to do more things with our dogs that involve outdoor

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Speaker 1: activities and being around lots of other people. Now I

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Speaker 1: realize down south that's the case no matter what, but

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Speaker 1: just bear with me here because us damn near Canadians

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Speaker 1: are finally just starting to break out of our igloos

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Speaker 1: to squint at the sun once again. This means the

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Speaker 1: teachable moments come at you in your dog pretty fast,

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Speaker 1: and the ones that could plant a seed you don't

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Speaker 1: want to sprout into something are often clothed in non threatening,

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Speaker 1: benign looking garb. But those are the ones that affect

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Speaker 1: daily life a lot. And while you can make the

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Speaker 1: argument that an obedient dog is an obedient dog that

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Speaker 1: is highly situational, most people who have bird dogs have

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Speaker 1: an obedient dog in some capacity, which is usually very

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Speaker 1: tightly linked to good behavior while hunting. But good dog

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Speaker 1: behavior isn't important only in the duck boat or in

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Speaker 1: the pine plantations where the bobwhite covees might still be found.

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Speaker 1: And if you think good behavior in one setting isn't

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Speaker 1: linked to good behavior in another, you're wrong. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of like thinking that exercise is only good for the

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Speaker 1: body and not the mind. It doesn't work that way

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Speaker 1: because they are in so many ways one and the same.

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Speaker 1: Just like the rooster cruncher you love to watch pound

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Speaker 1: the cattails all day long is also the same dog

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Speaker 1: that has to sleep with your daughter, even when the

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Speaker 1: upstairs couch is much more to her liking. I guess

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Speaker 1: the easiest way to wrap a bow on this is

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Speaker 1: to say, think like a dog trainer all the time.

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Speaker 1: That's what you are as long as you own a dog.

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Speaker 1: It's not what you are when you grab the bumpers

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Speaker 1: and the placeboard and head to the yard to train.

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Speaker 1: It's what you are pretty much every day and are

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Speaker 1: at every interaction you have with your dog. Now this

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Speaker 1: probably sounds more militant than I mean it to, but

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Speaker 1: really the point is this, we know what we allow

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Speaker 1: in our intentional training is what we will deal with

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Speaker 1: when we are hunting with our dogs. But it's also

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Speaker 1: what we allow and often encourage when we don't think

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Speaker 1: we are training that can become real issues that will

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Speaker 1: affect our relationship with our dogs for their entire lives.

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Speaker 1: Are these things in that positive So think about that

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Speaker 1: and think about coming back in two weeks because I

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Speaker 1: have some really, really bad and devastating news for you

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Speaker 1: guys that I'm gonna drop on the next episode. That's

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Speaker 1: it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson and this has

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Speaker 1: been The Houndation's podcast. Thank you so much for all

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Speaker 1: of your support. I can't tell you how much I

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. Maybe some of you find folks are turkey hunters,

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Speaker 1: and if you are, you're gonna want to check out

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Speaker 1: the mediater dot Com next week when we have our

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Speaker 1: Turkey Week where we celebrate America's favorite game bird. Lots

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Speaker 1: of cool stuff going on there. Check it out. Also,

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Speaker 1: if you just need some more entertainment, maybe you need

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Speaker 1: a little education, maybe you want to read about the

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Speaker 1: latest conservation news, whatever, the mediater dot com has you covered.

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Speaker 1: We drop new content literally every day and there's so

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Speaker 1: much good stuff on there, So go check it out

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Speaker 1: and thank you once again for all of your support.

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Speaker 1: The public cots a tactic for ins in the Tati

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Speaker 1: com