hi all i am posting this reaaly long post because i know there will be someone out there that will prob make the same stupid basic training mistakes i have. this is of no real interest to experienced trainers.
background: had a real issue prior to getting dog with rodents decimating some thousands of dollars worth of baby trees i planted on my new property. someone suggested: - hey why don't you get a dog - like that simple. so ended up with a mutt puppy that noone else wanted from a litter, cost me a case of beer.
whenever rabbitts or anything appeared i would run out of the house with sling shot, compound bow, rocks, beer bottle... whatever i picked up first and jumped around, waving my fist in the air at those darned rabbitts like i was the last super-hero left defending the planet from imminent take over by a technologically superior alien race wanting to mine our spleens.
all this in front of pup who thought it was a great game. it wasn't long before i would go thorough door and the pup would arc up and run over entire property barking furiously with hackles raised at well anything that moved eg fallling twigs, birds etc. the behaviour was erratic and there seemed no stimulus outside the house a lot of the time.
recently i moved the grooming table near the sliding screen front door. grooming is our quiet time and the dog is always relaxed. the only thing that had changed was the postion of the table near the front sliding door. the sliding door was partially open when i was grooming, i leaned over the dog and slid it shut. the dog went nuts and ran all over the property barking.
i finally joined the dots - and tested the theory that i had unintentionally trained the dog to cue off the sliding door and go and attack the world. i tested the theory a million different ways, shut/opened the glass door nothing, shut/opened every other door in the house -no response, changed the postion of dog inside/outside house did same again - nothing.
move the sliding door one inch regardless of where the dog was postioned - go out and attack the world.
even tied fishing line to the door while dog and myself stood well away in differnt locations, move the sliding door, dog goes nuts.
it seems that training consists of everything we do with our dogs continuosly, every verbal, physical, environmental, interaction is training, whether it sticks only depends on frequency and outcome for the dog. they are programable as computers are and garbage in = garbage out.
if i started correcting my dog for its behaviour it would not have been a correction it would have been assault, i had already taught it the behaviour that it was obediently doing.