Do As I Do by Claudia Fugazza (Dogwise Publishing, 80 pages) $25
Can you teach an old dog a new trick?
The old expression says no, but Claudia Fugazza wants to show you a very different approach to training that may change the way you feel about how dogs learn.
Social learning relies on the ability of the dog to observe and imitate. Fugazza proposes the use of "do it" as the command to repeat whatever action the dog just witnessed. Imitation is based on two stages: observation and replication of the observed behaviour. She explains in detail the cognitive variables that are involved as motivation, attention, memorization and replication. All four need to be there for imitation to occur. The learning protocols are laid out and straightforward, but she points out the importance of keeping the sessions short, watching for any signs of stress in the dog and always ending the session with a success.
Fugazza offers various approaches for training new behaviours, addressing some potential problems, and other variables that can impact the success of her methods.
