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.I was looking for the same thing I'd be looking forwitha human friend-a shift of the eyes toward me, even momentarily, or a head or body turn toward me even though the eyes might remain focused on the attraction.Both would indicate the beginnings of a shift away from the attraction and back to me.I knew that the split second Angel gave me his attention, I had to make it crystal clear in word and deed that I was thrilled with that response.I also had to try to be more interesting than six turkeys, no mean feat since I'm lacking tail feathers and wings and my wattles aren't nearly as red or obvious.It took a few tries, but I did get Angel's attention back on me, and we quickly retreated to a turkey-free zone to give Angela break and to discuss with Kate what was happening.As I suspected, she was a bit confused about why I even allowed Angel to look at the turkeys, why I hadn't "corrected" him for ignoring me and how on earth I thought this was helpful in any way.Before coming to see me, Kate had (unsuccessfully) tried an approach recommended by another trainer, one that insisted that Angel look only at her and ignore everything around him.In theory, this is the establishment of incompatible behaviors, an approach that at least on paper seems reasonable: A dog engaged in behavior X cannot also be engaged in behavior Y.In practice, establishing incompatible behaviors can be a very effective resolution to some behavior problems.For example, a dog who is trained to run to a special place in the kitchen when the doorbell rings and wait for a delicious treat cannot also be bouncing off the front door and threatening to eat a delivery person.A person who is exercising at the gym can't also be home eating a pint of ice cream.But the use of incompatible or competing behaviors works best when the behavior that is substituted for the undesirable behavior makes it literally (through proximity or posture) impossible for the dog to engage in the unwanted behavior.For dogs like Angel, trainers sometimes try to apply this same theory like so: A dog cannot remain totally focused on his handler and do anything else at the same time.In reality, this is not exactly true, and such an approach does not work for all dogs.A dog is quite capable of learning to keep his face and eyes oriented on the handler while still listening to or even smelling what's going on around him.Couldn't you? Try this for a moment-look up from this book and make eye contact with someone else or a little imaginary friend.Give the complete impression that you are doing nothing but focusing on that person.But while you're doing that, really bring your attention to whether or not you can wiggle each individual toe.Keeping your eyes on someone's face is not synonymous with being focused on them, is it? The average human being is quite capable of appearing to be engaged in listening to someone else while miles away in their minds, thinking about the existence of the Holy Grail or the speed of an African swallow or where to find the perfect shrubbery.Dogs can figure this one out too, and they do.I've watched many dogs dutifully keeping their eyes fixed on the handler's face as expected, but their ears were swiveling around, picking up all kinds of information, and their noses were busy sorting out even more- all of this stimuli making its way into the dog's mind even though his eyes never left the handler's face.It's a rather insulting assumption on a trainer's part that a dog is incapable of directing his attention as he pleases.From a purely philosophical point of view, I have trouble with this concept of asking a dog to act as if the world has evaporated around him.It seems insulting to me to insist to an animal-or anyone for that matter-that he should ignore what his senses tell him and just pretend everything is fine.This is particularly true when a dog's attention is fearful, though Angel's was not.As trainer Turid Rugaas says, "If you've seen a green slimy monster in the corner, you're going to have a hard time pretending there's no green slimy monster in the corner
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