Shocking Puppies

Electrocution is fun! Well, before the SPCA and PETA come and hunt me down, let me clarify: we got an invisible fence for the yard to keep the puppies from running out into the street, and we are currently in the phase of "teaching the puppies to run back into the yard when they hear the warning beeps." So in reality we have only shocked them each once. Now we are reinforcing the threat of shock. (BF Skinner, I love you and your operant conditioning). Not as cool sounding as real electrocution, but less "animal cruelty getting Anne put in jail."

John says that the installation guy went through the first training round with them yesterday, so I missed zapping the fluffers. But if their behavior is anything to go by, they do not want a repeat performance! Dogee has already learned to head away from the beeps; Inu goes nowhere near the border at all; and Maile hasn't learned the boundary yet, but knows "beeps are bad" and cowers when they start. The guy said that for the next several weeks, we need to lead them up to the border until the warning beeps start, then praise them mightily when they move away from the fence. This way, you only will need to zap them once and they will learn that the fence is bad. Apparently, their collars have a "zap" setting and a "beep only" setting. If your dog learns that the fence is not something to be trifled with, then you can leave their collars on beep. Maybe the shock setting is for the stupid dogs who don't quite get it...

Sucky part is, we can no longer just pitch the puppies out into the yard when they have to pee, since then they have no reinforcement when they interact with the fence and all your training gets negated. So, they get to be leash walked around the yard... in the cold... and the rain... stupid dogs needing to pee when it's 33 degrees and rainy! (I am not exaggerating: schools are closed today because of possible icy death coming for our faces, and I had to walk the dogs this morning! grrrrr)