One of the most amazing aspects of Treat/Retreat is how rapidly dogs generalize the concepts.
Wait. What?
Dogs don’t generalize.
Do they?
Well, yes. And no. And – wait for it – it depends.
What is commonly heard in training circles is that dogs don’t generalize. Rubbish! Of course they generalize, because being able to generalize is an important life skill.
It’s hard to imagine a wild canine sitting down to scratch his head and wonder, “Well, I’ve never seen long ears and a fluffy white tail in this part of the woods before. I wonder what it means?”
Generalizing that small quick moving animals = possible lunch is important!
Here’s the grain of truth in it all: Dogs don’t generalize things that are meaningless to them.
Just like us.
Like us, dogs take good notes about what matters to them because it is pleasant and good, or it’s unpleasant and scary. Take an ice cream lover to any town, and they will quickly find out where ice cream is sold. Why? Because they’ve generalized their ability to recognize the signs that means ice cream is available. Equally so, someone can learn to generalize the signs that point to something they find scary or unpleasant.
As a rule, dogs don’t leap to generalize many things that we want them to learn. We have to teach them that in many situations, the correct response is still expected. SIT means SIT at home, out in public, in the store, at the park, when there are squirrels, when someone jogs by, etc. This can take many, many repetitions until the dog is said to have generalized the behavior.
But when our dogs care about something, they can and do generalize very quickly. How does your dog react to hearing plastic crinkling? Many dogs perk right up, as they have generalized that the sound of crinkling plastic = treats.
For many dogs, Treat/Retreat quickly leads to generalization, allowing the dog to utilize their new skill in many situations without extensive practice. This often surprises the handler. But decades of working with dogs using Treat/Retreat has shown me that dogs can and do generalize their new understanding of social interactions.
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