[Before & After]

以下是2010年我替台灣導盲犬協會內一位工作人員潤飾的文稿，內容與訓練導盲犬遠離人類食物有關。

左列是該工作人員的原文，相信大家應該都看得懂。只是不是道地英文，很多地方採用中文文法、省略了許多主詞。

右列藍字是潤飾過的內容。紅字則顯示為重要片語，可作為學習重點。

Before

After

Using a high technology to support training for a greedy dog As we know, guide dog is forbidden to eat human foods for both safety and health reasons, but unfortunately, if once dog eats, it will very difficult to let it stop to search “rewards” by itself no matter they are working or not; for these greedy dogs, the perfect chance is when they are alone, as well as nobody notices. As long as dog forms a habit to seek for food, we just could choice to pay much attention to control it, limit its activity area and clean space up when it’s alone. But in fact, dog could stop search when we are with it, then how about alone? Limit activity area and clean up space are negative way to prevent dog to eat human foods, but it doesn’t means “Hey! You can’t eat human food”, it just means ”Sorry! Food isn’t supply”; while we forget to rid food of, our partner will totally clear up without the least hesitation, they won’t leave any debris to you no matter how hungry you are. I ever beset by these smart, tricky, and greedy dogs, fortunately, I found an interesting method to let these greedy dogs to restrain their food desire. Share my experience to train kinds of these dog to stay alone peacefully; as a title “hi-tech training” by using a monitor system. For contending with greedy behavior, at first I made a trap to lure dog, then watched and listened it stealthily to sure who ate or not, and corrected them in time from outside got inside when they appeared greedy behavior; but bit by bit, dogs waited for long time to sure there is nobody nearly, and then closed foods carefully without any clues, it’s like a smart fish eats lure underground, in another word, I train dogs be smart to steal human food. Indeed, situation seems worse than before until I using a computer monitor software which also a burglarproof software for training these evolutional dogs; by using this burglarproof software, I could make an ambit to alarm an invader by big sounds, and further, I could change the alarm to a human warning voice like “No! Leave it!!” to warning those greedy dogs to be attention their bad behavior, by the way, when alarm system starts and the computer will record image at the same time, so we could watch the video afterward; most of dogs presents surprising which they doesn’t know where is people, and every dog backs to their own bad quickly, but normally, they will try again in a while but not third time due to this warning system; but this method are not suitable to any dog, at least not include crazy puppies. According to my experience, I can’t eradicate greedy problem by only use this method or just use this by one time, and I need test dog again and again then they will improve obviously. Surely, using hi-tech to assist us training is easier, anyhow, I don’t need to be a stalker and wait for a long time!

Keep The Canine Away From Human Grub Guide dogs are not allowed to take human food, this is primarily for health and safety reasons. Unfortunately, once the dog discovers the way in which to gain access to the food, it is very difficult to stop it from seeking the “rewards”; no matter if the dog is on duty or not. There is no better time than being alone and having access to grub for these food-loving dogs. Once the dog gets into the habit of seeking food for itself, there is nothing much we could do apart from restraining it, limiting its activity area and cleaning up all available food when the dog is alone. However these measures only keep the dog away from human food when it is accompanied. We need to consider what to do when it is entirely on it’s own. Limiting its activity area and cleaning up the space are negative ways to prevent dogs from eating human food. The dog will not consider the message “Hey! You can’t eat human food”, it will simply perceive the meaning to be “Sorry! Food isn’t available now.”  As soon as we forget to get rid of the food and leave the slightest chance for it, our partner will quickly pounce on it without any hesitation, leaving no trace of leftovers whatsoever. I was troubled by the habit of these food-loving and yet extremely clever canines. Fortunately after many years of experience in guide dog training I found an interesting method to put a curb on the dogs’ inexhaustible appetite, even when they are all alone. I found a technique of using a monitoring system to fight against gluttonous behavior. My initial steps were to set up a trap of food to lure the dogs, and then watched closely from outside identifying which specific dog jumped at the bait. The key to success here is to go in and correct the dog immediately. Next time, when there was food around, the dog would wait a bit longer to make sure there was no one near, and conceal the food in a discreet manner. Yes, you guessed it, the situation seemed to become more of a problem than it was previously — the dog was being trained to steal human food even more carefully. This is where I identified hi-tech was needed; I used the monitoring system with an addition of burglarproof software on the computer to train these clever dogs. I also set up an alarm against invaders around the area where the food was positioned; the alarm then would make loud noises when the food was disturbed. The loud noises could also be replaced with a human voice like “No! Leave it!!” as a reprimand to the dog. As soon as the alarm went off the webcam on the computer would automatically initiate the video recording. We could review the video some time after to exam the canine behavior closely. Most of the dogs appeared surprised because there was no human in sight but they heard the reprimand. Their first reaction would be to hurry back to their own beds quickly. I observed that the dogs would be tempted to try again after a while, but after the reprimand they would not go for a third time; this method is not appropriate for any kind of dog and especially not for uncontrollable puppies.  My experience has shown, I cannot eradicate the dog’s bad habit of stealth by using this method just once. It takes several attempts before any obvious improvements can be seen, but using hi-tech definitely makes the training easier, at least I don’t have to stalk and wait for a long time before I can see any progress.