dogdude

I Yes, agree with that. If your dogs motivation wains with a lack of the sense of food on you, ..simply,.....get it off you, and send it to a food target at various distances. Do not do block heeling with turns, only very large circles both directions. When dog is fantastic at that, train turns using very little heelwork, then marry it all together later. Trial training is all about breaking the training down into minute part exercises, and only marrying them together occasionally. Forget the rubbish / routines that go on of a Sunday Obedience class.

My advice is don't panic, dogs retrain very easily. Use whatever you want. I do find it handy to use my left hand for stand command, as I think that occasionally dogs confuse a right handed stand signal with a down command. I also use a totally different down command when facing my dog (as in Change of Postition and Distance Control in Open / Drop on Recall). My dog never gets confused with them, he knows they mean the same thing. I do this to make it easier to train particular exercises like Drop on Recall. The only rules regarding hand signals are that they be used in one motion, then return to your body, as not to be seen as a double signal. Also don't use them in a way that can be seen as physically guiding the dog into postition.

If he's a big dog, and you are only giving him small corrections, he won't learn anything. When using aversive methods, the timing needs to be impecable, and given at the precise time he moves passed your immaginary line in the sand, and not when he is at the end of the leash. The corrections used must be strong enough to change his thought pattern, but weak enough not to cause injury to him, otherwise you will need to explore other methods, like just coming to a stop, and waiting for him to work out that being back in position will then allow him to move forward (can take a very long time to sink in with that method) Either way, the dog must learn to self adjust without being placed in postion.

Warringal dog obedience club opposite Latrobe Uni have an enclosed puppy class. They have a website .

Hi Ash Just dont leave anything that you do not want chewed in the backyard, and leave him plenty of things that he is allowed to chew. They chew like crazy up until they are about 18months old. Also, try not to give him access to the washing line. Once he developes a liking to washing, its very hard to get them out of ripping it off the line. You can relax after he matures a bit. Have a look at the Triangle of Temptation thread pinned up the top of the training forum, and start him on the program right away. That will build a great bond and understanding between you and your dog. Oh....and........Staffordshire Bull Terrier (what you have) American Staffordshire Terrier (Amstaff ) And unfortunately many ethical breeders can't resist using the word "English", to distinguish the two, but thats not what they're called. Upsets the purests! :wink:

Hi Kavik Have sensed your frustration over many posts in the past. I am a believer in finding a trait in a dog that I want rather than to have to start from scratch and hope. Of course you do need to develope drive, but trying to manufacture it is hit and miss, particular when trying to develop drive well after puppyhood. I was in the same situation once with a Bull Terrier. I had one that was a multiple trial winner, and the next one was hopeless lazy git. I persevered with him and got marginal improvement, but as disappointing as he was in the ring, he was a great pet and made me laugh endlessly. He died quite young and I am glad that I didn't end up compromising our bond.

Hi ZugZug In the scheme of things, to be honest, there are not all that many toy breeds higher up in the obedience ranks. The higher you go up it seems, the more small dog hurdles there are. The distance exercises are a prime example. Slightly longer grass can mean seeing and not seeing gloves, boxes and dumbells. You don't have to have the dog look at your face to have good focus and hold good position, but again, its an advantage for an early natural turning cue for a larger dog. You tend to naturally look into the direction that you walk, and you can teach it as a turning cue to bigger dogs without it looking like an obvious heads up in front of the judge. You could probably get away with cueing with your left elbow if you got the signal working in a watered down way.

I agree too! And your little mite is one of the best small dog heelers that I have seen!

You should teach heel, "as close as practical". Large dogs still have feet that get trodden on, so its just a matter of being careful rather than allowing a wider heel IMO. Small dogs really do highlight a wide heel because of their size, so you need to be carefull. I would be thinking about teaching a focal and turning cue lower on my body if anything.

Hi Jigsaw The way I teach it is forget about sits and turns, and concentrate on position and focus. I would start off slow, and work my way up from there, encouraging both focus ("watch") and position ("heel") while using a marker. My non reward marker would be to come to a sudden stop until position or focus was regained, marking/rewarding recovery and quickly continuing. I would do this in very large circles, both directions. Don't bother trying to teach anything new at dog club. Its a high distraction enviroment. Too high for a green dog. Demand eye contact at first, then when dog is solid you can wean it towards a one way focus. If dog cant maintain focus and position at slow or normal pace, he sure won't do it at fast pace. Until your dog can do this fantastically, don't worry about teaching anything else during that session. The classic mistake people make is to go home and practice every exercise used in a trial in the one session. If their dogs learn anything at all, it would be a miracle.

Well Done TSD!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all these years, about time!

Training in drive I think the point Squirt was also making, was that by breaking the exercises down, you can not only find a problem, but use the breakdown to quicken specific areas like you would in obedience trial training, like faster turns etc. Its getting the dog to focus on the part job at hand rather than the conclusion, promoting a concentrated effort.

Although i'm not a flyball person, your suggestion makes sense to me. Do some specific drive for item building on a tie out to use as motivation. Shoemonster may be able to help you with some suggestions too.

Is it a distraction problem Lilbailey?

What are his specific problem/s ?

You could try to fix this problem by moving the food/stimulus away to a further distance while working, and then release him to it. Experiment with distance to the food target to work towards a managable drive level acceptable for learning. Normally distance to the stimulus has a big effect on drive level.

Having an obsession with an article will cause more problems than it will fix in most cases, but if its bringing you success in the ring, then great. This type of training often causes mouthing, and reliability problems. My response was more directed by the information that you gave us regarding your dogs drive. ie; the ball had more value than the dumbell. Thats good! Use it to your advantage. My advice would be to watch some dvds featuring drive training. Once you understand the rules of basic drive training (food or prey), you will be able to answer most of your own questions.

I wouldn't be making a prey item out of the dumbell. If you want to make an informal game out of it, make something else the reward for winning the game. (ie: The key to winning the game is bringing back the dumbell, which is then rewarded) (Squeeky ball pehaps?)

The solution would be to get the food off you, and on to the ground as a food target as in the TOT method pinned to the top of the training forum. You can still use a food lure for positioning etc,...just never reward with it.

Yep, learn to master drive, rather than to avoid it. A car needs an engine........so does a trialling dog!

I do next to no teaching while in prey drive. I do it with food. My dog was frothing from the mouth while in a high drive recently, so learning anything would have been out of the question. I use the prey drive to enhance the results, and food drive before hand.

Being "cross" and using aversive methods are not the same.

Try approaching a staircase maker, or someone else that turns wood for a living. At least then you could order them to suit your individual dogs. If you are going to trial, then you should be teaching them to pick up all types of materials. If your dog is not very interested in the texture, then its probably more of a motivational problem. Up the ante!

Congrats!!!!