The Spotted Devil

Hell yes! Another hell yes here!

Yes, I know what you mean....but if you use a combination of rewarding in position when you can and releasing him forward to the reward at other times, it ends up to be a random rate of reinforcement and that behaviour is less likely to be extinguished. Sorry for the muddled explanation - been transcribing mountains of data (with dogs barking on the recordings ) and my brain is fried.

Kavik, do you need to reward in position? Can you mark the 2o/2o and then release to thrown food/toy???

Thanks HollyE - most kind, but I ducked out and bought a pair of Rudducks pants. All good so far.....she can't get them off so is not overly impressed but better than being in her crate so she'll just have to take a good dose of concrete :D

Just thought I'd bump this topic up as Em has been in season for a week. I noticed that she was a tiny bit flat in the week prior (which means normal behaviour for most other dogs ) but she is loving training at the moment and is going rather nuts hunting and quartering in the chook yard (nice steep bush block with over 6 foot fences). I took Zig downstairs to our small flat lawn to do some weave training yesterday - the protests from upstairs were rather...um....audible What has surprised me is how keen Zig is to train still - it probably helps that he hasn't been mated, is used to being at shows with bitches in season and it's Em's first so perhaps not quite as powerful. We will see what happens I guess!

Thanks everyone! Will follow up the suggestions

Would the suspenders go around the dog's chest SwaY? I'm trying to picture it...

Thanks Pers - will contact them tomorrow. Might need superglue to keep the buggers on though Funny little thing was a tiny bit flat as she was coming in but is desperate to train again and is full of beans! As is Spotted Dog. Not really what I was expecting

Oh! Gorgeous!!!! Pics with the Danes will be priceless

So I've tried kids pull up nappies (stapled!) but she just rolls and wriggles and plays until they fall off in an embarrassing heap. She's a very, very active little dog and I'm burning off as much energy as I can with training and letting her hunt and quarter up and down the well fenced yard. Being in her crate inside is driving her nuts but I don't want her dripping on the floor with a (very well behaved thus far) entire male in the house! Can anyone recommend commercial bitch pants that will stay on and that I can get hold of relatively quickly please? Thanks.

woodbyne - I would do at least half a dozen reps of this to start with so she can get the idea. Hold her by the collar, show her that you are dropping a few pieces in the bowl walk a few steps away and when she pulls towards the bowl, release her "get it!" and celebrate! Give her a break and then put down her dinner (maybe in a different room so she understands eatings vs training) and leave her in peace. When Zig has his dry food in his puzzle cube or a chicken frame I don't ask for too much now - just a wait (which I don't even ask for) and take on command.

When I asked someone in the baby section of the supermarket to help me select a nappy......for my young bitch in season

B-Q.....I like what Vickie said. One other thing - my Dally is not into repetitive sequences i.e. he'll do it once or twice and then get bored and lose some of his zing. He's much better now but he used to be dreadful. As it's the handler who struggles with the course I used to run the sequence on my own 3, 4 or even 5 times and get my handling right. Then I would bring him out, run him once (twice max) and he would fly through - not only was he not getting bored, but the crating was building drive and I wasn't frustrating him on course by stuffing up my handling....well not as much as usual anyway ;)

Wow Something in my eyes tonight Welcome home, Ripley

Pretty much - it's much easier when you see it I think. The idea is to have the dog driving hard for the treat (so don't give predictable commands or you will slow them down). If you do your prep work right then they eat the treat and are flying back along the "line" you have established in anticipation of throwing the next treat, when you give the command. You can decrease your criteria a little when you increase distance and then build it back up again. You need quick reactions, though - otherwise it becomes dull to your dog and they have no idea what they are being rewarded for.

2 food game - I use easy to see food such as cheese or you could use multiple squeaky toys. Toss the food in one direction "get it" - as soon as the dog finds the food, toss the food in the opposite direction "get it". Call the dog's name if you need to get their attention. The aim is for them to gulp the food down and look straight up to see where the next piece is going to land and bolt towards it so make it easy to start - not too far and make sure they are watching. If they can't find it run over to it, point at it and say "get it" - then you are very cool in their eyes as you help them find lost treats :D You can use it to get very fast responses for sits and drops - the second they hit the ground throw the next piece - don't make the dog work on duration as well. If they are too slow, NRM in a bright happy voice "try again" and set them up again. It's wonderful and I used it to teach my Springer whistle sits for retrieving as well as teaching drop on recall.

It doesn't matter what any training tool feels like to me - the dog's perception is what's important as are scientific measures of welfare. It's very complicated but it could be done I think. Hopefully some decent work will be done on all these tools in the next few years - fingers crossed ;) I think education is much more effective than legislation but that also needs to start WAY before the need arises to use such tools as prongs, e-collars and haltis. ETA: Personally I have no need for any of these tools and can't see that changing.

I would use the raw meat as training treats for sure (icky I know!) - love the idea of making a cookie. Try using the food in a bowl to build motivation - you want the dog "driving" towards the bowl. So I hold Zig's collar, show him that I'm dropping food onto the "bait plate", walk away a few steps and when he strains against it (even slightly) release and say "get it!" and run with him to the bowl. I love this method - works for basic drive building, put the bowl behind the dog for change of position or stays and behind me for a recall. I also used it to help overcome his fear of the seesaw. Half the fun is running to the bowl with the dog and getting all excited with them - even drop a few extra treats in the bowl to celebrate. Sometimes they muck up and run to the food anyway - do not tell them off. Just ignore it. 2 food game is also fun! The other things I do are engage with him 100% when I am training - quality over quantity every time - and then release to sniff and pee. I started with a few seconds in heel position, rewarded and then released. Now he comes back to me when I release him to start training again.

Having been through an incredibly challenging stage with my Dally, I would make her work for every scrap of food she gets - I like Vickie's idea of dropping back on the formal training and using motivational games in a more relaxed approach. "The Focussed Puppy" is a great little book - available from Clean Run with free shipping. One thing about playing motivational games - ALL our training should be just as much fun, particularly if you want to get a highly distractible Dally in the ring ;) Currently, my youngster is in season so Zig is a little bit distracted by the "ladies" at training Yesterday at training he broke his sit stay for the first time that I can recall to ask a lovely bitch next to him out on the town :rolleyes: I very quietly returned to him, gave him a verbal NRM in a bright voice and he wagged his silly tail as I heeled him back into position (NOTE: no cranky body language!!!!) No dramas and he was rewarded heavily on my return (in position). I left him in a sit stay for the drop stays and the lovely girl next to him decided that she did indeed want to go out on the town with him and went up to him not once but twice! He wagged his tail so hard that he nearly levitated and his eyes were wide with delight but he did not move a muscle because I have made it incredibly rewarding to ignore temptations - often he gets the food treat afterwards and also gets released to sniff etc. This is the result of 4.5 years of training!!!

My dogs can play with each other as much as they please. In fact, one game of self-control for them has them playing and wrestling hard, then I call out "sit!" and the quicker they stop playing and sit the more quickly they get released to play again. They learned it first by playing with me and with toys and it transferred to dog-to-dog play really well. Ziggy is an entire male with a very upright stance and tendency to make eye contact that attracts the ire of the majority of male dogs (entire or desexed) that we meet. Thus I am very careful about who he walks past or stands next to let alone plays with! If he is training with me or on lead he pays no attention to dogs lunging and growling at him (case in point at training yesterday!) He knows his own strength, though, and won't back down if he is threatened particularly if I'm not close enough to back him up - I have stood up for him enough times that he looks to me for direction first. He LOVES girlies and is excellent with puppies - just no playing or sniffing pretty girls until we have finished training or competing ;) Em is still a relative youngster and comes from working lines that have been selected to ignore other dogs in the field - makes her completely disinterested in playing when there is fun to be had training. She is very submissive with dogs she doesn't know and plays best with other spaniels (especially Springers and Welshies) - incredible to watch them all speak the same language and we let them all have a huge play with each other after a trial - Ziggy loves his harem of Spaniel ladies :D I am very careful in who she meets as dogs that get "in her face" just frighten her. She is rather feral with poor Zig - I keep telling him it's karma for being such an @r$e as a puppy

I love our huge undercover verandah so I can dry the dogs off before they come into the house.

Just remember that these styles will stop your dog climbing through but are not a safety barrier and are next to useless in an accident.

Thanks spotted devil, Ill start trying that tomorrow, thankyou. She was a surrender, has been VERY well cared for and alot of effort has gone into training and socialising her, most amazing girl, just obviously has only ever had kibble. Will persevere will her and get her over her fussy eating, case of "Eat what is on your plate or not atall" for all under this roof, skin kids included lol. One of my cats came to me at age 2 from a breeder - speyed because she had birthing difficulties. She was so stressed by the time she arrived (her kittens had died) that she was eating one dry biscuit at a time. Literally. She would not have a bar of raw and it is dangerous to starve a cat. Last night she jumped on the kitchen bench, grabbed a chicken neck with her paw and tried to steal it because I was taking too long with her dinner :D If it worked with her I'd say you have a chance.

I would treat her like a cat that hadn't eaten raw - she needs to be familiar and confident with raw before moving onto bones. Get the tiniest amount of mince (minced frames are good for mineral balance) and mix it with her dry food. Slowly increase the amount of mince until it's about half and half. Feed it every day to normalise it. Maybe also get her "working" for her food by stuffing the mixture in Kongs loosely - sometimes they just want the easy way out! Then add in a couple of very small pieces of meat, increasing the size until she can confidently and enthusiastically chew a chunk of meat. Then I'd start her on chicken wings (I start cats on the tips only) - maybe warm them slightly to get the aroma going. I also play chasey games with the wing tip to get cats interested. Otherwise you'll just have to invest in a toothbrush ;)

Dogs are in the back of the X-trail with a safety net. Double check the boot is closed properly and always use central locking as it won't work if the boot isn't closed.