The Spotted Devil

Spotted Devil a quick question what did you use for motivation when trialling. Thanks Roast chicken ETA: Don't make the mistake of shoving the tug toy in your dog's face either as that may well up the anxiety levels! Wriggle it like a prey item AWAY from the dog - I also use a bit of a hissing noise to rev Ziggy up. I've also tried click/treat when he is pulling really strongly so he gets the idea.

Exact same issue here - happy to tug at home and anxious/disinterested in public. I ordered a spectacularly attractive tug toy from Clean Run - the sheepy tail. It's now in tatters (especially since the dog and the foster failure kitten played tug-o-war with it) but it was great - I played lots of "come catch me" games with the toy, he only got it when we were out and just made it a game with no training whatsoever. It took a while but he is much better - I'm working on tug again at the moment as I let it slide somewhat when we were trialling to avoid stressing him out. You can try a chicken wing in a sock or even a fluffy cat toy if that rocks your dog's boat!

I was thinking about this scenario earlier, particularly with the various stories and how could they possibly match up and make some sort of sense. Not trying to cast blame or argue the point but just thinking about it broadly. Picture this: Dog is eating (away from child) Child stares at dog (threatening for dog) Dog stares at child (possibly appealing for child) Dog averts gaze (attempts to avert threat) Child continues to stare (very threatening for dog who has attempted to avert threat) Dog becomes more fearful and is triggered to attack with little/no warning

I have a whinger here I've just about fixed it (fingers crossed) - I think it arises with Ziggy because he is a bit conflicted.....he knows the "job" requires him to stay still but he's bored to tears and busting to find out what the dogs smell like around him. To overcome it I went back to reinforcing regularly when training - but only when he was quiet and looking me in the eye. When he is focussed on me he can't look around and day dream about what the other dogs are up to. I've progressed to training for out of sight stays (with me hidden behind shrubs) and he seems quite relaxed but focussed still. I did get fed up once in training and said "shoosh!" - he was so shocked he shut up so I quickly walked back and reinforced ;)

Thanks! Throwing food is great for Zig but it just isn't enough to sustain motivation so I think this is a nice progression for him. Funniest thing, though - he started going really nuts for the tug toy when my foster failure kitten started raiding his training bag and buggering off with all his toys - damn, wish I could bring a one-eyed tabby cat to trials

She's hilarious huski - you gotta love a Beagle's whoo whoo whoo whoo! Thanks for the vid - yep makes sense - so you get her to chase your hand, cease when she is really trying hard and then ask for something and then reward - is that about right? DD also had an excellent point about teaching your dog self-control and then asking for the opposite in training.

Shoey/huski/dd - can you describe exactly what you do with the dog chasing the food in the hand please? What I'm after is context and timing - I think it might work with Zig but I don't want to stuff it up like I've stuffed up everything else with the poor dog

This video came through another list. 2 dogs doing a cross between flyball and agility - owned and handled by one lady

He is food driven, huski, and it's what I use most but I'd like to develop the other side of him as he gets bored of food types very quickly and has to be VERY hungry for it to be a motivator. The problem is it's hard to fast him because he drops weight very quickly - I think he's still filling out as he comes from late-maturing lines. It's also probably not a great time of year to be trying too much new stuff as he fades out badly if the weather is slightly warm/muggy.

Thanks dogdude - hope your girl worked well for you last night - sounds like you had one heck of a day. I'm interested in what others do too. I've just been outside with Zig - it's taken months of false starts but he was tugging like a fiend in between some really bouncy heeling. I might try your idea, dd, of doing less of the tug and more of the chase as that's how I got him interested in the first place. Our current problem is that he often can't offer that same level of drive in public - at familiar training grounds I've built it up but it takes weeks. Yesterday at the park I tried click/treat when he was tugging at his strongest - not sure if that's the right approach but it was so hard to get anything from him! He's a tough dog to motivate as, being a rather typical Dalmatian, he's like "Meh! Take it or leave it. I'll go without and have a piss instead" He's not good with pressure and shuts down very quickly - I have to be very careful with NRM. I'm enjoying this thread

Ohhhhhhhhhh that's heart breaking LP You must have been proud of her ring work though!

Brilliant pics! I've got one of those too...apologies for the poor photo quality - unlike the gurus in this forum, I'm just a happy snapper

LMAO - my Dally used to hurl the retrieve item across the room In fact it was in the "goals for 2009" thread to teach him NOT to do this!!! Anyway, Shirley Chong method was my choice (although I didn't follow it to the letter) - he's a dog that thinks pretty laterally so I reckon he was just testing the waters. Lots of patience and we are there now - have just developed a nice, enthusiastic retrieve with the dumbbell

I like the "steady feet" game that I picked up at Sue Hogben's seminar. It's not the easiest thing to describe - much easier to demonstrate...however... Initially trained in the sit position. Ask dog to sit but otherwise keep mouth SHUT (hardest bit ). Have one hand full of small pieces of yummy food. Slowly bring once piece of food with other hand towards dog's nose/mouth. Keep your eye on the dog's FEET. If the dog's feet remain perfectly still, move the food very rapidly into the dog's mouth (yum!) Make it harder. If the dog gets up or moves a paw, do NOT say a word (!!!!) - just fly the food rapidly away from the dog. Don't make it too hard or too easy. Gradually ask for more from the dog and bring the food in from every angle - above, below, on the side, behind. Zig knows the game now and my expectation that he doesn't lean towards anything but looks me directly in the eye - he's very funny The dog learns quickly that it's about cause and effect - then progress to the stand and start easy again, progressing to standing over your dog eventually and not having them flinch. Eventually have others approaching the dog and they get the food for staying still and looking at you. When Zig does a stand for exam, his whole body bends and leans and wags whilst he greets the judge but he never moves a foot Also great for building confidence for sit stays and food refusal (should you choose to do that one).

The highest percentage of dogs we attend to with anti social and undesirable behaviour have been to puppy pre-schools I would suggest, from a scientific point of view, that this is merely an association and does not indicate causation. I suspect you might find factors associated with those people who choose to go to puppy school that are precursors for "anti social and undesirable behaviour" - particularly that these people are probably more likely to be inexperienced dog owners. Definitely agree that that are good and bad puppy schools though

For our 2nd CCD trial, a GSD broke his sit stay and stood over Ziggy - I'm really not sure what the intent was but I don't like to take chances with entire males as Zig seems to be quite the target. Fortunately I had spent quite a bit of time training in parks where he had been under similar conditions. The Spotted Devil excelled himself - he remained sitting, kept one eye on me and one eye on the other dog and leaned back as far as possible without moving his bum off the ground. The steward and judge were very slow to take control of the situation in my opinion - especially when we were specifically told not to interfere should a dog break. Eventually the GSD leapt at Zig who was forced to break his stay to avoid him - he jumped sideways and thus upset another dog. The judge was gracious enough to allow both of us to re-do our stays and Zig won the ring. Another GSD handler kindly offered to have her dog do the stays with us to make up numbers and ensure Ziggy didn't have any bad lasting memories of the breed. I don't think the problem is quite as bad once you get out of CCD - I'd consider skipping straight to Novice with my next dog for that very reason.

It's so frustrating! My foster kitten tries to steal my Dally's dinner. Despite the fact they are best of friends and spend hours wrestling and play fighting, Zig will give a serious warning yip which the kitten duly ignores. Solution? Kitten is confined whilst dog eats in peace...the other cats can walk past with no problem, he will happily let me take his puzzle food cube and a possible tragedy is averted. It's not bloody rocket science *sigh*

From The Age website From The Herald Sun website

Ziggy does NOT work well in the heat so I will take the opportunity to give him a rest as much as possible and definitely on any of the warm days (i.e above 21C) If we have a cool snap ( ) or I manage to get up early enough we'll continue to tighten up a few things for Novice and work on a few advanced exercises. For agility I want to concentrate on contacts so might just do that with a plank of wood. If I gave him a complete break he would start bouncing off the walls so it's better just to do a little occasionally.

I like that, Vickie For Ziggy, I keep the sessions pretty short - particularly if we are in a new environment and/or learning something new. It's much more effective to release him to sniff and pee for a bit then call him back to recommence. The more I do this the more I find he comes back to me before I call him as he is is ready to start again. I have to be quite insistent on giving him regular breaks at agility training as Ziggy appears to be extremely enthusiastic to the average observer but I notice early signs that it's all getting a bit much. With my old ACD, she would have been happy if we'd trained all day

So good to read over last year's goals...... Ziggy got his CCD with 3 1st places and scores of 95, 95, 97/100 so I was really pleased with that We moved pretty quickly into Novice but only ended up with one pass (Melbourne Royal 188/200, 2nd place in a very tough environment) as his handler is a complete idiot and caused him to bomb out in 2 trials, one of which he was sitting on 196/200 in miserable wet weather It's too hot for us now so we will have to be content with that! Agility - well, with little training we started competing in Novice Jumping....1st trial was the Melbourne Royal - why not? Zig has had an absolute hoot over his 3 runs - no passes (due to lack of experience on both of our parts) but enthusiasm to burn, clean jumping and great focus (especially for a Dally ). Aim is to train up contacts so we can start doing agility. I think my handling has improved quite a bit, which was his biggest draw back so onwards and upwards! Training - a lot of patience but Ziggy now retrieves the dumbbell Very pleased with him as he really couldn't give a toss about retrieving! Have been having a play with the send away, out of sight stays, drop (whilst running free rather than on recall). I am very pleased with Zig - he's not the easiest of dogs to work with sometimes but he was worked his Spotted Heart out and deserves a really good break. Haven't got another puppy yet, though....

What about a cool coat for them? My Dally doesn't like the heat at all but he perks up as soon as I put his Cool Champions coat on - they are fantastic He's indoors all the time though, so the coat keeps clean.

There was a dead roo just up the end of my street two nights ago.. I'm sure the dogs would have loved it. Roo offal carries hydatits though.. even cooked, I'd not eat it. ;) Darn it PF, a real trainer would dominate the hytadits as well! Bwahaha :D *wipes wine off computer screen*

And me - although probably not to the letter. Dallies aren't known for their propensity for retrieving but he now bounds out to get the dumbbell - still working on building enthusiasm....it actually helps when the foster failure kitten tries to get the dumbbell at the same time Nothing like a bit of competition - shame I can't take him to obedience trials!

More good ideas for TV