kyliegirl

why do you need to teach stay if the puppy is already in a sit.. As a book i read said, the word stay isnt required if your dog has a sit, stand and drop command and knows not to release without a cue. There is no need to teach stay as its already part of the criteria of keeping a reliable sit or down.

dogs aren't stupid, they don't have a 30min span and have an acute sense of smell which also acts as their memory guide. I have left my parents for over 2 yrs and come back and the dogs and cats remember me perfectly. A pack member will always be remembered by your scent and looks, dogs go by smell first so will always recognize their humans. unfortunately talking on the phone to them isn't going to make them remember you, they will be confused by the noises coming from the device and your voice changes on the phone dramatically so they wont recognize you, usually they bark or whine at the phone because they have no idea what it is and the best reaction is to bark at it.

sounds like he is using it as a litter box.. At least he has toilet trained himself! Maybe he isn't a big digger? unless he digs elsewhere? Some dogs love the smell of earth and dig it up, sand doesn't have this type of smell so its probably not as attractive to dig.

that is good to hear, however if it has been known to bite people shouldnt it be considered as dangerous?

I've found that when I attend obedience training it is so focused on food rewards (which is great if you have a lab or a beagle) that no-one really suggests anything else and I'm not sure how to use the toy as a reward rather than just general play. the same way you use food. You act enthusiastically and then have a short game. Some dogs get really motivated with toys and tug games even for just a few seconds.

rewarding a dog doesnt mean just food, you need to find out what your dog loves, it could be pats, hugs, kisses, toys, fetching, tugging, rolling, chasing birds, swimming, splashing, digging. All of these can be used as a way to reward. (i would advise against digging as a reward though as then you will have a moon yard) find what your dog loves most when it comes to playing/attention and then use that as the reward

Ahah!! That explains your demand/frustration barking. Yes my first two I taught to speak and barking becomes the default behaviour because it is so easy for them to elicit. My Stafford is notorious for it, will refuse my cue sit/drop/target and just woofs at me instead like that might get her the treat. I will never as long as I have dogs, teach speak ever again, I don't care how many commercials I might miss out on it's not worth it. :p Mel. Really? Some people who train a dog to bark seem to beable to control their barking more because the dog realizes they only get a reward for barking when the command is spoken. You have a command like "woof" or "speak" or "say hello" which is the cue for them to bark. As for click is not release, I guess it depends how people use it. I know over time the dog realizes if they don't release when you click they can get a reinforced reward for staying in position.

Ahh...but you are not treating after each mark. In my case the mark is a 'click' or a verbal maker ('boop') and the 'clicker should never lie' - a treat should always follow a click. Well, that's one theory any way! I would be against marking after each behaviour without a reward follow up.. Originally the click is supposed to be the "thats it youve done it!" indicator, therefore acting as a release and reward cue. If your clicking after every behaviour and not following up with a reward from the mark your going to confuse the dog on the true purpose of the clicker, which is to mark the correct behaviour and be rewarded for it. your supposed to be fading the clicker not fading the reward from the clicker.

when you first started training did you use the jackpot method? after one trick, treat, after 3 tricks treat, after a series of tricks a jackpot of awesome treats. After one trick another jackpot, after a series one treat, It keeps them guessing if they will get a big amount, nothing or something. Vary the treats and their values, like kibble for sits etc, hotdogs for chain commands.. Make it very unpredictable when rewarding. It sounds like Barkly is too reliant on the reward being consistent and hasnt had a jackpot method. If you hold off treating now and then and reward with a jackpot, he will then get the idea that its unpredictable and will be worth it for the jackpot.. It sounds like you might have troubles weaning him off the overall reward system though which if you want to do obedience, you cant treat after every or any series of commands from what I know of.. he will need to know that the treats are a gamble so he keeps trying for the jackpot. toys are also good motivators, but if your dog isnt into playing with toys much then its not a reliable reward system.. I read Barkly loves water, you could use that to your advantage while at the beach you could use the premack method.. Come when called do some tricks and he gets to go play in the water or chase the gulls. Both are very rewarding to the dog and will work to benefit you on also training a reliable recall.

I forgot about luring you can use lures also ^_^ but again it could be either easy or hard.. some dogs sometimes cannot do it without a lure so they arent learning the actual trick your after.

I think everything requires work, and I think how easy or hard it is depends on you and your dog.. Some children excell at learning maths, others struggle so different methods are given to them to help them learn faster and they excel that way.. I used to do my times tables with my fingers, others could just do it with their brains.. Its all a different way of working but all take effort. I am looking forward to doing clicker training on my pup, I know it will be hard because I wont be allowed to use any corrections, but its also considered easy because some dogs pick up the click so fast they learn new tricks easier.. For example the trick play dead.. You can either push the dog into position and teach him that way, or you can shape him into it by waiting for him to offer you the position.. Depending on your ability to communicate and your dogs ability to solve the problem or learn why your pushing him into it will depend how quickly he picks up that is what you want him to do.. Both methods could either take 5 minutes or 5 days. I will admit clicker training seems to get dogs going a bit faster than traditional methods.. But again most dogs I see with clicker training are collies, which are great problem solvers and are heavily motivated by work.

i meant the headcollars which dont tighten.. even ones which tighten when pulled it would depend how the dog is conditioned. In one of susan garretts dvd's she states that many people only pull on the dogs collar when they want their dogs to come here or stop them doing something, so when the dog comes after playing with his friends he will know that when you go for his collar your going to make all the good stuff stop so hes less likely to come to you.. So what she did was made positive games out of pulling on the dogs collar, making the dog think that pulling on his collar is a game, giving it a positive thing. So later if she pulled on the dogs collar, because positive things happen with his collar being pulled and his neck being tugged about he will think "hey i remember this game theres alot of fun stuff with this game" and so therefore what is usually a negative thing has now become a positive. Even thought the dog is being tugged about by his collar (most dogs dislike this) positive stuff was associated with it so the dog enjoys it and finds it rewarding.

having a headcollar does not make it a negative reinforcement if you make positive things happen with it.. however if your tugging at the head collar to annoy the dog into doing something its negative reinforcement, which is what E-collars do, the dog recieves an annoying shock and when it finally does what its asked it goes away.. the faster it does it the faster it goes away.. positive reinforcement is where there is no real force, you dont say no or eheh when the dog does something wrong, there is no punishment of any kind and instead you give the dog another job to remove the one it was doing.. for example, a dolphin found great pleasure in harassing a swimmer, because dolphins cannot be punished they decided to teach the dolphin that everytime this swimmer was in it was to push a button so it could get fish.. fish is more rewarding than harassing the swimmer and it cant do two things at once so they successfully prevented the dolphin from further harassing the diver without using any types of negative reinforcement. They just gave the dolphin something much more rewarding than what it was doing before. items only become negative if you associate negative behavior with it. Like a leash will become negative if you use it to pull the dog around with it or hit it with it.. But if you give the dog treats on it and take it for walks with it, its now a positive item.. So no, a headcollar isnt negative if you train the dog to see it as a positive tool and do not use it negatively for unwanted behaviors.

good to see your back again

*sigh* if you that's what you gained from my posts I would hate to know how you expect to understand anyone elses posts.. training and leadership go hand in hand, you need both to be successful. If you only apply training and dont care about leadership you get a dog who wont listen to you all the time, especially in tempting situations. if you apply leader ship but no training, you have a dog who respects you but because it has no training so will not respond to anything you say because it wasn't trained to understand those commands.

Respect as in the dog wont pull in the first place because its the leader who goes infront and the dog should be taking the follower position. There are many ways to train which can gain and work towards your dog treating you with respect. the whole point of dog training and having a dog is for a companion and a friend, they are part of your family and they need to know who is in charge. If your not in charge you wont have 100% control over your dog, so therefore the only thing your dog is interested in is being in charge and your not a factor.. If the dog isnt interested in you how do you expect to execute commands reliably and for him to respond? Every post I read from you midol it seems the only thing you expect of your dog is for it to be a robot, you never show any compassion towards having your dog as a friend or having its respect, just a mere tool which needs to obey you or else.. Even policemen play with their dogs and treat them as a best friend and expect their dogs respect and loyalty in return. What exactly are you trying to gain from your pup?

But isnt that also a problem when the dog becomes collar smart. This would mean your dog is reliable when hes wearing the prong, but once you put the flat on he loses all interest in you, so in that theory you haven't gained the dogs respect which is why he is also collar smart. The only thing achieved is your dog now wont pull when you have the prong on. It hasn't achieved any respect from the dog nor his complete attention. Just a thought.. As for check chains, I would restrain from using them on a puppy as they are still prone to more damage when young. I think you can get just as much success with any training tool you use if you do it right and work hard. However I dont think you gain the same amounts of respect from each training style, I think it varies, and it also varies depending on the personality of your dog.. Some dogs trained in prongs are brilliant, others may break down into a nervous wreck because they have a softer personality. I think it really depends on the personality of the dog, its trainability and your leadership ability.

remember even though he loves your company, he does require daily walks, just because hes a small dog does not mean he doesnt need walks. All dogs require daily walks to exercise and for stimulation, they get to experience new smells when they go for walks and it gives them a better chance of stronger bonding with you as he gets to in his mind travel with you as a pack. Sitting at home will never be enough for any dog they do require walks. The walks will definitely be helping because hes now doing something with his energy which games at home cannot do.

wow I am not a believer myself but this is a very touching story!

aww so cute, congrats everyone on your new family additions! May they bring you many tears of joy and frustrati--- I mean laughter

I think its situational really. For example you could have a well socialized guarding breed dog, he will not make any moves if you have shown him you are the one in control and are the pack leader, however say if you get attacked by another person, your emotions would change, the dog would sense this and knowing his pack leader is in trouble takes it as his duty to protect his pack. While they may not have chosen the best way to protect you, it is still a means of protecting you so therefore it is still an effective example of natural protection.

any tricks which involve jumping or weaving should be very limited until 12 mths. here is a complete list of tricks you could teach http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002c/tricks.htm

As the title says :D I am curious to know what everyone uses to record their videos with on youtube. Sorry I cant place a poll as I would have no idea what everyone would be using. Give the brand, type and any info on your cameras ability and the quality of videos it produces. (I am also asking to give me an idea of a good video camera to buy!)

congratulations!

does she know her name? Most people think their dog knows their name, but most times they dont. People also thing because the puppy came when you called it, it is now trained, most cases puppies follow you when young because they rely on you to defend them from predators. Once they get older they begin to get more independent and begin to wander around, they never learned to come when called it was just an instinct. heres some videos explaining on teaching your dog its name, and reliable recalls http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bNObVSQk8K4 http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ck7wmjrG6OY&...re=channel_page http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=tkiBjHNaAGc&...re=channel_page you also must remember just because she came 100% reliably in your house doesnt mean she will outside, or in the kitchen, on the couch, on the road, in the park.. You have to treat these as brand new places and the dog will need to relearn the come when called in these new areas as they had not learnt in these areas before. They arent humans, they dont think "well when she said this word in the house it meant for me to go to her so I better do it here" dogs dont think like that. Every new place is a new experience and they need to be trained in these new places to know that its also expected in these areas.