denis_c

I have use Debbie Calnon, and can only speak highly of her. My mini poodle (from what seemed out of nowhere) started stalling during heeling. She seemed really patchy in her performances. I tried several different training options that just seemed to make her worse. What Debbie was able to see was that my mini seemed to be afraid of something outside of me, and would scan the environment looking for something and stall. It was suggested that it could be a noise phobia, and after connecting the dots with the patchy performances (they were in noisy places) we were able to de sensitise her very succesfully.. Becuase she was less attached to the training process, she was able to focus on the cause rather than leap to the way to get the result Some people are a bit reluctant to pay the fee. I thought it was extraordinairy good value for money. I got my dog back and we are having fun together again. Some of these problems take a lot of time and effort to resolve. I withdrew my dog form all obedience competition in Mid February, and I am just thinking that we might compete soon in obedience.She has competed succesfully in tracking since. It took a while to work out what noise it was that she feared. (Road noise). Personally, I think there is a huge difference between the depth that a Vet Behaviourist studies at, and many non vet behaviourists. Also, in our case, some medication is required if my dog gets startled during the de sensitation process. I Also found her training suggestions thorough and sound.

Hi There are many reasons why a dog might show "more drive" or more arousal free tracking some wombats rather than tracking a human. It may well be something other than a drive issue. Here is just a few 1) Is the dog comfortable in it's harness or equipment? 2) Do you shut up when tracking the dog, do you get the message across that it is your dog's show not yours? 3) This is a biggie Are the foundations there? Does your dog truely know what is required of it when tracking humans? You might be suprised. 4) Has the dog tracked in this environment before? 5) Have you got handling skills to match your dogs? May be your dog needs you to grow better skills. When I did track 4 with my first dog, he snagged a branch which caused him to suddenly halt, and me to fall. He was disorientated and so was I . Being a high drive dog, he just looked and looked and looked for the track, but in the wrong direction. I was too dumb to get him back to where we fell. 6)Is your style of obedience training affecting his/her reationship with you and hence tracking? When free tracking , a dog just follows in a relatively un focused way scents that are interesting. Human tracking, it is a whole lot more focused and requires a good deal of concentration. It is like listening for a faint note in the middle of noise. Sometimes dogs need some maturity for this. Others don't. While drive is a good model for tracking, have a look at what Steve White has to say, and golden oldies like Tracking Dog by Johnstone. All address the issue that you speak off. Fast focused tracking requires drive plus practice plus a switched on brain. Despite any of this, tracking a fast moving dog that knows what it is doing is an exilarating feeling. Time is not of the essence, BUT I can tell you that it does not hurt to know that your dog is one of the fastest around.... Denis Cody

I was going to add one very important point outside of the food issue. Find yourself a training buddy who will help support you and tell you when you are dong things a little wrong. I use a verbal bridge and a clicker. I always use clickers for real precision or speed. I also found them invaluable when I was working through a noise phobia with my dog. I was initially looking for non fear behaviors that were lasting for very small periods of time.. I sometimes tease people who slag clickers by suggesting that it is alright for them , their dogs are too slow! I would have found it very difficult to teach my dog her flip finish without one. The arguments behind "free shaping" aren't that solid, I don't hang around letting my dog guess for too long about what I want. But having said that, small amounts of free shaping can lead to some interesting solutions to problems. The food issue varies from dog to dog. My dog is a adult poodle. She gets any of the folowing as a reward :- Dried lamb, smoked chicken, cheese very seldom, ham, mince meat, an end of something on special at the butcher. I look for treats that are palatable and "fast" eating. I also use toys a lot. One thing to watch is that if your dog is a slow eater, pushing them on to the next behaviour can be punihsing for them. This is one reason why I suggest getting a training buddy.

"Yeah it totally works - it reduces the critical distance right down to about 5 metres if we're really caught up in a good tug o war, but it's very labour intensive - I have to really work the tug toy and use a lot of voice to keep her focus on me & the tug instead of the oncoming dog/s. It's reliable but too tiring so it's not my ideal solution. " I think that there are some interesting keys to solving this issue. First one is to learn to relax, and often the heavy talk of leadership and how or how you aren't being a leader can send anxiety levels very high and make the situation even worse! There are several ways of solving this issue. Most involve some reading of pretty subtle body language from the dog. It is really important to make contact with a good trainer either privately or at a club. Personally, I think it is counter productive to solve these kind of issues over the internet. Vcitoria Stillwell when she is working the dogs is intervening just before the behaviour happens. Most novice trainers don't.

I did find this reference http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...26095504AAvP64W which mentioned the mythbusters programme. Again we do not know at what level the dogs are working at, and whether different types of cheeses do different things. My personal suggestion is that if I hear anedoctal information from a trainer of note, is that I try to test it myself for my dogs. Sometimes I incorporate it becuase it is true for my dogs, sometimes I don't. What I can tell you is than in a typical situation where you are helping a handler dog pair to get startred, the dog has a history of of being over sated and under stimulated, that if cheese works, you use it and get the dog started. This is a non critical situation where the scenting is well within any dog's capability.

---------------- I read this thread earlier and thought it was an interesting question. Good responses. I use cheese as rewards, but then I don't plan on doing any tracking. I have not experienced a loss of performance using cheese, and have taught a few dogs to track,to trialling level. I wouldn't use really pungent cheese though as it seems that the biggest problem is dogs being overloaded. I have also used that rolled up cheddar to rub on scent articles with success too. It would be interesting one day to see some science behind all the various ancedotes about the scenting behaviour of dogs. Until then, it is very much buyer beware.