bedazzledx2

Mine do!!!! Swallow first because it might resemble food!!!! I have to be careful not to drop tablets on the floor because they will scarfe them up without tasting!!!!

Wearing my Judges hat...if he is sitting close enough for you to take a dumbell from his mouth without leaning too much then I would't ping you. He is a very big dog and it would not be fair to expect him to come as close as say a border collie. Sometimes dogs come in too close and can be pinged for crowding the handler! Now, wearing my trainer's hat, I would prefer him a little closer. Mostly the problem is that he rocks back on the sit rather than bringing his rear to his front. How does he do a sit at heel? I would take it away from the recall and train him to scoot sit. You can also lean against a wall with your body straight (or the back of a chair) in the recall position to encourage him to come in closer. I am not a fan of equipment that you have to fade and would do a fair amount of shaping separately. He is a lovely boy and you've done a fantastic job

If he will do a sit stay for his dinner at home you can generalize it by taking it on the road. Go back a few steps and start like he is a puppy. Take his normal dinner bowl and all the makings with you and let him see you prepare his dinner. Get him to do a short sit stay, return and release him to his dinner. Take it to another place and do the same. Gradually increase the duration...remember duration and distraction before distance. Stop doing group stays for now as he is just rehearsing the behaviour you don't want.

LOL My boy is left pawed too. I wonder what the ratio is in dogs.

You can't physically stack her but you can hands off re-adjust, ie if the first stand is crooked you can quickly move her off the stand and do it again. Of course you can't do that ad infinitum so its a good idea to teach her to stand square. The rules are that you take up position with her in the stand, the judge asks you 'are you ready?' at which point you acknowledge and are then under judges orders. If you are not ready say so and quickly re-adjust. I teach that whatever position you are in is how you stay. If for example he stands with one foot back then he must stay in that position until cued to change positions. This is where the steady feet game comes into it.

He's a Toller isn't he?!!! He'll learn... "Get your head out of the bag!!!" I seem to have heard it a lot over the years!!!!!!

A real good dinner...good kids!!!! Well done and have a glass of champas for you too!!!!

Ravyk you've had some really good advice here. Something that occurs to me is that she may not be experienced in offering behaviours. I would play some shaping games to help her out. Playing 100 things to do with a box can help with free shaping and if you see her using her paw just click and throw the food to one side so she has to go get it and then figure out what she got clicked for. http://www.clickertraining.com/node/167

Oh Yeah....there were a few expletives said over and over!!!!!! When we got home they were very thirsty but that was about it. They are up and bouncing today so alls good except my hip pocket!!!!!!

Yep...lots of farm dogs get re-homed at 6 weeks. Not ideal but better than being left in a pen on their own. If the new owner is conscientious about socialising there shouldn't be too many problems

Saw that while I was in the waiting room at Murdoch very late!!! Bloody dogs got into 2 family sized blocks of dark chocolate with sultanas!!!!! (not mine and I had no idea that it was there grrrr) Phoned Murdoch and they said that 300 grams would be a toxic dose for one dog. It was 400 grams total plus some white chocky so we had no idea who got what, so off we went and paid a bucket load of money for them to chuck up!!!!! The dock diving was impressive though!!!!

You could speed it up a bit by clicking when he's on the book and treating him there and then throw a piece of food so he has to get off to get it. Do this a couple of times and then wait him out. He should wonder what he got clciked for and be try to figure it out. LOL If I sat down or lay down the only behaviour I'd get from Mack and (possibly Ella unless I gave her a command) would be "get mugged"! I've been doing exactly what you described with Mack with a phone book but have had to encourage and gently lure (by standing on the opposite side and encouraging him to investigate it) to get him to pay it any attention so I could actually reward him! I've done 2 sessions now and he's getting better at it but it'll probably take another session or two for him to really start offering behaviours.

I shaped the retrieve and the box but not heel from the beginning. I might do that for the next one though. I would suggest that you play shaping games with unimportant stuff first. Tricks and things that won't matter in competition as its really easy to shape something you don't want unintentionally! Its such a refined method of training and you get what you reward. Seita - I am not sure if you have done any shaping before with Mack or not - but you need to teach the dog to offer behaviours - so arm yourself with a clicker (or your yes word) and treats and start clicking for anything in normal everyday living to begin with, just so he gets the hang of offering you behaviours rather than sitting there watching you. I haven't done much shaping full stop ever. I lured most things for Ella but as Mack isn't overly food driven and it's a little challenging to lure with a tug toy I thought I'd try a bit of shaping. He was starting to get the hang of what I wanted last night (interaction with the phone book on the floor) after I semi lured him towards it. I don't think I'll do much free shaping either but shaping things like putting front feet on the book or at a later stage going to the box I will do plenty of with Mack I think. Mostly cos I've never done much shaping before so I'd like to play around with different methods to teach things. Has anyone ever shaped the heel position or front etc?

Sometimes its good to have a shaping word or phrase 'show me what you've got' or 'lets play a game' not a cue or command. The other thing I like to do is to put the cue on a behaviour once it is taught. Then I don't reward it if I haven't asked for it. Dog's also get things like 'try something else' For Seita, sometimes a little help in the form of a lure can get the behaviour but try to wean both of you off luring asap. Have you tried 101 things to do with a box? Karen Prior. I tend not to do a huge amount of free shaping as I like to work towards an end behaviour but I love the shaping process.

Depends on whether you want it as a finished behaviour. If so then put the cue on. For Banjo I would stop luring and start shaping. Arm yourself with a clicker and treats and wait him out. When he makes one tiny movement click and treat. Watch carefully....you are clicking the tiniest movement which he will probably do accidentally out of frustration. He won't know what you cllicked and treated for but he will get it quickly if your timing is good. Once the light bulb is ignited there will be no stopping him....magical!!!!! :D

Nice work Huski

Good idea Jigsaw. The 'judge' could reward from a pretend clipboard randomly only when the dog is quiet and stable.

When training stays I go for duration and distraction before distance. She may have missed a step and jumped ahead before the dog was ready. I would go back to duration and distraction in close with high value rewards. See if she can find as many different confident, safe dogs to do stays next to and go in and reward frequently before the dog gets anxious so that she is only rewarding good stable stays. For out of sight stays I usually go out of sight only briefly and go back and reward and leave again. Yo yo it around always ensuring the dog is safe and stable.

It sounds as though the dog hasn't generalised it beyond the training situation. Also separation anxiety could be at play here also. Is this in out of sight stays or Novice?

Sheep horns are fantastic if you can get them!!!!

What makes you think my dog isn't in drive? A big misconception that clicker training is akin to 'posting a letter' Click and reward can be food, tug or a game...whatever floats the dog's boat. I would hope that you understand that today's clicker training is all about having the dog fully engaged in the training game. K9: I like these tools too, I favour training in drive but it isnt always the best course for all dogs, wish it was though!

Well done!!! Ooohhh 5 tunnels....bring on tunnel suck!!!!!

Mean bitch!!!!

I don't use training tools other than a clicker and food and toy rewards so yes I have used my 'tools' and I like them!!!! (as does my dog!) I completely despise the "have you worn one" argument. Have you worn any training tool you may have used on your dog? Dogs are not people and some of them require different levels and types of training. I use a prong collar, but before I bought one I went to a workshop with K9Pro, had it fitted correctly and was shown how to use it correctly. ETA: Huga reminded me, I tried the prong collar to around the top of my arm.

Have you worn one? How would you know?