bedazzledx2

I would only be asking for 30 seconds of absolute attention at this stage. If she consistently gives you that then try with the judge patting etc. If she's good there then tell the judge you are ready and take 2 or 3 steps at heel. If she gives you absolute attention and you haven't lured or bribed her at all then pay out big time Not as easy as it sounds. Caffy is really good at breaking start peg attention although Ptolomy is pretty skilled at it too Yep, I had no food on me The problem I have isn't that she loses focus, but after a certain amount of time she starts to wonder if she's got it right so she'll start to offer behaviours i.e. a stand, a down, occasionally barking at me as if to say 'come on, what are we doing??' ;) So for us it's a matter of extending the time she can stay still without getting bored/frustrated! If anyone approaches us when we are training (happens quite a bit when we train at the public park, lol) I always put Daisy in heel position while I chat with the person. The other day our neighbours kid came out to chat while we were training and Daisy didn't look twice at him while we were talking need to practice it in a more trial like setting though!! ETA: I have a heap of friends/family coming over tomorrow for a party, is it a bit sad to think it's a perfect training opportunity?? LOL!!

Good start huski Remember no food at this point as you are testing. If she loses attention if someone starts talking or patting her you know what you need to train. If she loses attention then set it up again but be in training mode and be ready to mark and treat her while she is paying attention and before she loses it. No need to move off as yet, repeat multiple times. Look at it as an exercise on its own before you start heeling off. Ok so I tried this in one of our training sessions today. I lined Daisy up with no food on me, handed her leash over and didn't say a word... she looked up at me for 50 seconds before moving slightly (but returned eye contact to me). Am going to try this with someone talking to us and patting her!

Oh Ness!!! Expect that! In fact the audiences here are encouraged to do so!!!! More poofing

Talking about training here not competing!!!!! Although I have had lots of Judges start chit chatting at the start peg though and have found its something we need to train for. :cool: Years ago I did have a judge try to pat my kelpie so she of course jumped up and broke her lanyard with her stop watch!!! Not a great start!!!

So what would happen if the judge started chatting to your dog or even gave her a pat??????

If you think your dog is pretty good at the start peg here's a small exercise to try. Without food in your hand, heel up to a start peg, remove your lead and hand it to your 'judge'. Has your dog taken its attention off you yet?

It was a combined effort wasn't it Caffy! Good fun You and Alex have a talent for distraction.....you could hire yourselves out and make a fortune :D Thanks for posting all the videos bedazzled...I had fun doing them and watching Scoota and Brooklyn work through it

Dunno what went wrong there....what I meant to link to is this http://www.youtube.com/user/bedazzledx2#p/a/u/0/F5TvOdRCoqc and Hope this works ok. :D

Exactly!!! You said that so much better than I could Aiden It should be noted that the dogs in the video I posted are very high drive, purpose bred working line Malinois. We would not expect most other dogs to be able to do what was shown in the video, or at least we would not be able to train them to do it very efficiently. The process of working through things that a dog is scared of and things that a dog is distracted by for other reasons (prey drive, pack drive etc) can be remarkably similar. You have to remember that there are both Respondents (brain chemistry, nervous impulses etc) and Operants (the more outwardly observable stuff that is controlled by consequences). With fearful behaviour the respondents play a larger role, and it will usually take longer to alter respondent behaviours. We can usually change operants fairly quickly, and these will influence respondents to some extent, but it should not be assumed that just because a dog is "acting" confident or calm that he actually is. What I'm trying to say here, in plain English, is that you can teach a dog to heel past an object that he is scared of, but it may take longer for him not to feel fear while heeling past the object. But teaching him to heel past the object calmly will make some difference to how he feels about it.

Have a look at these and Snazzy is inexperienced and the distraction of a person next to the dumbbell and the dumbbell next to him for stand for exam were enough. Caffy set his up for success and he got rewarded accordingly.

Food is what really turns Brookie on so I tend to use that as a primary re-enforcer. He loves his toys especially the i balls so I use that also but less so when I'm training lots of repeats. When I'm working on duration I will not have any food on me but I will 'plant' a container of yummy food somewhere in the training area before getting him out. If he works really well for an extended period I will jackpot and run to the food container and let him have the lot. I also reward with a physical game...jump up, push away etc which he loves and you can take that into the ring with you and use between exercises. Very rewarding Thanks for your response, Bedazzled. That's what I assume with my dogs too - if they get too distracted I assume that level of distraction is too early and I need to take a step back. Do you always reward with food or do you sometimes mix it up and reward with tugs, toys etc? I can work Daisy without food on me, if I have given her the 'ready to work' command because she knows that means she will be rewarded in food drive, irregardless of where the food is (in my hand, in my pocket, on the floor, in the treat bag, etc). Although I don't know if I could have food on me without her knowing, even if i hid it in my pocket without her seeing, with her nose she'd know almost straight away

Good question Huski. If he had gone for a toy I would conclude I had lumped and gone too far too soon. I would abort that session and have a re-think and set him up for success. To start the distraction process I have him sitting at heel giving me attention with mild distractions. When he is successful at that I will escalate the distractions still stationary at heel. Then I will add one or two steps and reward and so forth and so on. What would you do if he ran after one of the toys and grabbed one? Would you call him back to you and reward for something basic?

Have a look at this one. Caffy is VERY distracting and it goes pear shaped a couple of times! As Ptolomy says it depends on what level your dog is at. I tend to reward big time when they work through a distraction. You can see Brookie catching a whole sardine as his reward for the cop. He loved it but it was pretty gross in my pocket!!!!

This one is Scooter Drop on recall

Arghhh!!!! My send finger was too quick Here it is

Here's the next one....complete with barking dog LOL

Its a training night at dog club....just do what I do and turn the sound down! My dogs run around looking for the strange dog when they're barking on the computer so my hand is on the sound dial pretty quick! Talk about a nasty pasty judge Deb and I have had to do a lot of distration work in directed jumping as judges tend to play with the clipboards, grab at their hats as they fly off, stand near the jump, wave their arms around and both our kids went through a stage of moving off when this happened. Hmm I haven't seen a judge crouch down to distract the dog as it goes around to heel YET....... I'm sorry but WHOSE dog is barking in the background?!?! I apologise in advance for having little tolerance for barking dogs but I want to slit my wrists by the end of your videos. 'Your' being plural as they seem to be in the red dogs' videos and Brooklyn's videos.

You asked for it!!!! Here's the next one

That would be my recommendation too. Kathy really knows her stuff and I have recommended people to her over the years who have been very happy with her services.

This is Scooter doing directed jumping with a little interference from me!!!!

Don't feel silly Huski....some people are so insecure they get their jollies by criticizing others. I tend not to train in dog parks not because of this type of reaction but more due to other dogs whose owners have no control over them interfering with my training. I travel 45 minutes to our Canine grounds so that I can train in a secure and safe environment.

Woo Hoo!!!! Congratulations!

Here's the next one

Thanks Rubystar I told you I wasn't very tech minded Deb when I click on the link - it takes me to MY Youtube videos....... so thanks for that as I had lost them LOL Deb, if you're after the link to YOUR YouTube channel, this is your link: http://www.youtube.com/user/bedazzledx2

Hmmm will have to try again..... Will give it another go tomorrow...thinking about getting ready for the agility trial tonight but its still too b...... hot!!!! Deb when I click on the link - it takes me to MY Youtube videos....... so thanks for that as I had lost them LOL