Kavik

I am feeding Advance at the moment - seems to be a good size for this too

I'd like to see you come up with a better idea Luke! :rolleyes: It was in one of those name tag things (plastic sleeves) so not much space and I wanted it to be big enough to read from a decent distance and short enough to make a point! But really, at a dog club, I thought it would be pretty obvious I was talking about my dog not being friendly with other dogs

My problem is when I get nervous, I also get a bit inhibited and I know my body language reflects that I wish I knew how to fix that! As I know that contributes to the problems I have with Diesel in particular.

Yeah some people are hopeless! A vest is a good idea though - much more visible, hopefully people will get the point. Not that Zoe actually hurt another dog, but she is aggressive towards them and I wrote an extreme message in the hope that people would give us space.

Good luck getting people to listen to it when you find one! I made a tag (to go on my shirt) when I was training Zoe that said "I BITE OTHER DOGS!" and people just laughed and ignored it!

Midol, just be glad he's not aggressive towards dogs I think some of it is in their nature too, just how they react to things. Diesel was always pretty interested in other dogs, while Kaos was not interested, from the day I got him.

Maybe I can try to use the dancing around as a reward after I release him or something I want to try and keep the heeling the same as you would do in the ring, probably more for me than him, as I find it really hard to change from being bouncy and encouraging to ring heeling, don't know how he's supposed to realise I want the same performance! :rolleyes:

Problem is I can't do that in the ring. I used to do heaps of talking and bouncing with him when heeling, and it worked, but then thought if I can't do that in the ring, I should start getting him used to me walking like I would in a trial (to at least give me half a chance of success!). So now I am walking at a good pace but no talking, then reward after a few good paces of heeling. This is where I do really like the clicker or spitting food because it encourages good focus without me having to dance around like a lunatic :D At the moment I do somthing like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTeX1VLFd-A Though I normally spit food from my mouth

So you are trying to teach both a small and a bigger leg lift at the same time? This is likely to be confusing for the dog and he may get frustrated as you keep changing criteria on him. I would pick whether you want a big or a small lift and shape towards that. If you really want to teach both, maybe teach right leg small lift, left leg big lift.

Have replied

Some are ok some I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. Do you know which one they were thinking of?

OK a more positive session this evening Got a bit of work with the squeaky toy that he likes. Also got him enthusiastically running to a target for click/treat. Not much luck with heeling - good stationary position but not much attention while moving. Then I tried razzing him up at the end, pushing him, running with him, playing with a sock with a ball in it (another toy he likes) and got him enthusiastic that way. So maybe I need to find a way to use phyical praise and patting more. The challenge will be overcoming my nervousness and inhibitions about getting silly in public. Probably the reason I can get Kaos to tug really well at home and not in other places too. I have more experience using food and external rewards than pats. Any ideas? I should have realised this would be the case considering how Diesel's breeder's train - pats and verbal praise, so using pack drive.

I would be careful about sending your dog to a training centre - some of these have bad reputations and do not use positive methods to train the dogs. Why would you like to send your dog to a centre to be trained?

I have a little tunnel similar to that one that I got at a kid's toy store for about $30. Great for pups and small dogs. Zoe fits even now but it is too small for Kaos, he can only use the big full sized tunnel I have

Vickie, that is a very good idea! Now to convince Ben to actually do it, may be rather difficult though

He is more excited morning and evening, and when we go to new places (visiting parents, going to training etc).

He is 5 now. He has moments of being excited, but these are getting less and less. If I can't get him working well and being excited in a low distraction environment, there is no way he is going to work at all in a trial I'm curious as to whether anyone has opinions on cortisone and motivation/drive? Because of his itchy skin Diesel goes on and off cortisone. Of course when he is on cortisone he is keen for his food and works great but once that wears off he is lazy again. Maybe it is in these periods that he is on cortisone that I think there is hope for him Can cortisone effect things like that permanently?

Maybe he just has little drive? Not sure really that anything is going to improve it. Have tried just about every type of treat I can think of that won't totally gross me out. He actually works the best for cheese. Have tried feeding him less - all this does is make him lose weight, does not make him any keener to work for food. I'm sure some people love working with this type of dog as he really is easy going but I find it so frustrating!

I tried sausages today - he worked the same as when I use cheese. Worse, actually, as he stopped to sniff the sausage for a few seconds before he ate it I also did some send to a treat bag. Once again I got about twice as much enthusiasm from Zoe who is 4 years older than Diesel Hmmm, maybe I should just cut my losses on this one and enjoy him as the gentle social sooky boy he is rather than keep trying to make him a competition dog which it seems he is not really keen on. And try to push my OH into letting me get another Kelpie

I did this with Kaos. The only problem I had was that it interfered with my contact training later, he wanted to try to pivot to move around the board instead of walking over it I also have a ladder and walk my guys over the ladder, so they have to walk between the rungs.

Sorry, the first one to post and I voted other I don't take Kaos to dog parks as he does not like dogs getting in his face and jumping all over him, which often happens in busy dog parks. I take him to a quieter park where we generally know the few other dogs who tend to come at the same time. Most of my socialising with him is at training, trials, friends with some on walks and at the quieter park etc I do take Diesel to the dog park, generally about once a week if it is not too busy at the time we go. He enjoys the dog park and he is generally pretty good about being jumped on etc though he is not keen on being continually harassed or humped/bullied/growled/stared at. Totally different dog to Kaos. But I am not yet trialling him (and if we don't get his focus/motivation issues fixed I may not ever!) so I don't know if he counts :D There are one or two dogs that don't like him, so if they are in the park we don't go (since I can't trust the other owners to notice - when a Weim came and continued to growl at him, the owner said it wanted to play!).

I also hope your little one is OK today. I doubt it would have been from the nail clipping. I have one who is not good with nail clipping either, the stress does not last that long or cause such a reaction.

I probably should get more silly and excited when he does a good job Maybe I've just been spoiled by having the Kelpies - really they would rather food or a toy than a pat but Diesel does enjoy a good pat. May just stick to Kelpies from now on

One of mine is only interested in toys sometimes ( in environments where he is comfortable, like the backyard). Mine like the squeaky ones the best, out of the tugging ones they like the ones covered in fur. The same dog who will not work for toys at training will happily chase someone else's ball at the park though Not all dogs like toys. While you can try several and try making them fun (movement, playing with them yourself, teasing, rewarding for any interaction), it may not happen.

Yep always make sure they are big enough to find and not crumbly and I call his name first Just never had such a lazy dog before - so used to the go go go of the Kelpies ETA: I even get a better response from Zoe and she is 9 years old! I can send her to a treat on a target and she will run to get it and run straight back to me!