dididog

Looks like Don has a pretty nice playground... (I am jealous!)

It's best not to correct as handler punishment, that's why before the dog reaches the end of the leash turn around quickly and walk in the opposite direction and let her self correct and say nothing. When she turns around to follow after the correction, say "here" excitedly and ramp her up yippee who hooo!!! and make her excited to come to you and reward that, make it a game to catch up to you so she thinks it's fun and rewarding. That builds handler focus by elevating drive and makes the handler much more fun than darting off for a sniff. The correction interrupts the drive to go sniffing and the reward creates the fun. Couple the two together and the dog learns to focus and be aware of where you are heading. The dog doesn't fear or avoid correction, they think it's a game of catching them out on direction change without them paying attention. Also, when you turn around and the dog turns and you call "here" excitedly and reward when she catches up, that reinforces the "here" command so in time, the "here" command has real meaning and eventually the dog can be sniffing and you command "here" and the dog will shoot back to you as fast as she used to dart off and sniff. You can stand still until she realises that unless she backs it up, you are not moving forward, but that's boring so the dog's response will be suppressed......if you ramp her up in drive, she will turn back to you much faster with greater enthusiasm to be rewarded. :) Thanks for explaining that, the turning around method makes more sense now :) We have obedience tomorrow, not sure how that's going to go as she is usually a bit pully but I'll get there early and settle her down. In the class she's fine it's just walking around the grounds before and sometimes after which can be bad. At least everybody there can relate to me acting like a crazy dog lady!

Yes it was quite a lovely sight to see and always great to see Didi and Winston together (I think she has a little crush on him) And no perse no sightings of ski suit dogs today... perhaps their owner took them to some actual snow?

Okay good, wasn't looking forward to making a new word! The only problem is my family often use her name to tell her off (sigh) but since that's in a completely different tone I don't think she sees them as the same.

Raineth and Hankdog- Thanks! I definitely think I've been rushing things a bit too much and am keen to slow it right down in order for her to actually get it.

I normally only update once a month but I took this photo today and though it was cute :) Didi and her pals Winston (rotti x mastiff) and Shiloh the Berner were playing around when they all stopped and held the ball in between them... I wonder what secret dog business they discussing? :laugh: These three get along so nicely, sharing the ball and content to just plod along together when they got tired of playing. They all went with us to get a drink and I think their little 'big dog' posse might have terrified a few mothers nearby, until they realised that all three of them are just big softies slobbering over one another at the water bowl. Winston is moving to Ballarat soon which is sad because he and Didi are so well suited to each other and play so well, he's the sweetest dog!

Today went well. We got out of the car about 200m from the chiropractor and right away Didi wanted to pull so I just slowly crawled my way there, stopping almost every other step, it was virtually impossible to get her focus because my parents had walked ahead and she wanted to get to them so I just made sure at least she wasn't allowed to move ahead while pulling. The chiropractor has a courtyard out the front with a small entry way to the street so we waited in the courtyard, luckily our appointment got bumped back by 15 mins so I got to spend even more time there. Once she calmed down I started patting her, talking to her excitedly and giving her treat for paying attention to me, getting her to do some hi fives which she finds super fun to do. Once she wasn't too fussed with everything around her I just started walking in circles around the courtyard calling her to me/running to get her attention and lots of rewards for walking with me of course. After she was really intent on just following me I would walk out onto the street briefly doing something to keep her attention and then run back in to the courtyard and did that a few times spending a bit more time on the street each time so that eventually she wasn't really paying attention to whether we were on the street or in the courtyard. Then we had to walk back to the car and instead of me stopping every two seconds like I did on the way in we only had to stop twice. I decided not to go to the beach as it would be too hard to stop as often as I needed to with my parents walking ahead but the chiropractor was still good.

Thanks raineth for that idea, my house is a bit small to do that but I'm sure I could set something similar up on the pavement out the front, our street is relatively quiet/low distraction. We are working on a 'heel' obedience command at the moment but it's really not strong enough to whip out in most situations. In situations where I'd like her to be doing more of a heel i just shorten her lead so that she can only walk next to me and any attempts to do otherwise would = lead tension and I'd just do the same things I'd do in other situations where she's creating tension. SG, with the correction, it's a small pop paired with a firmish uh-uh and then a reward/praise for easing tension. Other times when I can preempt her pulling or moving too far away (before lead tension occurs) I call her name (which has inadvertently become our 'look' command) and because she's built the association Didi=focus on mum for something good she'll come to me and is rewarded which is my attempt to make me more interesting then whatever else she was focusing on. I know I probably should have a separate command for this but I just got into the habit of saying her name to pull focus and now she's caught on and responds to it which might complicate matters so I suppose weaning her off that and onto a different cue word will be another thing to add to the list! In higher distraction environments (or noisier ones) though she's less likely to respond to this so I end up using the correction to break focus and remind her hey that's not what I want, please do nice walkies instead and then I reward her for doing nice walkies. If she is actually in the act of pulling though (not just reaching the end of the lead) I do just stop until she's no longer pulling and usually she sits when I stop and then I ask for good walkies but I think I perhaps don't use this method enough, especially when our walks are designed to take us somewhere in certain amount of time. My long term plan is to phase out the physical correction and just have the verbal 'uh-uh' when there's too much tension or 'Didi/a look command' to draw focus from something she might want to pull toward. Hopefully with a lot of time and practice I can get her there by improving her focus on me especially in new places and really really making sure she never gets rewarded for pulling. One thing that I think is also setting us back is when other people try to walk her. If my dad ever wants to exercise her or I am sick/unable to do it that day then I just tell him to take her to the park (by car) instead because one walk with my dad or my brother just completely unravels everything. The day after Didi will be all over the place because they will keep walking while she pulls or correct too late or not reward her enough. Pretty much every bit of training I've tried to do has been undermined by how inconsistent everybody in my household is with her and it shows so much in the way she acts around them, especially now in adolescence! (but that's a whole 'nother thread ) Anyway tomorrow we are going to the chiropractor and then the beach which are places she's been a few times though are still a novelty so I'll bring a bunch of super tasty treats and a toy and work on just making me the most interesting thing/not so distracted by everything. The chiropractor is small and quiet and we will be one of the last customers so not so challenging and in winter barely anyone is on Port Melbourne beach and the surrounding pathways so hopefully it's not tooo much.

go Fritz!

How would I go about setting those boundaries? We don't have much of a yard so I generally encouraging sniffing for wees when we start walking down our street or at the end of our walk so I don't know how feasible never letting her sniff would be. Should I just work on establishing a cue word for sniff and really strengthening a 'leave it' command so that she doesn't stop to sniff everything/moves on from a smell when I want to? Our walks are primarily for her enjoyment so I don't want her to feel she has to completely ignore everything but me, as long as she's not towing me around and respecting my boundaries I don't mind what she does. In saying that I think we really do need to work on her focus on me. She has a tendency to do what I ask of her but not really be looking at me while she does it unless we're in a training session. This has opened my eyes to a lot of other factors that we clearly need to work on (looking to me for instruction/calm, neutral behaviour in new place etc.) in order for her to succeed at loose lead walking. Thanks for the pointers, I'll keep them in mind and let you know how we go/if I still can't get through to her.

Thanks Raineth :) I am assuming it's a distraction thing because in low distraction environments she is perfectly fine and whenever there's tension in the lead she'll slow down so I'm taking that as a sign it's not her understanding that's the problem (at least I hope so, otherwise the last few months all of our practice would be for nothing!) Ideally I just want her walking on a loose lead, in front/behind/beside me doesn't really matter as long as the lead is loose. Whenever she does pull in these low distraction environment it's to sniff (which is her favourite thing to do in the world), she doesn't seem care much about going faster or leading the way or anything. That sounds like a good method for stopping her pulls toward smells, I don't really mind if she wants to sniff things as we're walking along but I don't want her forcefully pulling towards smells or digging her heels in when I want to keep walking so I'll work on that. Also yes I should probably work more on her remaining focused on me before we move onto the walking, I was planning on letting her get settled first but I might just spend more time practicing looks at me's and nice calm behaviour. I took her out heaps when she was a puppy and during the summer holidays but I have struggled a bit to keep up the same rate of going out since she's gotten bigger/I've started uni. Don't know if I'll be able to manage a mat and a big puppy on the train :laugh: but I think we can manage a kong or something similar.

Don't worry I know she's reminds every day that I've done a good job, I'm just a bit prone to unnecessary worrying and dramatics. Lucky Didi is super chill or she'd probably be a bit of a mess :laugh:

:laugh: Hopefully the next puppy I can enjoy more instead of being in a state of constant panic I am ruining them! And Didi is about 38kg now at 9 mths, her head comes up to my hip and she can almost give me a hug (I'm slightly on the taller side of average). But honestly I am so desensitised to her size that she's normal in my eyes. Anything smaller then say a beagle freaks me out!

Thanks for the reassurance SG :) your points are definitely true, I'll have to remember to remind myself of that more often. This whole 'raise your first puppy and don't stuff it up' thing has been so nerve wracking but I am really starting to see everything pay off and I'm so glad I found DOL, so many nice people like you with way more experience and better perspective have helped me a lot.

Yeah I think I need to really embrace my inner crazy dog lady, I'm a bit too hung up on what other people think and get embarrassed when Didi does something wrong Don't worry I still treat her when she does those long stretches of good walkies, but I feel in our neighbourhood at least she knows what she's supposed to do and does it the 95% of the time so I don't treat her as much as I did when she was learning, still plenty of praise though. It's hard to get out to new places enough for them to not be a novelty since I don't have a car during the week so I might have to crack out the muzzle and take the train somewhere(at least she's rock solid on the train). Anyway thanks for telling me what I probably already knew re: her struggling and me not accommodating that, I think I really need to readjust my expectation for the poor dog, I keep forgetting she's still a baby.

It sounds like I did a very similar thing when training Didi initially, it's much easier to do the snail's pace and stop start around your neighbourhood... a bit harder in the CBD or outside a shopping centre or a busy promenade along the beach. I suppose I'll just have to suck it up and be that weird girl with the crazy dog blocking everyone's way :laugh:

I generally keep the balance of correct and reward, even on walks where I know she'll walk nicely I bring treats and will after a correction (when she has gone from doing what I don't want to what I do want) mark it and treat and do a lot of fussing 'You're such a good walker!!!'. Even if we've been walking for 10 minutes on a completely loose lead I will keep telling her how nice her walkies are, I must look a bit weird :laugh: But you're right I do think in the situations where she's over excited that I get really frustrated and tend to correct more than I reward and am probably a bit more restrained in my rewarding when I do I think I might give her a quick run around and then take her somewhere new tomorrow so that she's a little calmer and not being set up to fail and be way more liberal about rewarding the good walkies! It's so weird that we can walk down a super busy street in my suburb full of people and screaming kids, trams and buses going past and all sorts of dogs (normally reacting to Didi aggressively) and she'll stick to my side like glue but put us in the exact same situation somewhere different and she loses it.

Didi was as all puppies generally are a terrible walker and because she's so big and strong it's currently my #1 priority. We've made a lot of progress using a limited slip/martingale type collar and she understands the concept of the collar tightening = stop pulling as she will slow down/come back to my side when I correct or if she hits the end of the lead. Her walking varies, sometimes she's a bit frisky and I'll have to correct her a bit or other days like today I won't even know there's a dog on the end of my lead and any pulling she does do is generally to sniff or lunge at birds ( ) but she doesn't do the freight train pulling type of thing. So I'm pretty happy with the progress we've made there and walking her is not a problem around our neighbourhood/shopping strip and parks BUT at obedience or a new location she just seems to lose her mind. At obedience she is getting a bit better and generally is only terrible at the start but if we take her somewhere new it's a huge struggle to hold onto her and my corrections sink in for a few seconds and she's off pulling again, like full on freight train pulling which she never does otherwise. I try my best not to let her self reward pulling by correcting and rewarding good walkies or come to a complete stop and ask her to sit if she really isn't listening but it's still a bumpy ride. After she's been out for a while or we've done some sort of exercise she is much more responsive (eg the walk to the beach is terrible but after a run around on the beach walking in a new environment is fine) so I think it's more her getting overwhelmed than there being a flaw in her understanding of loose leash walking. I'm so terrible at asking questions I tend to ramble on but ANYWAY what I'm getting at here is what should be my approach to this? Going to new places for loose lead walking practices a few times a week? Or is it more a matter of her needing to take the edge off before we go somewhere new/her just calming a bit with age? I would ask my obedience trainer but I'm fairly sure she doesn't like me and her only advice regarding walking has been to get a front-attach harness as if that would solve all my problems. I'm pretty anti that idea for a number of reasons and would only resort to it if I really could not get through to Didi on this one purely because in a few months time I just really won't be able to control Didi when she's pulling that intensely.

Oooh that is very tempting, it looks big enough for Didi and has the same colour scheme as our lounge room! Not sure if there's enough room for it though

Poppy is so adorable! I can almost feel how soft she looks... I'm also a fan of that chair

LOL, I thought the coat fitted a bit better this month. What a glorious dog she is, Terri S. You must be very happy. Thanks guys! Yeah I'm quite happy with how the coat turned out now, glad I didn't bother with modifying it. Haven't seen the skin suit dogs around lately, must've been too humiliated from last time to show their faces :laugh: I have to say DDD,I am pretty chuffed with her :D she's everything I thought having a dog would be like and then some!

Puppy is 9 months old today, she celebrated the occasion by eating lots of duck poop at the oval and is now having all of her kisses rejected, gross puppy. This photo of her running towards me would probably be cuter if she wasn't also eating poop. Our Saturday morning ritual of Didi coming with us to the (human) chiropractor and then going for a stroll along Port Melbourne beach. I was just about to throw the ball, hence crazy face. And this was taken a few weeks ago but has kind of become my favourite picture of Didi :)

I'm so sorry to hear this Raineth Digby was too one of my favourite DOL dogs but I'm glad he got to spend his final months being showered with your love, you can see how content he was in your photos. Sleep peacefully Digby

Awh Toller puppy looks like she's smiling in her sleep :) Ronin is sure looking big these days, especially in those photos in general! Didi is 9 months old tomorrow, though she's a bit more like a grumpy old man, always grumbling and complaining about something hehe.

This makes me want to move to the countryside, they both look so happy!