Teekay:
Each session is 5-10 minutes, and we usually do about 3 sessions throughout the day. I have way more time to devote if necessary, but advice we have received recommended not overdoing it for the first few weeks.
As for treats, we have tried using her regular food (treating it out instead of giving it to her as a meal), little cubes of lamb heart (her fav so far), little cubes of cheese, Mince balls, freeze dried liver treats, and k9 natural lamb treats.
Agility Dogs:
We are using her treats as a portion of her daily intake, although she never seems to finish her meals. We might try cutting back on it. At the moment we are offering her about 6% of her bodyweight in food (as recommended by the dogfood company K9), but she is only really eating about 4%.
Spotted Devil:
She was free-fed at her mum's home, but we are moving her to set meal times, and I'm trying to either replace her set meal time with a training session (using her food as rewards piece by piece), or training just before meal times when she is most hungry. Maybe she just hasn't had enough time to appreciate food?
As for not bothering charging the clicker or verbal marker, do you train using either of these? Or do you just reward a desired behaviour without a distinct marker? We trained our cattle dog like this, with a bit of luring and praising but no marker.
LisaCC:
She does seem to like affection and play time more than food, and we are trying to mix it up and sometimes we reward her with a treat plus a lot of affection.
When she sits down disinterested or just walks off, it's normally within the first two or three repetitions, so definitely short :laugh:
Haredown Whippets
I'm just going off what I've read in a couple of books about Positive Reinforcement training, but it says that the response we are looking for with a successful "charging the clicker" is any noticeable sign of excitement upon hearing the marker, before actually receiving or seeing a treat. That's when they say that the dog has made the connection and is expecting a reward. At the moment there is just a head turn to the source of the click.
Sorry if my post suggested anything otherwise, but I am not in any way blaming the dog. I'm simply putting out what I've been doing, and asking other peoples opinions on whether *I* can change anything to make things go smoothly.
At the moment I have several hours a day with her, so it's not like the only thing we do is train. She gets lots of love and attention and plenty of play and exploration time.
Honestly, I would be the happiest dog-parent in the world if the only thing I teach her is a good recall. Do you have any suggestions in training recall? At the moment making lots of noise and running in the opposite direction is working as a good recall, but she is slowly finding other things more interesting :D
Dragonwoman
Yes, I'm guessing she can. She is alert when other dogs are barking next door, as well as if someone accidentally drops something in the house. She also likes kissey noises :laugh:
The breeder has also conducted breed sight and hearing tests with the vet, and all is OK.