Herr Rottweiler

Raven, that will happen anywhere you train. Some trainers you bond with and find their information helpful and beneficial and others may not understand your dog very well. Two helpful bits of advice that I may offer you; 1. Simply say to the trainers that you are working with [insert name] and you are following a program they have set for you. 2. Be wary of some of the advice on DOL as 80% of the advice comes from people who have only ever trained 1 or 2 dogs and it's usually emotive rather than beneficial.

I'm basing this on over 10,000 people

I'm going to get ragged for saying this but I find the women will stick in there and keep training the dogs where the blokes get sick of it pretty quick and pack it in.

I really couldn't tell whether you were being serious or stupid when I read your post Lab and Poodle? Either way, I think your post is a little out of order. Maybe the organisation may want to sue you for your remarks? Especially the part where you are recommending that Raven should take her revenge on the trainer with a crow bar? Mistakes do happen from time to time in training and perhaps the individual in question misread the character of the dog to begin with, after all, most mastiff are big strong, powerful dogs. Raven, there are people aware of your issue. They will be happy to discuss it with you on a Thursday night and I will be monitoring the situation very closely. L&P, be nice and if you can't be nice

I'll see ya there!

Hiya Kristie, That's a lot of training for a little pup in one day, careful you don't over do it.

I agree with HR. How are you rewarding him? If the reward is motivational enough, then getting his focus will be much easier. If he performs well at dinner time, have you tried taking his dinner along to training and feeding it as treats when he performs? Or have you tried rewarding with a chase or tug toy? There is only so much motivation one can do with a bullmastiff. My boy is extremely laid back with not a care in the world. Dinner doesnt get him motivated. He focus's because he knows he has to do that in order to get his dinner and I really cant take his dinner into the show ring with me. Raw Rabbit with dry food wont do to well in my pocket. I have tried using his favourite toys for training as well as using food and the moment he realises what I am doing with it he loses interest. I have tried jumping around and acting like a complete and total fool with no response. That is why I wonder if establishing me as the Alpha and removing the hand signals has messed things up. I dont know what to do other than dropping my status as alpha and drop training for a while and just focus on playing with him. Then slowly reintroduce things. Mastiff's by nature tend to be plodders. The older they get, the lazier they tend to be. Not in all cases but in many of the mastiff's I've worked with they don't get highly enthusiatic. You shouldn't ever drop your Alpha status with your dog, that's never the solution to fixing anything. What you do need to do is capture and "Mark" the times when he is excited and happy, even if it's for a very short period of time. What i'm recommending is several things, 1. Ease up on him a bit and maybe relax yourself. 2. Make his feeding schedule part of training so he gets fed when he's working. If he's being flat and lacking enthusiasm, then he doesn't get all the food he wants. If he is motivated or he shows improvement, then he gets more of whatever he wants. 3. Ignore him unless he's ready to work and when he does work, show him that it is his behaviour that triggers positive responses and rewards from you. I have trained dogs that have crawled on their belly when they have first been introduced to me and scared stiff of the world and I have still managed to find something to motivate and excite them enough to get the desired responses. Another thing I need to know is how lomg you have been at this for now? What centre are you training at?

It doesn't appear to me that the flatness from your dog is related to the fact that you no longer use hand signals. It more appears that this is an excuse in your diagnosis of why the problem has occured, however it is important when looking at the bigger picture that you do list all possible reasons, so you are doing the right thing there. My suggestion is that you are possibly making obedience unenjoyable to your dog by putting too much pressure on him too soon, (kind of like what some parents do to kids in sports) which can lead to a resiliance and a dislike in what they are doing. Find something that motivates your dog, something that he is obsessed by and incorporate that into the reward process when the dog gives you the type of behaviour you expect, that way he will enjoy what it is he's doing and relate it to a positive association. I think finding yourself a coach for a few private lessons will improve your situation too.

If 50% of the people who come down with their dogs for training had this attitude then we'd see a huge reduction in the ammount of dogs going to pounds. Great attitude Burlof, I just wish it was contageuos.

I'm a firm believer that gut feeling shouldn't be ignored.

here is a question you could ask the owner. "Where your parents brother and sister by any chance?"

Classic! Hey i'm a caring sharing kinda guy! I haven't been doing this for 16 years with nothing to show for it

:rolleyes: Tell her to put poo on her washing!

I have two things to say to everyone on the, "Yeah but" brigade 1. ;) 2. :rolleyes:

These are the kinds of people that I encourage to run with scissors

Well put Erny

That's sounds like a great deal! Who do you train with?

What is Herr H? LL, I wasn't sounding off at you, so I hope I didn't come across all gruff and serious? I'm a very light hearted person, (ask Erny) I just don't think much of some trainers or schools as they have no idea what their doing and it's mostly just the blind leading the blind.

Husband first, then dog But, but, but............I have an excuse. My husband prefers take away. He is a fuss pot, when it comes to meals, obviously not as fussy when it comes to his wife selection. PLEASE believe me!!!!!!! Also the gas delivery man does not come until tomorrow, LOL. You should have your toys taken away from you for that naughty behaviour

Hi Lablover, At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there are many good dog trainers and very few great ones in Australia. In fact I could probably count great dog trainers on my fingers and toes. Being a instructor with the NDTF I have seen almost a thousand students go through the course and perhaps 10 of those have stood out with less than half of those living up to my expectations. You either have it or you don't, if you don't you have many years of hard work ahead of you and if you do, you run the risk of becomming lazy and complacent.

One thing that I would like to add here guys for most of the bargain dog trainer hunters, many people think that expensive = bad and cheap = value. From my experience, (and this has nothing to do with me flogging my own services or any of the schools I train at) many of the trainers are poorly experienced, many of them have only trained 1 or 2 dogs which are generally their own and they have no real formal training or qualifications or made up internal qualifications, such as accreditation from a recognised training body or a Certificate 4 in work place training and assessing. Many people who tell me how good their training centre is have nothing to really go on because they have never been anywhere else, therefore have no comparison to base their argument on. But, at the end of the day, if you're happy, then that's all that really matters.

Husband first, then dog

The Rotty club is $60 for the first year as a new member & $5 each time you train or $15 up front for a five week block indoor training on a weeknight and accept all breeds, OR ADT, (which I'm a trainer at) works out costing the average member $5 a lesson and they have the choice of training at anyone of the eight training centres or 5 times a week if they don't mind travelling a bit and are training obsessed, which some of the members are.

Oh good, I pass. Lablover, I don't think there is any doubt of you passing.