Obedience Challenge

[shoemonster]

Yep bring on more challenges!

[Ptolomy]

OK - I have posted odedience challenge #2

Go have a play.....

[Luke W]

I hate a lot of you

I need to do some more focus work.

Any recommendations for books, videos, exercises?

If there's a chicken frame defrosting in the microwave - his focus is excellent

If I've really worked up his prey drive with tug - his focus is excellent

How do you get that sort of focus ALL the time?

[shoemonster]

Luke, do you really want it all the time? You want them to switch off too

Do you use a command at the start when you are working up drive, etc, to let him know that work is starting and then release when you're finished?

[Luke W]

Luke, do you really want it all the time? You want them to switch off too

Do you use a command at the start when you are working up drive, etc, to let him know that work is starting and then release when you're finished?

I need to get my act together. I make so many mistakes.

I tend to separate serious training and play. My bad.

Play is tug or fetch - this is where I'm trying to build a desire for tug or fetch. It's mainly play, with a small amount of commands thrown in to practice on/off.

I'll use tug as an example...

I say..."wanna PLAY?"..."PLAY?"..."PLAY??"

and start tug, revving him up as much as I can...every so often (10sec, 30sec, 60sec, variable), I'll say "Let go", which he does, then I'll say "sit", "down", "on your mat" which he'll do eagferly. Then back into tug.

But this really is mainly PLAY, not serious training.

For serious training (sits, stays, downs, stands, spins, going round poles, heel work etc)...basically practice for my obedience levels at school, I use all food. And I don't go into a variable reinforcement quick enough. And I reinforce too much for known exercises. I'm not very good at using judicious use of rewards to shape better behaviour.

I don't have a 'lets work' command. I do have 2 release cues..."Free" - current exercise over (but I'm not consistant with this), and another cue..."Off ya go, all done, finish" (yes it's a long cue )...this means training is over and you can piss off.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Luke W

[Ptolomy]

Luke - don't get disheartened. I am posting challenges that everybody can try - if you don't do as well as you had hoped then you know you have some work to do.

My Obedience Champion dog could only manage 15 seconds before he looked away. I would have expected a lot more from him - but hey it wasn't to be. I only did the exercise once with him and perhaps if I had done it a couple of time I may have got a better result. I KNOW if I had used food he would would look at me for days

The 2 challenges I have posted have been different to what you would "normally" train - most of us would be using food or a cue word and of course Challenge 2 - the recall we would be facing the dog BUT I have changed the picture to see how well the dog generalises and to see how the dogs reacts.

Keep plugging away - I am sure we will help where we can. You have done a great job so far.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Ptolomy

[shoemonster]

love the "Off ya go, all done, finish" cue

I think you've answered your own question now though! Its so hard to change the way you do things though isnt it. Until i started TID I constantly thought I needed to be more consistant, do this do that, etc

ETA theres still heaps of things I need to get better at but I've improved heaps now, and become more confident in what I'm doing

Edited November 3, 2008 by shoemonster

[Luke W]

love the "Off ya go, all done, finish" cue

I think you've answered your own question now though! Its so hard to change the way you do things though isnt it. Until i started TID I constantly thought I needed to be more consistant, do this do that, etc

ETA theres still heaps of things I need to get better at but I've improved heaps now, and become more confident in what I'm doing

So much to learn, so much to do, so many DVDs to watch.

OK - tomorrow I am going to watch Balabanov and read another chapter in Control Unleashed.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Luke W

[MrsD]

Awesome MrsD and Jarrah, I love seeing dogs have focus on their handlers.

Thanks kobblyness .

My theory was that a clicker/food trained dog wouldn't do as well with this exercise because they are encouraged to offer behaviours and to have to sit still and pay attention without a cue word would be really hard for them.

I food/clicker train but I don't do much (any) shaping Ptolomy. Am too impatient for that!!! Perhaps you need to ask people if they do shaping?

That's the first thing I thought of when Ptolomy mentioned about offering behaviours - Jarrah is clicker trained but I don't normally do free shaping. I've only done it once (fairly recently, just a couple of months back) & I managed to get 2 great behaviours out of it though (shaking his head & putting his head on the ground between his paws) so I will probably do more of it in the future .

But he has also been taught to stand in front of me without moving & give attention, so I guess in that regard it's a bit of a cheat .

[TerraNik]

I do free shaping with my guys but not very often. It's only when I want to enhance a behaviour that they already do (e.g. walking backwards). The rest of the time I use the clicker to shape already trained behaviours or to teach new ones (e.g. with luring).

But focus is the second thing my guys learned (after sit) - which I teach with free shaping and using the clicker in a more formal way (sit in heel with focus).

[whitka]

I've just tried this with my boy, 5 year old Golden Retriever, no titles and was trained with food, toys, praise and clicker.

I did this for a minute and in that min only a couple of times did he glance at me for like 2 seconds, he really wasnt interested.

[Seita]

Ok I actually tried this and I was slightly wrong in my guess of what Ella (CDX border collie) would do. She sat and watched me for about 35 seconds and then looked away for a second or two but then straight back at me.