I Have Ruined My Dog

[ILK]

Well I have inadvertently ruined my dog momentarily on the agility course.

We were doing really well and he was very focussed, but lately with all the rain their have been lots of ducks in the dog park so instead of throwing a ball I have allowed my boy to chase the ducks, almost daily, he doesn't hurt them mind you he just loves the run.

My dog is now not focussed on me at all during group agility for the last two weeks. He watches every other dog that moves and takes off when he gets over excited. He comes back on recall, but it is driving me crazy. When I sat down and thought about it last night I realised that by allowing him to chase the birds I have increased his prey drive. I could kick myself for not being smarter about this considering I have a working dog. :D

Any suggestions on how to fix this asap would be much appreciated - of course the first thing I will put a halt to is bird chasing

[WildatHeart]

arghh i have them same problem, no focus. The crows try and eat her breakfast so i encouraged her to chase them. Now everytime i walk outside she tries to beat them and gets all excited and rushes out the door incase there are some birds to chase.

Edited June 30, 2009 by WildatHeart

[laffi]

I would use the ducks in the park as a reward. So work on simple stuff at the beginning (like hand touches) and release him to chase the ducks. Gradually increase the difficulty. Have him on leash at the beginning to make sure she doesn't release himself.

Use the ducks to strengthen your relationship with him :D

[WildatHeart]

thats an excellent idea, drop stay while i open the door and reward to chase birds :D

[ILK]

I would use the ducks in the park as a reward. So work on simple stuff at the beginning (like hand touches) and release him to chase the ducks. Gradually increase the difficulty. Have him on leash at the beginning to make sure she doesn't release himself.

Use the ducks to strengthen your relationship with him :D

That is a very logical & sensible idea laffi thanks. I will definately give that a go.

[Vickie]

:p you haven't ruined your dog, you just have some work to do.

If it were me, I would stop the bird chasing. I have a friend whose dog will take off in the middle of an agility run to chase birds & it is terrifying. She once got distracted in the middle of her run by birds, left the ring, left the grounds alltogether & crossed a 4 lane road. :D . I can think of lots of other times too where we have panicked after she has run out of the ring. Since knowing her, I have never allowed any of my subsequent dogs to value bird chasing. It scares me too much.

The chances are that your dog would have become excited by other dogs anyway, it may not even be related to the ducks & even if you do use the ducks as a training tool, it will not necessarily change the way he is reacting to other dogs at agility.

How long have you been doing agility? How old is your dog? What do you use to reward him?

I think it's a better idea to work through the agility focus which can only help your relationship anyway. Things like rewarding more often, doing smaller sequences for a while etc.

Edited June 30, 2009 by Vickie

[Nicole...]

I have the same problem - but you expect these things from a gundog

The way that we handle it is to pay attention to her - as soon as her focus switches from us to the birds, then we make sure she is on lead until the last second we do an agility run and goes straight on afterwards. We use that time to get lots of focus going and the more we have worked on it the easier this is. Fortunately she has a short attention span and after a few minutes of focusing she has often forgotten about the birds anyway. When she has kept her focus on us we will release her to chase the birds (or run after the birds with her if it's somewhere she can't go offlead - oh how funny that must look! ). So we have taught her that the focus must be on us, and the birds are only a reward.

The one thing we do have to watch is that if she isn't having fun at agility then she will self reward with the birds - she hasn't done this for a while but a couple of months ago she got caught up in the cloth tunnel. So I sent her back through with the intention of rewarding as soon as she came out to make it more positive but she got in the drum, ran out the back and went off chasing the birds instead to make herself feel better.

[poodlefan]

Vickie:

The chances are that your dog would have become excited by other dogs anyway, it may not even be related to the ducks & even if you do use the ducks as a training tool, it will not necessarily change the way he is reacting to other dogs at agility.

I agree. I don't see the two issues as necessarily at all related. You have a focus and control issue, not a prey drive one. Your dog would probably not be viewing the other dogs as prey. If your dog has such strong prey drive, find a way to harness it to your advantage.. use tugs and balls as your motivators.

Edited June 30, 2009 by poodlefan

[Agility Dogs]

I had a similar problem with my girl.

She decided her number 1 job was to gaurd a tree that I had chased a possum out of.

We just couldn't train in the back yard because she was totally focussed on the bloody tree. No amount of correction would solve it so I had to think about the problem a bit deeper. (Who said, 'correction starts where understanding stops'?)

In the end we used Vickie's suggestion - VERY simple tasks, inordinately big rewards (even just for sitting and staying) and then put a command on her going to the tree and even more big rewards when she did it.

She still runs to the tree, but it doesn't have quite the same value on it and she will do anything I ask in the yard now.

hope that helps.

Cheers

T

[dogdude]

Sounds like a movement obsession to me, and I would try to shift the drive onto something more controlable like a tug as PF said.

Encouraging an obsession about anything that is not in your immediate control is asking for trouble, and not practical.

[ILK]

Sounds like a movement obsession to me, and I would try to shift the drive onto something more controlable like a tug as PF said.

Encouraging an obsession about anything that is not in your immediate control is asking for trouble, and not practical.

Yes dogdude you have worded it perfectly thankyou - a movement obsession is what it is - It has only been a major issue for the last two weeks, but I do believe it has been created by allowing bird chasing as a fun leisure activity. He has never been as disobedient as he is at this point in our relationship. He has always been a high maintenance dog but at the moment I am extremely frustrated with his lack of focus on me.

I will definately use toys as motivators and I have decided that I am going to put a stop to the bird chasing all together as he is a very excitable dog. To answer your questions vicki he is 3 but acts like he is 18months he still looks and acts like a pup. He is not extremely food motivated, but he is toy & ball motivated, so I will take some of your advice on this thread and use these tools.

Edited July 1, 2009 by ILUVKELPIES

[ILK]

I thought I would give an update for those that may have a similar problem.

We agreed last week that my dog has a movement obsession,, but I have also concluded that my movements are the biggest obsession of all. So this week at agility I tethered him when he wasn't on a run. I kept walking in different directions consistently so instead of focussing on the other dogs he focussed on me we would then do touch/treat. That way when it was time to do a run his focus was on me not another dog that just ran. We had a couple of mishaps but definately much better and on the road to a recovering the mess I created. I have also started working on a tug toy.

Thanks for all your help and especially to those who pm'd me I got some really helpful tidbits.

[acookey]

As both a dog person and a bird person, I would please ask that you never allow your dog to chase any birds in any public area, or open area.

I belong to a bird forum and there are always complaints about people allowing their dogs to chase birds. You may not recognise them, but there are a lot of endangered and rare birds, including waders and ducks out there, and everyone, dogs and birds needs their space.

I am sure that responsible dog owners will respect the environment around them, because if they don't they could end up being banned from some areas.

This is just a message, don't shoot the messanger.

Acookey

[ILK]

As both a dog person and a bird person, I would please ask that you never allow your dog to chase any birds in any public area, or open area.

I belong to a bird forum and there are always complaints about people allowing their dogs to chase birds. You may not recognise them, but there are a lot of endangered and rare birds, including waders and ducks out there, and everyone, dogs and birds needs their space.

I am sure that responsible dog owners will respect the environment around them, because if they don't they could end up being banned from some areas.

This is just a message, don't shoot the messanger.

Acookey

I have put a stop to it already. You make a good point - everyones space should be respected