Obedience Troubleshooting

[bedazzledx2]

Nah its always a work in progress Ness!

Fair enough - and here I was thinking I'd get one exercise finished just like how it should for a trial rather than a million half started exercise - it appears not.

Not sure why I am bothering not like she will get in a ring anyway ever.

[RubyStar]

I was having this problem with Ruby this time last year if you remember, Ness. She was grabbing and not scenting at all! The thing that finally got her to scent was the cans trick. I put 4 tin cans out, careful not to get my scent on them, then put one scented article out between them. For some reason or other, that made her sniff the cans and then sniffed the article. Put 2 out, she sniffed again. Lost the cans, she still scented them

Some dogs grab, some scent I guess. After weeks hard at it with Ruby and the game finally sinking in, I feared how long it would take to teach Millie. But Millie surprised me, she's a scenter, and got the game in one session She can't retrieve properly yet though, so guess I better get round to teaching that part, eh! :D

[kathq]

Have only taught one dog this exercise and she is a retrieve mad fool so the snatch and grab was always a possibility. Started with the scout method and at the first sign of snatching I put in a cushion and hid the article under the cushion. (This is cause all my exercises are taught inside where possible then moved out to the yard and a cushion was handy. ) I dropped back to only one article and put it under the edge of the cushion. After a couple of goes like this I gradually introduced more articles. It appeared to have switched on her nose and she never looked back.

Hope this helps.

[ness]

Funny thing though is Ness grabbed but hers was a more indiscriminate grab (if that makes sense) most of the time Kenzie grabs and she is grabbing a correct article (and that includes when she has had to go over the other articles to find the correct one).

Will keep at it and see what happens its not been that many sessions yet. We have had a few sessions where she has deliberately only returned with the scented one despite having a good sniff at incorrect ones when I started a while ago using wood so will just see what happens.

[JulesP]

What happens if you place the scented article but throw an unscented one? Be interesting to see which one she brings back then.

[huski]

I bought out the dumbell today - I haven't done any work with Daisy with it and within five minutes she 'got' that I wanted her to touch it with her nose and she'll touch it on command now. I'm sure it will take ages before she actually mouths it or picks it up but so far so good I tried training her with it a bit about six months ago but I found it hard, as soon as she realised I had food she completely lost interest in the dumbell... she's definitely getting it now though (I've never taught her to touch anything before ) so I'm sure we'll get there eventually.

Edited January 1, 2010 by huski

[ness]

Thought I would have another article session today - interesting I used food to reward rather than a toy and my fetching default behavior was replaced with sniffing. We did both wood and metal separately and definitely were getting some sessions where she was sniffing all articles and returning with the scented article .

[bedazzledx2]

Just a question Huski, why are you giving her a verbal cue to touch? If you're shaping the retrieve the verbal cue usually goes on last after the entire exercise has been taught, otherwise you are just teaching her to touch the dumbell like a target and not flowing forward into the next step into the chain.

I bought out the dumbell today - I haven't done any work with Daisy with it and within five minutes she 'got' that I wanted her to touch it with her nose and she'll touch it on command now. I'm sure it will take ages before she actually mouths it or picks it up but so far so good I tried training her with it a bit about six months ago but I found it hard, as soon as she realised I had food she completely lost interest in the dumbell... she's definitely getting it now though (I've never taught her to touch anything before ) so I'm sure we'll get there eventually.

[huski]

oops double post

Edited January 1, 2010 by huski

[huski]

Just a question Huski, why are you giving her a verbal cue to touch? If you're shaping the retrieve the verbal cue usually goes on last after the entire exercise has been taught, otherwise you are just teaching her to touch the dumbell like a target and not flowing forward into the next step into the chain.

I realised that after I typed it, Bedazzled! I meant more that she'd touch it as soon as I presented the dumbell or if I pointed to it. I'm trying not to put any verbal cues on it just yet.

Second training session with it this afternoon and she's putting her mouth on it now, not with any real grip, but it's not bad progress for one day! She seems to be cottoning on to it quite quickly. Hopefully it won't be too long before she actually picks it up! (the hardest stage to teach I'm sure!). I didn't think she'd put her mouth on it so soon but she did it suddenly so I eagerly marked it and rewarded rewarded rewarded!

Edited January 1, 2010 by huski

[bedazzledx2]

Excellent progress Well done Huski

Just a question Huski, why are you giving her a verbal cue to touch? If you're shaping the retrieve the verbal cue usually goes on last after the entire exercise has been taught, otherwise you are just teaching her to touch the dumbell like a target and not flowing forward into the next step into the chain.

I realised that after I typed it, Bedazzled! I meant more that she'd touch it as soon as I presented the dumbell or if I pointed to it. I'm trying not to put any verbal cues on it just yet.

Second training session with it this afternoon and she's putting her mouth on it now, not with any real grip, but it's not bad progress for one day! She seems to be cottoning on to it quite quickly. Hopefully it won't be too long before she actually picks it up! (the hardest stage to teach I'm sure!). I didn't think she'd put her mouth on it so soon but she did it suddenly so I eagerly marked it and rewarded rewarded rewarded!

[huski]

Thanks Bedazzled, I'm hoping she continues to pick it up quickly, she was quite excited when I pulled it out for the second training session today! I'll have to be careful though as I'm rewarding her a lot at the moment (with tiny cat biscuits) and it's always surprising how quickly you go through food rewards when training something new I don't want a (fatter) beagle!

I might switch to little bits of carrot or something to help keep the calories down

[bedazzledx2]

I hear you Husk Dog's looooovvvve cat bickies but they are really high in fat! Probably why they are so tasty! I use their daily meal ration to train especially when I am shaping as you do tend to go through a lot of treats. I like a softer food like cheese and or chunkers or even bits of raw meat so we dont go through the inhale/choke bit! Brooklyn is a "good doer" as they say and its a constant battle to maintain a healthy working weight as he is such a guts Whatever food I don't use in training from that day goes into his dinner bowl and nothing else! Sometimes he just gets his bone allowance.

Thanks Bedazzled, I'm hoping she continues to pick it up quickly, she was quite excited when I pulled it out for the second training session today! I'll have to be careful though as I'm rewarding her a lot at the moment (with tiny cat biscuits) and it's always surprising how quickly you go through food rewards when training something new I don't want a (fatter) beagle!

I might switch to little bits of carrot or something to help keep the calories down

[huski]

I hear you Husk Dog's looooovvvve cat bickies but they are really high in fat! Probably why they are so tasty! I use their daily meal ration to train especially when I am shaping as you do tend to go through a lot of treats. I like a softer food like cheese and or chunkers or even bits of raw meat so we dont go through the inhale/choke bit! Brooklyn is a "good doer" as they say and its a constant battle to maintain a healthy working weight as he is such a guts Whatever food I don't use in training from that day goes into his dinner bowl and nothing else! Sometimes he just gets his bone allowance.

Yes, it's hard to keep Daisy slim too She will gorge herself on any food she can get her paws on! She ate more than a kilo of cat food when she last managed to open the container

I feed them on a raw diet so it's hard to use their daily meals as training treats when you are shaping something and only want to give them little bits.

Thankfully I pretty much always train new things at home, so I don't need to use anything particularly high value as even a piece of lettuce is hugely exciting to Daisy in a low distraction environment!

When we're doing drive training and are out and about in high levels of distraction I always use something soft and smelly, usually cooked meat of some description. She tends to get so excited that she'll swallow things without chewing, so using anything dried slows us down as she stops to cough it up. It's not so bad at home, because I try not to get her as excited when we're just learning new things or shaping.

I always get torn though when it comes to using high value meat for training as it's hard to find something healthy - sausage, kabana, luncheon roll etc are all pretty fatty even when I feed them in tiny tiny pieces. Often I'll get lean beef pieces or chicken and boil it then chop them up to use as training treats as it's a bit lower in fat than processed food like sausage. I get worried about it as if you train multiple times a day, whatever food you use to reward really does become part of their daily diet!

Edited January 1, 2010 by huski

[bedazzledx2]

I also feed raw but its not that hard to treat from the daily allowance. I feed goat as the main meat component and I don't cook it so thats pretty easy. You're not a real trainer until you can have bits of raw meat, chicken necks, sardines in your pocket Actually a bum bag is good for shaping as you can put anything disgusting in it and wash it afterwards. This clip is distraction training (very distracting as he loves toys ) but you can see me toss a whole fresh sardine from my pocket (eeewwwe!) at 1.53. If I'm training duration I'll have his meal in small containers and use that as a jackpot.

I hear you Husk Dog's looooovvvve cat bickies but they are really high in fat! Probably why they are so tasty! I use their daily meal ration to train especially when I am shaping as you do tend to go through a lot of treats. I like a softer food like cheese and or chunkers or even bits of raw meat so we dont go through the inhale/choke bit! Brooklyn is a "good doer" as they say and its a constant battle to maintain a healthy working weight as he is such a guts Whatever food I don't use in training from that day goes into his dinner bowl and nothing else! Sometimes he just gets his bone allowance.

Yes, it's hard to keep Daisy slim too She will gorge herself on any food she can get her paws on! She ate more than a kilo of cat food when she last managed to open the container

I feed them on a raw diet so it's hard to use their daily meals as training treats when you are shaping something and only want to give them little bits.

Thankfully I pretty much always train new things at home, so I don't need to use anything particularly high value as even a piece of lettuce is hugely exciting to Daisy in a low distraction environment!

When we're doing drive training and are out and about in high levels of distraction I always use something soft and smelly, usually cooked meat of some description. She tends to get so excited that she'll swallow things without chewing, so using anything dried slows us down as she stops to cough it up. It's not so bad at home, because I try not to get her as excited when we're just learning new things or shaping.

I always get torn though when it comes to using high value meat for training as it's hard to find something healthy - sausage, kabana, luncheon roll etc are all pretty fatty even when I feed them in tiny tiny pieces. Often I'll get lean beef pieces or chicken and boil it then chop them up to use as training treats as it's a bit lower in fat than processed food like sausage. I get worried about it as if you train multiple times a day, whatever food you use to reward really does become part of their daily diet!

[bedazzledx2]

Sorry forgot to add the clip Here it is

[huski]

I also feed raw but its not that hard to treat from the daily allowance. I feed goat as the main meat component and I don't cook it so thats pretty easy. You're not a real trainer until you can have bits of raw meat, chicken necks, sardines in your pocket Actually a bum bag is good for shaping as you can put anything disgusting in it and wash it afterwards. This clip is distraction training (very distracting as he loves toys ) but you can see me toss a whole fresh sardine from my pocket (eeewwwe!) at 1.53. If I'm training duration I'll have his meal in small containers and use that as a jackpot.

Actually chopping up some raw meat sounds like a great idea!

I just chopped up some raw carrot and apple and she loved it. In fact she loved it so much that she actually picked the dumbell up off the ground and held it!!!! You could have picked my jaw up off the ground! Not only once but several times through out last training session. She picked it up off the ground once and I made a massive fuss over it, then she just kept doing it, like "Oh, so this is all you want me to do?"

First day of dumbell training and third training session, she learns to pick it up off the ground, I couldn't be more chuffed!

She isn't really holding it if I hand it to her, she still puts her mouth on it but without a proper grip. If I put it on the ground and point to it, she picks it up. So I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I'm glad she seems to be getting it!

Sorry forgot to add the clip Here it is

I think I've seen that one before - I need to find some raw sardines, they are an excellent idea for a big training session!!

[Zug Zug]

Sorry forgot to add the clip Here it is

Oh now that is really inspiring. I'm going to try something like this at home!

[ness]

I am still sitting here looking for inspiration on how to use this pink alien toy which arrived before Christmas .

[Tiggy]

Banjo is a 'good doer' to . I've been cooking up kangaroo sausages which are really low in fat but stink to cook . I also feed a raw diet so have found it hard to use his daily meal as treats.