Training Talk Thread

[Ptolomy]

Good work Huski - I think YOU have improved a truck load since I met you

What does Steve recommend you do if you are heeling and the dog loses focus?

[huski]

Thanks Sandi

Normally I would give a look or heel command or NRM depending on how much focus the dog has lost. If Daisy is really distacted most of the time I will put her on a tie out. For the purpose of the video I was trying to male it as trial like as possible so I was trying not to give too many extra commands.

[Ptolomy]

Thanks Sandi

Normally I would give a look or heel command or NRM depending on how much focus the dog has lost. If Daisy is really distacted most of the time I will put her on a tie out. For the purpose of the video I was trying to male it as trial like as possible so I was trying not to give too many extra commands.

If one of my kids lost focus (more like the baby than the older kids) the moment it happened I would get into their face and ask them what do you think you are doing ........I usually find they switch back in real quick :D

[ness]

yes that works very well Ptolomy - both Ness and Kenz agree about that :D .

[Ptolomy]

I had my first real obedience training session tonight since I returned from Sydney/Brisbane and my clicker timing sucked :D

Scoota is no longer glued in the box and will now happily leave it when I tell him which jump to take

and stays - yep had 4 dogs including Cider in a sit stay while I walked over to the car and got some treats out and nobody moved :D it doesn't mean much for the older ones, but that was a big effort from Ciderbear

[ness]

Go Ciderbear - Hmmmm not sure Kenz could manage that yet hahahaha.

[TerraNik]

Ahsoka's SFE is coming along now! I can throw food, dance around her, pat her roughly and she still sticks all 4 paws when we're at home .... Now to start increasing distractions... I finally feel we're getting somewhere!

[Ptolomy]

Ahsoka's SFE is coming along now! I can throw food, dance around her, pat her roughly and she still sticks all 4 paws when we're at home .... Now to start increasing distractions... I finally feel we're getting somewhere!

Great news......

Can you walk around the back of her - thats what is bringing us unstuck at the moment :p

[JulesP]

Thanks Sandi

Normally I would give a look or heel command or NRM depending on how much focus the dog has lost. If Daisy is really distacted most of the time I will put her on a tie out. For the purpose of the video I was trying to male it as trial like as possible so I was trying not to give too many extra commands.

If one of my kids lost focus (more like the baby than the older kids) the moment it happened I would get into their face and ask them what do you think you are doing ........I usually find they switch back in real quick :p

what do you mean 'get in their face' ? :p

Poppy did another nice run through last night. Still not a happy little dog in the stays, lots of anxious feet shuffling.

[Ptolomy]

what do you mean 'get in their face' ?

Basically interupting the sniffing or the inattentive behaviour they are doing.

[Mas1981]

Thanks Sandi

Normally I would give a look or heel command or NRM depending on how much focus the dog has lost. If Daisy is really distacted most of the time I will put her on a tie out. For the purpose of the video I was trying to male it as trial like as possible so I was trying not to give too many extra commands.

If one of my kids lost focus (more like the baby than the older kids) the moment it happened I would get into their face and ask them what do you think you are doing ........I usually find they switch back in real quick :p

Do you do it in a cross voice?? Thinking maybe this would be useful to me, my dog has the attention span of a flea....

[RallyValley]

I have a question, when I am walking Lincoln and I have food (I won't say heeling as we haven't properlystarted that yet) he jumps stright up in the air and back down in excitement (so not onto me, just upwards) of course I ignore this behaviour and then do something positive on the ground level (i.,e sit, stand) then give him a treat (but not always stright after, so he dosen't learn jump=treat). Should I be doing something else?

[ness]

Ptolomy - maybe the red kids better stop emailing my black and white kids during the day - first it was Scoota's problems Ness was having and now its CiderBear and Kenz :p :p .

ETA. Masons_mum not exactly sure how Ptolomy does it but I would take my older one by the collar and say Oi what do you think your doing. Thing is you have to be totally consistent though. You can't decide to accept it sometimes and not other times otherwise it doesn't have the same effect.

Edited May 5, 2010 by ness

[huski]

MM - if he finds it hard to focus most of the time I'd suggest you'd need to do more than just give him a vocal correction - I went months without doing much if any heel work with Daisy and worked instead on building her focus and drive and when I took her out I'd only ask for very very small things and I'd only train fir very short periods.

Now she is capable of doing a heel pattern because we have that good foundation I am more likely to give her a vocal correction to get her focus back. I didn't do that in the beginning when I'd be lucky to have 10 seconds of focus like I had in the video I posted. Getting better focus wasn't about correcting her a lot and a quick vocal correction wouldn't have worked most of the time back then anyway. She is much more keen and reponsive now so she is more likely to respond to a quick oi or no and I don't need to use a really gruff loud voice or anything either.

Not sure if that made sense? JMO

[ness]

I guess it also depends on the dog. My younger one needs very little to get her attention back, an oi or even just saying her name can be enough but then she hasn't had a huge history of tuning out and being allowed to continue working. I will say I also went through a stage with her where I would just wait her out. We would only continuing heeling if she was focused and I would reward her when she was focused. She was only really losing it on RATs turns and her getting distracted doesn't tend to involve sniffing and is probably relatively minor but I am fussy and want 100% attention all of the time .

[Ptolomy]

what do you mean 'get in their face' ?

Basically interupting the sniffing or the inattentive behaviour they are doing.

An "OI" would work for my kids or I would turn and run away - no need for me to grab a collar. You may find that if you touch them on the shoulder it would be enough to break the sniffing trance???

[caffy]

If it was in heelwork where my dog lost focus, I would just stop heeling , step aside and take my hands away from the heel position I have them in to cue heeling. They realise that looking away is not part of the picture and generally when focus returns, we take off again and I will click within the first few steps if they truly commit to what we are doing.

If they wander off to sniff, then I don’t grab collars, I just play tap their butts or step on the “smell”…I may ask for handtouches and get them focused back on me and have them wanting to play heeling again. When they are focused, then we take off again and I’ll click and treat within the first few steps.

[RubyStar]

If it was in heelwork where my dog lost focus, I would just stop heeling , step aside and take my hands away from the heel position I have them in to cue heeling. They realise that looking away is not part of the picture and generally when focus returns, we take off again and I will click within the first few steps if they truly commit to what we are doing.

That is what the guru told me to do, and I have to say it works! She said Ruby finds heeling fun (when I thought she was bored to tears of it!) and that by stopping the game and stepping away when she looks away, she loses her chance for earning rewards. When they look back, start the game again and get a reward in when they commit back to you. She also said you don't have to wait for them to get back into seated heel position next to you each time, just get moving again straight away as all you're after is focus (I was asked about this method the other day and for the life of me couldn't remember the whys of it, but it just came back to me )

The other guru with the red kids also taught me that if your dog just plain doesn't want to focus/play the game, put them away for a few minutes. Rinse and repeat, they soon learn if they don't pay attention they don't get to stay out and play!

[Mas1981]

If it was in heelwork where my dog lost focus, I would just stop heeling , step aside and take my hands away from the heel position I have them in to cue heeling. They realise that looking away is not part of the picture and generally when focus returns, we take off again and I will click within the first few steps if they truly commit to what we are doing.

That is what the guru told me to do, and I have to say it works! She said Ruby finds heeling fun (when I thought she was bored to tears of it!) and that by stopping the game and stepping away when she looks away, she loses her chance for earning rewards. When they look back, start the game again and get a reward in when they commit back to you. She also said you don't have to wait for them to get back into seated heel position next to you each time, just get moving again straight away as all you're after is focus (I was asked about this method the other day and for the life of me couldn't remember the whys of it, but it just came back to me )

The other guru with the red kids also taught me that if your dog just plain doesn't want to focus/play the game, put them away for a few minutes. Rinse and repeat, they soon learn if they don't pay attention they don't get to stay out and play!

You saw on friday how hard it is to get Mason's attention? Granted we didnt have treats that had any value to him with me but he is so focussed on other dogs it drives me insane!! I take him to the park a few times a week and work on him only focussing on me but its hard!!

[caffy]

You saw on friday how hard it is to get Mason's attention? Granted we didnt have treats that had any value to him with me but he is so focussed on other dogs it drives me insane!! I take him to the park a few times a week and work on him only focussing on me but its hard!!

Persist with it MM.

A day before our last obedience trial, our neighbour’s roof was being tiled with about 5 beefy guys standing on the roof causing my bc to constantly bark at them. All I did for that session was reward focus in a sit position. Must have worked…he got 199 in his next trial.