Training Talk Thread

[Ptolomy]

I look forward to trying the can method tonight!! I have visions of Polo bringing me cans of soup though.... I will report back after we try

You at least sounds like you are keener than you were a week or two ago

We shall not let this beat us!

[Mas1981]

This morning I walked Mason over to the next oval up from us, we have trained there before but I have not made him do stays there prior to this. I asked him for a stand and he was good, I walked away he stayed I returned and treated. Then I asked for a sit stay, he lay down after about 30seconds, I walked back and made him sit, I walked off, turned around and he tried to lay down again, I said 'no' in a very stern voice and he sat straight back up is it wrong to do this? It seemed to work though.

[ness]

The can method really does work. I was in all sorts of difficultly less than 2 weeks out from Ness's UD debut with her going back to snatching articles. Also happened to be staying with Ptolomy and remember her raiding her pantry for cans . Resolved the problem nicely.

Failing cans - bricks work nicely too . I have also played the game with upturned flower pots.

Edited June 9, 2010 by ness

[FHRP]

Well I didn't get the soup cans retrieved However, I didn't see any improvement ;) Which article he picked up still seemed to be very random, no signs of using his nose. When I thought he was just going for which article I put down last, I put him out of sight and it became more miss than hit He would even swap from the corect to the incorrect!!!

After finishing with Polo I gave my old boy Flynn a go with the woods and leathers (run out of metals!) and after his initial snatch and grab, he remembered and did a wood and leather correctly and was very proud of himself

[Ptolomy]

Well I didn't get the soup cans retrieved However, I didn't see any improvement ;) Which article he picked up still seemed to be very random, no signs of using his nose. When I thought he was just going for which article I put down last, I put him out of sight and it became more miss than hit He would even swap from the corect to the incorrect!!!

After finishing with Polo I gave my old boy Flynn a go with the woods and leathers (run out of metals!) and after his initial snatch and grab, he remembered and did a wood and leather correctly and was very proud of himself

Hmm little bugger - try squashing a tiny bit of cheese onto of the scented one

[Seita]

I think poor Ella needs a new handler! I went out to do a quick seek back session with her this morning, I sent her to find it and she searched and searched and searched and searched. I thought I'd just let her go as long as she could to see what would happen if she couldn't find it in a trial. She ran over the spot where I dropped it several times and just didn't seem to indicate it, so here I am thinking that she was just clueless, after several very long minutes she finally stopped in front of me as if to say it's not here mum... so I walked around looking for it with her seeking for it and we couldn't find it, on a whim I thought I'd check my boot, and sure enough the blasted thing fell down my boot when I dropped it, no wonder the poor girl couldn't find it!!! I felt sooo bad for her cos she tried sooo hard to find it! I did another short one after that and made sure it was on the ground and she had no trouble finding it! I'll bet if I tried to drop the thing down my boot I wouldn't have a hope!

[ness]

Poor Ella think she definitely needs a new handler . Just as well you don't have to drop it at a trial .

Edited June 9, 2010 by ness

[flyingduster]

for scenting I've heard of the idea of making the wrong ones smell strongly of something not nice (a strong alcohol was used in the example I'm thinking of!) with the one item wanted smelling 'normal'. It was supposed to help the dogs that weren't using their noses and didn't understand that that's what we wanted of them (rather than just retriving "something", we wanted the RIGHT 'something'!) it made it very black and white from the dogs perspective that there was OBVIOUSLY two different smells there, and it was the one smell you wanted back...

Now I've never taught scent (yet) so I don't know how succesful this would be, but it sounds like it'd make sense really, especially when they're not 'getting' the smell thing...? I don't think it'd matter too much what the pugnant smell was, but you'd want it something rather strong and unpleasent to the dog. Perfume or something springs to mind too, something that really stinks and the dogs avoid!

[pie]

If anyone was wanting to buy one of the 6m tunnels on Topbuy a while back and missed out they are back in stock:

http://www.topbuy.com.au/tbcart/pc/viewPrd...idProduct=31566

ETA: But if you all buy them and they stuff up and miss my order again I'm going to murder someone

Edited June 10, 2010 by amypie

[ness]

amypie I haven't even got mine out since I bought it .

[RubyStar]

amypie I haven't even got mine out since I bought it .

What a waste!

Amy and I both bought one, lets see if we actually use them Amy!!

[pie]

I need to use mine for intensive tunnel rear cross practice - to teach him to go all the way to the end regardless if where I'm going preferably without spinning around inside! Argh.

I can't believe you haven't used yours Ness

[Mas1981]

for scenting I've heard of the idea of making the wrong ones smell strongly of something not nice (a strong alcohol was used in the example I'm thinking of!) with the one item wanted smelling 'normal'. It was supposed to help the dogs that weren't using their noses and didn't understand that that's what we wanted of them (rather than just retriving "something", we wanted the RIGHT 'something'!) it made it very black and white from the dogs perspective that there was OBVIOUSLY two different smells there, and it was the one smell you wanted back...

Now I've never taught scent (yet) so I don't know how succesful this would be, but it sounds like it'd make sense really, especially when they're not 'getting' the smell thing...? I don't think it'd matter too much what the pugnant smell was, but you'd want it something rather strong and unpleasent to the dog. Perfume or something springs to mind too, something that really stinks and the dogs avoid!

I dont think I will do this, we are taught in tracking that even if you use car air fresheners it can put your dog off smelling properly for days so I can just imagine what the alcohol would do to their nose.

[Mas1981]

If anyone was wanting to buy one of the 6m tunnels on Topbuy a while back and missed out they are back in stock:

http://www.topbuy.com.au/tbcart/pc/viewPrd...idProduct=31566

ETA: But if you all buy them and they stuff up and miss my order again I'm going to murder someone

They were so good when I ordered a crate from them, got here in 3 days...

[RubyStar]

I need to use mine for intensive tunnel rear cross practice - to teach him to go all the way to the end regardless if where I'm going preferably without spinning around inside! Argh.

I can't believe you haven't used yours Ness

Funny, I want mine to practice rear crosses with too She nailed her rear crosses on a jump the other night, but doing it with a tunnel, she can't grasp I am now on the other side and kept spinning in the other direction

Speaking of agility, my dogwalk phobic dog managed to go all the way across the dogwalk the other night, wahoo!! A-Frames are no problem, and so far she's loving the baby see-saw

[RubyStar]

for scenting I've heard of the idea of making the wrong ones smell strongly of something not nice (a strong alcohol was used in the example I'm thinking of!) with the one item wanted smelling 'normal'. It was supposed to help the dogs that weren't using their noses and didn't understand that that's what we wanted of them (rather than just retriving "something", we wanted the RIGHT 'something'!) it made it very black and white from the dogs perspective that there was OBVIOUSLY two different smells there, and it was the one smell you wanted back...

Now I've never taught scent (yet) so I don't know how succesful this would be, but it sounds like it'd make sense really, especially when they're not 'getting' the smell thing...? I don't think it'd matter too much what the pugnant smell was, but you'd want it something rather strong and unpleasent to the dog. Perfume or something springs to mind too, something that really stinks and the dogs avoid!

I dont think I will do this, we are taught in tracking that even if you use car air fresheners it can put your dog off smelling properly for days so I can just imagine what the alcohol would do to their nose.

I don't know much but I too wouldn't use this method, as I'd be worried about trying to fade the scent on all the other ones. How will they go from others being strongly scented to no scent. Seems like there would be an extra step in the training process doing it this way Happy to be proved wrong as my experience with dog training is fairly limited!!

[ness]

amypie we have been busy training just not agility .

[huski]

That's cos you've come over to the dark side, Ness

[pie]

amypie we have been busy training just not agility .

I'm more shocked because I've been waiting 3 months for them to restock the tunnels so I could buy one and yours has been sitting there doing nothing the entire time

[ness]

huski your already on the dark side when you own a BC - or in my case maybe I don't actually own a BC apparently she is really a black and white malinois .

And as for amypie - ner ner ner ner. I actually did think about using it 2 months ago but I had yet to work out a way to stake it to the ground so it went into the to hard basket.

Edited June 10, 2010 by ness