Teaching A Seekback

[leopuppy04]

Thanks guys. I think start peg is the way that I probably want to go.

my next question is - if you use a start peg, do your dogs ALWAYS return to the peg first, OR do they sometimes pick up on the scent on the way back to the peg?

I love the idea of the PVC Ness (or the pot plant!) I look like a real weirdo walking down to the park with my little garden stake

The other day I was wheelin my jumps and box to the park down the street on a collapsible trolley thing. I sure got some heads turnin probably thinking what on earth is the crazy lady in the gumboots doing?!?!?

[ness]

Ness tracks her seekback both ways. But mostly she just tracks it straight back from me and only go to the start peg if she gets stuck and can't find it.

[RubyStar]

Thanks guys. I think start peg is the way that I probably want to go.

my next question is - if you use a start peg, do your dogs ALWAYS return to the peg first, OR do they sometimes pick up on the scent on the way back to the peg?

I love the idea of the PVC Ness (or the pot plant!) I look like a real weirdo walking down to the park with my little garden stake

The other day I was wheelin my jumps and box to the park down the street on a collapsible trolley thing. I sure got some heads turnin probably thinking what on earth is the crazy lady in the gumboots doing?!?!? :rolleyes:

:rolleyes: What are you heading to the park for? You've got that huge new backyard

There is a woman who lives around the corner from where I used to live and she sees me drive my dogs to the park while she is walking hers, I bet I get "lazy" thoughts from her! But I drive the dogs when I go there only to train, or if I'm on my way home from mum and dad's and I stop for a quick ball throwing session to wear them out. Don't think she realises the training part

To keep mildly on topic, this was an interesting read. I am going to start teaching Ruby soon I think She's had a quick go before not getting very far from the start peg, but I didn't progress any further and that was last year so I've been very slack

[Seita]

Thanks guys. I think start peg is the way that I probably want to go.

my next question is - if you use a start peg, do your dogs ALWAYS return to the peg first, OR do they sometimes pick up on the scent on the way back to the peg?

I love the idea of the PVC Ness (or the pot plant!) I look like a real weirdo walking down to the park with my little garden stake

The other day I was wheelin my jumps and box to the park down the street on a collapsible trolley thing. I sure got some heads turnin probably thinking what on earth is the crazy lady in the gumboots doing?!?!? :eek:

Ella sort of semi follows the track back to the start peg but air scents rather than puts her nose down, if she catches a whiff of it on her way to the peg she'll bring it back. Otherwise when she gets to the peg she puts her nose down and starts scenting for it. I didn't train her to do this it's something she started doing on her own.

The pot also makes me look like a weirdo! Although I get extra "crazy lady" looks when I walk to a training spot carrying a box of articles, a pot, a tug toy and some white gloves! I really should put everything in a bag! LOL

My house backs onto a park and I often get "crazy lady" looks when I come out the back gate in business attire and pink tartan gumboots carrying a belly height white post to do a quick seek back before I leave for work!

[leopuppy04]

I think we need photos/ video Sieta :eek:

Well I think I'm going to try the start peg - I'll let you know how it goes!

To make sure we have success, I'm going to still do some hide and seek around the house before taking it 'on the road' so stay tuned as I'll likely be asking a tonne of questions

Quick brag for Leo though. We've been working on his seekback now with a 'new' way for about 2-3 weeks now and so far have a 100% success rate and he's really tracking well for it. All he needed was a confidence boost as he understood the principle part of the exercise, but didn't believe it was 'out' there so woudl return to me for a second cue. So we've been having out 3-4 articles for him (all seekbacks) and he's been doing great. Lucky for him I'm not doing UDX with him so it won't bite us in the bum

The change in his attitude is amazing. He's always loved his seekback, but now he can barely keep his pants on. Lets hope he continues to improve

[Brennan's Mum]

My channel is so far all about fun so far-- a few celebrating special occasions, and an update.

As we learn tricks we will be posting them on our channel, and as we make the move to Brisbane there will likely be a lot more coming. What can I say? my channel is not as interesting as Brennan's cousin's Jake and Kaine but we have fun

http://www.youtube.com/user/MyGSDLove

[leopuppy04]

OK - so here's my first update... on the 'royally stuffed up dog'

So how we've been teaching Leo is going back to the start peg, but also we have been putting multiple seekbacks out, because he has totally lost his confidence.... long story!

I also did a seekback with Leo at club yesterday. Unfortunately the trainer helping me made it a bit too tough (she misunderstood where I wanted the articles) as we did a keyhold track (the one where you end up back near the start peg, and the articles are at the back of the ring near the box). I wanted her to leave the articles evenly spaced around the back of the ring, but she had them all about 1m away from each other in the same corner. Anyway… Leo was really good! He raced off when I sent him, followed the the track completely but came on the (wrong) side of the jump coming back down (still following the track). Because he bypassed the articles, poor fella was making it hard for himself. BUT when he couldn’t find it, rather than coming back to me, he went back to the start peg, and started tracking forward! He then he got up to the top, and after wondering back around for a little while longer, finally found the article!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m SOOOOOO happy! Although I wish it wasn’t so hard for him as I don’t want to demotivate him, I’m going to do lots more of these ‘tracks’ but make it easier for him to find the article to make sure he maintains his confidence!

But he would *never* have looked that long and hard before .

Maybe we will see the inside of a UD ring yet....

[beagie]

Hi all

Well I made a royal mess of teaching Leo how to do a seeckback. Seeing as it took him so long and also not wanting to stuff kinta up, I'm looking for some input on how you taught your dog to do a formal seekback.

We do heaps of hide and seek games around the house and now I want to begin making It more formal.

I'd love any ideas And suggestions

feel free to make it As idiot proof as possible!! ;)

thanks!!

first off you need to make sure your dog only searches in the ring not all over the oval as some dogs do, they can go outside the ring but it is not what you realy

want. You start off by dropping your seek back right by your foot whereby the dog can see it, you heel half a dozen steps forward turn around point to the ground

and say get it or whatever command you use. you build on this by stretching the distance further after you are sure the dog knows what it is doing. Don't expect

it to do it all in one day. Very few dogs track ninety nine per cent go by site. After your dog is finding reliable in a straight line you can start to vary it

and drop it down beside a jump or to the side of the ring or wherever. Take your time to get it right at the beginning, you can then start getting someone else

to drop it for you. You need to eventualy be able to heel the length of the ring and probably across it you usualy end up side on you cannot point to the track

I usualy just say find and give a motion with my hand to the ground. you need to keep a different word for your articles Beagie

[Ptolomy]

OK Leopuppy - I will ask the stoopid questions

Whats the theory behind using multiple seekbacks

and

when a dog is having confidence problems why would you set something like this up.eg as we did a keyhold track (the one where you end up back near the start peg, and the articles are at the back of the ring near the box)

PS not picking on you - just wondering what the reasoning is behind it all - it might be something we could all use ??????

[leopuppy04]

Whats the theory behind using multiple seekbacks

After Many MANY months of limited success with only using one seekback, we found that we weren't getting any consistency with his work. We had tried EVERYTHING - as in shorter searches, food on the seekback... you name it, we tried it (there were about 5 of us trying to put our heads together). Now it wasn't that he *couldnt* do the exercise but that he would 'distrust' his nose and always come back to me for a 2nd cue (which he would always find if offered). If I said 'nup too bad, back in the car' if he came back to me, he fell to pieces. If I stood there and said nothing, he would just sit next to me not sure what to do. A fellow trainer came up with this idea and it seemed to fit exactly what we were trying to achieve with Leo and I have to say the build up in his confidence has been remarkable :rolleyes:

when a dog is having confidence problems why would you set something like this up.eg as we did a keyhold track (the one where you end up back near the start peg, and the articles are at the back of the ring near the box)

Because we are ate the 'final' stages of this proofing now so we want him to be completely confident no matter what pattern he is given. So now, for your 'ordinary' track (up the far end of the ring) we now have anywhere from 1- 3 seekbacks in the ring, which he finds with gutso. So now witht he keyhole track, we put out the max number of seekbacks again to build up his confidence, before cutting it back once more. So it certainly wasn't the first one we threw at him

I know it's not the ideal way to teach it, but guess what it works for him Given that it is highly unlikely we will ever venture into the UDX ring, I can't see how it would ever have any detrimental affects, and even if I did venture into the UDX ring, I don't percieve it having any more difficulty than a normal UD dog learning about the 'decoy' as the 'decoy' will always be unscented

[bedazzledx2]

Never say Never!!!!!

Whats the theory behind using multiple seekbacks

After Many MANY months of limited success with only using one seekback, we found that we weren't getting any consistency with his work. We had tried EVERYTHING - as in shorter searches, food on the seekback... you name it, we tried it (there were about 5 of us trying to put our heads together). Now it wasn't that he *couldnt* do the exercise but that he would 'distrust' his nose and always come back to me for a 2nd cue (which he would always find if offered). If I said 'nup too bad, back in the car' if he came back to me, he fell to pieces. If I stood there and said nothing, he would just sit next to me not sure what to do. A fellow trainer came up with this idea and it seemed to fit exactly what we were trying to achieve with Leo and I have to say the build up in his confidence has been remarkable

when a dog is having confidence problems why would you set something like this up.eg as we did a keyhold track (the one where you end up back near the start peg, and the articles are at the back of the ring near the box)

Because we are ate the 'final' stages of this proofing now so we want him to be completely confident no matter what pattern he is given. So now, for your 'ordinary' track (up the far end of the ring) we now have anywhere from 1- 3 seekbacks in the ring, which he finds with gutso. So now witht he keyhole track, we put out the max number of seekbacks again to build up his confidence, before cutting it back once more. So it certainly wasn't the first one we threw at him

I know it's not the ideal way to teach it, but guess what it works for him Given that it is highly unlikely we will ever venture into the UDX ring, I can't see how it would ever have any detrimental affects, and even if I did venture into the UDX ring, I don't percieve it having any more difficulty than a normal UD dog learning about the 'decoy' as the 'decoy' will always be unscented

[leopuppy04]

Never say Never!!!!!

It's taken us around 2yrs to enter the UD ring Bedazzled .

Thanks to the Seekback only. the rest of his work is quite solid, so I'm getting quite antsy to enter the ring again

I have one ready for open and one (almost) ready for UD..... guess I better start entering some trials

Mind you - he's no match for Brookie

[kallistar]

Whats the theory behind using multiple seekbacks

After Many MANY months of limited success with only using one seekback, we found that we weren't getting any consistency with his work. We had tried EVERYTHING - as in shorter searches, food on the seekback... you name it, we tried it (there were about 5 of us trying to put our heads together). Now it wasn't that he *couldnt* do the exercise but that he would 'distrust' his nose and always come back to me for a 2nd cue (which he would always find if offered). If I said 'nup too bad, back in the car' if he came back to me, he fell to pieces. If I stood there and said nothing, he would just sit next to me not sure what to do. A fellow trainer came up with this idea and it seemed to fit exactly what we were trying to achieve with Leo and I have to say the build up in his confidence has been remarkable

when a dog is having confidence problems why would you set something like this up.eg as we did a keyhold track (the one where you end up back near the start peg, and the articles are at the back of the ring near the box)

Because we are ate the 'final' stages of this proofing now so we want him to be completely confident no matter what pattern he is given. So now, for your 'ordinary' track (up the far end of the ring) we now have anywhere from 1- 3 seekbacks in the ring, which he finds with gutso. So now witht he keyhole track, we put out the max number of seekbacks again to build up his confidence, before cutting it back once more. So it certainly wasn't the first one we threw at him :D

I know it's not the ideal way to teach it, but guess what it works for him Given that it is highly unlikely we will ever venture into the UDX ring, I can't see how it would ever have any detrimental affects, and even if I did venture into the UDX ring, I don't percieve it having any more difficulty than a normal UD dog learning about the 'decoy' as the 'decoy' will always be unscented

Sorry LP but can you clarify something for me? With the extra articles that you are placing on the ground for the seekback are they scented or not?

As you know the UDX decoy has the steward's scent on them, I think that Tux didn't like my scent for the last two days he brought back the decoy . Today he was good..

And yes you will get to do UDX, so never say never

[leopuppy04]

Sorry LP but can you clarify something for me? With the extra articles that you are placing on the ground for the seekback are they scented or not?

As you know the UDX decoy has the steward's scent on them, I think that Tux didn't like my scent for the last two days he brought back the decoy . Today he was good..

And yes you will get to do UDX, so never say never

all the seekbacks are scented :D

Oops - that was my bad then - I thought there were 2 articles in UDX one scented by the steward and one unscented

[kallistar]

Sorry LP but can you clarify something for me? With the extra articles that you are placing on the ground for the seekback are they scented or not?

As you know the UDX decoy has the steward's scent on them, I think that Tux didn't like my scent for the last two days he brought back the decoy . Today he was good..

And yes you will get to do UDX, so never say never

all the seekbacks are scented

Oops - that was my bad then - I thought there were 2 articles in UDX one scented by the steward and one unscented

So Leo is a very clever boy as he is only bringing back your scented one and not the decoys.. (I hope that I am reading this right)

[RubyStar]

Sorry LP but can you clarify something for me? With the extra articles that you are placing on the ground for the seekback are they scented or not?

As you know the UDX decoy has the steward's scent on them, I think that Tux didn't like my scent for the last two days he brought back the decoy . Today he was good..

And yes you will get to do UDX, so never say never

all the seekbacks are scented

Oops - that was my bad then - I thought there were 2 articles in UDX one scented by the steward and one unscented

So Leo is a very clever boy as he is only bringing back your scented one and not the decoys.. (I hope that I am reading this right) ;)

I read it as she has placed out several scented articles all with her scent on it, so there are no decoys at present. Maybe I'm wrong

[The Spotted Devil]

You are right RS They are all scented (LP and I have been chatting.....again )

[leopuppy04]

You are right RS They are all scented (LP and I have been chatting.....again )

Thanks TSD ;)

Yup - no unscented - ALL are scented, and ALL are correct for him to bring back

Gives him the most chance of success

[Ptolomy]

You are right RS :D They are all scented (LP and I have been chatting.....again )

Thanks TSD

Yup - no unscented - ALL are scented, and ALL are correct for him to bring back

Gives him the most chance of success

I have visions of my little red kids - running around the ring picking up the first seekback then finding the second one and picking that up and then finding the third and picking that up and getting to the 4th and not being able to fit any more in their mouths ;) and then just standing there looking at me with that "help me mum" expression

[ness]

;) Ptolomy I have visions of your red kids doing that as well. I have visions of Kenz doing that if I tried that with her. Ness would pick up the first one if she found a second one stop at it and go WTF, probably drop them both and then stand there going hello mum what are you wanting .