Puppy's Attention

[Marley'z Mum]

marley is now 15wks old, when we are out for a walk there is just no getting his attention, he pulls the lead an sniffs everything (normal behaviour i would imagine)

At home when we do lil training sessions he is very food motivated, but when we are walkin he isnt interested, unless he can have it the minute he smells it, he doesnt want to have to work for it..... I have also tried toys an nothing

Any ideas how i might get his focus when walkin would be greatly appreciated

[poodlefan]

marley is now 15wks old, when we are out for a walk there is just no getting his attention, he pulls the lead an sniffs everything (normal behaviour i would imagine)

At home when we do lil training sessions he is very food motivated, but when we are walkin he isnt interested, unless he can have it the minute he smells it, he doesnt want to have to work for it..... I have also tried toys an nothing

Any ideas how i might get his focus when walkin would be greatly appreciated

Join a dog training club or get some private lessons MM. Whilst pulling on the lead and sniffing may be 'normal' its not desireable and the more you allow it, the harder it will be to fix.

This is bread and butter stuff for dog trainers and the sooner you get onto these issues, the easier they will be to resolve.

[Marley'z Mum]

have joined just waiting for them to start..... Was hoping someone had some idea's in the mean time.

Pulling is definately not desirable especially because i think he is goin to rather strong

[aussielover]

I would really work on his name recognition.

Call his name and treat him when he looks at you.

Initially, I was told to basically "force feed" them ie. don't give them any chance to look away and they will associate their name with food.

Now Mindy is pretty good with her name, and if she gets distracted, I just call her name and she (usually) focuses on me.

Actually using a clicker or a marker word is more effective than this for me. She will focus 100% if I say "yes"

But then you have to treat right away so I;m not sure if it would be a good idea to use this all the time. I usually only do it in an "emergency" like when we a trying to pass other dogs or high value items.

I hope this helps you

[koalathebear]

Elbie walks beautifully on a loose leash in the house, in the backyard and during obedience class (mostly). Once out on the street though or after obedience class, he tries to pull like a bit of a maniac and his attention is all over the shop.

You're pretty much supposed to stop as soon as he pulls and stand still or change directions because you don't want to encourage pulling. Especially for a dog like Marley - he's going to be strong and when he pulls later, he'll ignore any discomfort easily and just keep pulling.

As a result, we've really only made it around the block with Elbie on a loose leash and some days he's so distracted that we only make it to the end of the street and have to come back home because there's no point going on. Thus, I've gone back to basics with Elbie - for his breakfast, I take him out into the front yard and we walk about and whenever he doesn't pull/looks around at me when I say: "look at me", he gets a treat (one measley bit of kibble . Basically you're supposed to make it so that whenever you say: "look at me" or "watch", he looks up at you. That's a way of always refocussing his attention back onto you. Once we get Elbie's focus, he is very very focussed and super-obedient but alas, the outside world is very exciting for a little dog and so I'm going to just keep walking around the front yard with him during breakfasts and rewarding him when he focusses on me.

We had an additional problem before that Elbie kept attacking his leash but fortunately he's largely stopped doing that so we're able to just focus on the attention/pulling issue. Obedience classes are great but Elbie seems to distinguish i.e. classes are 'work' so he's generally pretty well-behaved despite all the distractions. On the road, he will be less obedient. One funny thing that happened the other day was that we had Elbie in a sit and stay and he accidentally got released by the cav owner next to us who was releasing HER dog from its sit Since then we've been practising distracting Elbie so that he only listens to the instructions of HIS handler.

Good luck with Marley!

PS: The cav owner in my class has a hilarious solution to her puppy's attention problem. She literally walks next to him saying: "lookatmelookatmelookatmelookatmelookatmelookatmelookatm

e" the whole time. It is so funny.

Edited July 28, 2010 by koalathebear

[W Sibs]

With Emmy, she is still a puller but after watching TerraNik's video on how she walks when she does obedience, I did an experiment with Emmy... I used a short lease and clip it on my walking belt and I hold cheese in a fist and we walk. her focus is on my hand with the cheese or me. every 10-15 steps, i give her a cheese and reward her for "nice walking". We just repeat the step. It worked brilliantly. Although, my hand smells like cheese

Note: Emmy LOVES cheese and will do anything for the tiniest piece.

[Magstar]

I've been having this problem with Oscar. He walks beautifully on the lead while we are in the yard, but as soon as we are out of the yard everything is waaay too interesting for him!

I have been stopping each time he pulls and then making whatever silly noise is necessary to get his attention (if calling his name doesn't work). As soon as he turns his attention back to me I give him a treat and once he is next to me we start walking again. Its slow and frustrating, but I can already see the improvement.

[koalathebear]

I've been having this problem with Oscar. He walks beautifully on the lead while we are in the yard, but as soon as we are out of the yard everything is waaay too interesting for him!

I have been stopping each time he pulls and then making whatever silly noise is necessary to get his attention (if calling his name doesn't work). As soon as he turns his attention back to me I give him a treat and once he is next to me we start walking again. Its slow and frustrating, but I can already see the improvement.

I am really impressed with those owners that seem to be able to take their puppies on long-ish walks (I think 30 minutes is supposed to be the max for a six month puppy). Someone told me we should be walking Elbie (5months a bit) at least 7 km a day and I almost laughed my head off. Once we get him to walk on a loose leash consistently then I'll consider it, until then it's just an endless round of pull/stop/pull/stop

Like you, I can see a gradual improvement in my dog. This morning I was actually just having him sitting in the front yard and whenever a car whizzed past, I made him look at me.

Edited July 28, 2010 by koalathebear

[Magstar]

I've been having this problem with Oscar. He walks beautifully on the lead while we are in the yard, but as soon as we are out of the yard everything is waaay too interesting for him!

I have been stopping each time he pulls and then making whatever silly noise is necessary to get his attention (if calling his name doesn't work). As soon as he turns his attention back to me I give him a treat and once he is next to me we start walking again. Its slow and frustrating, but I can already see the improvement.

I am really impressed with those owners that seem to be able to take their puppies on long-ish walks (I think 30 minutes is supposed to be the max for a six month puppy). Someone told me we should be walking Elbie (5months a bit) that we should be walking him at least 7 km a day and I almost laughed my head off. Once we get him to walk on a loose leash consistently then I'll consider it, until then it's just an endless round of pull/stop/pull/stop

Like you, I can see a gradual improvement in my dog. This morning I was actually just having him sitting in the front yard and whenever a car whizzed past, I made him look at me.

7km??? Well at the rate we walk he would be fully grown by the time we got to the end! I usually only manage a few metres before we are stopping again.

I was told that we should walk Oscar no more than 1km until he is 12 months age, but thats for a large breed. We are only doing very very short walks at the moment just to get him trained on the lead.

It is definately testing my patience! But it is good to see the gradual results.

[wuffles]

At 8 nearly months old we are definitely seeing results Things I have found to help...

LOTS of rewards. LOTS of praise. LOTS of communication. Ava loves when I talk to her and her focus is so much better when she is receiving regular feedback (good or bad tone of voice). The first 5 minutes of our walks (the most exciting time for her), I barely stop chatting to her. "Good girl, oh such a clever puppy! Gooood girl... uh uh! No. Good! Yes, good puppy!" I can phase this out as the work goes on and she calms down.

Working at a distance from distractions. Other dogs and people are our main distractions and I really need to work on this as soon as we see them, when they are just a dot in the distance. When we see a dog or person, I ask Ava to sit and reward. At first I didn't even care if she was looking at me, as long as she wasn't going nuts. We are still working on this, but now I can at least get her to sit and look at me when distractions are a reasonable distance away.

I also generally use a martingale collar as I needed a little bit of help to get her to focus on me, AND we use a front attach harness if we go somewhere we know there will be heaps of distractions or with the other dog. It has helped to get her out and about and used to the distractions without having her choke herself

I take her for 45 minutes each morning. Probably more than is recommended for her age, but she needs it.

Edited July 28, 2010 by wuffles

[aussielover]

I have the additional problem that Mindy must walk ahead of me and cannot have her attention focussed on me all the time. At the moment she can focus on me if there is a distraction but hopfully she should ignore distractions more frequently.

She has been really good walking on a loose leash but apparently she needs to be more ahead of me and pulling on the leash a bit more lol!

I walk on leash her for around 15 minutes to half an hour per day. although 30 mins sounds like a long time, we don't actually get as far as you would when you walk at normal pace.

Edited July 28, 2010 by aussielover

[poodlefan]

KTB:

Someone told me we should be walking Elbie (5months a bit) at least 7 km a day and I almost laughed my head off.

"Someone" has no idea at all.

Rule of thumb - five minutes exercise per month of the dog's life. Personally I don't exercise my pups on lead AT ALL until they are six months old.

[Red Fox]

marley is now 15wks old, when we are out for a walk there is just no getting his attention, he pulls the lead an sniffs everything (normal behaviour i would imagine)

At home when we do lil training sessions he is very food motivated, but when we are walkin he isnt interested, unless he can have it the minute he smells it, he doesnt want to have to work for it..... I have also tried toys an nothing

Any ideas how i might get his focus when walkin would be greatly appreciated

You need to start training in a low distraction area and gradually build it up.

Home is a low distraction environment, that's why you find it easy to motivate him there but not out in the street where there is the distraction of new sights and smells, it is too big a jump and you are setting your dog up to fail.

Look at it from his point of view - what is more exciting? His owner with a piece of food? Or an exciting new scent in the street? To have his focus you need to be the MOST exciting thing in his world. Teach him that ALL exciting things come from you, make him WANT to be with you. Build it up by starting somewhere with no distractions (say your backyard), THEN move out into a slightly more distracting area (your front yard), If you can get that down pat try out in the street in front of your house, only move on when he is getting it right. If he fails then take a step backwards and make it easier. Keep your sessions short too. Puppies get bored quickly

[raineth]

With Emmy, she is still a puller but after watching TerraNik's video on how she walks when she does obedience, I did an experiment with Emmy... I used a short lease and clip it on my walking belt and I hold cheese in a fist and we walk. her focus is on my hand with the cheese or me. every 10-15 steps, i give her a cheese and reward her for "nice walking". We just repeat the step. It worked brilliantly. Although, my hand smells like cheese

Note: Emmy LOVES cheese and will do anything for the tiniest piece.

yep, use a clicker, or a verbal marker and take lots of treats (yummy and healthy if you can) and start out by virtually treating for every step that he is by your side. Maybe just even go back and forward in front of your house. Or start practising in the house or back yard.

As he gets the idea, you can wait until he walks beside you for a a few steps and every few steps that he walks by your side he gets a treat for. Slowly you can drag it out keep giving him lots of praise and use a very happy voice to encourage him to focus on you.

Also never at all move forward if he is pulling.

if he gets ahead of you, either lure him back, or do a sharp turn and start again.

another helpful thing you can do is attach him to your belt while in the house. Have treats on you as well. And just do what you are doing with him tagging along. This helps teach them that when a leash is on, they are going where you are going. Also it means he is close to you so you can re-direct him from doing naughty stuff, and you can reward him for the good stuff with praise and pats. you can even do impromptu training with the trats :D

ALSO

Obviously he is finding it very exciting to be out on the street. Maybe you could try to just take him out for very short periods a few times a day and just 'hang out'. encourage him to lie down - give him a tummy rub. Do things that encourgae him to relax.

When he has learned to relax at the front of your house, cross the street, or walk a small distance and just hang out again. Make sure when you are trying to get him to relax that you relax yourself. Yawn, relax your shoulder muscles, sit down and take a break.

[corvus]

You don't have to be the most exciting thing in your dog's world. You just have to be a really good bet. When I say something to my dogs when we are out walking, they have good reason to believe I have just opened the bar and they now have an opportunity to earn a reward of some kind. I mix up the rewards, sometimes use really great treats, sometimes ordinary treats, sometimes a game, sometimes run down the street with them, sometimes a truck load of praise and affection. Whatever floats their boat at the time. I don't want to compete against all the fascinating things a dog can find in the environment. I don't want to always be more interesting. I just want them to feel like if I make eye contact with them, or if I call them, or say their name, or make a noise like "Oi", they should probably come and check me out just in case I have something for them. It's a conditioned response is all. A history of good things. It doesn't have to be better than anything else they might find. It just has to be a really good bet. In time, they respond to your every whim without actually thinking about it. They've done it before they can wonder if it's what they really want to do.

All you have to do is build a reward history. Think of all the times you didn't really want to walk all the way to the top of the hill, but you did it anyway just in case there was something good to see. You want to be that thing that makes you do stuff you can't really be bothered doing just in case there's something good at the end. You don't want to be the thing that wasn't worth walking to the top of the hill for after all. With puppies, I assume that when we are out of the yard they will go mental sooner or later. If it's even possible, I don't have the time to do so much training with them in low distraction environments and then work them up. So whenever puppy loses it, we stop and we wait until puppy notices us again, then we give the puppy heaps of treats for noticing us and then we move on. We go nowhere if the puppy is on a taut leash. I started my last two off on long lines (5m) in the interests of getting somewhere on a loose leash.

[Marley'z Mum]

thanks everyone for all the great idea's, we will be going bak 2 basics in the backyard me thinks