Obedience Trials Uncertainty

[Mumscats]

I have a girl who is just over 2 and a half and we have been doing obedience for over 2 years. We do a bit of off lead work, some weeks she is good and other weeks whe gets distracted by other dogs. She is fairly good but I have been having trouble with getting her to drop, she will drop if I give her food and if I try she plays up on me and kicks and nearly pulls me over. Even if I get her to drop she does not stay down there for very long at all. How am I going to break her out of this very bad habit. I am worried that she is getting too old and set in her ways now. She has not been desexed as she is pure bred. Anyone have any clues please.

[Ben and Jerry]

I'm not an expert by any means but I went through a similar thing with my guy when I was trying to reteach him drops during a heel to straighten up his positioning. I found as soon as I treated him for being straight he got straight up. When he kept doing this I tried clicking when he dropped and holding the treat infront of him for a few moments before he got it. We're still working on positioning but he is now staying stable with his done so we're half way there :p.

[Aussienot]

Does she know "drop" as a stationary exercise? I'd work on that before putting it into a heel routine. When she does drop, put the reward treat on the ground directly between her front legs. Build duration of holding a down position initially by putting down several rewards sequentially and release with a heel command before she gets up. As she gets the idea, increase the time between treats, reduce the number of treats and randomise the rewards but always deliver the reward on the ground while she is down.

Once she is dropping and holding the down from a stationarary start, then try putting the moving drop into a heel pattern.

[Erny]

Mumscats - it sounds to me that there is some basic background training and training skill that you need to go over and build on first. Do you go to any dog training schools? This can help you with refining your own handling skills as well as giving you help and advice on what to do, when and how, along with providing you with a controlled environment that has other dogs around so you can practice what you have learnt and subsequently taught your dog during the weeks in between.

Make sure you are providing feed-back to your dog during the early days' 'stay' work, and that includes before, during and immediately after providing a treat to reward for the position being held.

My feeling is that you may have gone too far too fast in training at some point and that's why your dog is not understanding. But that's hard to tell off your initial post and my apologies if this is not the case.

Not sure what you mean by this :

if I try she plays up on me and kicks and nearly pulls me over.

[minimax]

Random, and sort of OT ... but what's the logic behind not desexing her just because she's purebred???

She has not been desexed as she is pure bred.