brady's mom Posted October 12, 2011 Report Share Posted October 12, 2011 Brady's 15 months old and we've hit a wall with training for obedience and rally: he's starting to really lose all his focus. During class, he'll decide to tune me out or get so excited he starts bunny hopping alongside of me (as in, we're during an exercise where we must pass by another dog quietly and he's leaping for the moon beside me). He just can't seem to keep his focus long enough to just...be still. And this is the dog that usually astounds people by how calm he generally is in class; most people can hardly believe he's 15 month old border collie. Is it normal for him to still have some super puppy antics left? Or am I encouraging them somehow? I usually have some super-awesome-amazing treats on hand (his favorites: chicken, liver, hotdogs, and cheese), but even they don't seem to hold his attention much. I don't really want to bring a toy into class because he gets so focused on the toy everything else shuts down. I really want to succeed in obedience with him, and other activities later on down the road, but I want to make sure we have a good foundation beneath us and I don't really want to mess it up. Help, please? QUESTION NUMERO DOS. How do I get it in his head to walk on a loose leash by my side? We've literally been working on this since I got him, and nothing seems to work for more than a few steps no matter the amount of reinforcement. Initially I walked and clicked and treated for him being in the "zone", aka walking politely at my left side, and stop if he forges or pulls. He got that down pretty quickly so we moved on to no longer using the clicker and using the forward movement as the reward; if he walks the way he should, he gets to continue to move on-wards. I know he /knows/ where he needs to be, because he does it amazingly for those few feet that he decides to do it, but then after those few feet he'll start to edge forwards. He never quite /pulls/ anymore, but he won't walk like he should. Whenever he does this, I stop and wait for him to put slack in the leash himself and once there's slack, I move forwards again. Same thing. It's a constant pattern and I'm really tired of never being able to just /walk/ anywhere. It's always a "go-stop-go-stop" sort of thing. Not enjoyable. He walks just fine in class whenever we do anything regarding walking on a loose leash, and you'd think it'd be the opposite. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Beer Posted October 12, 2011 Report Share Posted October 12, 2011 #1 - Control Unleashed. After doing the foundation work - Off Switch games. Incorporate the mat into a protocol where you move together and then have the dog go to mat, take a breath, and chill out and learn how to toggle between excitement and even keel. #2 - If you would like to continue with the clicker approach, I suggest that you try taking your dog outside with a clicker and great treats. Start in your own yard, if possible. Move backwards a few steps with dog moving toward you. Click/treat. Repeat. After doing so several times, pivot and move just a step forward, click, treat, then pivot back in front of your dog and click/treat. Repeat repeat repeat, gradually increasing the amount of steps that you take before you pivot back in front. This will teach your dog that your body position is relevant to him when you are walking along together. If you think about what your body language says as you move forward together, you open up all of the space in front of you for your dog to enjoy. If you periodically pivot in front, click/treat, you will show your dog that he or she should move with you. Just to be clear, that technique is for loose leash walking, not formal heeling, so practice it with your dog on both sides, unless you literally only walk your dog on one side on casual walks. If you are already doing some clicker work, just doing that for a shot time might help tremendously because it provides the dog with information about walking with you that the Be a Tree game does not. Of course, once your dog is fantastic at this in your yard, you need to literally take it on the road. Of course, you may find that when out and about, you need to back up in your training a bit. The key is to have him practice being right. If he is getting out ahead of you, you are providing him the opportunity to practice being out ahead of you. So, pivot sooner and let him practice being right until he is fantastic at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyTDogs Posted October 12, 2011 Report Share Posted October 12, 2011 Kristine, Do you have any video of what you're describing? I am having a hard time figuring out what you mean. LLW was/is the hardest thing for me to teach & I'd appreciate seeing what sounds like something I've never heard of before. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaporflowers Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 1. If a toy is a high value reward, it would be great if you could find a way to use it. Bring a training bag with you and keep the toy hidden in it; if he does something brilliant (ignores the other dogs when you ask him to leave it, works near them, etc), run over together to your training bag and start tugging! Then, put the toy away and take him back to work. He may gaze longingly at where the toy is hidden or ignore you completely; increase your distance from where the toy is, lower your training criteria, and go back to some basic commands, using treats if you have to. When you get attention back on YOU, even if it's briefly, run over to the toy again! You want him to understand that he only gets the toy when he does what you want. That is a mighty powerful motivator, and during a training session, my boy will bypass an open bag of treats when he's been given permission to run and get his toy. If he really wants to be near the other dogs, use proximity as part of the reward. Walk towards them; if he starts speeding up, bouncing, whatever, change your direction and move away from the dogs. As he catches up, have a treat waiting at your side in roughly the heel position and feed him. You can start delaying the delivery of the treat too. Then turn around and walk towards the other dogs again and repeat. The goal is that he learns that good things come when he stays close to you (treats! dogs!). Here again, I am a big fan of the tug toy... I keep it hidden in my pocket and if he walks near the other working dogs and stays focused on me, I bring out the toy. I use food, but I really like using play because it makes interaction with you part of the reward. 2. For LLW, I'm a big fan of changing directions and speeds. I do lots of left-circles when the dog starts to get ahead; when they're getting ready to pull or lunge, I take off quickly in the opposite direction and encourage them to follow. I'll do figure 8's around a couple of trees. I'll do "quick sits and downs"... start running and encouraging the dog to follow, then stop suddenly, face the dog, and ask for a sit. When I get it, we take off again. I might do the same thing with a down, except in the early stages, I tend to lure with a treat to get the speed I want, even if they know "down" pretty well. And if at any point, my dog chooses the heel position with great attention, you bet I'm going to reward that heavily. Some days, we may not get very far distance-wise, but we've had fun and I'm suddenly a bit more interesting (and unpredictable). As the dog gets better and we're going on more "plain" walks, I can bring out any of those techniques any time he starts to regress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Beer Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 Kristine, Do you have any video of what you're describing? I am having a hard time figuring out what you mean. LLW was/is the hardest thing for me to teach & I'd appreciate seeing what sounds like something I've never heard of before. Thanks! I don't have a video of this, but I could probably put one together sometime in the next few days. If I am able, I will let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChantalB Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 Also think about what you inadvertently taught him in the past. Jude will Behave in class, doing agility, when we practice heel, etc.. But when going for a casual walk he pulls like all he'll because I inadvertently taught him that as a youngster when I didn't know what I was doing. Now in his headhalter he's a wonder, because from tue get go hh meant walk casually but nice and with slack, but switch to his leash even for a second (two leashed on) he feels that pressure on hi normal collar and he think "oh! It's time to pull" heck of a hard time breaking this, but were getting there! Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.