Building focus to handler ? - Page 2

DKiah -- thank you -- i respect your opinion too -- you are a gentleman -- not in reference to you and i ahve no intention to be argumentative but even as a rookie in schutzhund -- i could never, never .. and still don't understand the different explanations of what fight drive is and in what relation it has to defense drive [ BTW i hold a behavioral psychology degree and if at all drive should be very clear to me ]-- i personally see much confusion using the word drive: confused when one says this is a pups play drive when in fact the pup might be in prey drive -- or if a pup is in pursuit of something how do you know that it isn't palying and learning -- afterall pups chase each other .. so is that play or prey drive ?? -- and to me this is not semantics -- for pups and any dog acts with purposeness -- they are not haphazard animals !! but i do understand the an intention / a motivation of a dogs [ and person ] -- that is crystal clear and redily apparent to me -- but i will respect those that still wish to use old terminology -- i choose not choose to stay locked in a thought ..

Sorry, I'm not a gentleman at all but that's neither here nor there. But, I am a dog trainer and I do shape behaviors in my puppies and my adults.. And I was trying to help lewis out with his question..for which there are many references.... Just trying to help withthe question, not get into a match about whose terms are or are not correct.. can we please leave it at that??

Hi Lewis, I might not be that well versed with the gsd training as other people on this board are, but, I train my dog with a toy foreg, a ball or a stick. He loves to play & I use the ball in his training. I can get him to do certain things while showing him the ball as the reward. You should usually train your dog, I suppose, at his play time & with my little experience with the gsd, I think you will get the desired results. But, if you are thinking of training him for Sch, you should seek expert advise. You can search for various documents on this board & other websites as well. Also, you may seek help from your local Sch club. You may want to visit this website for some more training assistance: http://www.leerburg.com I hope this helps you.

I have to somewhat agree with ALPHAPUP on this one. You and your dog act as a team, your dog looks to you for direction.You ask your dog to do some command and it looks to you to see what is next. Your training needs to fun and enjoyable for the dog(and you). Just as a child with lack of attention span you need to keep the training sessions short and end them on a possitive note. Also don't always do serious training , sometimes you have to just play and really have fun. When the dog does what you are asking make sure you give it lots of praise and love. There is lots more, but this is the beginning. 7 months old is not too young for the basics of training. I have had 8 week old puppies who can heel, sit, stay, fetch and come. The basics have to start as a young puppy. You can not use the excuse that they are too young or they are just a puppy, once bad habbits start they are hard to break. Anyway -- keep sessions short and praise praise praise when you get the response you are looking for.

Alpahpup, i don't know much, but i have a headache afer all the "spirituality" and the word play you used... gee, doesn't your dog get dizzy after training sessions; i was wondering after all the "entuning" and synergistic energies. kosta