Excitabilty - Page 1

I have 5 year old intact male German Shepherd from mainly English show lines with a few working dogs in his lineage . He is always very keen to work and is an "excellent" tracking dog. I have a small problem with him getting over excited about his work though and have to keep putting him in the sit stay to calm him down, Searches are the worse and he barks and leaps about and on command heads off  to search like a loony, often missing the articles in his excitement. When we drive onto the training field and I go open the tailgate of my pick-up he screams in aticipation ans also does this before a walk. I won`t let him out until he sits and becomes quiet but he still shakes with excitement. It`s quite frustrating at times and it sounds like `i`m killing him to other people who are around. He gets 2-3 hours off lead exercise every day in the woods and fields and is exrtremely obedient. He has a fairly submissive temperament, but very bold (faces anything you throw at him) and no bad nerves in any way. Any tips on calming him down when working though?

 

 

get his obedience perfectioned in low drive , whit this I dont mean perfect as for points, but perfect as to obeying every single command you give 100%, than it will be much easyer handling him when he is exited, and be total black/white, never continue before he obeys

the response coming out of the car is a simple pavlov,he knows what is coming ,so change routines .

Sound advice from Duke;

Can I assume you have already tried taking him for an exercise

run, to tire him a little,  just before you've attempted putting him to

a track ?  If not, you could also try that, in addition to firming up his

Ob. and amending your routines / signals.

Wouldn't normally recommend this because its usually a case

of directing as much energy as possible into tracking, - but if

at 5 yrs he is that much 'over the top', maybe he does need

'wearing out' a little even though you are giving him enough

exercise.

 

 

 

get expert instruction. Your own evaluation of excellant tracking and extremely obiedent are likely not acurate. What if I said '' I am a great businessman but every investment I make go bust''? Would you doubt my evaluation?

How are you doing Obedience...What is your reward? Toy...Food...??? When Tracking what is your reward? If he's finding articles what is his reward?

How is his Food Drive...I mean when he eats...Is he a Fast or Slow eater...A Picky eater....? And the same with Ball/Toy Drive...Slow...Fast...???

 

You must change the way he works...You must ONLY give him what he wants when he is in the right MOOD...Soooo...You don't track him until he's calm...If you need to do MORE exercise before working to get into the correct MOOD...or if you need to feed before you take him out to Track...then so be it...

I have found that one of the hardest things as a handler to do with your dogs when your trying to work is to be PATIENT...and just WAIT til your dog is in the correct MOOD...

 

~Bob~

The dog is fine when doing a track. No problems at all. I do have an excellent trainer and I do know what extremely good obedience is, having competed and qualified plus being placed in the top 3 in many working trials events with my other old dog. Also won the obedience cup out right. As I said in my first post, the 5 year old dog gets 2-3 hours running off lead in the woods and fields so is not under exercised. I think he just has an OTT temperament and gets worked up in aticipation of doing some work or going out on walk. To day he done an excellent search and found all the hidden articles in less than 4 minutes but still had to leap and bark when being sent into the search area. This can lose points in a trial. Even if I put him in a sit before sending him in he still has to go OTT about it. And even if he does his track before the search he is till the same. he`s panting like crazy and whirls round me. One reason may be because he wants the toy in my pocket too soon (his reward) But I don`t give it to him after every exercise as toys are not allowed in competition and he has to learn to work without "always" getting a reward after each exercise. But thanks for the advice everyone. Its very hard to give really positive advice without actually seeing a dog and its owner in action!!!  My "old" dog is very calm and focused so its quite a challenge to try and get my younger dog to be calmer and listen more. 

Make him work harder on the track, so that he really has to concentrate - no long legs that are straight, no visible signs of footprints for him to follow and place articles right after (but not too close) a change in direction so that after negotiating the change he is still working hard and the article is right there.   Also, park a distance away from the track, somewhere that he can't see the tracking field, and walk farther to the start of the track, while doing so you can do a little obedience for calming.    Have him on a down-stay at the beginning of the track, before starting him, calmly stroke his sides until he settles, then only after he has settled set him to track. 

There's a great tracking article in this catalogue, see page 7.

http://www.wcgssc.com/documents/catalogues/2013-work-week.pdf

Some lines produce some dogs with rather OTT temperaments.

I ought to know - mine has only 'slowed down' now he is old (12),

and  he still has his moments !

Is your dog's pedigree already on PDB, Roxanna ?  Or can you tell

us a bit of his ancestry - knowing where the excess energy might

come from won't necessarily help you to counter it, but people here

can possibly throw some light on the history for you & that might lead to

other suggestions from posters who have owned and worked related 

dogs.  Besides, I'm in the UK and nosey . 

And one of the good points made in the article Koots has linked

is that you have to be sure you yourself are not giving off too much

excitement ;   some of us get very tense before a competion, and you

know how well the dogs read our body-language.

Teach him to 'cap' his drive...give him sound, unmistakeable corrections when he leaks drive. Leaking drive is what I think is going on. Train on very short tracks to reward him when he succeeds at 'capping' drive. I would lift his front feet off the ground every time he starts whining, barking or any behavior other than sitting quietly, focusing on you. In a quiet, calm manner lift up till his front feet are off the ground. (I dont mean 'hang' the dog. I mean lift till his front feet are 'just' off the ground) As soon as he is quiet, set his feet back on the ground. If his undesired behavior resumes, lift again. You can tell him, 'quiet', as you lift, do this till he understands what you want. As soon as he is quiet while his feet are on the ground, send him on the track. Do this until you can approach the start for the track with him quiet, before any more trials. On the approach, when leaving the vehicle, do the same thing. He starts leaking drive..stop, lift his feet, when he is quiet, set him down. As soon as he's calmly sitting next to you, resume walk to the track start. Do this as many times as it takes to get him to be quiet and calm. No more rewarding him with a track when he's leaking drive running around you and/or barking, whining, squeaking. BTW, l would leave the toy in the truck. This dog sounds like he gets enough out of the tracking to satisfy him., the toy is superfluous and likely only serves to complicate the ability for this dog to concentrate. I have dogs thattracking creates such a hugh for them, that it is reward in itself.