Puppies first Barks during training - Page 1

Below is a link to Brenna's training on Sunday.  This is the first time she barked for the pillow.  Would appreciate feedback.  She will be 11 months old end of this month.  Oh, and she is not on the sleeve yet, we were just waiting for someone to bring the bite pillow.
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Where was your "good girl" pat on the back reward when she barked for the first time before the helper got there? You should have really patted her up and rewarded her for that!

 I  personally would want  my helper to show more weakness than that when the dog showed that much strength and for the first time. 
You might also benefit from holding her closer to you and restraining her a little bit more (giving pressure on the leash pulling back) to get her opposition reflex going and increase drive.

congrats on her first bark! 

I was trying to keep back because she seems handler sensitive if I talk to much, so wasn't sure if me patting her would distract her.   Of course that was before I got a bark - so I did miss that.  After seeing the video myself, I was wondering if I should be closer to her or should I let her figure it out.  Now that her bark was unleashed, I am hoping I can work more on what I should be doing, lol.

Thank you!  I must confess I was really happy to get that first bark out of the way! 

Cheryl

 how long have you had her for?

handler sensitive or not, you should still be there to "back your dog up" and help encourage her so she knows what she is doing is EXACTLY what you want and you LOVE it! 

only reason you shouldn't be doing that is if she has redirection problems. Thats for another subject though.

Hi:  I have had her since she was about 12 weeks.  I have been working on tracking since I got her and then doing some drive building - ball, rag, flirt pole and tug. 

You are right - I missed the praising/patting.  No redirection problems - some turning and jumping on me when we  started.  The last few sessions she showed interest for the pillow and the helper but no barking, then on Sunday a real breakthrough.

I will work on being closer with her and make sure I show her that when she barks like that I really love it!

Thanks again.

Cheryl

 awesome good luck!

just a quick note : first ... i prefer to do a silent bark /hold and more so a hold /guard .. but back to you : one needs not start the dog off with the ' bark hold' in the protection routine .. for some dogs it is better that, when a dog in every day life barks to immediately reward the bark .. continue doing so then asociate the word to the bark .. meaning teach the dog ' to bark' and put that on a cue [ voice command ]. later you can transfer that into the protection routine without stress because the dog will know what is expected when you give the cue. secondly .... in this routine .. although was not critical .. the helper needed to reinforce the first whimper of the dog... your dog barked eventually afdter the whimper .. and that turned out ok .. but what trainers forget is " always reward even the first inkling of succcess. ' from a small vocalization one can shape theloud  bark eventually . [ that comment is for other readers that have the same situation but never get the full bark upon a protection session. ]. last comment : in my approach .... i always work on ONE ... just one task ... if i want to work on grip ... that is what i concentrate on .. if i want to work on speed into bite that is what i work on .if i want to work on motivatiom for the sleeve  IMO work on one facxtor .. get that one task solidifed and then onto the next issue to stregnthen .. trying to do to many things at once in many instances is counter productive to progress. when one leaves a session i ask ?? has the dog understood and learned exactly what i wanted to teach it /accomplish  ... last note .. to readers ..... sometimes another dog[s] can be helpful [circle or line agitation] ... however watch your dog .. sometimes other dogs can be a distraction in and of themselves taking away the performance of your dog.... the dog being agitated actually is excited not by the sleeve but more excited about the other dogs barking ... so careful AP