Causing conflict - Page 1

Hello all,

I am working on obedience with my 2.5 year old LSH bitch.

Unfortunately, my methodology is self-taught - what I've seen and picked up over the last few years. As a result, her focus is erratic at best. She is toy and food driven, but I've realised that I need to go back to basics and build in more consistent periodic reward before I build in the length of time before I reward.

Based on this, I have two questions -

Question One:

When I do have the toy visible (held in my left hand between my side and belly button) she surges around and jumps up at me to try and grab the toy from me. She does this consistently and if she doesn't get the toy within three steps, she loses interest. How do I get a neater and more consistent focus?

Question Two:

I would like to take her for walks with me in the evenings, just me and her going for a brisk walk or jog. Will me doing this create conflict with me trying to get focused heelwork from her during obedience sessions? I would keep the two types of sessions separate.

I do live far south of the equator, so training videos that are easily available to the Northern Hemisphere are either not easily available or incredibly expensive.

Thank you.

Answer to question one:

If you are only getting 3 steps with that behavior, build on from that. If you know for sure she can do 3, do 2 for a while, then 3, then 4, etc.  I start focus work with the dog "free' so to speak, not in a specific position. Then I progress to the dog sitting in basic position looking at me, and "pay" the dog a lot in that position to build value for that position. I train all new behaviors with food, even with my highly toy driven dogs. You can get more repetitions in a session, and more precise positioning IMO. If your goal is to have her attention on you, I would not hold the toy where you said you are.

Answer to question two:

I have a separate command for the two different types of heeling. One is for a focused and attentive heel, and the other is for loose leash walking. Just be clear and consistent with both.

In the beginning when training a new behavior, I always reward 100% of the time. Be sure your dog is crystal clear on the behavior before varying your reward schedule.

Good luck!

Thank you for the feedback.

I get what you're saying about the food versus the toy; do you eventually 'graduate' to the toy once you have consistency with focus? Also, in terms of maintaining focus on me, would you suggest I hold the food higher up, like closer to my chin, but in my left hand. Should I then drop the food for her to catch (her eye/mouth co-ordination is a bit dodgy) or do I feed her the reward? Sorry if I am being pedantic; I just want to make sure that I am doing the right thing and there are so many subtleties that have such a negative impact if delivered incorrectly.

Your answer to question 2 makes perfect sense - thank you for that.

I upgrade to a toy once the dog understands the behavior, as well as the rules of tug with the toy. I just feel you really can benefit from many more repetitions and much more precise positioning with the food.

If you hold the food close to your chin, your dog will cue on your hand to your face, and you very quickly will have to fade that body cue out, which takes more time.

I would build value in looking at you while your dog is in any position.  Don't pair the behavior with a name until you know for sure the dog is going to offer it. You don't want to devalue the command by saying it and the dog not giving you the behavior.

I vary the direction from where the reward is coming, so the dog doesn't become fixated on one hand or the other.

A great many people hide the toy in their armpit, if trying that helps ?

Endorse everything hntrjmpr has suggested.

Can also help to teach a specific "watch me" exercise by itself, to get the dog

to look at you attentively.

Don't entirely understand your point about the video training problem ?  I can

see vids on the Web, heck on PDB alone, which have helped me with training

techniques by seeing others demonstrating them.  And I have been training

dogs for years so thought I already knew most of them  .    Google is your

friend ...  you can also learn what not to do, by watching other peoples' mistakes.

Hi,

Thank you for all the advice - have gone back to basics with the food and I can already see a difference.

With regards accessing the training videos - unfortunately, data here is not cheap and bandwidth is super slow - with my setup at home it takes me ten minutes to watch a two minute clip. But, I will persevere and do a search here on most recommended trainers so that I don't waste time (or bandwidth!) on dodgy characters,

Thank you again.

you know you get free internet at macdonalds in most places, just need a WiFi enabled computer. Lots of excellent free clips, also not that expensive to buy used DVD's. Gov libraries often have free internet etc.

who is yr telco, you can get 5Gb for less than $40/month no contract SIM.

Thank you, but I am based in South Africa, not Australia.

Please, be kind...

https://leerburg.com/flix/index.php You may find some helpful vidoes here for free. Or if you want the more in depth info you can order vidoes from teir online libary. I hope this can be of some use.

Fry

Thank you - I'll check it out.