How strange...

CorvusCorax

CorvusCorax

Deary me...
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....for the third week in a row, I have come home from dog training, not wanting to shoot my dog.

So for all those out there struggling, and yes, I do realise I will probably take another ten backwards steps along the way, please take it from the gal who always ends up in the toilets sobbing quietly, you will can make progress if you have a good team around you and you set your mind to it!
 
It would be a very long road, that had no change of direction, wouldn't it? ;)

Well done you, the dog's approaching maturity and your will, are the reason for progress!!

Alec.
 
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Your youngster? How exciting! Is it his age and this means he's settling? It's an amazing feeling.

Zak is seeing an old fashioned guy who, within minutes, had him looking at and going close to other dogs. Tomorrow he wants him walking between two dogs. Faint! This is lesson two! Other well known, been on the telly trainer had him looking at other dogs from a distance after several lessons and hundreds of pounds! The boy is tons calmer, hasn't bayed at other dogs this week or tried to lunge at them. Maybe partly due to finally being an adult!

How often do you go to training and do you really try to reinforce the training by doing as you're taught at home? Do you find it hard with more than one dog?
 
well done CC,

I'm the girl in the toilets crying today but thats another story........ think we're having the 10 steps back - but brill to hear that you're working well together - go CC :D
 
Thanks all :)

We had a bit of a breakthough a few weeks ago and whilst it does involve stuffing an over-sized foam ball under my armpit, getting nailed on the bicep quite a lot as a result and being constantly covered in slobber, it seems to be working, finally.

Funny CT, tried lots of different techniques and the voice of experience won out in the end, glad you are seeing results!....for me, it's not fluffy, there are absolutely consequences for being a brat, but I am much clearer in the head and more importantly, so is the dog.
I train every day. Every time the dog comes out of his kennel or crate, he is being trained. I think we are all training our dogs to do something every minute of the day, even if we don't realise it :p
Just once a week formal training but there are seminars etc and if I am really struggling I can call on a couple of people.
B is retired now, so he is my Mum's keep fit partner now. There is no way I could do two unless I was doing it full time.

MM, there's always hope! It's nice to hear people asking if it was the same dog that was being sold after he disgraced himself and had me in floods at the seminar a few weeks back :p
 
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I'm interested in the ball! Do tell! Is this some secret Schutzhund thing?! It's so worth it when they respond.

Funny you should say not fluffy. I reckon we've been far too fluffy with Zak because we thought he was sensitive. He's very intelligent and cheeky and needs a firm hand (never cruel, never ever gets hit or anything, the voice is a powerful thing!) He's only sensitive in that he's clever and Learns quickly. I too was the girl crying over the fence to the neighbour and today she told me how quiet Zak was when she looked after him this week. Yippee!
 
No secret, just a high reward item that is hidden, he does not get until he is quiet and attentive, I produce it and I instigate the fun game.
He has ridiculously high expectation levels, he self-rewards, he loads off me and other stimulus, so it has been a matter of understanding that and adapting the training accordingly.
Chopping and changing cues, even things like what collar and lead we use or what gate we enter the field through, has helped...for instance he knew when a certain collar went on, it was bitey time and he would scream from the car to the field and I was already a mess by the time we got there and that would send him even further through the roof.
If he saw a certain pole he would pull me over to it and start tracking away and if I tried to stop him, screaming session, so poles are now all over the field, for heeling around :p
 
I had been taking Dylan out to training sessions for heel work etc and just focus around other dogs etc.

I got so much more from the trainer in my £2 a class gundog group the local shoot run. :) not fluffy, did involve a a slip lead and a few stern words in Dylans Directin but I tell you what with him it worked. He walks to heel sits when I stop and focus's on me much more.

Recall however has always been a issue from day one, despite chicken wings, tripe, sardines, cheese, ham, primula, peanut butter, I have resided that unless I am in a deer free secure / dog free area he doesn't go off at all. Maybe when he is ancient with arthritus I might let him off ;)
 
Dylan sounds similar to Evie with regard to recall. The majority of the time it is great, quick blast on the whistle and she is back to me, but go where there is anything to hunt and she just offers me 2 fingers and disappears, so unless I am in our fields she stays on flexi or long line. It makes our walks far more relaxing, I am not a nervous wreck and she doesn't have me nagging her everytime she looks at something in the distance.
 
G still isn't 100% but he is miles better - like you say MM flexi is good for places where you have to expect the unexpected, as I have said before if he thinks I am going to throw a rock into the sea he will stick to me like glue - then refuse to come out of the water when I stop *sigh*
 
CC This brought back memories of my Fred, coming home in the car bawling my head off, wondering if he would be better with someone else because I felt I was letting him down. Then a breakthrough and the elation wanting to get home and ring everyone I knew and bore them rigid:D

You get back what you put in and no one person could be more committed than you, saviour this success and at least now you know he is more than capable of doing what you are asking. Well done to you both.:)
 
We used bits of the Cesar Milan training with the first two. They would be in a stay and not move til told, even with us out of sight in the woods. I hadn't done it for ages as Brig is reliably brilliant normally although recall has not been immediate recently. The poor bemused family following my circuit in the park today was horrified at me hiding behind trees and making Brig stay til I was almost out of earshot!! Hilarious! Zak's training is being used on all three, commands are given once, assertively, then a firm no if the instruction isn't followed.

The trainer advocates the use of a choke chain until we have the leather equivalent made. Got a bit fluffed at for that on the other forum.
 
Thanks DG :o

CT, when the dog hears the rattle of the chain he gets excited because he knows he is going out to have fun, and it is kept on the dead link as per the rules and regulations - so anyone who criticises me for using it, can fluff off!
 
I quite agree! I had an old dear tell me she saw me struggling with the rearing loonies as I walked to the park. We now have perfect walking to heel from Bear, Zak is mostly 100% when there's nothng exciting to look at. It's a happier experience for all of us.
 
It is SO nice to read everyone's positive improvements at dog training classes. Me and the wimpy dog are off to our first ever class tomorrow evening! It will be like the first day of school, I am already feeling nervous!
 
I have had an awful couple of weeks with R. We lost our usual agility class a few weeks ago and I still haven't found a replacement - not that he did much serious agility stuff, being terrified of contact equipment, but he enjoyed jumping courses and while D was resting in between exercises I'd do bits of obedience work with him around the other dogs and he really benefitted from it.

Now he seems to have regressed and I admit this week there was a point where I totally lost my rag and smacked him. He did hurt me, to be fair, but it is the last thing a sensitive dog needs and I was very disappointed with myself. He's been even more needy and whingy since. :o

Rather than whinge myself about it you've reminded me that I need to buck up, get out there and work on it. D got hours and hours a day of input when she was a Bad Dog so it's unfair of me to expect R to improve without more one-to-one input and I need to make sure I set aside more time for him. He needs lots of confidence building.

Strangely enough his excellent harness work of late seems to have affected his general behaviour - he finds great comfort in weight bearing and always keeps a tight line. Ask him to keep a slack line on a collar and he quivers, keeps looking to me for guidance and finally shrieks, whinges and leaps about looking for that pressure on his body. He's always on the end of the blummin' line looking for that resistance and he's so flighty without it.

D is just wonderful. Never thought I'd see the day. Just waiting for a free space in his schedule and we're going to have a one-to-one session with Lee Gibson with a focus on preparing for competition, I've earmarked some unaffiliated shows over the winter and awaiting a call back on a regular class for grade 1-3 (!!) dogs. :D
 
huge congrats CC :D what a fab feeling! My young dog is just about the most complex , difficult creature on earth so I sympathise as those moments where you see a chink of light at the end of the tunnel are like gold:cool:
 
And just to show what a twerp I am he's just done a solid hour of faultless work in the park with a bazillion other dogs zooming around. :rolleyes:

I does good lyingz. And greetingz, and recallz...

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And D did good fetching of the thingz and general posings. :p

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Those of you with 'complex' dogs (good term, N!) we're you fooled into complacency by having easier previous dogs? I was! First two were a piece of cake, but Zak, aka Zoltan, is extremely wilful, stubborn, determined, hard work, frankly, but very rewarding when training works.

CC, the high reward item was introduced at training today! Luckily, we don't need to hide it in the armpit, but it's very specific, knotted ball on a loop, tennis balls are banned from being used on his walks now.
 
cinnamontoast said:
Those of you with 'complex' dogs (good term, N!) we're you fooled into complacency by having easier previous dogs? I was! First two were a piece of cake, but Zak, aka Zoltan, is extremely wilful, stubborn, determined, hard work, frankly, but very rewarding when training works.
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oh yes, without a doubt! The rest of my collies are pussy cats compared to Star :eek::rolleyes: I have never had a dog that has caused me so much blood, sweat and tears - literally.
 
CaveCanem said:
BC, is that the same dog that didn't like pressure on his head or neck?! I love dogs *sigh*
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Yes, same dog that turned himself inside out when I put a rope slip lead on him. He's still not keen. You can see the look of utter relief on his face when I put the nice padded harness on and he can leanleanleanlean YAY. :rolleyes: Logic, he has none.
 
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