Wait help please!!

F

Flowerofthefen

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 August 2020
Messages
4,264
Visit site
Pup is coming on lovely. She has been to 3 training sessions now and is improving each time. Whilst practicing wait this last week she has started laying down and rolling over. I think it's a confidence thing? Would that be right? How do I correct it? She is a very sensitive pup so at the moment I'm just ignoring it. Trainer has seen her do it tonight so I would think she is having a think on how to solve it. Any suggestions welcome! Thank you.
 
Probably tired or it's a displacement/avoidance behaviour. I'd just make the sit really solid/worthwhile and build duration. Are you using any kind of place marker?
How long are the sessions?
 
CorvusCorax said:
Probably tired or it's a displacement/avoidance behaviour. I'd just make the sit really solid/worthwhile and build duration. Are you using any kind of place marker?
How long are the sessions?
Click to expand...
I will briefly describe the task. We have a mat under arm. Dog sits and waits. We then walk out, put mat on floor, say 'mat' , go back to dog, send dog to mat, dog sits on mat, we walk left and right asking dog to wait, then once back in the centre we call dog, dog sits in front, do a finish, then sit and wait dog, go fetch mat. She is really good with the task apart from sitting and waiting at the start. Would it be best to try a mat at the start as well?
 
CorvusCorax said:
What age is she and how long have you been working on it? That's a lot of elements (count them) that I would train in isolation first, before putting it all together like that.
Click to expand...
She is 4 months. We have been working on it for 2 weeks. She is great at sit. Loves going to the mat. The wait is usually OK when it's in isolation. She will wait on a walk off lead if she is ahead of me. Do you think we need to take a step back or just not do the task at the moment?
 
Flowerofthefen said:
She is 4 months. We have been working on it for 2 weeks. She is great at sit. Loves going to the mat. The wait is usually OK when it's in isolation. She will wait on a walk off lead if she is ahead of me. Do you think we need to take a step back or just not do the task at the moment?
Click to expand...

Yep I'd just take a step back, make sure the different elements are really solid, rewarding and building up the duration, then put them back together. Mix it up and don't do things in the same order, all the time.
My female lies down and rolls when she decides she's had enough of something or doesn't understand, I tell her not to, give her something else to do and then a big reward for doing the something else. It never means she gets to finish. Or then she'd spend the whole time on her back 😅
 
How much are you saying wait when she is waiting at the start? Sometimes they will offer random other behaviour if you keep saying a command while they are already doing it, because they don't get that you just mean keep doing what they are already doing.
 
DabDab said:
How much are you saying wait when she is waiting at the start? Sometimes they will offer random other behaviour if you keep saying a command while they are already doing it, because they don't get that you just mean keep doing what they are already doing.
Click to expand...
A lot thinking about it now!! Will definitely try and say it less, thank you.
 
And eventually two mats. I always had two to send the dog from place to place. Keep the sessions very short and fun. Hilariously I now use them as actual doormats. I spent a lot of time building drive to go to the place marker, to want to be there and to stay there, then trying to pull them away with light leash pressure and rewarding them for staying on it before I start sending them from place to place. But I'm looking for a lot of speed too as that's foundation for retrieves, jumps and other things which involve going from point A to B, AND stability at those points. If any of that makes sense.

I find a lot of training sessions for dogs and especially puppies are far too long. Dogs learn in short windows which are best linked together later when they definitely know the behaviour. Keeping them out for ages and expecting them to absorb it all while someone talks us through it isn't actually very fair but we feel like we are getting value for money and suits the human schedule.
 
CorvusCorax said:
And eventually two mats. I always had two to send the dog from place to place. Keep the sessions very short and fun. Hilariously I now use them as actual doormats. I spent a lot of time building drive to go to the place marker, to want to be there and to stay there, then trying to pull them away with light leash pressure and rewarding them for staying on it before I start sending them from place to place.

I find a lot of training sessions for dogs and especially puppies are far too long. Dogs learn in short windows which are best linked together later when they definitely know the behaviour. Keeping them out for ages and expecting them to absorb it all while someone talks us through it isn't actually very fair but we feel like we are getting value for money and suits the human schedule.
Click to expand...

I agree, even with our gundog sessions we often have the young dogs out for 15-20mins, back in cars while older dogs are out and then young dogs out again for another short session to consolidate things
 
druid said:
I agree, even with our gundog sessions we often have the young dogs out for 15-20mins, back in cars while older dogs are out and then young dogs out again for another short session to consolidate things
Click to expand...

Sorry I did a bit of editing in between but the basics are the same! Not many people want to hang around all day and get their dogs out for short periods a couple of times, but it's better for the dogs IMO.
 
If I take a pup to dog training, which tend to be booked in hour blocks, I’ll take another dog and I swap on breaks for the pup.
Shamefully though I don’t tend to take to training until they are six months or more. I did intend to do the KC good citizen with this pup but I have history with the instructor. 😬
 
Also, don't build duration and distance at the same time.

The fact that you have to repeat your wait cue tells me it isn't solid enough. Wind back many steps and almost start again.....indeed, it may be worth starting all over again with something other than 'wait' if you have 'poisoned' this cue.
Stay should mean stay until I release you/cue you to do something else.

I don't quite go to the lengths of CorvusCorax though of testing them by trying to pull them off their place/stay. :) In my game, I would test their stay by a 'bolting rabbit' or similar. BUT NOT AT 16 WEEKS! :)

Your pup is doing grand by the sounds of it.......go at HIS pace for training, not that imposed by any group class. All dogs develop differently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top