lovemyrottie Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) i have to vent a little! so last sunday me and pup graduated from grade 1 to 2 and now it's getting a little more formal with heeling but what frustrates the crap out of me is since he's so young (6 months) he keeps trying to play with the dogs around him even though we'd say "working" before we start training so it's a major distraction and sometimes it gets pretty hard to get his attention back to me when he's got his eyes on a dog he wants to play with or when he finds an interesting scent in the grass and digs his nose in it that he won't even listen to me! i say "leave it" and pull him back to me, is that what i should be doing or does anyone have any other tips, advise or tricks for what they do when that happens? when he gets a little worn out then he listens to me through almost the rest of training but up until then it can become a bit of a struggle (although he's not as bad as some dogs there but)! he's only a pup, i know. but, will this behaviour wear off as he gets older and desensetizes to the dogs around him? that'd probably take forever anyway being a larger, slower maturing breed. another thing that makes him lose his co-operation is this warmer weather so i'll look into buying him a cool jacket from silver eagle (bloody expensive those things!) but hopefully it'll be worth it over spring and summer, has anyone got one of those for their dogs and is it worth it? thank you very much for taking your time to read my thread :D here's a photo of him and his rottie mate wrestling when we were in puppy class, training really paid off! Edited October 23, 2011 by lovemyrottie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle. Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 He's just a baby, keep the sessions to around 10 minutes or so then give him a break. It's a HUGE ask for a puppy to concentrate longer than that, and on hot days even 10 minutes is pushing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxagirl Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) My boxer baby is the same- loves other dogs too much Don't let him play with the other dogs at training at all, so he learns he is there to train and focus on you. Nothing should be more rewarding to the dog than things you offer it- and having to contend with the fun playing with other dogs offer is pretty hard! What I am doing is distancing myself for the distraction (other dogs/class) and working on focus and attention from a distance, and gradually working my way in getting closer to the class/ distraction. If at any time the pup starts focusing on the other dogs and ignoring me, we move away from the distraction again, and gain focus again. I click and treat eye contact. Also make sure you are using high-value treats (really yummy food, or a toy your dog loves and will work for). My 5 month boxer Booker loves tug toys, so I use a game of tug for when he is really good (usually use it for his reward for heelwork, recalls and other high energy exercises). ETA, I agree with Gayle- keep training sessions short! Most obedience clubs classes go for too long, and do too much "pounding the pavement". If your dog only concentrates and offers its best work for 15minutes, train for 15mins then leave- before he gets bored Edited October 23, 2011 by boxagirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 He's just a baby, keep the sessions to around 10 minutes or so then give him a break. It's a HUGE ask for a puppy to concentrate longer than that, and on hot days even 10 minutes is pushing it. agree with this . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsdog2 Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 He's just a baby, keep the sessions to around 10 minutes or so then give him a break. It's a HUGE ask for a puppy to concentrate longer than that, and on hot days even 10 minutes is pushing it. agree with this . Me too. My girl's almost three years and I wouldn't do more that 10 minutes training at a time with her Remember to keep training fun for him too ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedazzledx2 Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) A couple of suggestions... ask your instructor if you can bring a crate to class. This means that in the down time you can crate him and not have to worry about either keeping his attention the entire time or having him react or interact with other dogs which will not help your cause. Also start teaching the LAT (Look at That) game..there was a recent thread on this in the training section. Hopefully your classes are only half an hour. Most of this will be teaching you how to teach your dog. If they are longer you need to structure your down time. Really hard and not fair to try and keep puppies attention for longer than 5 minutes at a time. Something we are doing in our puppy class at agility training is to allow the puppies to interact on lead for a few minutes and then call them out of play and reward big time (either food or toy) Short play and lots of mini recalls. Boxagirl has some good suggestions. I have the Silver Eagle and the Cool Champions cool coats. Both are good but I much prefer the Cool Champions. BTW I would stop cuing "working". By putting a command (cue) word on a behaviour not yet trained nor understood by your dog you are teaching him to ignore you. Attention should be a given once trained and you won't need it anyway. Edited October 23, 2011 by bedazzledx2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 step one - don't get frustrated at all. If you are your dog listens less and less as you are no longer fun. At all. step two - keep it short and bring along a few different things to tempt the dog. Toy, treats etc and dont feed the dog that day at all. step three - have a heap of fun with the dog. Change it up a bit, don't stick to the same routine when you're at dog classes. He's a baby, have patience and have more fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Your dog is not engaged with you ;) . Work on that first in short fun sessions, once you have a good level of engagement (focus) under low to no distraction then you can build it up - both the duration and the distraction level. ...but then I'm not a big fan of how (most) obedience are run classes anyway.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 These may be of some use to you: http://leerburg.com/flix/videodesc.php?id=717 http://leerburg.com/flix/videodesc.php?id=591 http://leerburg.com/flix/videodesc.php?id=262 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I don't know how long your classes run for but time and distraction has to be built up. I would much rather have a great session only lasting 5 mintues than a 30 min session with a distracted, inattentive, bored dog. I'm not a fan of most traditionally run obedience classes where dogs are expected to work for up to an hour with very few breaks. Personally if you're serious about obedience trialling then I'd be practicing at home in short sessions and only using a club for distraction work once my dog fully understands what is expected of it. If you are just interested in obedience for fun- keep it that way- make sure the sessions are fun, take regular breaks, reward frequently etc. If your club won't allow you to do this- switch clubs. Your dog can easily tell if you;re getting frustrated or bored yourself and will respond accordingly. I quit our obedience club after one session when my dog was a puppy (4 months) as she was just too distracted- kept wanting to sniff, play with other dogs etc. I did training at home and then took her back 6 months later where she has done well ever since- she has very little desire to interact with the other dogs there and is focussed on trying to get her reward from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason_Gibbs Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) I took my dog from 12 weeks to 18 months to formal obedience class as i wanted to compete in trials and had no idea how to teach some stuff. I dont take him to class any longer as he just gets bored, he was very distracted up until about 14 months old. My new pup i will take to class now and then as iv forgotten how to teach stuff but will then train trial stuff on my own i guess like i do now.... ETA reward your dog ant time he looks at you and offers focus, did it with my older boy and i have a stare bear now... Edited October 23, 2011 by Mason_Gibbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvus Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I swear some classes are designed to teach dogs to hate obedience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I swear some classes are designed to teach dogs to hate obedience. and people... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyrottie Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 thanks for everyone's input! we train every week and it runs for 45 minutes so it's quite a long time for a puppy, i know! a mistake i've been making is i feed him breakfast a while before training so he doesn't go there starving which would probably explain his "whatever" attitude towards his favourite treats. i was thinking of pulling away to the side when he's being a little brat to try and get his focus back on me but i know that as soon as we get back in he'll probably just do the same, try and play with the other dogs or get distracted by sniffing something! i mean, i could try it to calm him down/take a break and see how that goes he's pretty good with eye contact, he looks up at me every second or two because that's how they taught us to practice walking by rewarding them with a treat every time they give you eye contact. boxagirl, what exactly do you do to get your dog to "focus" on you? just eye contact and clicking or? and secretkei, what do you do to get your dog to "engage" with you? aussielover, i like your idea of leaving and doing training at home then going back to obedience training at a later date but then i'm worried he'll be even worse with wanting to play with other dogs when we do get back into it and he'll be an even bigger boy hence harder to control. and yes, if i could i'd love to go as far as i can with obedience! i forgot to mention, i had an instructor ask me if i wanted to participate in rally-o instead since it's not as "formal" as obedience and there's actually less people in that class which i do like but i don't know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyrottie Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) secretkei, oops! those videos pretty much explain engagement so i can see now that i need to work on that a bit more, great videos Edited October 23, 2011 by lovemyrottie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason_Gibbs Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Lovemyrotti i would go to class, get your pup out and working for 5 minutes, then tie him to a stake or put him in a crate, let him rest for awhile and train some more. Keeping him away from other dogs IMO wont help my dog was the same he was crazy excited to see other digs ( still can be but he calms down within 10 minutes of arriving at club now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyrottie Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 Lovemyrotti i would go to class, get your pup out and working for 5 minutes, then tie him to a stake or put him in a crate, let him rest for awhile and train some more. Keeping him away from other dogs IMO wont help my dog was the same he was crazy excited to see other digs ( still can be but he calms down within 10 minutes of arriving at club now). will do! lol, this might sound dumb but what does IMO mean? and also, where do you get those stakes from and would they support a growing rottie? he's so strong already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxagirl Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 boxagirl, what exactly do you do to get your dog to "focus" on you? just eye contact and clicking or? I have trained eyecontact at home, so he offers that now, and I heavily reward that if he does it in a new environment (by clicking and treating food, and also the odd game of tug)- once he is giving me consistant eye contact at obedience I know I have his attention, then I start asking for other behaviors I have already trained (eg abit of heelwork, recalls, sits) and heavily reward with a tug game when he does what I ask (another reason I distance myself at the start from class- I feel like an idiot making a fuss of my dog in the middle of his class ) I start away from the class, do heelwork towards the class and he doesn't even notice he is right next to the other dogs once I have his attention- then reward and go have a big game of tug away from the class again (so I don't distract all the other dogs aswell ) I use obedience classes only to proof behaviors I have taught at home which the dog does reliably without distractions. I have a great obedience trainer who lets me do this kind of stuff with my dogs, and I just pop in and out of class as I feel fit with my dogs. I work in the advanced class, so that the other dogs in class aren't quite as distracting to my pup as the untrained puppies that are in beginner class would be- as most of the advanced dogs are focused on their trainer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAX Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 will do! lol, this might sound dumb but what does IMO mean? IMO = in my opinion.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason_Gibbs Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) You get the tie out stakes from city farmers etc. should hold your dog holdS my 33kg lab Edited October 24, 2011 by Mason_Gibbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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