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  1. #1
    House Broken rochie427's Avatar
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    Training Update in General

    We've had Rosie now for 4 months ( she's 6 months now) and while she's still a little monster we know there's an obedient dog in there somewhere just waiting to come out. I'm going to outline where she stands in her training and any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

    1 - Sit command: Will sit 95% of the time when given the command ( with and without reward).

    2 - Down command: Same as #1

    3 - Wait command: When it's time for her to eat I make her sit first (which she does) and then I tell her to wait till I put the bowl down. She'll start to move before I get the bowl down so I tell her to sit again and wait. Once she knows that she won't get to eat until I put the bowl down she'll then wait till I give her the release OK. Getting out the door is another story. She gets so excited knowing that she's going out that she'll go crazy. I tell her to sit and wait till I get the door opened and she knows that I am supposed to go out first but this is still a work in progress. We even practice this at class and while she has gotten better there's still a ways to go.

    4 - Leave it: Work in progress. I practice this with her every day with kibble or treats when we are inside the house. I can put the treat in my hand or on my knee and say "leave it" and she'll listen fairly well. When I put it on the floor she'll try to go after it but I'll put my foot over the treat and tell her again to "leave it" and when she looks away I'll then tell her "OK" for the treat.

    5 - Stay: She's getting much better at this as long as there are no distractions. At home she does very well but at class with all the distractions it can be hit or miss.

    6 - Recall: Not 100% yet so still work in progress

    7 - Watch Me: I incorporate this into all the other commands. Again when inside she's fine but it's when we are outside the distractions get to her.

    8 - Drop It: Recently started working on this with her. As long as I do this with treats she's fairly good. I will admit at times I'll get mixed up with "Leave It" and "Drop It" so I may be confusing her ?

    9 - Loose Leash Walking: I would say that this is the biggest issue we have and the longest to get under control. Walking her with her flat collar is out of the question for now,she ends up choking herself. We have the Easy Walk Harness which I am not thrilled with because she can still manage to pull like crazy plus it's a pain to put on. I also have just plain harness which I find a little bit easier to put on and where it's harder for her to get the leash in her mouth. I really don't want to use a choke or prong collar on her.

    She is not our first dog so I know that things take time and each dog is different. When she is behaving herself she's and angel but when she starts exhibiting bad behavior is when I want to strangle her ( not serious).

    Sorry this post is long. I also want to mention that I called a trainer and currently waiting to talk to her regarding Rosie. Are there any specific questions I should ask the trainer ?

  2. #2
    Senior Dog ChoppersDad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rochie427 View Post

    9 - Loose Leash Walking: I would say that this is the biggest issue we have and the longest to get under control. Walking her with her flat collar is out of the question for now,she ends up choking herself. We have the Easy Walk Harness which I am not thrilled with because she can still manage to pull like crazy plus it's a pain to put on. I also have just plain harness which I find a little bit easier to put on and where it's harder for her to get the leash in her mouth. I really don't want to use a choke or prong collar on her.
    Sounds like you are exactly at the same point in the puppy training process as myself. Loose leash walking around other dogs is our biggest challenge also. I've been working on distractions with treats as I take my puppy on walks. I do not pull on the leash at all, if possible. While we are walking on a loose leash, I get his attention with treats and get him to follow me in the heal position. I hold the treat behind my left thigh as I am walking by other dogs. As soon as he gets into heal position, I reward him with a treat. When he gets near a dog I keep feeding him as many treats as required to keep his attention while moving past the dogs. If that fails, I issue the sit and stay command. This is my fall back when distractions do not work. It is beginning to work. It takes lots of repetitions.
    Last edited by ChoppersDad; 02-18-2015 at 02:22 PM.

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  4. #3
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rochie427 View Post
    We've had Rosie now for 4 months ( she's 6 months now) and while she's still a little monster we know there's an obedient dog in there somewhere just waiting to come out. I'm going to outline where she stands in her training and any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

    1 - Sit command: Will sit 95% of the time when given the command ( with and without reward).

    2 - Down command: Same as #1

    3 - Wait command: When it's time for her to eat I make her sit first (which she does) and then I tell her to wait till I put the bowl down. She'll start to move before I get the bowl down so I tell her to sit again and wait. Once she knows that she won't get to eat until I put the bowl down she'll then wait till I give her the release OK. Getting out the door is another story. She gets so excited knowing that she's going out that she'll go crazy. I tell her to sit and wait till I get the door opened and she knows that I am supposed to go out first but this is still a work in progress. We even practice this at class and while she has gotten better there's still a ways to go.

    4 - Leave it: Work in progress. I practice this with her every day with kibble or treats when we are inside the house. I can put the treat in my hand or on my knee and say "leave it" and she'll listen fairly well. When I put it on the floor she'll try to go after it but I'll put my foot over the treat and tell her again to "leave it" and when she looks away I'll then tell her "OK" for the treat.

    5 - Stay: She's getting much better at this as long as there are no distractions. At home she does very well but at class with all the distractions it can be hit or miss.

    6 - Recall: Not 100% yet so still work in progress

    7 - Watch Me: I incorporate this into all the other commands. Again when inside she's fine but it's when we are outside the distractions get to her.

    8 - Drop It: Recently started working on this with her. As long as I do this with treats she's fairly good. I will admit at times I'll get mixed up with "Leave It" and "Drop It" so I may be confusing her ?

    9 - Loose Leash Walking: I would say that this is the biggest issue we have and the longest to get under control. Walking her with her flat collar is out of the question for now,she ends up choking herself. We have the Easy Walk Harness which I am not thrilled with because she can still manage to pull like crazy plus it's a pain to put on. I also have just plain harness which I find a little bit easier to put on and where it's harder for her to get the leash in her mouth. I really don't want to use a choke or prong collar on her.

    She is not our first dog so I know that things take time and each dog is different. When she is behaving herself she's and angel but when she starts exhibiting bad behavior is when I want to strangle her ( not serious).

    Sorry this post is long. I also want to mention that I called a trainer and currently waiting to talk to her regarding Rosie. Are there any specific questions I should ask the trainer ?
    Your puppy is only six months old. She is just a baby! Your email reads like there's something wrong with her and there's not. I do think you're putting too much on her for her age and level of training and you're going too fast. This can cause a puppy to shut down as an adult. You don't want that... Plus, believe me, you are going to go backwards before you go forward. Eight months is the worst and then there are phases between that and adult-hood.

    Training is dog is not a "now they do it so we're done" deal. Even if you're not involved in competitive obedience, you train for life.

    #1 and #2. Why are you not treating her? Eventually you should be able to ask her to sit without luring her, yes. But if you are working with her, you should be rewarding her. If it's not a treat, then it's scratches, playing, etc. Once she knows it 100% of course you can ask her to do these things as required (i.e., when you're not in training mode) and she should do it, but that takes time. She has to be taught that whatever you have to offer is the best thing ever.

    #3. Step one should be her waiting and learning wait, not letting you go first. By her rushing out while you're trying to get out, you're allowing her to self-reward. I teach this to my dogs by shutting the door on them. Literally. Not hard, not their tails, not their feet, of course. I ask for a sit. Then a wait and if they even budge or look like they are going to budge while I slowly open the door, I shut it and say nothing. I want them looking at me, not the door. Rinse and repeat. Doesn't take long. Their reward is going out the door. Your dog should be sitting at the door looking at you until you give your release command. When the wait is proofed and good, I'll ask for a slow so I don't get dragged out the door. It doesn't make sense for me to go out the door first because I am the one to shut the door plus by me going out, the dog can easily slip out, so as mentioned before, you're screwing you your wait command. I don't believe that letting your dog go first makes him the boss of you. As long as he's not dragging me down the steps, I don't care who goes first. Generally, we either go together or he's slightly ahead but waiting for me to catch up.

    #4. Instead of letting her have the treat on your leg or floor, when you tell her leave it, and she looks at you and gives up on the other treat, give her a different treat from your hand. Then, when you're done with your training, take the "leave it" treat and reward her with it from your hand.

    #5. There are all kinds of stay methods you can practice. At class, hopefully you are still holding her leash and only going as far away from her as she is trained for.

    #6. This may never be 100% and something you need to work on for a very long time to even be 95%. This is one where, when pushed too far, can really backfire. Take it slow.

    #7. How are you teaching the watch me? I like to use a clicker so they know exactly what they are being rewarded for. Put dog on leash, let him do his thing as you stand there looking at him, when his eyes even flash on you, click, then lure the dog with a treat to your side and the heel position, then give the treat. Start at home, work your way around to different distractions.

    #8. This one is easy. If she has something she's supposed to have, a toy for example, as her to drop it, give her a treat, and give her the toy back. If it's something she is not supposed to have, as for a drop, give her treats, play with her, and find her something she's supposed to have. Really have a party. Do not yell at her for having something she is supposed to have and make a big deal of having it, make a big deal of her dropping it. Otherwise, you'll end up with a dog that sneaks around and hides stuff from you to eat and/or destroy.

    #9. The choke collar won't help. It'll just make things worse. However, I'm not the best at explaining loose leash walking because I've never had a dog that pulls so I don't really get it. I've always trained mine as puppies and walked them on flat buckle collars only. I have one dog that I used a halti on when he was younger as he was very excited about other dogs and would lunge (plus he is a big dog), so threw that on him for safety's sake. But he only wore it for about 9 months during his adolescence.

  5. #4
    House Broken SnappinSami's Avatar
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    Rosie and our Tucker are just about the same age, and it sounds like they're at just about the same stage of training on all of the points you made. Loose leash walking with a flat collar is Tucker's biggest challenge too. When I take him on our daily 2-mile walk, I use a prong collar with him. He got used to that very quickly, and rarely pulls at all on those walks. It's a dream. He does get a little nutso when he sees another dog, but even that's getting better (we use the "leave it" command for anything he should ignore).

    On the flat collar, or when my husband walks him, it's a totally different story. Tucker will pull-pull-pull until he's choking himself, and for no reason other than he can. What I've started doing with him is when he starts to pull, I turn around, give him the "let's go" command, and he'll spin and start walking in the other direction. I'll do the same thing again after a few steps so we're going in the right direction, and he's usually better after that. There's just a lot of spinning going on, and I'm sure my neighbors think I have some serious issues.

    I keep reminding myself that he's only 6 months old. A baby. And with consistent work he'll eventually get there.

  6. #5
    House Broken rochie427's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SnappinSami View Post
    Rosie and our Tucker are just about the same age, and it sounds like they're at just about the same stage of training on all of the points you made. Loose leash walking with a flat collar is Tucker's biggest challenge too. When I take him on our daily 2-mile walk, I use a prong collar with him. He got used to that very quickly, and rarely pulls at all on those walks. It's a dream. He does get a little nutso when he sees another dog, but even that's getting better (we use the "leave it" command for anything he should ignore).

    On the flat collar, or when my husband walks him, it's a totally different story. Tucker will pull-pull-pull until he's choking himself, and for no reason other than he can. What I've started doing with him is when he starts to pull, I turn around, give him the "let's go" command, and he'll spin and start walking in the other direction. I'll do the same thing again after a few steps so we're going in the right direction, and he's usually better after that. There's just a lot of spinning going on, and I'm sure my neighbors think I have some serious issues.

    I keep reminding myself that he's only 6 months old. A baby. And with consistent work he'll eventually get there.

    Started using the prong collar as well and our walks are a pleasure now

  7. #6
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    We are at 10 weeks old and he has "sit, lay, down, and almost drop." We get the desired results about 95% of the time so we are planning to hold at these commands for a week or two. I appreciate the posts about not overwhelming your dog or having too high of expectations!
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