Dog Training Journal

[wolf_Q]

Tonight I decided to try Nebo's commands with hand signals only. He did a lot better then I thought he would! I was able to to get him to do sit, down, shake, speak, stand, and stay all without saying a word! I did use a clicker though...he LOVES the clicker...

It's funny, he was upstairs eating his dinner....I was downstairs watching tv...had the clicker in my hand from earlier, and without thinking, I clicked it....this dog RUNS down the stairs, runs to me, and just stops and sits right in front of me! LOL. Needless to say, I had to go get him a treat! No click goes un-rewarded!

I don't use the clicker that often, just when learning new things...and I think doing the tricks with hand signals only was enough to qualify! He's great at doing his tricks without a treat....as long as there's no distractions! That's why he sucks in class--distracted so easily!

I also gave him a bath at the grooming shop on Monday. He's so much better at that now! The first time I took him there he whined and bawled like I was killing him....now he'll be a good boy for me! He'll stand when I tell him, go in the kennel, etc. He whines a little when he's impatient, but nothing like before!

So now I have a squeaky clean (and a LOT less furry!) husky ready for a class tomorrow! I'm hoping he'll do ok!

[wolf_Q]

Ahhhhhh!!

Nebo was such a BUTTHOLE tonight! This was by far the worst he's been during this class, and even the puppy class.

He was so WILD!! I've never, ever, seen him this wild. I exercised him before class too!

Loose-leash walking? NO way! No he'd rather pull and jerk at everything and everybody who walked by...why not jump on EVERYONE, especially the trainer!

Focus on me? "What?? There's a person on the end of the leash? With treats? I don't care, I just wanna attack that dog!" He was even barking at the other dogs, which he never does! When we were practicing stay, the trainer was bouncing a ball as a distraction....I couldn't EVEN get him to do down, even with the treat RIGHT in front of his nose...he would not look at me!

He was super-bitey, not taking treats nicely at all. This didn't make me very happy, as my hand were already killing me...I always get these really painful rashes on them from work.

He does NOT know how to go up nicely to a dog AT ALL. He has no idea how to just come up to a dog and SNIFF it...no, it's "act insane and jump on it's head!" UGH.

We did "come" and thats the one thing he did right all night! He ran to me and sat just fine....actually, I think that's part of the reason he was so wild! After being able to RUN, that's all he wanted to do the rest of the nigh! Too bad he doesn't listen to come at home!

Ahh...ok...I'm just not in a good mood right now, very, very, frustrated with this dog...and I practiced every day too..... I know he's still a puppy, and I can't *wait* for him to *mature*!! I know there's good days and bad days.......this was a bad day....

[ParNone]

Not worry wolfq, you're not alone. I was working on Sitting
when you stop, while Heeling last night. Oz normally does this
real good, but he just refused to Sit, even for a treat. Acted like
he didn't even know what the word was. Once he was sitting
though, he did Stay fine, which he wouldn't do last week.
I finally had to stop for the night, because I was getting so
frustrated. I hope things go better for us in class tonight,
otherwise I'll be adding embarassment to the frustration level.

Par...

[ParNone]

Week 3

Oz jumped into the back of my SUV tonight, all on his own. Yeah!
I've been worrying about this, because he's really getting too
heavy for me to lift. I'm still lifting him down out of the car, but
that's a whole lot easier than lifting up.

Well we had problems with Sit tonight in class. The trainer said
we needed to regress back to step 1, which I guess we'll do,
but I think I may have figured out the problem. I think I'm bored
with Heel and Sit, hence he is too. I noticed tonight my voice
isn't as excited, when we're doing those. I compared that to how
I sounded, when we learned a new trick tonight in class, Twist,
where the dog turns in a circle. Oz got it like *that*, faster than
any other dog in the class, and I realized I sounded really
animated, when he did the trick. I also thought about the other
things he does really good, like Come and I always sound really
excited on that too.

So I'm gonna have to get excited about Heel and Sit and Stay
this week and see if that makes a difference.

Par...

[Cincy'sMom]

Cincy didn't have her regular class this week, instead the owners got to tag along a therapy dog visit to a local nursing home. it was rally neat seeinghow the people reacted to having the dogs visit. In our group there was an Irish wolfhound, 3 Portugese Water Dogs and an Australian Shepherd. Wow was the Irish Wolfhousn impressive...37 1/2 in. at the shoulders and 185 lbs!!! Sweet dog too!!

Next week is trick week!!!

[primabella]

i decided to write up how my training with mickey and his agility is doing. enjoy

i really want mickey to get started on frisbee but i think mastering the catching with a regular tennis ball should be done first. we've been practicing that for a few days. i've taught him to bring it back and drop it. he's really good at it. as for the frisbee my mom bought, it was REALLY cheap and cracked when mickey stepped on it. got me so mad. so we still have to use my dad's huge frisbee. i make him chase it and try to catch it. he does pretty good.

i also think he's a great jumper so i got him started in jumping over things. i don't have any equipment so i took two laundry baskets and set them up on opposite sides and put two shoeboxes in the middle. when i say "over" he jumps. i hope he improves a lot and i can gradually add more boxes on top.

[lizbud]

Moki did really well at class last night. He graduated & got
his certificate for the advanced puppy class. We did the
"get it" or retreive trick with his squeeky football. Moki seems
to get really reved up for his classes & even wants to continue
"learning stuff' when we get home. Must be the yummy treats.

Just found out last night that Moki's instructor will be leaving
PetsMart training program. She was the area supervisor/ lead
trainer for all the other store's training staff. (she taught the
trainers) She & her husband have bought like 30 acres and
plan on building a house & a dog training business on site.
It will be here in Indy, so Moki & I can continue lessons any
time we want. Happy about that. You can check out her site
at http://www.caninesinaction.com She's a wonderful trainer
whose specialty is Obedience & Agility, if any Indiana folks want
to check it out. Nope, I don't get any $ for saying so. She's
just very talented with animal training.

[AdoreMyDogs]

Since my last report, I have had two obedience classes with Kersey. I am very proud of her. She is doing so well. Two Monday's ago, we did mostly on-lead healing/down/figure 8's/sit-stay/down-stay/stand for exam, recalls, etc. I have been working daily with her and she is almost 100% off lead now. She heals great off lead but we have to work on figure 8's, as she tends to lag behind just at tad. At this point, we have enough training to start working towards her CD legs, but I am going to start her in the advanced/open class just to perfect her positioning, so as to increase our points when we are judged.

Kind of neat news...I had been trying to find tracking and/or SAR training for Kersey since I adopted her, and I finally found a group here in Michigan and was invited to their Yahoo group, and this past Sunday I had my first formal training in SAR. We did what's called "puppy runaways", and we did some baited tracks. I also followed a more advanced handler and his GSD on a 1 mile foottrack threw rough, wooded terrain where there was a volunteer victim. It was great fun, but pretty exhausting. Tonight I have a one on one training with an advanced instructor. And tomorrow I am going to another meeting for more socialization and some more low-level training like puppy runaways and some more baited tracks.

Candy, you just recentlly told me what tremendous work SAR was...you were RIGHT ON! It is very labor and time intensive. I enjoy it very much, and it seems like Kersey enjoys it as well, but it's too soon to tell if this is going to be the job for her. Between training her in obedience and our 3-4 day a week training sessions in SAR/tracking, I have little time left. Poor Graham, he has been left out with all the work I am putting into Kersey. When I get home from training Kersey, I have been taking Graham on obedience training sessions, just to keep him happy. He is already trained threw advanced, and some open training, but he enjoys the one on one with me, and I enjoy the one on one with him.

[wolf_Q]

Went to another one of Nebo's classes last night.

The way he acted this time vs. last time was like night and day!

I think the fact that only 3 other dogs showed up helped...I don't know why so many other dogs weren't there, they always are, and the weather was fine. I don't mind though! lol

After last week I had really been working on STAY. Especially stay with distractions! Distractions are his problem! He was definitely the *best* at stay this week....we did a new excersize with stay....Made them sit, then walked around them. Most of the dogs kept getting up and moving around to look at the owner, and Nebo kept his eye on me, but luckily he stayed in his position.

We worked on "swing" (getting the dog to come by your side) and he rather sucked at it, but it was a new thing, I'll have to work on it. We did come, and he was GREAT at that. Of course, he also knew that I had a hunk of chicken in my hand! Um yeah, that helps a lot! lol And I ended up with my finger bleeding just a little bit as we were walking away...he bit at my hand, thinking it was chicken....

He did pretty good at loosh leash walking, though he doesn't quite understand the concept of "heel." I have one of those nice leashes that has another handle near the dog.....it's just *so* much easier to hold onto that vs. having him walk there on his own!

He still gets super excited about seeing other dogs, and it's hard to calm him down and not have him jump at them! I tried to let him sniff another dog in class and make it so he couldn't jump by stepping on his leash.......the dog was a border collie mix, and she was nipping at his face, so that didn't work out....

Hey, I have a question though. When working on STAY, when is the best time to do the click?

[ParNone]

Week 4

I've come to the conclusion that Oz is the smartest dog in the
class. He's just hindered by, as we say in the computer biz,
Operator Error. They had us doing for the first time a left
u-turn on heel. I thought I understood what they wanted,
but they said "you're turning too wide". So we try again. Uh nope,
still wrong. Had me stop and watch everybody else. Lightbulb!
We nailed it then. I also noticed that when we're doing official
heeling, Oz is always just a lil' ahead of me and the other dogs
are in the heel position better. However, when we're just
casually walking around, he's the only dog that doesn't pull.
Just walks real nicely beside me. I dunno my body language
or something must be different, when we're under the gun to
perform.

As usual, he was the only dog that enthusiatically jumped up,
when the trainers came over to greet him. The one said to
me that she's never seen such an exhuberant personality in
a Collie. Hummmmm. I'm not sure if that was a compliment
or not, but guess there are worse things then having a dog
that loves people so much as him.

Then we worked on how well he responds to his name with
distractions. By this time I was somewhat flustered, so he didn't
respond at all and I realized I was saying his name differently,
when under the microscope of the trainer. Again, operator error.

Sit Stay went amazingly well, but I'd been working this week
with Oz to stay still, while I tried that balancing a treat on his
nose trick. I think that really helped.

Finally we get to some stuff Oz excels at. We nailed Come, even
finishing with a Sit in front of me. Then Oz really shined, when
we did "Twist". The other dogs were having to be slowly led
with a treat to turn in a circle. I'd just have to say "Twist" and
twirl my finger above him in the direction I wanted him to turn
and he spun lightening quick. He was also the only dog that
was already able to turn in the opposite direction. We really
didn't get that to work on, until this week. We actually got some
major praise from the trainers for the first time. Man if we could
just stick to tricks, where I'm more relaxed, we'd be killin'em.

New command this week was "Give". They gave us a rawhide
treat for this. The whole time they're giving instructions on,
putting the rawhide in the dog's mouth then saying "Give"
and having the dog drop it, Oz is barking and going nuts trying
to get the rawhide from me. Buuutttt when we finally try it
ourselves, he takes it in his mouth once and after that refuses
to have anything to do with it. So I couldn't work on "Give",
because I couldn't get him to "Take It". Argh!

Ah well, lots of things to work on for next week.

Par...

[Cincy'sMom]

Monday night was Cincy's trick night! She demonstarted her favorite things...the song "Jump" the card game "Crazy 8's" (by running figure 8's through my legs) and the movie "Twister" (by spinning in circles). A lot fo epople just did basic tricks...sit shake, lay down, etc. There is an 8 yr old yellow lab, that put all her toys in the basket (and inthe order her mom told her!) The boxer, was supposed to catch the ball, but everytime, let it hit him in the mouth and just sat there The best effort I thought, was a the Dobie/Rott mix that played dead...he had a reaction to his vacinnnations and had a huge lump on his back, but did his trick anyway. He is such a good boy!!!

Next week is outr last week..test time!!! Wish us luck!!

[AdoreMyDogs]

I have to teach Kersey how to bark on command for SAR...this may be tricky, as I have only heard her bark a handful of times since I have had her. When the mailman comes, he walks across the grass and he walks close to the house, and I know that she will bark at him if she sees him...so I praised her and said, "GOOD BARK" in a very happy, excited voice so hopefully there are enough more opportunities to praise her on the rare occation when she barks. Now Graham is a different story....we call him "Barky" because he has a bit of a problem with barking. He simply LOVES the sound of his own voice, and will use it, even if it's 2:00 AM on a weeknight!

I have two extremes...Graham the extreme barker, and we are always correcting him and telling him to SHUT IT, and Kersey the almost never barker, who needs to learn how to bark on command! Anyone have any ideas on how to teach a dog to bark?

[Cincy'sMom]

I have always ehard, to teach a dog to "Speak" you reward and praise when they do. For dogs tlike Kersey (and Sadie and Cincy) who don't bark a lot anyway, that makes it more difficult. We have not been too successful yet, but in trying to teach our girls to speak, we create stimulus that cause them to bark. For example, they will bark in response to a knock on the door, so we knock on an end table and then reward them for barking. Or maybe you could get a neighbor to help by coming over and knocking?

This is really something we have worked too much on this...why teach quite dogs to be loud? ( except in your case, where you need the behavior, for SAR) I think if we kept at this, it should work though.

Good luck!!

[AdoreMyDogs]

Originally posted by Cincy'sMom
I have always ehard, to teach a dog to "Speak" you reward and praise when they do. For dogs tlike Kersey (and Sadie and Cincy) who don't bark a lot anyway, that makes it more difficult. We have not been too successful yet, but in trying to teach our girls to speak, we create stimulus that cause them to bark. For example, they will bark in response to a knock on the door, so we knock on an end table and then reward them for barking. Or maybe you could get a neighbor to help by coming over and knocking?

This is really something we have worked too much on this...why teach quite dogs to be loud? ( except in your case, where you need the behavior, for SAR) I think if we kept at this, it should work though.

Good luck!!

I think the normal reaction for a dog is to bark when someone comes and knocks on the door or rings the doorbell...but Kersey just starts wiggeling her big, goofey bum and waiting happily for whoever it is to come on in She is NOT much of a guard dog. Graham barks his head off, but Kersey just dances and wags and HOPES that she'll get more visitors

I have been going outside with Graham and Kersey and when they play, once in a while (very rarely, actually), Kersey will let out a single bark. I have started going out with them waiting for that bark but it's SO hard to praise her for barking while Graham is barking non stop, I have to yell "GOOD BARK" threw Graham's nusence barking and I just hope that eventually she'll connect barking with good...and I can start to get her to do it on command. I just don't want Graham thinking that his constant barking is good, because it's NOT!

Hopefully I'll get there

[wolf_Q]

Nebo is a *very* quiet dog also. He knows how to speak on command now, and he'll howl if we howl with him...that's about the only time you'll hear him make a peep. He doesn't bark "at" things...like, he'll get excited for the door..people..dogs...but he just gets excited, doesn't bark. Now Reggie on the other hand....I need an off switch for him!

The way I taught him was I barked my head off trying to get a reaction out of him. He looked at me like I was an idiot for a while, but he finally made one little woof...click/treat...eventually he caught on. I looked like a complete idiot while doing it, but it worked.