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Okay PI, I'm ready to accept some advice. I've got this dog, the shelter said she was a husky/Australian shepherd mix, and I've had her since 2005. She's independent and very smart, learns extremely quickly, but has a tendency towards selective listening. In the past she had good recall off-lead (not 100%, but like 70-80%) without treat motivation. I did not train her formally to do this, she just stuck around and listened when called. In the last couple months I notice she completely ignores me off-lead and sometimes on-lead unless I am physically getting her attention (a very light nudge or tug on leash). On-leash she is always in a properly fitted prong collar and on a 6' leather adjustable leash (google "European leash" I think). Inside she listens, but since moving from my house in AL she had a couple month stint in a house with 3 other dogs and learned to beg in the kitchen, knock the trash can over, etc. I have been keeping her crated/contained when gone and using a can filled with pennies to discourage trashcan sniffing (the penny can is her "ultimate punishment"). Since she is part husky I will never 100% trust her off-lead in a non-enclosed area. But at the dog park the other day I noticed that she completely ignored my voice altogether, something she hasn't done before. What books, articles, or advice should I use to best get me back on track to training my dog to listen to me? I now carry treats outside (when no distractions are present) to lure her to me and always make a huge fuss when she comes so she associates coming to me with AWESOMENESS. But if she is on a scent or sees another dog within running distance.. no dice. I need to buy another 20' cotton lead (I lost mine) but since I never had a dog before that was trained for recall/off-lead work where do I begin? My goal is to have her listen to ME regardless of what is going on around her. I'd like to know how to instill that "you MUST listen to me, you have no choice" instead of this "I could listen, but nothing bad will happen if I don't!" self-reward system she has learned. Inside I am very strict on NILIF and I am wondering where to begin for outside work. Where do I begin?? Here's the booger in question giving me the "I heard you say my name, but I'm gonna keep sniffing and ignore your command" face:  Well-Blended by sabarika, on Flickr
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Dec 22, 2010 03:37
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 06:44 |
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Rixatrix posted:good advice  I definitely never give her punishments for coming to me, I try to get excited or treat her and make it sound like that was the bestest coolest thing EVER for her to do. Also these methods involve a lot of treats, but what's the best way to wean her off them so she doesn't decide to ignore me if no treats are involved? Think I'm gonna teach the recall commands in French, that way there's no mistaking it or becoming desensitized if other owners are out there saying "come" and "here" all the time too.
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Dec 22, 2010 17:19
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Rixatrix posted:I'd like to reiterate I don't personally advocate the use of shock collars in training dogs pretty much ever, at least not without a very competent, +R based trainer. If a positive reinforcement based trainer says she's done all she can and recommends the use of an aversive, THEN it might be needed. Otherwise not. The author of the first article outlines very strict conditions where she will use a shock collar as +P and maintains that very few dogs in her career have ever needed it to get an absolutely solid recall. Thanks for the feedback though! I'm still cautious because of my dog being part husky and having the tendency to sort of zone out... I can't even say "oh it's the husky in her" because every dog is different, but I can assume she may have a predisposition to 'ignore' my commands.I've been working on the recall inside and she's doing better, but I can assume it's because she suddenly gets treats every time she comes. ;3 Fun to use French even though I sound silly. I hope my training pays off, it would be great to have her react to my voice without having time to think about whether or not she wants to obey the command.
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Dec 23, 2010 13:40
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Want to thank you all for the previous advice on getting my non-listening Auskie to do some recall. Goings are slow, and I could sum it up with "2 steps forward, 5 kajillion steps back" but those times she gets it just right it's like a goddamn party that's all for her, about her, and only she is invited to. Even with the tastiest treats she will ignore me if she's found something More Interesting but putting her on a long line and being able to draw her attention back has helped a lot. I met up with other Ausky owners the other day because I'm a dork and one of them had this gorgeous 1.5 year old girl that did lots of tricks. She jumped through hoops (or your arms if you held them in a hooplike manner) and begged, she had speak down, but what I was most interested in was "hold it". If you handed her something like a pack of treats or a toy she would hold it in her mouth until instructed to let go. I tried to get my ~6yo Diaz to do this and had...no luck. Granted, I was simply praising her while giving a command ("hold") as she grabbed a toy but I don't have any basework. She won't grab something unless she wants to play. What's a good place to begin with this command? Eventually I'd like her to hold random things in her mouth but I figured if I start with toys, aka things she already knows is good to put in her mouth, I can work my way up. Right now she holds for a second, then when she realizes I'm not going to play tug or throw it she drops it. How do I start this? Google gave me waaayyy too many results.. bonus: she is skeptical of my attempts to train an old dog new tricks.  expressive by sabarika, on Flickr
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Jan 10, 2011 02:36
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a life less posted:Knowing how to interact with your animal is infinitely more useful and valuable than someone taking your dog away for a month, running a few drills with it, then dropping it back in its original environment where its original behaviours are almost guaranteed to reemerge. I'm sure you're aware of how ridiculous an idea this is already.
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Jan 25, 2011 04:43
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I've been working on recall with Diaz, attention/focus, and in general looking up how to teach new tricks. I realized that I don't have a clue how to start to train for a behavior she hasn't already really shown, apparently my training success with her was just "oh she's doing it YAY REWARD ok keep it up.." and it just..worked. Pretty well. We just moved so I'm taking advantage of the new environment by working on making her sit before going through doors (she doesn't bolt, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to push her back when we DO go through sometimes) and she's doing pretty awesome. Recall is a lot of work but we're getting there. Slowly. Tell me I'm an awful dog owner because I'm re-teaching her to say "marijuana". She speaks, and we used to have her trained to say marijuana, and now that it's just her and I it's become a mission to have her say words. Unfortunately that and "now" are the only ones she currently can do. >.o
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Feb 10, 2011 18:22
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Hhaaaayyy guiiizzzee... Not sure if this goes here, but it is kind of.. trainingish. I was at a new dog park yesterday and there were a pretty good amount of dogs there. This is a very recent behavior that I've noticed and someone at the park even commented on it so I want to assess and control it before it grows. When Diaz is playing with other dogs and the action starts to get close to where I'm standing or crouching she uses me as some sort of block/shield and runs around me or keeps running back to where I am and using me as sort of a brace. That's fine, we've all been knocked into and had those "do a weird little sidestep dance thing for 5 minutes while 60 dogs run at our unprotected kneecaps" moments. But occasionally she gets a bit too... assertive[?] when playing and instead of enjoying the chase she whirls around me and starts to act out a bit towards whatever dogs are playing with her--not aggression I think but she will lunge forward at them as they run close to me and shoulder-butt them or mouth them and get really noisy and more intense. I end up having to do a lot of wiggling to try and back out of this "play zone" and telling her "easy" because she's getting too rough. This only happens when she and another dog are playing close to me, and does not happen every time--in fact, not even most of the time. A lady at the park made a half-joking comment that Diaz was getting kind of protective of me as Diaz was making rush-passes at her dog who was playing in our little standing zone (me and 3 other ladies) and I wondered if this could be the case? Does that sound at all logical? I've never thought of Diaz as being protective, I didn't have any food on me (she will try to resource guard if I have food), and she's not exactly a dog I'd trust to scare off intruders on a late-night-dark-alley walk. I also don't know much about protective behaviors because, well, I need to brush up on my reading I guess. Only protection Diaz has shown for me is if someone enters my room when I'm sleeping, lights off, and she's on the bed with me she will growl/snarl/hairs up and if they approach and reach for me she snaps at them (never leaving the bed, never pursuing the person--I only know this because my old roommate had it happen a few times when he went to get my laptop). If I'm awake, lights are on, whatever she will be friendly as can be.Uh so question is, since I don't have this on film or anything yet (I can try!), what does it sound like? Basic gist: sometimes when Diaz is playing with other dogs and they play too close to me she gets more intense and begins circling me and using me as a block (like head between my legs type thing), "snapping" at or charging the other dogs while becoming way more vocal with grumbles, loud sharp barks (versus a longer, lower bark). I find myself having to walk or back away and command her to "easy/calm down" or separate myself before she resumes normal play. If this is some sort of protective thing I don't want her becoming aggressive over other dogs around me and don't want to encourage it, especially at the dog park where I like getting cuddles from playful puppies.  Am I doing the right thing by extracting myself from the situation/telling her to back off? Should I halt play and make her focus for a second so the situation is defused? I want to teach her that when we're playing with other dogs it's not OK to turn into a raging mommy-is-mine monster and escalate into a fight when too close to me. bonus pic of the durp: 
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Mar 9, 2011 18:09
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 06:44 |
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Skizzles posted:Yeah I pretty much called her out on everything and she's like,   too if I knew her, woah.I read the tail end of the convo Miss Posi-Dom had with Skiz and the woman kept saying dogs "smell" storms and to wait for them to smell it... As if smelling a storm was the only way dogs detect changes in weather. I let in a little tip that they can also detect changes in barometric pressure far sooner than we can so if you really want to look for your dogs signs of anxiety prior to storms don't wait for it to "smell" like rain. 
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Aug 6, 2011 05:20
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