# Couple questions about training my puppy



## 96Firebird (May 29, 2010)

So, Harley is my thirteen-week-old German shepherd mix and he is doing very well at his training. However, I do have a few questions for you all.

Walking: I like to walk Harley at least once a day, but he only likes to walk with other dogs. This isn't really an issue, since my roommate has a dog and my girlfriends parents have a dog. However, my roommates dog does not walk well on a leash and my girlfriends parents dog has hip dysplasia and cannot go on far walks. Is there any way to get him to walk with just me and no other dogs? Tonight we went on a walk with my girlfriends parents dog, and he could only go around the block once. My girlfriend and I wanted to go another block with Harley but he wouldn't walk very far and would just lay down without the other dog. Also, the other day I tried walking him at my house but he kept laying down. So I got my roommates dog and tried walking both but that wasn't very fun for my since they kept getting tangled and stuff. So what should I do? Also, he tries biting and tugging on the leash. I don't want this to become a habit, how should I correct this?

Playing: I am trying to get him to fetch, but he doesn't seem to interested in things that I throw. Once in a while he will go after whatever I throw, but he only picks it up and then drops it to go do something else. I plan on making a flirt pole, but is there any way I can teach him to fetch? I'd like to find other ways to tire him out besides searching for food and eating dirt.

Commands: I try to spend some time every day with him on basic commands such as sit, stay, etc... However, when do I start trying commands without treats as rewards? I feel like he won't listen to commands unless I have food or treats. Do they just learn to obey the commands after a while? I know he is still pretty young, and I don't want to overwhelm him, so I'm not sure I'd I should introduce new commands to learn? Is it best to start as early ad possible?

Thanks for any help with these questions, just want the best for my lil guy.


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## milkmoney11 (Feb 11, 2010)

This is just my experience...

Walking: 13 weeks old is pretty young to expect too much from walking. Bring treats to distract him when he lays down and get him up again. Then keep praising every time he is walking. When Cash lays down on a walk, I go over and pick him up and we keep going. Only go on short walks because at that age his stamina is pretty weak. Keep doing it every day and it will get better. There will be bad days and good days. Don't let him stop and sniff until you get to a designated "sniffing spot" too. Otherwise your walk will take forever and he will stop to smell every little thing. 

Tricks: Keep using the treats. Eventually he will do it without as long as you give plenty of praise. You may have to go back to treats periodically to reteach.

Fetching: Find a toy he really likes and start with really small distances...like a few feet inside. When he picks up the toy, praise and reward. Soon he should start walking back to you with the toy. Praise and reward. Eventually he should start fetching on his own. Some dogs just don't have a very strong "fetch drive" though and don't ever get into it.

Use REALLY tasty treats that he really likes too. I use cut up pieces of hot dog. Its cheap and works great. Just make sure to cut them really small.


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

For walks- has he had all of his shots? At that age he shouldn't have, and shouldn't even be going on walks yet. 

play- he's still very young, and it's possible that he doesn't have the desire to play with balls yet, or fetching something. He's young and wants to play with YOU. This is desired at this age. It's perfect for training. As he gets older, he'll become more independent and will probably be more likely to chase and fetch, which you'll have to train him to do. 

For training- you have to FADE the rewards. That means, once he's doing say, a sit, time after time on command and you're treating him for it, ask for a sit with treats in hand, but don't give him one. Instead physically and verbally praise him with no real reward. Do this on and off, gradually fading the treat altogether. He'll learn that it's still good and in his favor to sit when you ask because it's always brought treats before, and now it's all wishy washy and he might still get one. Even once his sit is proofed, giving him a treat for it every once and a while is a great thing to keep him "guessing" so to speak. At his age, my dog had proofed down, sit, and shake, with a few minutes of stay. It's never too early to introduce commands, imo, as long as you're keeping training sessions short, fun, and successful. Always set your dog up for success.


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## Relayer (Apr 29, 2010)

As for command and treats with them. Try to be clever and don't show him the treat before he performs. Make it a great surprise and don't treat him every few times you give the command. In other words, alternate something like 4 times with an immediate treat and 1 time with just praise. If he sees the treat first, he may not be focused enough on the job, just the visible treat.


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

I feel differently about training with treats. I think you need to train with food for a long long time before you even start thinking about fading them or going to intermittent schedule. Puppies need to be first trained IN DRIVE and your job is to get that pup to as high of a drive as you can - whether that be food drive with treats or prey drive with toys. Reward often and reward generously. With Ike, I rewarded every sit, down, stand, look from 8 weeks to 8 months; I was practically stuffing food down his throat in every training session. When they are young, all you want is enthusiasm ... I could care less "why" they are doing what they are doing. The most important lesson you can teach a 13 weeks old pup is not sit, down, stay, or even recall. Rather, it's that training with you is FUN.


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## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

Jason L said:


> I feel differently about training with treats. I think you need to train with food for a long long time before you even start thinking about fading them or going to intermittent schedule. Puppies need to be first trained IN DRIVE and your job is to get that pup to as high of a drive as you can - whether that be food drive with treats or prey drive with toys. Reward often and reward generously. With Ike, I rewarded every sit, down, stand, look from 8 weeks to 8 months; I was practically stuffing food down his throat in every training session. When they are young, all you want is enthusiasm. The most important lesson you can teach a 13 weeks old pup is not sit, down, stay, or even recall. Rather, it's that training with you is FUN.


:thumbup:


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I agree with Jason, and even when they are older you want enthusiasm...there is nothing but flat.....boring..... if you don't have the dog engaged with you! The dog lives long enough that obedience will be ingrained regardless, may as well try to have the pup/dog happy while doing so. This video is a 4 yr old and look at his happiness/focus on his handler: YouTube - RoniTristar's Channel She uses toy, treat mixed to keep it exciting


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

I just want to say something more about intermittent reward. In order for intermittent reward to work like the way it is supposed to, your dog first needs to believe - with all his heart - that he will be rewarded/paid for EVERY right action that he performs. Without the belief, intermittent rewarding is just inconsistent rewarding and you will not derive any training benefit from it ... Also, in my opinion, there are some exercises that work better with intermittent rewards than others. Duration exercises like focus or heeling work great. The nature of the exercises almost demands it. But I would not mess around intermittent reward for active exercises like sit, down, stand, recall - not in the beginning. If I want a fast and reliable down, I am rewarding/paying my dog every time he downs and I am going to do this for a long long long time - until the action (dog hears "platz" - dog drops like an anvil to the ground) is hardwired into his little doggie brain.


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## VChurch (Jun 14, 2010)

We trained my adult dog with treats and I slowly faded them out once I was 100% positive that he knew the command I was giving him. I think even as young at 3-4 months old he was sitting/laying down/etc. without the use of a treat every time. But even now sometimes I'll randomly give him treats for doing commands he's known his whole life.

With my eight-week old puppy we're using toys/praise for right now for little training things (not biting, not barking for attention, etc.). As she gets older this may change, but I'm hoping I will be able to train her using a toy/praise rather than treats for everything; she does enjoy playing fetch so I'm positive this will be a good training method for her.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Jason L said:


> I feel differently about training with treats. I think you need to train with food for a long long time before you even start thinking about fading them or going to intermittent schedule. Puppies need to be first trained IN DRIVE and your job is to get that pup to as high of a drive as you can - whether that be food drive with treats or prey drive with toys. Reward often and reward generously. With Ike, I rewarded every sit, down, stand, look from 8 weeks to 8 months; I was practically stuffing food down his throat in every training session. When they are young, all you want is enthusiasm ... I could care less "why" they are doing what they are doing. The most important lesson you can teach a 13 weeks old pup is not sit, down, stay, or even recall. Rather, it's that training with you is FUN.


First off...YES to this. Very well put.

Walks- At 13/14 weeks he is VERY young and really shouldn't be doing long walks. If he's pushing himself to stay with the other dog that's because he doesn't want to be left behind...he probably doesn't really want to do those walks then either...but he wants to stay with the other dog so he keeps moving along. Puppies shouldn't really be doing long walks on hard surfaces, it's not good for their joints. If you want him to walk with you I would work on getting him to follow you around without a leash to start with. Call to him and encourage him to keep up. 

PLaying- If you have a dog that's not genetically all about the toys...then it can't jsut be all about the toys it has to be about the GAME. You running around with the toy, being all excited, snatching the toy from him if he's not quick enough to get it will help to give the toy value. How does he feel about tug? A good tugging session can be pretty exhausting for a puppy too!

Commands- I'm with Jason on this one. I rarely ask my dogs to do commands without having some kind of possible reward in place...and defnitely not when they are puppies. It doesn't always ahve to be visible, but when they perform the action they need to get paid. Why? Well I suppose it's the difference in building reliability in commands. I don't want to have to say down 4 times, point at the floor, and then eventually tug him down by his collar and tell him he's a good boy when he finally gives in or say Down 6 times and wait forever for my dog to comply (Don't pretend like you haven't seen this...this is the majority of pet obedience in America). I want to say it once and watch my dog go down like his legs just broke and collapsed. 

I find the concept of training for the average pet to be interesting...because most people don't really want to do training, they want to do just enough to make the dog livable. If the dog sort of sits, sort of downs, doesn't jump, doesn't pee in the house, and doesn't drag you down the street that counts as trained for most people. I think if you were to log and chart the obedience classes sold in America, you would see that Puppy Classes are the number one sellers, possibly followed by Basic OB, then after the dog is a year old training becomes virtuallty non existant for most people and I would imagine the next best selling class is a Behavioral trainer that helps to fix the problems that Puppy and Basic OB didn't take care of. But I digress...

Building in the concept that they get paid every time is important like Jason said, so that when you don't pay them it's an abberation or an unusual event...not the norm. There is not a time in the world when I don't reward even my adult dogs in some way when they do what I ask. I can string behaviors together and they will work for 20 minutes without a reward (Think trial day) but they do it on the belief and the foundation that at some point they will be done and they will get paid. (either food, toys, or play)


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## jent (Jun 14, 2010)

I too have a 13 week old puppy (turns 14 weeks on Monday).

I am by no means an expert, but I have had a lot of dogs, and have done a tremendous amount of research. Here is my perspective on the issues you raised:

*Walking -*
I personally don't think walking at 13 weeks is bad or wrong. I got my dog at 10 weeks and we started walking instantly. My biggest concern was not his joins (which I have seen no scientific evidence to). But rather diseases. Because of that I have been getting his vaccines a bit faster than normal (8 weeks, 10 weeks, 13 weeks and his next one will be at 15 weeks). But I have decided that the socialization, the experience of being out of the house and seeing/smelling new things, is too valuable to wait. So we hedge our bets and do what we can.

But to actually respond to your question. When we first started walking at 10 weeks, he too did not always want to walk. For him it did not matter if it was another dog or not. And it was not because he was tired, it was because there was so much new stuff, he wanted to smell it all, and then would get frustrated when we would not stop so he can smell the roses. The solution was just lots of encouragement, lots of praise...but also to keep our route the same every time so he would not be so interested in EVERYTHING. Now he walks like a pro, almost at a heel the whole way. He loves how he gets praised constantly during walks, and only takes brief moments to sniff anything, and never a tug on the leash. Praise, praise, praise, lots of fuzzles to the head, cheery voices, and happy tones...it has to be fun for such a young dog, or you will never get him to do anything

*Playing -*
My dog too does not like to play fetch often. He loves to chew on his bones, he loves to play tug, and he loves to bite my hand (been working on that one slowly). What I been doing to encourage more of a "fetch drive" (as a previous poster called it), is throw the ball a short distance. He runs out and pounces it, then brings it back. Lots of praise as soon as he picks it up, and even more praise as he starts to bring it back. Then I let him keep it for a bit, a trophy/victory....but will later take it and do it once or twice more. I ALWAYS end it before he does. I always end it with him having fun and wanting more. Vs making him tired and bored and it no longer fun for him. Will this work? Time will tell...but it is the path I have been trying.

_A tip:_
If he is going to the ball but is not bringing it back to you. Start doing it in a hall way. That way he has only one place to go, to you. This can help get him into that pattern of getting it and then bringing it back.

*Training/Commands - *
I agree that it is best to start training from the day he gets home. I also agree with the other posters that the absolute most important thing you can get in these early training sessions is building his love and drive to train. Training when he gets older wont be so fun, so lets get him to love it now while we can. But that is where me, and I think a lot of the people on this forum diverge.

With the use of treats, I believe this should be a very short term solution. My dog is on treats, but I been just recently starting to try and ween him off of them. This is based on my personal experience in training, as well as what I have seen from others. Is it right? No, there is no right or wrong (within reason), there are many many different training methods that can get equally good amounts of success. But I will explain my rational anyways:

I believe that training with treats cheapens the relationship between the dog and handler. Physical and verbal praise should be just as meaningful to the dog as any food treat. Further more, by having the praise/reward come from you, it makes him focus more on you. And less on wanting a specific treat. This can help later in training, but it has benefits outside of training sessions as well. So to me, treats are just because the dog has not developed that strong bond to me yet. But as he gets older, treats will only hinder our progress to increase that bond.

So to answer your question, with my personal pup, I plan to have him completely off the use of treats by 16 weeks. My previous dog (Labrador) before him, I never ONCE used a treat, and she competed in field trials quite successfully. And I have no doubt that our relationship was improved by this simple pattern of training.

The process I have been using is quite simple. If he has performed well, and needs to be praised, he might get a treat with minimal verbal or physical praise (some but not crazy). If I choose not to give a treat, instead I go CRAZY....I get loud, we run, lots of fuzzles, get the pup excited till his tail is going a mile a minute and he just wants to jump out of his fur with enjoyment. I try to make the praise coming from me, much more enjoyable than the treat. I can tell already, he looks at my face a lot more than the hand holding the training treats....which is exactly what I want, him to focus on me, and want praise from me more than any silly amount of food.


Feel free to ask me more questions. And I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I would love to hear direct responses to my processes. I by no means consider myself an expert, and have lots to learn myself. So please, criticize me and help me learn to be the best handler I can be!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

jent said:


> I believe that training with treats cheapens the relationship between the dog and handler.





> So to me, treats are just because the dog has not developed that strong bond to me yet. But as he gets older, treats will only hinder our progress to increase that bond.


Well, I totally disagree with you about this.


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

I kind of agree and disagree. Physical and verbal praises are very important but I don't see why I can't click/mark, treat, AND praise. Why is food (or I guess for that matter, toy) cast as the antithesis to "true bond" and has to be eliminated as quickly as possible (16 weeks?). Loosely speaking, a dog works in two drives in obedience: social/pack, food/prey. Why do I have to choose between the two? Why can't they work in both?


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Jason L said:


> Physical and verbal praises are very important but I don't see why I can't click/mark, treat, AND praise. Why is food (or I guess for that matter, toy) cast as the antithesis to "true bond" and has to be eliminated as quickly as possible (16 weeks?). Loosely speaking, a dog works in two drives in obedience: social/pack, food/prey. Why do I have to choose between the two? Why can't they work in both?


Exactly. Using food or toys (or whatever else motivates your dog) as a reward does not "cheapen" your relationship, nor does it hinder the development of your bond. 

As far as I'm concerned if you're not using all your various options in terms of what motivates your dog to work for you then you're tying one hand behind your back. And for what? Just because? 

Whatever it is that floats their boats, I don't care _what_ it is, you bet I'm going to use that as a training tool!


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## jent (Jun 14, 2010)

Jason L said:


> I kind of agree and disagree. Physical and verbal praises are very important but I don't see why I can't click/mark, treat, AND praise. Why is food (or I guess for that matter, toy) cast as the antithesis to "true bond" and has to be eliminated as quickly as possible (16 weeks?). Loosely speaking, a dog works in two drives in obedience: social/pack, food/prey. Why do I have to choose between the two? Why can't they work in both?


Just to be clear to the last two responses....There is no reason that it "can't" be...and there is no reason that you can't be just as successful with a purely treat based method. As I said, there are many methods that are equally effective, I was just trying to explain my perspective and my methodology.

I was just talking from my experience as a trainer. I know lots of people are completely successful using treats through their entire training process. But I don't trust myself to be capable of such. And as soon as the dog is looking for the treats, and not to me for guidance and praise, that concerns me. I want the primary focus to be very strongly me, not a treat. Focusing on the treats is functioning only as a distraction to what I want the dog to be really paying attention to (me). The key word there is distraction....

If you train successfully with treats, and the dog is focused on you, and not the treats, then clearly your doing what I can't. But myself, and other trainers that I see using treats, in every case I have seen the dog is looking to the hand, they are looking to the pocket holding the treats, they are drooling, etc. This happens to me even with a young pup, I just ignore it because, well they are young and I can only expect so much.

To respond to why I do it so early (16 weeks)....I can only respond, why wait? I feel praise is 100% just as affective as treats. I am only using it as a crutch in the short term until the pup is old enough, and bonded enough, to not need them.


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

jent said:


> Just to be clear to the last two responses....There is no reason that it "can't" be...and there is no reason that you can't be just as successful with a purely treat based method. As I said, there are many methods that are equally effective, I was just trying to explain my perspective and my methodology.
> 
> I was just talking from my experience as a trainer. I know lots of people are completely successful using treats through their entire training process. But I don't trust myself to be capable of such. And as soon as the dog is looking for the treats, and not to me for guidance and praise, that concerns me. I want the primary focus to be very strongly me, not a treat. Focusing on the treats is functioning only as a distraction to what I want the dog to be really paying attention to (me). The key word there is distraction....
> 
> ...


The only time a dog would be drooling over treats excessively, looking for them, your hand, pockets, etc is if you're training completely wrong. I've never had any issue with my dogs focusing on me instead of treats. Just like with any reward (which praise that you're giving is), you have to fade it and use it correctly. If you can't master treat training, I'd hate to see how your dogs reacted when you didn't praise them after a command. Would they flip, or perhaps not listen? 

Fact is, especially with GSD, praise and affection usually isn't a motivator. I know my guy does not like unsoclicited attention. He only wants it when he wants it, but will always work for treats.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

jent said:


> I was just talking from my experience as a trainer. I know lots of people are completely successful using treats through their entire training process. But I don't trust myself to be capable of such. And as soon as the dog is looking for the treats, and not to me for guidance and praise, that concerns me. I want the primary focus to be very strongly me, not a treat. Focusing on the treats is functioning only as a distraction to what I want the dog to be really paying attention to (me). The key word there is distraction....


Well, the dog shouldn't be looking for the treats in the first place.  And along with the treats there IS praise, and play, and affection - all good things that come from ME, which is why they focus on ME, and not the food. The first thing I do is teach the dog, well, puppy actually, that the way to get the food is to ignore the food and look at me. They can stare at the food all they want, they can try to take the food out of my hand, but all that does is delay the moment when they'll actually get it. 



> If you train successfully with treats, and the dog is focused on you, and not the treats, then clearly your doing what I can't. But myself, and other trainers that I see using treats, in every case I have seen the dog is looking to the hand, they are looking to the pocket holding the treats, they are drooling, etc.


It's actually easy if you're interested in learning. But you do seem to have made up your mind already that using food rewards is an inferior way to train, so maybe you're not interested. Unlike all those other people you've seen, my dogs don't look at my hand, they look at my face. Dogs do what works. If staring at my hand with food in it works, they'll do that. If looking at the pocket with the treats in it works, they'll do that. But you can teach them that those things DON'T work, and then they won't do them anymore, they'll do whatever you've taught them DOES work. 

Here are some pictures if you'd like to see it in action:

Halo - 14 weeks old, second week of puppy class - I have food in both hands and she's 100% focused on me, off leash, in a room full of people and other off leash puppies










This time the food is on the floor in front of her, she's still 100% focused on me










14-1/2 weeks old, 100% focused on my husband, with her food bowl on the floor, waiting to be released to eat










We got her at 10 weeks old, and I started working with her immediately. By the time she went into puppy class 3 weeks later this sort of exercise was old hat, and at one point a woman stopped me after class to ask how I taught her to focus like that. Well, if you've got a puppy that will do backflips for food, it's easy! 

BTW, here is a great video that's just one of the many things we worked on together when she was little: 




I just started using balls as a distraction in training, and we've got a ways to go. But she's crazy for balls, and I know that it won't be long before she learns that the way to get the ball is to ignore it and work with me, the same way I taught her to ignore food. And because I'm the purveyor of all things good, interesting and wonderful, our bond is great!

ETA: Just wanted to add that my training style is VERY animated, I make happy faces at my dogs and use lots of enthusiastic praise, I'll jump around when they've been especially amazing - I'm sure I look like a loon to passersby, but I've been doing it this way so long that I'm over that. :wink:


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> The first thing I do is teach the dog, well, puppy actually, that the way to get the food is to ignore the food and look at me. They can stare at the food all they want, they can try to take the food out of my hand, but all that does is delay the moment when they'll actually get it.


This is such an important lesson to teach pups early on (and you can teach this as early as 8 weeks): _for whatever the pup wants (food, ball, attention), he first has to go through me and it's only by going through me does he get what he wants. _

It's basically the puppy version of "capping". First, he sees the food/toy and his drive is activated and he wants to satisfy his drive. But as he goes after the object, he discovers that the path of satisfaction is blocked and he can't get to it by himself. At this point you teach the pup to channel that drive (+frustration) into some obedience behavior (look, sit, down, heel, etc) and that it is only through obedience will he be able to satisfy his drive. That's is how you use food/toy to create focus. Not by luring. Not by holding the food/toy to your face and bribe the dog to look at you. The more drivey your pup is (or the more drivey you can make your pup), the more intense his focus and obedience will be once you teach him to cap/bottle it.

Here is a short video of Ike doing such an exercise. He was 6 months in this video


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## bianca (Mar 28, 2010)

Debbie, thank you so much for posting that clip! Wow that is amazing and I am going to try that principle from tomorrow


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## jent (Jun 14, 2010)

I will give some of the described suggestions a try, and see how it goes.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

bianca said:


> Debbie, thank you so much for posting that clip! Wow that is amazing and I am going to try that principle from tomorrow


I really, really like this technique. It's a little different than teaching "leave it" on cue, which I also do. I like to build attention and focus as default behaviors, where it's expected, even if I don't specifically ask for it. You can do this with anything, it doesn't have to be a food reward, it can be at playtime, or anything else the dog values. My dogs know to sit and look at me to go outside, to come inside, before we go for a walk, to get in the car, to get out of the car, at mealtimes, before they get a bully stick, pretty much everything I can think of, so I'm constantly reinforcing focus and impulse control.

When we got Halo I took the first week off work and then for the next few weeks I took a long lunch so I had a 3 hour break mid-day. I'd come home and spend some time using her food to work on simple obedience stuff, and in particular things like this where I reinforced behaviors I liked without yet attaching a command to it. She ate much of her lunch kibble doing the "it's yer choice" game. Look at me, the hand opens and I start to feed, look at the hand, it closes and the food stops coming. Very simple, and yet extremely powerful.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Jason L said:


> The more drivey your pup is (or the more drivey you can make your pup), the more intense his focus and obedience will be once you teach him to cap/bottle it.
> 
> Here is a short video of Ike doing such an exercise. He was 6 months in this video
> YouTube - Ike: Focus Game


Love Ike! I agree, the more motivated by whatever, the easier it is to teach your dog that to ignore it is to get it. Halo and Keefer are both super food motivated, so they figured out pretty quickly how to "make" me give it to them by doing what I wanted them to do.


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## 96Firebird (May 29, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies guys, guess I have a little bit of reading to do today. I'll be sure to read through all the suggestions and try out some ways, and of course update my progress after a while. Thanks again.


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## blackviolet (Jun 17, 2010)

JKlatsky said:


> If the dog sort of sits, sort of downs, doesn't jump, doesn't pee in the house, and doesn't drag you down the street that counts as trained for most people.


That's true! I have honestly never known anyone whose dogs have been trained beyond this point. I've never known anyone that even went to a puppy or obedience class.  That's sad, huh? I have been the same way, but am looking to change, which is why I'm here. I just keep surfing threads and reading the responses, and I'm learning.  These videos and posts and links are all so helpful, since I don't know anyone who knows anything about real training.

And once you read it, you read the same thing 100 times, and it seems so obvious, but it's not obvious when you have no clue where to start, ya know?


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## 96Firebird (May 29, 2010)

Well, I figured I'd give a little update on Harley's progress thus far. He is nearing the 6 month mark, and I'd say he is doing very well. He still has his problems, but they are a work in progess...

Harley still has issues with walking well on a leash, mostly because he gets very excited. He walks the best with me, because I correct him whenever he tries to pull or jump. However, anyone else, he will pull and jump and go all over the place. I've been thinking about getting him a harness for easier walking, but I'm not sure if I want to get it yet since he is not full grown. He also walks well when he is in between two people. I'm not sure why this is the case, but whenever my girlfriend walks him I try to get on the other side of him so he won't pull. I've also been rewarding him when he walks well, but then he just starts staring at me while walking waiting for the next treat.

Harley now loves to play fetch, and I'm glad. He will run after whatever I threw, bring it back, and sometimes drop it for another go. Sometimes he will run around with it in his mouth, taunting me. He also loves to play soccer, and we have an old jolly ball that he loves to prance around with. Its weird though, when he is getting tired of playing fetch, he will run around like crazy for about a minute, not stop for anything, and then plop down and rest. Its like he has to get that last burst of energy out before relaxing. I always laugh at this, because I know once it starts there is no stopping him.

I've been weening out the treats for commands, and this is yielding mixed results. Sometimes he will listen, other times he will just stare at me or wander off. However, he now looks at me before I let him eat. Here is a picture of him focused on my girlfriend before she releases him for dinner...










I've also been doing the hand opening when he backs away, and I think he is starting to get it. Sometimes he tries and tries and gets frustrated, but eventually he leaves it and gets rewarded.

A few things I still want to work on... He will not come when called, especially if he somehow gets out of the back yard or house and is free to roam. I'm not really sure how to work on this, since it seems like he will run off if I try recall without a leash. I know he is still young and wants to explore, so I'm not sure if it is age related or if he just wasn't taught to stick with me.

Another thing I want to work on is his "bulliness". He has learned not to mess with my girlfriend's parent's dog (pictured with Harley below), but he still messes with my roommate's chocolate lab. Whenever we go to my house, Harley will relentlessly bite and nip at this dog. Its not aggression, he just wants to play. But this dog doesn't always want to play, and Harley won't let up. He will jump on him and nip at his legs, ears, bark at him, but I know he just wants to play because he will bow and try to get him to play tug with the toys. Or, Harley will steal the other dog's toy from in between his legs and run around him with it. Is there any way to stop this, or should I let the dogs sort it out? Jackson (the chocolate lab) will play back sometimes, but other times he just wants to peacefully chew his toy. A few times Jackson has pulled the fur on Harley's neck and Harley will yelp, but then he will go right back to bothering Jackson. It seems like he won't learn when to stop. In the end, I usually seperate them by putting Harley in my room and closing the door. But I want him to be able to roam the house without annoying the other dog...

So, Harley is still a work in progress, but he is getting better. He is growing up to be a very good dog, although I do miss him when he was just a little guy...


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