# Obedience critique - again!



## JCKinne (Sep 16, 2010)

You all were kind enough to critique this boy..and ME...several months ago. We're still plugging away and I think the pieces are finally coming together. I love it when I have someone available to video so I can actually see what I am doing wrong. I'd still love opinions from all of you. We hope to be ready for a BH this fall. 

Thank you!





 
The main questions that I have are - 

he consistently drops his head when rewarded, how should I correct this? I hate correcting him after he takes the reward..I'm sure its very confusing to him. 

he always sniffs the ground in long downs. should I worry about that or just leave it alone?


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Does Pike have drive for toys or do you just use food? I realize that videos are usually edited a lot to remove parts that the viewer might find boring. 

No flowery words here.  Your training is very boring. Pike is going along with you, but he isn't showing joy in what he is doing. He is also showing some pressure. For the most part what he is doing is correct, but rather slow and flat. I did not watch his previous videos so maybe this is who he is, but I would still do more to bring joy to the work. More praise from both your voice and your touch so he knows you are pleased with him. If he likes toys than that toy would be getting whipped out at random times during the routine for a good game of tug. 

The dropping the head when given food: Try marking the behavior, rewarding and stopping for a brief second while he chews then move on again when you regain the focus. Some dogs have a hard time eating their treat and doing anything else. 

The sniffing, from watching the video, is probably caused by the food being dropped on the ground when you reward him. Even when not there he is looking for it. I would reward from the hand instead and probably use a verbal correction to stop the sniffing. Sniffing can lead to creaping which can lead to getting up and moving. It is also not desired.


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## t.lesniak (Jan 4, 2010)

If you decided to go with food to pay the dog, you have to give him the opportunity to eat the food. you can see the pressure in the dog when you feed him. He wants the food but he knows he is about to receive the collar correction with it, so the conflict shows there. Another reason to switch to toys for the reward. It makes more energy and frees up the dog. Pike looks a little stiff after the correction and "squashed" in his movement.

No reason to leave the down with the sniffing. Stay on the line and give a correction for sniffing. My definition of Down has *no sniffing* built in. I hate all the "leave it" and "no sniff" commands. "Down" means lay there calmly and pay attention to me or the last place you saw me (if I go out of sight).

The motions look real nice. You have made a good foundation to work with. Now put some power and energy into the heeling. That will give the picture of "joy" in the work that Lisa mentioned.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

I agree with the others: you need to be more fun and shake up your heeling to be unpredictable. He will find this a lot more interesting than just walking back and forth.

You give him the food and then correct him when he drops his head to swallow it. Would you rather he chokes on it? Either quit giving the food and switch to a toy or release him when you give him food.

I also agree that he's looking for food in the grass and you should hand him the treats. A verbal correction would be all I would do at this point as you are the cause of his sniffing.

Overall, he looks pretty good.


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## Packen (Sep 14, 2008)

Very nice work. To make it better will make you go for the high points, you will need to work with someone who has been there (majority here have not).


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## holland (Jan 11, 2009)

...unless of course you enjoy who you are training with If you are enjoying it so will the dog-I agree with the bring out a toy comment -because there are points in the video where he does look animated and think a toy would bring that out more and make him happy


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

lhczth said:


> Your training is very boring. Pike is going along with you, but he isn't showing joy in what he is doing. He is also showing some pressure. For the most part what he is doing is correct, but rather slow and flat.


Lisa, or anyone else who knows, can you explain what you see that makes you say he's showing some pressure?


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Mostly I am seeing a change in expression, some dropping of the ears, some lip licking (calming signal)), lagging. Then there are some moments where he looks really nice especially towards the latter part of the video.


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