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One of the true seeds for a well trained dog is the ability of the dog to pay attention. Nothing can be learned without this important foundational building block. Start right away, no time to waste.
Start in the house or other non-distracting environment. Throughout your time with your dog, when he/she is near you, say his/her name, and when she looks at you, click and treat. Be sure your dog looks into your eyes, and make your treat a great one. Walk away, say name again, and when dog follows and looks at you, click treat again. Repeat throughout your time together, but don't overdue, spread this exercise out during your time together.
If you have a dog that is not very responsive to above method, try this alternate way of teaching attention. With a yummy treat in your hand, put the treat near the dogs nose, and then draw your dog's gaze upward to your eyes. Put treat near the outer corner of your eye, say name when dog follows treat to your eyes with his, and click and treat. Remember, yummy, yummy treats are important.
You are not only working on name recognition, but planting the seeds for a dog that will pay attention and thus be an exceptional learner for all future commands and work. http://www:commongrounddogtraining.com
3 comments:
HI!! Simon doing very well these days; aging is helping since that is calming him down quite a bit. We still "work" together every day. Your help with this "problem dog" was amazing and invaluable; thank you so very, very much! (You should see him do the "walk with me" command when we are outside and he's off-leash)
I came across your site on the Internet and found it very informative. I was wondering if you might offer me a suggestion for my scenario. I have a 9-month-old female Weimaraner that I just recently had spayed. I have taken Sierra just about everywhere that I can. Since she was 8 weeks old (she recently completed her CGC training...which turns out to be ironic). Sierra is very protective of my home and barks when she sees anything close to our yard. Recently I have trained her to bark once and then quit upon my command of "quiet" by using treats. However, my new problem is that whenever she is in my car as we are backing out of the driveway or in my fenced yard- she barks aggressively at any of the children that walk by and some of the dogs. Just yesterday as I was getting her into the car she saw one of the neighborhood girls walking past after school, and she ran into the street barking aggressively and nipped the girl on the leg and then upon my calling...came back and got into the car (this incident is extremely upsetting.) After reading numerous articles on the Internet I believe that she is exhibiting protection aggression. I am very upset about this behavior and am wondering what I can do to get it stopped. I did have an individual session with a dog trainer in which she suggested I work with a few of the neighborhood kids to become friends with Sierra. What do you think?
Hi, I think you need to find a qualified, positive trainer in your area that is very experienced in aggression problems with dogs. the suggestion "to get your dog to make friends with neighborhood kids" is not a good one if no real instruction on how to accomplish this was given. You certainly need at least six sessions with a very experienced trainer to even begin to solve this problem. It can be done, but it takes time. You need to get right on it as this is a serious problem. I would suggest you search for a trainer in your area at the APDT Website. Just make sure the methods are all positive and not punitive, aa punitive methods could make things worse. Good luck!
Linda Lukens
Common Ground Dog Training
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