Neo had a good lesson yesterday.. Began with Stand/Wait/Sit exercises. Of course working on attention and eye contact skills. Next step: After the "Wait" Command left hand on rear. We want him to hold the standing position. He tried to sit. Quickly command correction, UHUH and place left hand under tummy. Positive Preventative Training. After a couple of times he did not fault. Learning to wait. ** Reviewed the DownWait/Sit. He did well. Next step. Slightly place left and right legs out. Hold in place with left hand on the wither. Then right hand signal while commanding DOWN and gently place down. He will begin to learn to move his legs on command. Praise then Wait, and Sit. ** Heeling was more difficult as he wanted to pull and lag. Using the lead and voice tone, teach him to walk together as a team. After two to three corrections with lead sit him and begin again. Focus. Thursday is his ne
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The most important exercise to teach your dog is to heel properly and reliably. If your dog will never leave your side it will listen when called and come directly to you because it wants to be with you. How do we acomplish this? How do we teach our dog to understand never to leave our side when walking no matter what the distraction is? When we turn our dog turns with us. When we stop walking our dog sits,stands, or lays down depending on our command. If we walk fast or slow we want our dog to change pace or walk at normal pace.
Dogs learn at different rates. Puppies under 6-7 months will take longer. Although beginning the process with a puppy is better than starting an older dog because older dogs develop bad habits. But it's never too late to begin training. It's very important initially to train your dog where there are no or limited distractions. Eye contact and attention skills must be developed. Steps to begin to teach proper heeling: 1. Dog in seated position on your left side. A. Dogs are always trained on the left side of the trainer. B. Place your left hand knuckles forward on lead and be sure the clip is facing the ground and there is a U in the lead. When walking there should always be a U in the lead unless the dog is pulling,lagging, or sniffing. In those instances the lead will tighten. When in formal training mode there is no pulling, lagging or sniffing. These faults must be corrected with a slight pull on the lead to teach the dog proper position and immediately place the lead in neutral position with the U. If your dog is faulting more than two or three times in a row than sit your dog and get your dog to pay attention. C. When teaching your dog proper position after a fault, verbal corrections are, Ah! Ah!, Let's go, hurry hurry, with me followed by Good boy or girl in an uplifting voice tone. 2. When ready say your dogs name, then once the dog is up and moving command Heel then praise. Step out with your left leg and if your dog does not respond teach it by pulling forward on the lead and back to neutral. We have to have a great response when saying your dogs name. We want the dog to move! A. With puppies, begin walking in a straight line then halt. Maybe 10-30 feet. As you come to a stop we need to teach your dog to sit. B. Don't pull up on the collar with puppies. Simply when ready, place right hand under muzzle and left hand cupping the tail set and command sit. Lift up on the muzzle and gently place the rear into a sit. Hold position and praise. C. Then begin again. Train heeling at least 15 minutes each day. Began with eye contact and Stand/Wait/Sit and Down/Wait/Sit exercises. His attention was a little less than Chocolate Lab puppy Neo. Better than lesson 1. Jim worked him and he did well. Need to continue to hold and teach him the wait command and guide him into position on the stand and down commands.
The heeling or controlled walking was the new exercise. Recommend practicing 15 minutes per day. Can break the time up ( 5-5-5 or 10-5). Buck, at times was pulling for Jim and especially for Jim Jr. I explained to walk in a straight line 10-30 feet depending on the way Buck is working. Responding to his name when saying "Buck Heel" walking on a loose lead. It was tightening when Buck was pulling. I showed the correct way to teach proper walking position and voice control.Also to teach Buck, sit when halting. Good lesson. Both puppies need plenty of work on heeling skills. I will follow up with Neo Monday after his lesson. Buck's next lesson is Wednesday. The clients will be training their puppies everyday. Hopefully! Some tips to train puppies to heel or controlled walking: This 1 year old King Charles is super active. No attention, No eye contact, jumps on everyone and pulls like donkey and she is in its own dog world. She also has separation anxiety. This dog needs a comprehensive training program. I worked her for 20 minutes and I know, if the client hires me I can make significant progress with the dog regarding behavior modification, eye contact and attention skills. This will not happen quickly and she will be a challenge but I know I can make life better for the owner and dog.
The owner Colleen trained him the last couple of days well. He was more attentive and had better eye contact. The Stand/Wait/Sit and Down/Wait/Sit exercise was good. Continue to be consistant with the training teaching him The Stand, The Wait and The Sit. Also The Down, The Wait and The Sit from the down. Be patient and guide him to the proper positions.
Began heeling or controlled walking in house. He is used to being off lead and doing whatever he wants. So as we walked him by the back door he began to pull to play outside with Scout the other dog. Here is where the attention skills are necessary. Proper heeling needs a lot of work. Practice 15 minutes a day. Keep a loose lead and teach him with the lead and voice how to walk properly as I showed you to do. Follow Neo and Buck two 4 month old labs on their progression through the puppy obedience lessons. Both live in different households. Lets see how they do.
They both are very overly friendly puppies and are distracted when being worked. So we are working on eye contact and attention skills. First exercises are Sit and Settle always working on eye contact and keeping them in place by holding in seated position talking to them in an uplifting voice tone saying "watch me" or 'look" and when you get that all important eye contact, praise. Also use a massage as they are in seated position. Next exercise: Stand/Wait/Sit and Down/Wait/Sit I will explain those exercises and how they did after Neo's lesson today and Buck's less Olive 4 months is very sweet. Began training 5 weeks ago. Began training Eye Contact and Attention Skills and basic obedience commands with the proper response. She is coming along great. Best results are inside their apartment. Outside more challenging with the natural distractions.
She is performing really well now with "Go To Your Place, Sit, Down and Stay" when someone enters. Before we began training she was out of control jumping and barking in a friendly manner when a guest or the spouse entered. The commands are: Go to Your Place along with a hand signal. Olive goes to her mat. Then the next command after getting eye contact is SIT, with hand signal, again once she is attentive the command is DOWN with hand signal, and then finally STAY command with hand signal. The Stay is at least 1+ minutes. The guest enters and Olive remains in the down position until the owner goes back to her, praises her with voice tone and petting. Then Break or Release Command and Praise. I was working with Mike and Maxie yesterday. Maxine is a 12 week Boxer puppy. We were working on controlled walking or heeling. The key is patience. This was the first time I was working with them outside. When the wind blew Maxine began to jump and spin. She became distracted by the leaves blowing. So before we could effectively train her to walk properly she needed to "pay attention" "look" and be seated and settled. Once she sat and was settle we began to walk at heel position. We continued to teach her heel position by proper use of the lead and voice intonation. If she got "out of control or not attentive" then she was seated, eye contact and began again. After several start overs she began to walk much better. Use encouragement when doing well and correct her when she faults followed by praise is the way. Great lesson!
Yesterday I went on a consultation to evaluate two dogs that became extremely aggressive to each other. This happened once the third dog, a puppy was introduced. They are all rescue dogs and they are neutered and spayed.
Once the growl starts and it esculates and at that point it's too late for the behavior modification to be taught. My sugesstion is formal obedience exercises together on lead with the third dog present. Teaching eye contact with praise and attention skills. Teach them to stand,wait in place and sit on command. Also teach the down,wait sit exercise. When walking together use a soft nylon fitted muzzle to prevent damage from a bite. The muzzle may teach them they are not in control or dominant. It's not a forever tool. If I'm hired I'll follow up with the progress. Eye contact with your dog will promote attention skills. Attention skills are necessary for a dog to listen and learn. Some terms are: "pay attention", "watch me", "look","eyes" etc. Say these terms in an uplifting voice tone. Praise your dog when your eyes meet. ("oh good","nice")
Do this exercise with your dog in seated position and in a quiet place in your home with no distractions. |