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09-19-2007, 03:43 PM
I can't tell you how pleased I am with Molly, my friend's 8 month old English Setter, right now...I was seriously beginning to wonder about the mental capacity of this dog--she was just completley unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds, unless it was a bug in the grass. She has inadvertently been taught to ignore anything said to her, because her mom wouldn't back up most of what she said. I've got her working on that and also having her feed Molly her meals by hand and making her work for them. Today I've got her key so I can do some solo work with her.
This dog does have a brain! I dusted off my clicker, loaded up with some lamb roll and cheese bits and spent a bit priming the clicker with a "sit down sit stand" routine, all off leash to start with. She's gotten the idea that the leash means she doesn't have to listen, so I left that until later. Well, that and I couldn't find it at first. Also started teaching her "here" for "come" since she totally ignores that word anymore. Got an automatic sit going on that one too!
She picked up "watch" pretty quickly, especially after it "clicked" with her what I was after. Leave it was easier than I thought, though we didn't go past just having her ignore my closed fist with a treat inside. In a few hours we'll go work on "leave it" with an open palm. Started her on "stay" with her just sitting at my side and getting praised for not moving every couple of seconds...progressed to pivoting in front of her. The attention on that was amazing! And I had run out of treats by this point, so we were working solely on praise and some tug of war.
And the leash walking!! As I was expecting, once the leash came out, the attention span went bye-bye. So I dug through the fridge and came up with another slice of cheese to tear into bits and got the clicker back out. Boy did she pick that up quick! She went from putting every ounce of her energy into pulling to watching me as we walked around the apartment, responding to "ah ah" and coming back to a slack lead...even started the beginnings of a heel position...worked on an automatic sit; had to use the foot of the bed to keep her sitting straight and not spinning out in front of me. Actually, this made for a very good example of how a dog learns a command in a certain position and doesn't understand it applies to different areas. She would only sit in front and a few feet away from me at first. But as she caught on to the hand signal she started getting a very quick sit by my side and looking up at me.
Also worked on "wait" using the hallway to the front door and a laundry basket to form a makeshift doorway...she's still not quite understanding what this means, but I think it's dawning on her. We tried it at the front door, but unfortunetly the cat ran out and I had to go catch him. Luckily it was easy; he just ran down the hall a bit and then went "wait, what?" and laid down until I caught up.
As for myself, I finally figured out how to juggle leash, clicker and treats. :cool: I'm actually really excited to work with this dog...if I had a video camera you could see just how big of a spaz she usually is and how horrendous her leash walking is. She had to go to a harness because she was choking herself to death on her regular collar, but she's since chewed up the harness, so today's work all took place on her skinny little rhinestone flat collar and she did great! No choking, no gagging...it's just awesome. :D
This dog does have a brain! I dusted off my clicker, loaded up with some lamb roll and cheese bits and spent a bit priming the clicker with a "sit down sit stand" routine, all off leash to start with. She's gotten the idea that the leash means she doesn't have to listen, so I left that until later. Well, that and I couldn't find it at first. Also started teaching her "here" for "come" since she totally ignores that word anymore. Got an automatic sit going on that one too!
She picked up "watch" pretty quickly, especially after it "clicked" with her what I was after. Leave it was easier than I thought, though we didn't go past just having her ignore my closed fist with a treat inside. In a few hours we'll go work on "leave it" with an open palm. Started her on "stay" with her just sitting at my side and getting praised for not moving every couple of seconds...progressed to pivoting in front of her. The attention on that was amazing! And I had run out of treats by this point, so we were working solely on praise and some tug of war.
And the leash walking!! As I was expecting, once the leash came out, the attention span went bye-bye. So I dug through the fridge and came up with another slice of cheese to tear into bits and got the clicker back out. Boy did she pick that up quick! She went from putting every ounce of her energy into pulling to watching me as we walked around the apartment, responding to "ah ah" and coming back to a slack lead...even started the beginnings of a heel position...worked on an automatic sit; had to use the foot of the bed to keep her sitting straight and not spinning out in front of me. Actually, this made for a very good example of how a dog learns a command in a certain position and doesn't understand it applies to different areas. She would only sit in front and a few feet away from me at first. But as she caught on to the hand signal she started getting a very quick sit by my side and looking up at me.
Also worked on "wait" using the hallway to the front door and a laundry basket to form a makeshift doorway...she's still not quite understanding what this means, but I think it's dawning on her. We tried it at the front door, but unfortunetly the cat ran out and I had to go catch him. Luckily it was easy; he just ran down the hall a bit and then went "wait, what?" and laid down until I caught up.
As for myself, I finally figured out how to juggle leash, clicker and treats. :cool: I'm actually really excited to work with this dog...if I had a video camera you could see just how big of a spaz she usually is and how horrendous her leash walking is. She had to go to a harness because she was choking herself to death on her regular collar, but she's since chewed up the harness, so today's work all took place on her skinny little rhinestone flat collar and she did great! No choking, no gagging...it's just awesome. :D