Ignoring me

[Mikey D]

For a week (ok not every day) Iv'e been working with Liesel to sit. (15mo.German Shepherd) Once in awhile she will. We have done the push-pull to sit her as much as 30 times in a session. What about treats. I hope I'm not opening a can of worms.

[Zoom]

I bet she's incorporated the push-pull into the command. You tell her to sit, she thinks "I wait here until they put me into it." It's kind of like how as a kid, if you waited long enough someone would do something for you. She's not thinking, thus isn't learning. Also, if you're making a session go so long that you can push-pull 30 times, that dog has long since checked out and most likely is ignoring you. Dogs have very short attention spans (unless it's a ball obsession, lol).

I suggest you start from scratch, look at some of the stickies in the training forum about clicker training (or even just about luring) and go from there.

I personally always use treats to start teaching a new behavior and then fade them out as the dog becomes solid in the command. One way I've found that gets a command learned PDQ is to incorporate that command into meal time. For instance, my Lab has to do a down-wait before being released to eat...it's automatic now, but it didn't take very long for her to get the idea, because boy howdy did she want to eat! So have Liesel sit before she can get her meals.

[LuvsDogs]

Agree, lure reward training is the easiest & you don't even have to touch the dog, except to praise. The lure hand becomes the hand signal & you can start offering random rewards. My 16 week old puppy is already sitting, dropping, standing, waiting & watching on hand signals.

[Mikey D]

Thanks, for the advice. Come to think of it I did use treats with Gypsy.

[milos_mommy]

You don't even need to lure. Normally if you have her standing in front of you and move your hand over her head she'll sit in order to see your hand.