She keeps getting closer, grrr.

Okay, so I have four dogs total, all of which I'm training (clicker) individually. One dog, Squeaks is starting to drive me nuts. Now, I'm really early in the training, so far, she's being lured to lay and stand, that's it. In between standing and laying, she scoots to where she's only centimeters from me. Most of the time, there's not enough room to get her to lay again, so I'm constantly moving backwards...

How can I get her to quit scooting closer to me? and do I quit all other training and concentrate on this until she stops?

Thanks so much for any insights.

Also, don't know if it matters or not, but she is boston terrier. The other dogs are 1 boston terrier and 2 boxers.

Be sure to click/treat BEFORE she scoots. Reinforce the nice lie down quickly. When she scoots afterward, ignore her. Another thing you can do is do a down, click treat and quickly ask her to do something else like sit or stand. Or walk her around in a little circle and do a down again. Mix it up. Try to get that scoot out of the repertoire. Mixing things up is also good for getting her to generalize the behavior. In other words, the same exact things don't happen before or after she lies down every time....keeps her from anticipating. Once she isn't scooting anymore because nothing good comes of it, you can start gradually adding duration to her down. Just a second longer before you click/treat, then add another second or two. If she gets that scoot in there, you need to go back a step and shorten up the duration for a while more.

You don't have to work on just one or two things only. Dogs get bored and sometimes mixing things up helps them to seperate what they're doing. Training needs to be fun and too much repitition at one time can get really boring. So for example, you can do a couple two or three downs. Then do a sit, walk around a bit with a nice loose leash walk...just for a little ways. Then you might try her on a sit when you stop, so you're not always facing her head on. That way sit doesn't come to mean that it only happens with you standing facing her. Then you might do one more time the thing she's really good at and go play a game of fetch. Depending on her age and attention span, make your little sessions short. End while she's still having fun and is interested. And end on something she's apt to do well with. You don't have to throw a million things at her in one session, but a few helps keep things interesting and fun. I usually work on two or three things and then the next time I might throw in one new trick to add to the few things we worked on last time. Just a taste of it. But that one usually comes early on in the session so we can end on a good note where the dog is successful.

Also, when you train, it doesn't always have to be in blocks of time or sessions. It's very effective and not boring to the dog to ask for one sit or one down just here and there while you're doing regular stuff in the house or whatever. Build these things gradually to have duration...just a second or two longer each time as long as she is successful. If she messes up, you've asked for too much too soon. Go back to where she was successful. Anyhow, that's the general gist of the thing.

Thanks for the suggestions, I have only just began clicker training each of the dogs, all seperately.

If I'm not attempting to 'train' her, she has no problem staying away from me.. lol, in fact she's more my husband's dog than mine..

She only wants to be 'really' 'really' close when I'm trying to get her to do anything..



Here's what has been happening:

We're in the kitchen, I have treats and the clicker. She's already sitting, facing me, and looking at me. She doesn't lay unless I lure her, so I lure, she lays, I click and treat. She (usually) sits, scoots, scoots, scoots, etc. I back up, eventually she stands and I click and treat, then repeat.


As far as being calm, she is always calm. This dog can leap on the bed, land in a sleeping position and be snoring in a minute flat!

When she scoots turn your back on her and totally ignore her. End the training session immediately.

Have you read the rules of clickering training and how to use the method correctly?

www.clickersolutions.com
www.clickertraining.com

I was looking for a site that I thought I had saved, it was a very basic step by step outline of how to use the clicker on all the general behaviours that are trained. I'll keep looking............

Found it: http://www.dogscouts1.com/Pos_Training_section.html

This site has a ton of good info and the how to's of clicker training etc.

Good luck

Great Adojrt!! And yes, I completely left that out of my post about capturing behavior. A senior moment, I guess. It can just be another trick you use, one more added tool from the tool box. And a great way to get an opportunity to reinforce the behavior you're looking for. And often you're standing away from your dog when you notice a chance to click for a spontaneous down. And that is good too, to vary your position relative to your dog so that down means down no matter where you are. You can even toss the treat to your dog instead of always coming right up to her. When my dogs are standing around in the kitchen hoping for a hand out, (they get them often that way) if I tell them, "Okay....enough already, out of the kitchen," and they go lie down a little ways out of the kitchen, I'll tell them, "yes!" (I usually don't have my clicker handy at times like those) and toss them a little treat. They learn that by minding me, staying out of the kitchen, they WILL get a treat. Little spoiled dumplings.

Luring, IMO is a viable way to get things going but it does need to be used judiciously and faded asap. Break into that chain of behaviors (lying down, scooting) and click just the down...Quick!

Are you sitting or standing when you practice this?

She is scooting in a sit position?

I'd suggest just moving toward her, getting "in her space," which will force her to back up a step or two. If you're sitting on the floor you can just lean in to her, if you're standing you can try bending down toward her or just stepping 1/2 step toward her. If you want to you can click when she backs up, backing up is a handy little behavior that might be useful one day. Otherwise just praise the back up and go on to down again.

lol, one of my dogs just couldn't figure out the down!!! No matter what I tried, granted that was years ago and my skills at shaping behaviours were a lot weaker and I was probably 'lumping'.

At any rate, I tried capturing the behaviour and with in 5 or 6 captures, she had figured out what I wanted and started offering it............problem solved

Thanks Adojrts, I have been looking for something like that.