Viewer Feedback on It's Me or the Dog!

[GllntKnight]

When will she be in Connecticut, have tried her methods and they don't work for me or my dogs but I do enjoy watching the show and how inept most owners are and cause there own problems even after Victoria leaves most don't follow through and she has to come back and it makes me wonder if some ever follow through or the rest of the family doesn't help out when it is all of their responsibility.

[emmabeth]

How odd - positive reinforcement works on all animals... basically as long as you can find something rewarding, it works.

It even works on my snakes, and I can only reward them once a week, but one of my snakes is very very shy - yet she has so far learned that sticking her head out of her hide is likely to result in food and so does this much more often than she did when i first got her (she had been fed in a seperate container, not in her home tank so previously did not associate humans with food but with being disturbed and picked up).

Science pretty clearly demonstrates that being able to find something rewarding is really all you need, so perhaps it is something to do wtih the way you are using the various ways you could apply positive reinforcement that is not working, rather than the concept itself.

[Mattie]

Why not start a thread telling us what the problems are and giving a run down of your dogs normal day. We may be able to help.

As every dog is different we do need to taylor the training and rewards to suit the dog, not all dogs will work for treats but will work for a ball or squeaky toy.

[emmabeth]

Hehe, I think the forumfairies have moved this so it is now its own thread

[Mattie]

Em is a fairy

[emmabeth]

Woznt meeeee, BoardHost did it I think - that or we have actual fairies... moving posts about.. which is possible. Everyone knows the internet actually works by magic!

[Leigha]

I think it was the fairies. I wish the magical internet fairies would to tell me how to get up with their house-cleaning fairie cousins so I can beg them to come clean for me.

[GllntKnight]

The ***** has no recall even though she passed obidience class. There isn't a treat or toy that she will come for. She will come if she wants to the bottom step but will not come in the house. She is territorial and has bitten two people.

Her brother chases cars.

[emmabeth]

Have you practiced the recall and proofed it in a variety of places - or only at training classes?

If you haven't then this will be partially why it isn't - dogs do not generalise lessons like this very well and so do not take something learned in one context and apply it in another (not 'good' things anyway - 'bad' things, like 'be scary so you scare others away from you' and 'run awa from things that look like this they will bite you' do tend to generalise fast as tahts natures way of keeping animals alive! Positive lessons generalise much slower).

So you need to teach recall in the house, in the yard, in the training class, on the street, in the park, in the fields - everywhere and anywhere.

Secondly, you need to use a long line to prevent the dog from running away to start with, so that you can be sure no recall cue is ever ignored (although it is better to not give it if you feel it wont be heeded, than to give it, be ignored and teach the dog that they can ignore it).

Then you build up the level of distraction so start with recalling where there nothing else to do anyway, then recalling where theres something... but its not so interesting... until you get up to recalling in a busy place with lots of distraction.

If your dog has ever associated a recall command with a punishment or so called correction, then they will be wary and not keen to come to you - often this results in the dog who comes back a certain distance then plays 'keep away', staying just out of reach.

As far as territorial goes, as I recall you keep your dogs using an electric fence system and they are free to run about yelling at passers by all day - thats not becaue they want to be territorial, it is because they havent anything else to do, its very rewarding to bark at stuff going by because it is... goign by, the dog doesnt realise that people/cars etc were passing anyway, they think it is THEIR barkign that made them move, which is rewarding.

Positive training DOES work - but only if you do it properly, like any method of doing anything at all. I couldn't rightly complain that my computer doesnt work, if I attempted to use it by writing on the monitor with a crayon now could I!

If you set out what you want to achieve - what you ARE capable of doing (lets not focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can), then we can help you to work out a way of training your dogs to behave the way you would like them too.

The beauty of positive training is that there are lots of ways to apply positive reinforcement (adn its counterpart 'negative punishment' which is the removal of something the dog finds rewarding, ie time outs - removal of attention/game/company ) so we will be able to find a way for it to suit you.

It is pretty clear that whatever you are currently using isnt working, so what do you have to lose exactly?

[Mattie]

Start the recall training again from the beginning but use a different word, your dogs know they can ignore the word you use now, it will be much easier to reteach to a new word than to change their idea of the one you now use.

NEVER call your dogs more than once, if they don't come walk away, or run sometimes, most dogs will come racing after you if they think they are being left behind but you do get them that don't care.

NEVER call your dog when you know they won't come, ie, when they have their heads down a rabbit hole. When dogs have all their attention somewhere else they don't hear your calling them so no point in getting stressed by repeated calling.

Playing hide and seek is a good game to play to help their recall, hide behind bushes, trees, rocks etc but at first let your dogs see were you are, you will soon be able to hide properly.

If every time I did something and was given a sweet, it wouldn't take long for me to get fed up with sweets but by varying the treats, play, taking to somewhere nice etc. it would keep my interested. I do use treets, they are a very valuable reward to my dogs but not for everything, in fact I don't use them often so they stay high rewards. I use them mainly for luring my dogs, ie, sit, down etc but for recall and walking on a loose lead I never use them. A short play with a ball, frisby etc works better for my dogs.

Get the recall 100% in the house and garden then move out, when out start with a long line attached to a harness, this will give you control and your dog can't run off. Don't let your dog learn how long the line is, call him back before he gets to the end at various distances. Once good on this, add another long line and continue. Eventually you will be able to drop your end of the lines, it is surprising how quickly you can get the line.

It may not take you as long as you think to get a good recall, only accept 100% from your dogs and set them up to come back to you immediately. Once they get into the habit of coming when you call, you will be so proud of them.