Posts Tagged ‘reset
Dachshund Training class #2
After our first adventure at training class I spent the next week working on of the necessary assignments with the little Dachshund. We worked on sit with hand signals and then a verbal cue, and the same with down. I also practiced teaching him not to pull on the leash and to follow when I walked. And most importantly I worked on getting him to look at me when I called his name and keeping his attention. And yes, proudly I worked with him EVERY single day. We practiced at the shop in between customers, we practiced at the farm when he was distracted by ponies and farm smells, we practiced at my parent’s house, we even had a session at Petsmart and we practiced at home.
I think my insistence on practicing ALL day long really paid off, because at last night’s class he was an angel! I was completely amazed when I was able to keep his attention throughout most of the class. Yes, he did get distracted a little and focus on some smells, but the difference this time was that I was able to snap him out of it and bring his attention back to me.
We started off class by working on a watch or look command. This command can be used when you want your dog to look at you (in your eyes) but not necessarily come. Our instructor gave an example of doing agility with her dog. She wants her dog to wait on the start box and look at her but not move off the box. We practiced this command by holding a treat at our dog’s nose and then moving it up to our noses asking the dogs to keep focused on the treat. When their eyes met ours they were clicked and rewarded. Eventually we moved onto moving the treat to the side of our face and when the dog’s eyes landed back on ours instead of the treat they were rewarded. Eventually the treat will be faded out all together and we will add a “look” cue to get our dogs to look into our eyes.
Then we worked on resetting our dog when we are loose leash walking them. If they start to get out of position we can use this technique to reset them into position. Here are two videos of Ammo working on his reset.
Next up we worked on the come or recall. First we lured our dogs away from us by dropping a treat behind them. As they were finishing up the treat we called their name and backed away from them, when they turned and followed we clicked and treated. Eventually we will add a verbal cue to this such as Come or Here. The important thing about this recall is that you have to be prepared to reward your dog EVERYTIME they come to you, otherwise they will decide its not worth listening. I like to think of it as an emergency call. Like if your dog was going to run into traffic you need a verbal to yell that brings them running EVERYTIME. So for example I might use come to call my dog in from the yard because I’m not going to reward him everytime he does this. But if I yell HERE my dog should drop everything all the time and come sprinting and I need to be prepared to reward this – EVERYTIME.
Overall I was very pleased with the Dachshund’s progress. Its been hard carrying around treats with me EVERYWHERE and remembering to practice practice practice with him. But I think in the end it will give us a much better partnership, and the more I do it with him the more it will become second nature. Anyone that has or has had a Dachshund knows how stubborn they can be, I’m determined to break this stigma with Ammo and have a dog that listens more like a Labrador would. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
