New Dog

[jacquelinefane]

Hi,

I have just adopted a one year old rescue dog that appears to be mostly border collie. When she first came home she was shy and nervous but is now right at home. My husband and I have begun training and she is very smart. she has sit and down learned perfectly already after 2 days. We have begun teaching her to come when called because that is the most important thing we want her to learn. The only problemn is she gets distracted by the littleist things. When she becomes distracted it is nearly impossible to regain her attention. We want to be able to let her run at the dog park with no leash but I am afraid she won't return. How can we fix this problem?

 

[Jean Cote]

Hi,

I have just adopted a one year old rescue dog that appears to be mostly border collie. When she first came home she was shy and nervous but is now right at home. My husband and I have begun training and she is very smart. she has sit and down learned perfectly already after 2 days. We have begun teaching her to come when called because that is the most important thing we want her to learn. The only problemn is she gets distracted by the littleist things. When she becomes distracted it is nearly impossible to regain her attention. We want to be able to let her run at the dog park with no leash but I am afraid she won't return. How can we fix this problem?

Hi Jacqueline!

Welcome to the website! It sounds like you got a winner in you hands! Reminds me of my border collie.

Teaching your dog to come to you, or as I say it << teaching his name >>, is the most important thing to do. Training this behavior is quite easy actually, I have been wanting to film this lesson for quite a while now but haven't had a chance since I need volunteers to help me. I will try to film it in the next week or so, maybe tomorrow.

To train the response to his name or your come command, you need to reinforce him for coming to you. The best way to do this is to run away from your dog, most dogs will run after you, and you can simply reinforce the behavior.

There is a training structure which I use that use a command and a long line to redirect the dog's attention if a distraction occurs. I will explain in much greater details in the lesson once completed.

Hope this helps, and I'll let you know when I film it!

 

[Jean Cote]

Hi! I recorded and written the lesson today!

Hope it helps

 

[jacquelinefane]

Thank You

Thank You!

I watched the video and Cabela and I are very excited to go and try this out tommorow! The video really gave me a better idea of what to do!

 

[Jean Cote]

Awesome

I wish my dog was more distracted so I could of used the leash but she's been trained to respond to her name so well.

 

[harry]

You have to buy him some toys or other things of his choice so you will come out of the insecurity of leaving the house and not coming back to home

 

[jacquelinefane]

Hi,

Cabela is doing great with her recall. We work on it everyday and she is making great progress. Her shyness around people is completley gone and daily trips to the off leash dog park is helping her socialize and be more comfortable around other dogs. Her recall is still a little un reliable around distractions but I have confidence that in time with practice that will fade.

I had one more question for you. We have a room full of toys for her that she refuses to touch. The only toy she will even touch is a stuffed turtle and she will only play with that at night when she thinks no one can see her. What I suspect is her previous "not so nice owner" didn't allow her toys to chew as a puppy and she was punished for chewing household items. My question is do you know any way to get her interested in fetch. I know it sounds silly but I think she would love that activity but I can't get her interested in any toy or ball. I don't want to try and make her play fetch just because I would like to, but she loves playing games. If you have any suggestions I would love it!

Thank You So Much,
Jacqueline and Cabela

 

[Jean Cote]

Hi Jacqueline! It's nice to hear back from you

You are absolutely right, teaching your dog to retrieve is beneficial in many ways, it gives your dog plenty of physical and mental activity, and best of all gives you time with your dog to spend time together and build a great relationship!

To be honest with you, some dogs are born retrievers and some aren't. For example my border collie will retrieve Frisbees, sticks, balls, anything for hours, but my husky isn't too keen on it, I've taught her to retrieve but she will do it 4-5 times then she starts to get bored.

The only way you can train your dog to retrieve is to link massive pleasure to playing and retrieving toys. Here are some few tips, pick and choose whichever ones you like:

• Get a brand new toy, one that she hasn't seen before, and then put it in your laundry box for a day. Your dog loves you more than anything else in the world and she loves your smell. * Sounds weird but it's true
  
  
• Always keep that individual toy away from your dog, keep it on the top of the refrigerator or somewhere she cannot see/get it. Only use it when you are playing with her, and when you are done, put it back in its safe place. That way she will keep interest in that toy.
  
  
• If she is not interested in playing with it, try throwing it away, see what happens, you can use your clicker to reinforce her interest in the toy. Simply click anytime she sniffs or bites the toy!
  
  
• Try attaching a rope to the toy, and pulling it away from your dog. Usually her chase instincts pick on and she will run after it, then you can always have a party and give her some treats or maybe a jackpot?
  
  
• End each session on a high, meaning that stop when she is very interested in the toy. Next time you'll see a major interest in that toy, kind of like teasing. If you let her play with it too much she will get bored of it, then loose interest.
  
  
• If all fails, do this: bring the toy out, every time she smells it click & reinforce. After a few days of this she'll sniff it like crazy, play around, tease her and throw it, maybe she'll bite it! Click & reinforce!!!

A friend of mine had a dog who was scared of toys, all she did was show her dog the toy, let him smell it and click & treat. After a few weeks of this guy turned out a crazy tugger and loves toys more than food!

So once you have her interested in toys, then you can get her to retrieve, but that's a whole other story

I hope this helps, let me know!

 

[lonewolf]

cool

You are a good man Jean, I loved reading about your way to teach retrieve.
thank you very much.

 

[jacquelinefane]

Thank you for all those tips. I started the click and reward method by putting the toy infront and if she even sniffed in that direction she was rewarded.

I came home and found all her toys hidden under the pillows on the bed

At least she is moving them around! We will keep up the work!

Thank you again!

Jacqueline

P.S. Cabela's recall has made leaps and bounds. We play hide and seek through out the house by me hiding and calling her name! She comes bolting around the corner and behind doors to find me in every room, everytime and sits on my lefts side looking so proud of herself.

 

[Jean Cote]

P.S. Cabela's recall has made leaps and bounds. We play hide and seek through out the house by me hiding and calling her name! She comes bolting around the corner and behind doors to find me in every room, everytime and sits on my lefts side looking so proud of herself.

Awesome!!! I'm proud of you! It's such a fun game lol! I do that with my dog chase in parks, when she gets too far away I just hide behind a tree and wait. She usually starts to look all over the place.. Hehe

 

[harry]

To make him more comfortable while playing try to adopt new methods to divert its attention towards the game so that while playing his full attention should be on the game.

 

[homer]

Playing with your dog should always be fun! It's such a great way to get his attention like Harry has mentioned. Remember that dogs like chasing things, so you can pull a tug toy around your floor and watch your dog go nuts! :dogbiggrin: