That sounds great after such a long time onlead. Those off lead behaviours are bound to have taken a dip as you've had no opportunity to maintain them. What's your plan? What will you start with?
Also interested to hear what your next steps are Julie. He sounds as though things are really coming together again. Fair enough to be nervous of big dogs after an operation; sounds very sensible to me! As for the extra interest in sniffing in open spaces - can you somehow use that as a reward? I know you have a 'run around' cue; could you create a 'go sniff' cue as well?
The difference between him in a smelly field and on the beach is incredible. I can't get rid of him on the beach, and in a smelly field, he's off.... There are definitely two separate sets of things. The first is around just progressing his training - so my directions, greater control, improving steadiness and so on. All of this is still "in development" on the training field, and is going well. He sometimes messes with the dummy, but it's definitely in sharp decline (I should think a tendency to mess around a bit will resurface time to time forever - but so what, really). The second is this wide open spaces with scent thing. This is a bit of a new one for me in terms of how dramatic his behaviour is - Charlie has always been the kind of dog that goes self employed in the search of entertainment at the drop of a hat. Previously, the problems around this were him running to other dogs, balls that didn't belong to him and so on. Now, when we are in the country, it's following scent trails. Scarily so, he takes off so quickly, and so far, completely deaf.... I would previously have dealt with this by flinging toys around to keep his attention on me. This is a bit problematic now: 1) It's not great for him physically to be bouncing and pouncing after toys all the time 2) It's not great for steadiness (which is really important because of 1) but also if he chases balls and toys it restricts his life badly in London 3) It's not all that effective - for the first time ever, I'm facing a distraction that can't be overcome by a ball or dummy (I wonder if this reflects that my progress on his steadiness has made him a little less obsessive over balls and dummies?) So, I suppose first I avoid him running off after scent trails (I don't mean he can't sniff around, but these mad runs off can't happen) so I manage him with a line if I have to do so. And next I'm trying to sort of find "half way house" environments - places that are a bit open, with scent, but not so overwhelming that he runs off, and I'm working on keeping his attention, and on retrieving (he wouldn't even fetch a dummy in one of the fields we were in). That's sort of as far as I've got.....
"(he wouldn't even fetch a dummy in one of the fields we were in)." my first thought was 'I bet you never thought you'd write that!' and my second was 'he's turned into Riley!!!!!' There are some days when I just have to go back to the noddiest little retrieves. Other dogs retrieving usually rekindles Rileys interest but it can take a while
No, I never thought I would write that! It's funny you should say that about Riley! I did think last nigh "hmm....some of this looks like the problems Barbara had with Riley a while ago!".
Could be.... I would say Riley sniffs less in training generally but when something catches his attention it really catches his attention! I also think (for Riley) it's a displacement activity when he's at the two extremes either over threshold or bored witless. Either way all you can do is train the dog in front of you, work through it and hope each time it lasts less time. I have a plan for when Riley's like that now and it mainly consists of me massively reseting my expectations for the day but you know all that anyway.......
I'd say Charlie is definitely over a threshold and unable to listen or follow cues.....it might just be the freedom going to his head, poor lad. A sort of "yippeeee.....off lead and ALL THESE SMELLS...." so maybe it'll improve with time.
I find that as the Autumn and winter draw on the dogs are more aware of scent. I always use to congratulate myself in the summer thinking that my GSPs were so well behaved and then Autumn would come and they would be off! I do let my Labs a fair amount of freedom but find that after the first two or three dashing off, they tend to stay around me of their own accord.
I think it's true that cold, or cooler, mornings tend to be worse for sure. It was interesting tonight. I took him along the river (it's a long story but I'm still in Cornwall - didn't have to go back to London after all). Mostly it is sort of enclosed paths but there are two largish open spaces. I should think there is a fair amount of wildlife around there - otters for sure, squirrels, rabbits and most likely badgers. At the second space he was tracking furiously. Nothing I could do would get his attention (even throwing a ball across his nose). I decided to wait....and wait.....in the end I just took his collar as he passed by me and just stopped him. He then jumped in the river, shook himself and was back to his normal self - responsive and wanting to play. Odd.....
I had more success tonight - he got a long walk at lunchtime, and I went back to the hugely smelly tempting field armed with balls, dummies, toys and roast beef. We didn't have any run offs, which was good. It was bloomin' hard work though! Anyway, progress....
A BIG moment for us today. We went to Pets at Home and bought....*drum roll*....... a tennis ball launcher! Yes! We are now ready to begin steadiness training using our very own tennis ball launcher. Charlie picked a yellow one and insisted on carrying it to the house from the car. I'm hoping if I can get him to sit and wait while I fling a ball using a launcher it will add a lot to our "find it" games, as I'm so very rubbish at throwing.
We are both very excited! And actually never, ever, thought the day would come when we could even think of owning a tennis ball launcher! Can't wait until lunchtime when we can start training with it. Just a couple of gentle throws to start off with, and I'll use his placeboard that will help him keep his bum on the floor!
Steadiness training....including 2 new reward balls and a tin of tuna..... ready by Julie T, on Flickr Yay! Not too bad for the first attempt...[click on pic for vid] steady by Julie T, on Flickr Epic fail - put the flinger on the ground.....won't do that again. (Video contains one B swear word - don't watch it if you object ). [click on pic for vid] fail by Julie T, on Flickr
