That is the problem , you shouldn't be there when she comes back! My dogs keep their eye on me because I don't keep my eye on them and they never know where I might be! So although they go off for a sniff, their attention is on me in case I disappear up another path or hide behind a tree!
thank you JulieT, this is great. So if I understand it right, I am basically training 'focus' outdoors currently. I think in most situations where there isn't an obvious distraction like another dog, we have moved on from me just getting her attention, to her offering me attention. During our walk today, she spent the whole time following and watching me (from a slight distance, I think because we had been working on the stop whistle with thrown food the day before) and did her sits, stays, hand targets and recalls nicely as soon as I asked. So, hopefully I am going about this the right way, and just need to build up duration of this focus and gradually introduce more distractions. Thanks so much for the advice.
yep I agree - when we were walking her off lead in the woods, I used to always change direction, hide etc., and she has never had a problem with checking where I was occasionally and quickly changing direction if I had gone the other way. But if it was a case of chase a bunny sniff or check where I am, she would chase the bunny sniff first and then spend time madly running about trying to find me afterwards, and I think she found the process of hunting me down quite fun too so there was not much incentive to keep close to begin with. There didn't seem to be any sort of anxiety 'oh god I have lost her should have paid more attention..' with her, it was more 'yay chased bunny now hunting mum sooo fun! ooh found her yay sardines ooh another bunny bye mum!' (this is, I believe, an accurate portrayal of Indie's internal monologue...). Now we are doing the training line walks, I am in open fields so can't hide...unless I lay down in the cowpats...
I was nearly driven mad by one of my Labs today, he kept bouncing around me wanting the ball; I like dogs who go off sniffing and hunting
I love this thread. It has reminded me of what I really need to be concentrating on. Better focus and engagement. Thanks everyone
Must lend you Charlie for a bit. By the time you've traipsed over six fields and down a sheer cliff to get him back because he saw a football 2 miles away [insert pheasant/rabbit/squirrel for spaniel owners], you'll want your Lab back!
Insert another dog/football/any type of ball/jogger/skate boarder/someone on the floor doing yoga/kite/person instead of bunny....and you've got Charlie. Or rather, what he used to be like.
Mine did show a significant interest in footballs for a brief time, but for some reason grew out of it on his own, perhaps because we only saw them once a week If mine sees a squirrel, he points it, then comes rushing back to me for his ball, doesn't chase, same with a bird, we don't know about rabbits yet as never see any! Be nice to have Charlie My old Lab just spends his whole time hunting for mice!
Charlie is so funny, really. Can't stop him legging it to a football for love nor money, but the first time I took him to hunt for pheasants (deliberately so, we were on a training week), he found about 20 (enthusiastically), flushed them, then sat to his stop whistle. One of the very few times Charlie has made my training look good!
just as an idea - I have been teaching my girl the hunt whistle for her gundog training and want to just practise using it while we are out on walks (a bit like I do the stop whistle) - so I slip out first and plant bits of beef in different spots where I am planning to go (OK a bit OTT sometimes - but this is dog training - serious stuff!!) I then hopefully remember where the little parcels are and while we are bumbling along and she approaches "a beef spot", I quickly blow the hunt whistle and she finds beef. This is good practise for our gundog work, but for this thread, the interesting thing is that she is now sticking closer and watching me more - it kindof feels a bit like we are going hunting together.
