Keera is 8 months and we have done puppy play, beginning manners and now manners application. She barks at me when we do down and also stay. She knows the commands and hand signals and will do it but she barks and will pop up before I Release her. She jstarted this a few weeks ago. I keep training short with lots of praise. We have had 5 labs and none of them have ever done this all males. We have done rally, agility and obedience. I’ve tried ignoring it and waiting, moved on to saying uhh-uhh. I do something she does well and end on a good note. I feel like she is back talking and it is frustrating. She is great on come, sit, place, leave it, give, back, and is heeling like a dream. Anyone experience this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @Krisle, it is hard to say what is going one. Ideally one would like to observe the dog and your behaviour. Perhaps you might answer the following questions. Is she doing it when you are practicing in the class with other dogs around or is she doing when in familiar and low distraction environment? Or all the time? Does energetic exercise before the obedience stuff help or make it worse? You say she is getting up before given the release cue. How did you train stays? Do you release as soon as you walk back to her? Are you using food treats or just praise? Are you on intermittent reinforcement? Sorry for so many questions.
I can imagine what you are describing, because I sometimes see it in class. So - you might think that your dog knows what a 'Stay' is - but she doesn't. (Because she is demonstrating that with this behaviour.) You only have the dog that you have in front of you - not the dog you had last week or what they can do elsewhere or etc etc.... you have to be in the present moment and work with what your dog presents you with, there and then. So: The criteria for a stay are that the dog assumes a position and then quietly remains in that position throughout the stay. If the dog is barking and/or jumping up out of the stay, they are not doing a stay. I'm not sure how you have trained the stay to begin with, but you need to reinforce her for staying BEFORE she has barked and jumped up. So if she usually barks after 2 seconds, then you need to be reinforcing after 1 second. Repeatedly. Until you break the habit of the barking. Only after many 1 second stays, can you then try a 2 second. And with the jumping up out of the stay, do remember to release her with your release cue, BEFORE she has jumped up herself. So if she is jumping up at 3 seconds, you would be giving her a treat at 1 second and 2 second and then releasing just before 3 seconds. And doing that over and over. So that you get back the idea of you staying in control of when the stay ends - not her. The very best book I know on Stays, is by Anne Bussey and you can buy is as an ebook from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-your...F8&qid=1535975334&sr=8-1&keywords=anne+bussey The pot that she uses on the floor (which disappears, so the dog 'loses' it, if they break or make noise) gives the dog very real consequences for moving or barking during the stay - and therefore communicates better than any other method I know, just what we want.
Hi Michael, She started barking in class (only 2 other dogs) and then home. I take her to basement since I have 2 other labs. I haven’t tried exercise before class but have in the past with Jack. Instructor started them doing puppy pushups which is sit, down, and stand guided with treat. I felt like it was confusing her. This class I have started some distraction and she was doing well on a 20 ft line. I could walk back to her, walk around her, and drop a toy and high vale treat and she doesn’t move. I have started using a sheep tug as a reward mixing it up with treats, and just praise sometimes.
That is very likely going to confuse her and lead to her anticipating the next position. I actually recommend the exact opposite - that people work hard to keep positions separate in the dog's mind, by not practising them in the same session even. Or, if they must, moving to a different room in the house to practise the different position. We actually cover ONLY the sit for the first 5 weeks of my puppy course (as there are so many different types of sit, there is plenty to keep everyone busy), so that is well solid before we even begin on the Down. I would recommend working on only one position in each session and trying to consolidate that before moving on.
Hi @Krisle, it's not obvious what has caused the problem. The training sounded as if it was going fine but has deteriorated. You may be doing this already, but if not I would definitely start doing or re-train. Dogs must be given a release cue. Otherwise they have no idea when the exercise is finished. Standing next to you dog, mark and treat every second for 5 seconds, then give release cue, such as Free, or Finish. Walk off and gently play with her. Back to sit. Now mark and treat every two seconds up to 6 seconds, then finish and treat. Go for a play. Try to get to 5/6 seconds without her barking or moving, Finish and then treat. Play. Work now in multiples of 5 seconds always finishing with a release cue. In doing so, you teach her don't move until I tell you the exercise is over or I give you another command. And in your case it will retrain her that barking is not part of the stay exercise.she can bark and eat. If she barks or gets up, then no mark and treat. It has not been my experience that doing sit down and stand in the one session at an obedience club confuses the dog. But notice when each exercise is over I give a release word and walk 2 metres away from the spot. And then do something else. Mind you doing such repetitions in training elsewhere can be mind numbing for both trainer and dog. Acoordingly, when not in an obedience class I keep training sessions really short interspersed with naps or play. The canine psychologists maintain that dogs don't retain as much of the lesson if you just do one exercise after another different exercise without frequent breaks. Apparently naps best help to consolidate the lesson of the one thing you did in the training sssion. Play is good but not as good as a power nap. As I suggested play with her before you start the obedience execise so that she has an opportunity to expend some energy. I tell my dog working when I want to teach her something. And I keep training sssions really short--two minutes max.
I tried exercise before working with her and it helped. I also worked jack at the same time. She didn’t break OR bark. I did stay only for several nights and then down a few nights. She will now down or vice versa from distance. We will continue working on this and are signed up for CGC class. Thanks for suggestions.
