Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Amazing success - when you think that less than 12 months ago you were in despair, what a transformation!
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Can't tell you how much it has cheered me up to read this! Well done Helen, you deserve days like this and so does Charlie
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time OMG I have a huge smile on my face reading this so amazing Helen, you must be beaming and it's well deserved Please do keep telling us how you are doing with Charlie
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Oh thank you so much, I am overwhelmed :-[ but I am realistic enough to know this needs a lot more work, I am worried what happens when David returns in a week as he walks Charlie at 0600 as I just can't keep up with over 3 hours of dog walking and keep children and life running too I am going to 'train' David to do exactly as I have been doing in his absence, but Charlie will undoubtedly revert back to type when he goes on his walk with David : I could just take him to The Common for focus work but I think Charlie will become complacent and then things slip back so how do you think we move this focus forward on a daily walk or don't we? I know it's only day 3 of this training (thank you Julie ) and I will continue to work hard but obviously it will take months to embed this desirable focused behaviour so I am a bit lost how we move forward successfully :-\ It's unbelievable that Charlie has taken so long to focus and get to this point even with all the hard work that has already gone into him, it's just been hard unpicking all the undesirable behaviours he came to us with and learning how to train him, but never mind, he's a tough nut to crack that's for sure but I am absolutely thrilled to have a little success. Thank you for any help you can offer xxx
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Can i join in the grinning? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Fabulous Helen and Charlie 8)
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Helen I am so thrilled to read this, what a lovely treat for you and Charlie both. You give me such hope that one day Simba and I can do the same! I can't answer your question as obviously you are further down the road with Charlie than I am with Simba but just want to say I am cheering you on!
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time I'm so glad you are enjoying Charlie so much ,all the time training and persevering through difficulties has been so worth it....remember that when you are training David ;D. ;D ;D it can take a bit of time! X
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time [quote author=Dexter link=topic=9774.msg142009#msg142009 date=1423203444] I'm so glad you are enjoying Charlie so much ,all the time training and persevering through difficulties has been so worth it....remember that when you are training David ;D. ;D ;D it can take a bit of time! X [/quote] Training Charlie will be a breeze compared to David : : We have more err words about Charlie training that about our four children : Thanks Jac and Lisa too!! Today wasn't as great as previous days but it was super windy and Charlie is always skittish in the wind so we did a little training and came home ending on a high I'm still here if anyone can help with my post above on moving on, sorry to be a pain ??? Thanks xxx
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time That's super progress. My OH isn't allowed a clicker, or to send Charlie for a retrieve. But I got him to say "great!" when Charlie looked at him, and hand out chicken. And I devised 3 or 4 games for them - catch, find it, run together and a form of walking tug. It is enough to so OH can get by with Charlie off lead, in quieter locations, and not ruin what I was doing. He still does the "great!" And the games, that's all he does, and I've been able to move on without too much problem.
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time I'm not sure I'm the best to be giving advice on moving forward sometimes I'm convinced we take 27 steps back. I think if I was you I'd really focus on c&t uncued 'look at me' on and off lead inside and out. It means you will need to be armed with tasty treats at all times. It seems from your posts that this improvement in Charlie has been since you started working on uncued 'look at me' or have I misunderstood ? Does David use a clicker ? If not you could maybe get him to use a verbal reward marker, like Julie suggested, when Charlie looks at him when they are out walking. He would then be basically doing the same as when they BAT another dog. That way David is also working on Charlie's focus. I'm wondering if maybe charlie finds eye contact with you very rewarding. What I mean is you've tried lots of things to hold charlies attention food, ball, dummy, toys etc making eye contact with you so far sounds like the most successful. Its just a thought could be completely wrong of course.
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time [quote author=Beanwood link=topic=9774.msg142096#msg142096 date=1423239717] HUGE smile on my face! [/quote] You should see mine ;D ;D ;D x Thanks Julie, I am going to teach David how to C&T and I would be only too pleased if he can get Charlie to retrieve so that's not a problem and I am still working on creating more interest in the rabbit skin tug which would be useful. I'm also going to see if he can drive to The Common in the mornings to do quiet training instead of wood walks but Charlie does stay closer in the woods so non cued work still could work, we'll see, not really anything else we can do with out situations. Fingers crossed xx
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time You always give great advice Jen I have been focusing on non cued 'look at me' all week on and off lead and I have been using chicken and Charlie has improved quite a bit. Do you mean I should do this indoors also? David does not use a clicker I was going to demonstrate but maybe a verbal marker would be easier, I really wanted us to train the same way though :-\ I would like to think Charlie does find eye contact with me rewarding as I have worked on this and David hasn't as much apart from the BATing. So chicken and squeeky large tennis balls do the trick at the moment but on The Common and I'm not too sure they will cut it anywhere else :-\ x
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time You've got to build it up...slowly, slowly... A verbal marker will work ok, depends whether you trust your OH with a clicker... ;D ;D ;D [quote author=JulieT link=topic=1949.msg16393#msg16393 date=1373633238] I had an OH experience that made me forget my "zipped up" policy. OH was clicker training walk on a lead (OH hates clicker training, thinks it's really silly, but is playing along with the walking nicely programme for now), and Charlie stopped to sniff a poo. OH hates this, very much. So launched into mad distraction mode and USED THE CLICKER AS A NOISE DISTRACTION. He clicked, clicked, clicked rapidly as Charlie was sniffing the poo and refusing to walk forward...Argghhh.... [/quote] [quote author=Oberon link=topic=1949.msg16394#msg16394 date=1373633845] Congrats - you've now got a dog who will sniff poo on cue [/quote]
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Oh yes I am building slowly in my new area, but pretty soon the Shepherd will be moving his sheep onto The Common so not sure what I will do then Ooh I see what you mean about the clicker in the wrong hands maybe a verbal marker would be safer and this definitely doesn't confuse the dog? x
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time It has never confused my Charlie, I use "good!" as a verbal marker if I don't have my clicker. Never noticed any confusion. I treat it the same as the clicker, always treat.
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time I don't use a clicker, I also use 'good' as a verbal marker, I could imagine that might be easier for your OH half Helen, and I'm sure it wouldn't confuse Charlie.
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Thanks ladies that's good to know! I am super happy to report that I couldn't keep up with Charlie's non cued look at me both on and off lead but especially off lead Also he played with my cobbled together rabbit dummy toy, we had a great running around tug game, I let him have it for a second and he even recalled with it at about 10 meters and dropped it, then I put it away, so I'm really chuffed He even played with his very favourite toy, wait for it, a rolled up tea towel held together with black tape, I thought it was worth a try so he got it for good work : This toy holds desire for Charlie and for some reason he has absolutely no problem dropping it without a treat, just for another retrieve - mad dog!! ;D Some ball retrieves and a few good stop whistles, but we really focused on his focus, even when he went to the other side of The Common he kept looking back at me, I ran off and he ran like the wind to a C&T which really speeds him up I think not calling him is working I guess he is having to think "where is she" That ends today's news!!! xxx
Re: Charlie and I had an amazing time Excellent news in Saturday's bulletin. If a rolled up tea towel does it for Charlie than use a rolled up tea towel. Don't bother with all the expensive toys/dummies that are supposed to get and hold his attention use the tea towel because that does. ;D Maybe you could adapt that into a Whipit. If you think his focus is developing nicely, which it sounds to be, just keep doing what your doing but you can c&t him for looking at you indoors as well. It just reinforces the behaviour. I mainly use a verbal reward cue now with S&S as I find it easier when the two are together but they switch back to a clicker no problem.
