Stars recall training has been challenging to say the least but not in the way you might think.... we moved onto the exercise where you recall your dog when they are asleep. Why was this such a challenge?? Because there was no way star was going to go to sleep if there was a pot of sardines in the same room as her lol If i waited til she was asleep and went into another room to get the sardines she just followed me as she knew what was coming lol i've had to wait 3 hrs for her to drift off because she just cant stay awake any longer. After 2 weeks of trying we've managed no more than 2 sleeping recalls in one day - perfect recalls though. Rightly or wrongly i have decided to move her onto the nxt exercise, recalling from food. This is a hard one but she picked up idea very quickly however she has worked out that once she recalls she gets the sardines so no sooner does her bum hit the floor at my feet then shes running to the sardines (they are in a tuperware so she cant get them til i take the lid off). So i have a question, what is the best way to get her to stay with me a while before she gets the sardines? We are supposed to go to get the treat together... Training in the paddock has turned into just sit waits, retrieves and stops when we are 'working' the quartering still isnt going well so i've booked to see a trainer to work on that more. We take her tennis ball in for games after 'working' and she enjoys having a good run round rooting in the long grass. xx
I would try one of two things.... Firstly I would try just waiting. Does she come back to you? When she comes back I'd mark that with a yes and then see if she starts to hang around a bit more. Secondly I might formalise the end of the recall with a sit in front (no bad thing if you're going to be retrieving ) then I would mark the end of the sit with a clicker or a 'yes' and go and get the reward. You might need to be careful not to affect the recall part though as that's the focus of the exercise. The other thing you could try is more than one pot at opposite ends of the room if she leaves you go to the opposite pot, she might hang around to see which pot the reward is coming out of.
I would probably put in an extra step and feed her an extra special treat as her bum hits the floor and then go to the tub with the sardines.
You could try (separately) just a default leave it from the tub of sardines - so just impulse control around food. I don't know if you've seen the zen bowl exercises - Barbara and I came back from clicker expo with that. It's just a 'leave it to get it' concept. The idea is you can have a reward on the floor in a bowl, and the dog doesn't go to take it before you say.
Thanks bbrown. I tried the waiting and she just brings the sardine pot to me!! i wasnt sure whether to mark the sit with more than the "wow well done" that i've been using as the reward marker. Hadnt thought of bringing a 2nd pot in. That could work with Star I'll try it and see.
Thanx Heidrun, i wasnt sure if this was allowed in the exercise so havent tried it. This could work too do will try it x
Thanx JulieT. I did think of using the leave it command but wasnt sure if that would turn her off the pots of sardines? x
If you do use a second pot I would keep the pots out of her reach and as soon as she heads to one pot start moving in the other direction. Don't wait for her to get to the pot she's heading for. It's important to remember you're rewarding the recall Julies suggestion is a totally different approach and you'd need to train leaving the pot separately from the recall at first before you put them together.
We've just tried with 2 pots. On the first recall she just went loopy not knowing whether to come to me or to both of the sardine pots. Only for about 15 seconds though, then she came to me. I verbally praised her (no sardines) and said try again (a phrase we use in agility if something goes wrong so we 'try again') She was still quite hyped up but did come to me first - just lol. We did a further 2 recalls and she came to me each time and waited to see which pot she would get as her reward Thanx xx
Cool ! I use that trick retrieving so Obi doesn't know which one I'm going to send him for so he waits. If there's only one option sometimes he gets a bit "I know what's next" and anticipates.
Yes Star is very much like that. Just done some more recalls this morning and straight to me each time Thanks again xx
