Something I'd like to work on with Shadow is stopping him when he's busy sniffing at/for something. For example, if we're on a walk and I release him to "go sniff" a tree, I want to also be able to say when it's time to stop sniffing and on we go. Similarly, if he's looking for a dummy and I want to call him back or redirect him, I need to get his attention. It's like he's concentrating so hard on whatever it is that he doesn't hear anything. I can understand this, because I'm the same - if I'm concentrating hard and J walks in and starts talking to me, all I hear is the "wah wah wah" of Charlie Brown's parents So, I obviously need to proof this somehow, but I'm not sure where to start. It's not that I don't want him to sniff - we've done a lot of work on walking nicely past enticing smells - but rather how to interrupt him once he's engrossed in something to the point that he's no longer listening, or how to train him to keep one ear open to me.
Charlie is a horror for both of these - or was, I almost think I can say (not by his performance at his last group lesson though, he got it in his head there was a retrieve to his left and nothing would budge him). On sniffing - on social walks, well, it's a walk. My dog sniffs. Sometimes he is a bit 'in a minute' about moving on. It's not a big deal. If we are training or fetching stuff, this doesn't happen. On stopping while searching - first, I had to work a lot on desensitisation to dummies (as SWMBO said to me - your dog can't listen to you when he can smell and dummy and you are stood at the side of him, why do you think he is going to listen when you are 30m away? Cutting, I thought! ). You might not have this problem. After that, I did lots of things to show him if he paid attention to me, I could direct him to the dummy - this is still a big work in progress....).
Harv says 'Welcome to the distracted sniffer club.' He is an absolute horror sometimes and nothing, it seems, can entice him away. So at the moment all I can offer is sympathy. I look forward to reading what others may suggest.
Try just walking on, saying nothing, striding out quickly. They usually have a distance they won't let you go past before they catch up. Bruce was supposed to have dreadful recall, and didn't know me but he, too, has this distance he won't let me get away. (It's about 20-30 metres with most dogs) ....
With the sniffing on walks, it's more when he's on lead I was talking about, so I don't have the distance. I suppose I could just chill out and wait till he's finished. I bundled the things together (hunting and sniffing when on walks) simply because the same "tuning out" happens. When we're on lead, it's something very noticeable because I'm right there, can give his favourite or most solid cues and he just doesn't hear. I was extrapolating that that was the same thing happening when hunting. Shadow is really not that fussed about dummies - not in the same way that Charlie is. So, I could have a dummy right by him, or thrown a few feet away, or whatever, and he'd perform his cues brilliantly. It's when he's using his nose to try and find something that he goes deaf. He doesn't have a good nose, so maybe that's what the issue is - he needs to focus more to try to find something. Willow, on the other hand, is pure nose. Hmmm, if that's the case, then doing more scent work might help him, so he learns to listen to me at the same time as using his nose....
I have the same issue -- leash walking is no fun for me cos I'm simply being pulled from sniffing station to sniffing station, and at the sniffing station there's no getting Snowie to "leave it" if he is really engrossed. When he was a small puppy I followed the advice of (too afraid to write it here... Cesar Milan!! Not anymore!) and would not let him sniff anything while we walked -- he was only allowed to "go sniff" when I decided to. But then, one day, while walking with a friend with an older Lab, she said that she treated sniffing for her Lab as his opportunity to "watch TV", his pleasure, and that walking and sniffing went hand in hand. So I decided to do the same. And ever since, Snowie has never walked briskly on the leash and I am unable to take him on a leash walk while chatting with a friend because it's all stop start stop start. I don't really know what is best. I can't see the pleasure for a dog having to simply walk at heel for an entire hour. But then, I can never take Snowie on a brisk leash walk and none of my friends will walk with me anymore because we have to stop so often. Which is why most of our walks are off leash! @snowbunny interesting about bad nose = more focus to find it. I think Snowie is the same -- he is very poor at pinpointing a smell even though he knows it is there.
Ahhhh - I understand. I don't let mine sniff on lead, it's 'head up, forward march' for my pooches. Sniffing is for free runs. ...
Allowing a dog to sniff on cue on lead isn't a bad idea at all, although it's harder to train than 'never sniff on lead'. On lead, I either 'social walk' with my lead at 2m and Charlie can sniff, or I 'close walk' with my lead at 1m and Charlie can't sniff. So if he is sniffing, he's sniffing. If he's not sniffing, he's not sniffing (in theory, he does forget in exciting places!). But no pulling ever, on long or short lead.
Why do you think Shadow doesn't have a good nose? I can't claim great success with this as I definitely let my dogs do their own thing. I've found Premack most useful though when I have focused on it for periods. Yoyoing between attention and sniffing.
That sounds like an excellent solution. The longer lead gives just enough time for a sniff, but they still need to keep moving. I will try it out...
If I'm 'social walking' with my dog on a 2m lead, my dog can stop to sniff. If I don't want to do that, I shorten my lead to 1m, and swap it to my right hand. The lead then feels different to him, because it leads to me in a different direction, and that's part of his 'we are now walking, not sniffing' cue. The easiest way to train this is on a (quiet!) road with an interesting edge. Shorten your lead and walk down the middle of the road, where there isn't much to sniff. Stop, lengthen your lead, give your go sniff cue and let the dog head to the interesting sniffs at the side. Then, stop, shorten your lead and head back to the middle of the road....and so on.
OK, I can see I've been a bit confusing about the on lead stuff. Let me try to clarify. I have to be strict that walking to heel meaning no pulling to sniff, because for a good portion of the year, when it's icy out, it would be dangerous for me to have dogs that pulled towards smells. Believe me, I've been that person skating down the road after their dog. It's a broken hip waiting to happen. So, my cue for "heel" means, "walk by my side, no pulling, and nose up". I'm happy with that, and they're good about it most of the time. Keep in mind, I do very little pavement walking with them; we live so close to off-lead territory that most of our walks consist of play-training time. Sometimes on lead, even in the countryside, for training heel and LLW, but the vast majority off lead. So I'm not one of those people that only walks their dogs the same route on the streets day-in, day-out, without allowing them to "be a dog". I'm a strong believer in Premack and want to reward them with the most rewarding thing. So, that means, if we're practicing walking to heel past a smelly lamp post that every dog in the last ten years has peed on, then the best reward for doing so is letting Shadow "go sniff" on cue. Far more rewarding than a piece of the smelliest cheese. We'll walk past it, I'll see him look at it in "that" way, so I'll turn and walk past it a few more times nicely before releasing him to it. Again, I'm happy with this reward profile. Most of the time, he'll have a good sniff and we'll move on to the next thing, whether that's another post (if it's a jackpot reward) or, gathering him back up for some more "heel" training. But, the thing is, when he's sniffing something supergoodohmygodthat'ssmelly, he goes deaf. Completely deaf. If I could get him to just glance away, to cock an ear or something, I could mark and reward it. Build it up to a cue for breaking his attention. But it appears he has no facility to sniff that deeply and listen at the same time. When we're on lead, this isn't normally a problem; let him sniff until he's finished (after all, I told him he could sniff it) and then we can move on. But there have been times when it would have been useful to get his attention. Specifically, if there's a trigger approaching (a child or another dog etc), then I want to be able to get him to see it before it "creeps up" on him and startles him. That would be my biggest concern when we're out in public, on the streets. He has a few super strong cues - those that he associates with YAYBESTGAMEEVER! or OMGGOODTREATSARECOMING! but he doesn't even flicker an ear once he's nose-deep in concentrationsville. Even squeaking a squeaky ball has no effect. Because, bless his heart, he's rubbish! Haha! OK, I'm being flippant, but he's awful compared to Willow! A ball/dummy/smelly treat can be right between his feet, with him sniffing for it, and he won't find it! I mean, AWFUL! If I throw a piece of kibble by his feet into vaguely longish grass, he won't find it, but Willow will come from 50 metres away and immediately put her nose on it. She's amazing. He...isn't.
I didn't assume it was, just trying to steer the conversation away from generalities and back onto my issue. It's all about me, don'tyouknow?
Ouch, just re-read what I typed and that sounds awful! Try to be light and airy and the airyfairy can bite you in the ass. Whoops! Didn't mean it like that
Haha, that may be true. I don't tell him he's rubbish to his face. OK, maybe I do. He is a bit ridiculous. A dog that can't catch and can't smell.
Well I now know the difference in scenting...not sure whether it has anything to do with scent capability or drive. Bramble has an amazing nose, and will find anything you hide, she loves it! Now interesting Benson I am sure has just as good capability, but not too interested, unless it's fur, or feather although every-time would be trounced by Bramble on hunting skills. Now, to get to sniffing on lead, it gets interesting. Benson LOVES a good sniff, it's manageable, far more marked than Bramble when it comes to other dog "messages". Well manageable under the influence of Suprelorin. When he was entire it was impossible, he was deaf, would lurch pulling from side to side. It ruined our foundation gundog classes as the field had been used for hire to..guess what..bitches in season. He was compelled to sniff where everydog had been, it was awful, really miserable as we had to resort to harness and long line. I think Benson was miserable too. So, from our experience hormones had quite a lot to do with the sort of sniffing that is hard to distract a dog from.
