I'm looking for advice - I feel I'm stuck in a blinkered rut with this. We do "leave" at home, and when on a walk, and even during downtime at training. Coco can "leave" a treat (beef or bonio of piece of schmacko) in front of him, a treat balanced on his paw. He can "leave" a treat (a Markie) dropped in front of him as I pass - he is seated. He can walk in between 2 plates of kibble, bonios AND schmackos in the garden both on lead and call through them, he can sit between them. But, at Saturday night training, there is heavy use of Schmackos, they're sticking out of cones, they're laid in a circle around the room, and Coco CAN NOT leave them. He has even "taught" a little poodle x to grab them. It's getting beyond a joke. Last night I watched 3 puppies in the class before walk over them, past them and they didn't grab any, they were handled well. Enter Coco, and the trainer had OH walk him around over the Schmackos as he grabbed, lunged, ate his way around. The puppy parents were in hysterics, Coco seems to lap up the laughter. Someone give me a new direction, I'm too stuck in my ways.
Try some really tasty rewards to keep his nose away from them. The smellier the better. I stink like a fish farm at puppy class - but it works!
Eeek! Is he getting well-enough rewarded for leaving stuff at training? My only idea. Hope the training experts here will have more thoughts (cross posted with Mags!)
You could make some YouTube videos like this one https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiKgKjil7zPAhWDJx4KHSQWDmUQtwIIHjAA&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iTTNRE-njM&usg=AFQjCNGnK5lMrO-4fdLOBkaujgUYn4STGw&sig2=abaPEQN8HASUFySWHWhPNQ
I have been doing Susan Garrett's recallers (supposedly for Betsy, but reckon it would do Charlie no harm to do the basics again!) and I watched a video about this point (it was a freebie extra). Susan Garrett said something that I thought was very true of Charlie. She said all those treats on the paws games, and even treats on the nose etc. are just 'parlour tricks'. And they only work in the parlour! She described a dog that knows the start of the 'don't eat the food game' and during that game they will play along. But it doesn't translate to their behaviour otherwise. This is very much Charlie. He can run through steadiness exercises, leave food alone, I can throw a dummy over his head and so on - this has not contributed to him having any impulse control though. All it has done is trained some 'parlour tricks'. So, the solution is to translate those default leave its into everyday life. All the time - it looked like a lot of effort, to be honest. I suppose these things always are. So I'm going back to the zen bowls, but this time I'm going to work on them until I really have something genuine, and it is really building Charlie's impulse control, not just him learning a game. Anyway, sorry, all of that is not specific to Coco of course, but there might be something in a bit of it for you.
Hmm. Sounds like in all his "steady" leave scenarios they are treats you have placed for him to leave. How does he do on walks, when he comes across unexpected treats (garbage ) and you say "leave"?
I don't understand why the trainer is putting him in a situation where he will fail - and, worse, self reward?! I would practice, as Julie says, outside of a simple "game" and in more realistic scenarios out and about - if you can get helpers on board to have food laying at their feet that they can stand on/pick up etc, that would help. And, if your trainer asks you to do something with Coco that he's not ready to succeed, then tell her you're not prepared to do that yet.
Plus....it is MUCH easier with a little puppy than with a teenager or adult dog that needs training. I took Betsy to a class for adolescents, at 5 months. The next youngest dog was 16 months, and after that they were all around 2 years. Betsy looked good alongside those dogs. She wasn't lunging, messing about, or carrying on. I'm not smug. Because just give it time....wait until I stop being her sun, moon and stars and the environment around her is much more interesting. It's child's play to get a little puppy to do what you want. Much, much harder to train an older dog.
