Hello (me again) sorry! Regarding loose lead walking I just wanted to run a few things by you all just to check I was on the right track with it. Basically I C&T when Bob is in position (on my left). If after I give the treat, he starts pulling again I stop walking (I had to do this in the middle of a road the other day LOL) I will wait for him to eventually turn back to look at me and then C&T again. How often should I be C&Ting? Every 10 steps? Every other step? I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. Also GO SNIFF. I fully appreciate that Bob will want to sniff when he's out and about. How do you train GO SNIFF? I have no idea where to start with this! Do you swap hands, maybe hold the lead in the right hand to make it different for him. Also depending on what way you are walking down a road, all the lovely sniffing areas could be to my left, which is where I want him on heel. If I were to hold him with my right hand, he'd be on the other side of me so would need to cross in front to get to the sniffing areas... How do you manage that? Sorry appreciate lots of questions, but I do value any advice you can share. Thank you, Louise
Re: Loose lead walking For "go sniff", I hold the loop of the lead in my left hand. For walking to heel, I hold the loop in my right hand and pick up the slack with my left. This means that the dog has the full length of the lead on a "go sniff", but only a short length on a heel, so it gets taut sooner, meaning the stop and wait happens sooner. Willow knows this difference in lead positions and understands what it means, without me having to teach it as such (although we're now re-working her heel walking since her spay). Shadow pretty much always walks to heel with all his attention on me no matter what, bless him For frequency of C&T, it depends on how far along your dog is. If he can easily walk 5 paces, but not always 6, I'd start off C&Ting every 4 or 5 steps. Set him up for success. Then gradually extend this. Mix it up, so you don't make it linearly harder, throw in easy ones (2 paces, say) every now and again. If he's really struggling, just stream the treats. I read an alternative method the other day. I'm not sure what I make of it - in principal it sounds good, but I think you're setting your dog up for failure. I'd be interested to hear what others think of it, so I'll present it here... The idea is you increment by one each time. So, first off, you'd do one pace, C&T. Then two paces, C&T, three paces C&T etc etc. As soon as the dog is unable to complete the number of steps, you go all the way back to one pace again, and work up one by one. In a heel walk, I don't want (heh) the dogs to be stopping and sniffing stuff - it's an "I mean business and need to get somewhere" walk. Most of the time, the walk is about them, and so they get to go sniff, but when in a heel, I want their focus to be on me (albeit not constantly looking at me). This is something that is a work in progress, especially with Willow, who gets very distracted by her environment. So, we're doing lots of practice of C&Ting "look at that" - often people, sometimes a piece of litter. Smells are more difficult because I can't see them, so I have to be really aware of her body language - something that I'm slowly (very slowly) learning. But, in general, if she loses "connection" with me, I stop and wait for her to get her focus back on me, and then we set off again. I hope that makes sense!
Re: Loose lead walking I didn't train "go sniff" until after I trained "heel". I started training loose lead. So I trained loose lead (which means do what you want, including sniffing, but don't pull). Then I trained heel, which means walk close to me and don't sniff. Then I trained "go sniff" to release him from heel to a loose lead. If you are still on loose lead, I'd stick with that for a while before trying to get two or three different behaviours. But to train "go sniff" I walked my dog along a hedge he wanted to sniff on his heel cue. Then changed the way I held the lead (I now change the lead to make it very clear, as he got a bit muddled), said "go sniff" and encouraged him to sniff along the hedge. Then I stopped the sniff with his heel cue. Since he loves to sniff, so sniffing is very rewarding, it took no time to get this on cue.
Re: Loose lead walking I never have mine sniffing on lead. On lead, heads up. Off lead, sniff as much as they want
Re: Loose lead walking Thanks to you both. I'm a bit worried that the word heel doesn't really mean all that much to Bob, he sometimes comes into position but other times not. So I think I'll continue to C&T when he looks back at me or is 'in position' and leave that for the moment. Once we've got that established, maybe I could use a different command like 'BY MY SIDE'... or something. Just a thought, could I perhaps bring Bob into a nice sit before swapping hands for GO SNIFF perhaps... break it up a bit so that it doesn't get muddled with the HEEL position. I currently hold lead with right hand and pick up slack with left.. so as Snowbunny says I could easily just hold the end of the lead with my left hand for GO SNIFF. Thank you, Lou
Re: Loose lead walking [quote author=Boogie link=topic=10157.msg148835#msg148835 date=1426102999] I never have mine sniffing on lead. On lead, heads up. Off lead, sniff as much as they want [/quote] I'm happy for him to have the opportunity during a lead walk to sniff something, but it has to be on my terms, not his (which is currently IS at the moment LOL!) Lou x
Re: Loose lead walking [quote author=Boogie link=topic=10157.msg148835#msg148835 date=1426102999] I never have mine sniffing on lead. On lead, heads up. Off lead, sniff as much as they want [/quote] I thought this...until my dog spent 9 months on lead, and then I actually came to the view that on lead walks without sniffing were very boring and quite stressful for a dog. If my dog didn't spend a lot of time on lead, I might think differently. But some days all his walks are on lead, so I think it's best for him to allow him to sniff. So long as he walks close when I ask.
Re: Loose lead walking [quote author=Loopyloo30 link=topic=10157.msg148836#msg148836 date=1426103023] Just a thought, could I perhaps bring Bob into a nice sit before swapping hands for GO SNIFF perhaps... break it up a bit so that it doesn't get muddled with the HEEL position. I currently hold lead with right hand and pick up slack with left.. so as Snowbunny says I could easily just hold the end of the lead with my left hand for GO SNIFF. [/quote] You could, but try to be super, super clear what is required of your dog - it's an added difficulty to add sniff and don't sniff when you are still training don't pull.
