Hi We have moved on in our training course and have moved up a level (nothing special so no need to get excited). In the last class, we were training ‘walking on lead’. This is the basic of walking from cone to cone (distance less than 10m) and being near other dogs whilst ignoring them. The class layout is a horseshoe, each handler has 2 chairs, mat etc. We were at the end, with another Lab next to us about 5m(ish) apart. They have not said hello to each other, as she turned up late and walked straight past us, with Vanilla sitting whilst the other one was lunging towards us. Plenty of ‘LAT’ with Vanilla. We start of our walk with a cue (in our instance ‘heel’), then when we turn it is another cue to perform the turn back on the pivot. What I thought was interesting was that the training exercise was ‘walking to heel’ rather than ‘loose leash walking’. I know they are very similar, but kind of different. Vanilla was OK, on way up but on the way back down she wanted to sniff the ground as the other Labrador had just walked there. I don’t have an issue with this, but given that this was more a ‘heel’ walk rather than ‘a general walk’ I got Vanilla back into position and we moved on after a few seconds of her sniffing. Just after this, the trainer said that Vanilla was trying to tell me that she is anxious and that is why she is sniffing, and the best thing to do would be to throw treats on the ground for her to find. I thought the ‘throwing treats on the ground’ part was a bit strange, but gave it a go. It totally confused Vanilla. Given that this was a training exercise about walking to heel and around other dogs, she looked at me and then just lost the plot in that ‘what are we doing?’. My thought then turned to, yep that is great idea if you are in an area with no other dogs around. If however you are on a walk with plenty of other dogs, all the other dogs could/will come barging up depending on owners of course. That would cause more harm than good. Anyone got any thoughts about the above suggestion? I then thought about the whole situation and my response was I need to move the cones to the other side of my chair further away, increase the distance as I knew Vanilla could handle this. Did this and no problems doing the walk to heel. I know when Vanilla gets anxious as she will come very close to me and grab her lead to then move faster past the issue that is concerning her.
Do you mean the scattering of treats on the ground to alleviate sniffing? In my very humble and not particularly knowledgeable opinion it sounds a bit daft to me. I can see that it could be confusing, and surely it would encourage the dogs to keep sniffing there? It was interesting at my class on Saturday that three out of the 6 dogs where distracted by sniffs at specific places on the damp ground after some rain, all of them gundogs --- Labrador (mine), Flatcoat (the trainers) and a Cocker Spaniel, The others - a collie x, a Doberman and GSD weren't bothered at all. I think we know our own dogs best and need to find the way forward that's comfortable for us, sounds like you did that!
I personally don't mind Harley sniffing on a walk, as long as she is on a loose lead. With lots of dogs around I wouldn't throw treats on a floor as there might be one who goes OTT and ending up in a brawl. I do scattered food in the grass in my garden as a 'find it' game to get her nose going, but not with other dogs around.
For ‘not sniffing’ practice at puppy class we all put our blankets down and the pups walk, on loose lead, over all the blankets. If they sniff we ignore but if they walk properly they get lots of treats and praise. I find some dogs far keener to sniff than others. Keir finds the exercise easy as food is far more important than other dogs to him. Mollie found it very hard to do, but she got there in the end, it took weeks.
It sounds like the trainer thought Vanilla was giving a calming signal - pretending to sniff the ground - and didn't realise it was actually because there was a distraction - the small of another dog. For a distraction, scattering treats on the ground doesn't make sense, for a calming signal maybe it does in some contexts. I scatter treats if I'm standing still with Lucky for a long time, as he tends to start barking out of frustration and this gives him something to focus on. During a heel exercise it doesn't really make sense. If the dog is stressed, then I would make the exercise easier for them.
I've thrown a treat in front when working on heeling. The trick I was taught was to only ever throw one treat, that way the dog would learn that there was only ever one so they didn't need to keep looking. The 'treat throw' was to help with lagging behind in heeling. Grab a teat in your hand (usually a reasonable size so it's easy to grab) and hold your hands together at about waist height. Quickly rotate your hands like you're reeling in a fish and throw the treat out in front. After a few tries at this, the dog starts to catch up and show a huge amount of attention and enthusiasm when you do a slight movement with your hands. Great for when you're in the ring and can't give them a cue or speak to them to regain their focus
Yes kind of, trainer said it would alleviate the stress. But knowing Vanilla it was nothing to do with stress, just more of a new smell let me sniff. I just could not understand the throwing/scattering of treats would help in a situation to get her focused back on me. So will continue on my way of training the heel. When out on a walk we do a few steps of heel, then just loose lead walking and Vanilla gets to sniff, then repeat by increasing the steps each time. Thanks all makes sense using some of your tricks and will try them with Vanilla and see how we go.
I don’t allow sniffing when doing focused heeling. I use my pace to keep focus, albeit it’s still work in progress. By choice my two like to walk fast (as do most) so to keep them concentrating on me I have 3 speeds - slow – normal – fast. When I slow that’s when they’re most likely to lose focus and sniff, so I do short bursts of slow & as soon as I see their heads dropping I switch to fast to get them back. I don’t have any verbal cues for heeling, the cue is my left leg (dogs walked on the left obviously right if walked on right) same for turning, stop etc I’m clicker training heeling & am now at the stage with Monty off the lead. So, to add interest occasionally when he’s walking in the correct position I click, throw the treat to the floor slightly behind, I speed up this obviously means he’s no longer in position, so he comes running back into place click reward walk on as normal.
