I just had a sudden thought in the middle of the night, like I quite often do Should I still be practising whistle training indoors randomly with Charlie. I am as you all know doing Total Recall. I tend to do things to the letter and become quite obsessive about not deviating ??? Now I am worried that I should still be doing room to room, recall from sleep etc.? . I have done all of these and have ticked them off in my book/mind and so I move on to the next exercise. Also would it be useful for his training to whistle him in from the garden? I now have my worried head on ??? ??? ??? ??? I wonder if anyone remembers Worzel Gummage? Thanks Helen x
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Cant see it doing any harm Helen apart from whistling from sleep, if he`s tired, you might be setting yourself up for a fail ? As long as you dont overdo it with room to room so that he gets bored , it can only be good , I think ? x
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Hi Helen, it never does any harm to keep up existing skills. I quite often go back over quite simple stuff with dogs that are trained to quite a high standard. The longer it has been since the last lesson, the further I go back. I find it quite soothing and satisfying, and it gets me back into gear when I have had a few days or weeks off training. However, many trainers hardly ever do this, and if you are training regularly and making progress, you don't need to worry too much about it. The times that you really should go back a step or two, is when you are struggling a bit on an exercise and the dog is failing more often than not. Then it is important to go over exercises that you know he can do, both to reinforce them and to build up his confidence (and yours!) before pressing on again. Pippa
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Hi Pippa, thank you so much. I will go over the previous exercises a few times just to reinforce Charlie's recall, as it's getting increasingly difficult to get people to help me with these exercises and pretty soon I will be dragging passers by in off the street I think I have exhausted all my friends and also friends on here too. It's now been 9 days since our last success calling away from an assistant with food. On another note, I am finding that Charlie really is not retrieving and is still rather interested in everything else no matter how much I run around like a complete fool etc. to encourage him. He will do a few retrieves then he's off either with the ball in his mouth or on his own mission in the paddock. Same with the dummy, 6 ish or so (indoors still) and then he's lost interest. David, my children and I have worked very hard with him on retrieving balls, so a bit surprised that he is not more enthusiastic. This concerns me for the future, any suggestions? Helen
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Retrieving desire is a funny thing. It is a bit like a drug for some dogs, but you need to get them addicted first. When a dog has only a moderate desire to retriever, the more retrieves you throw for a dog, the less he will want to retrieve. Even in a high drive dog, a lot of retrieving will bring the drive down a bit. The trick is to always stop throwing the ball whilst the dog is desperate (and I mean really desperate) for another go. And never to continue until the dog is losing the 'edge'. Over time (months), and given the right genes, you can build up retrieving desire to such a pitch that the dog will retrieve many many times without losing interest. But achieving this is a balancing act. There is quite a bit of info about retrieving here Pippa
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry [quote author=charlie link=topic=1199.msg7578#msg7578 date=1360940193] On another note, I am finding that Charlie really is not retrieving and is still rather interested in everything else no matter how much I run around like a complete fool etc. to encourage him. He will do a few retrieves then he's off either with the ball in his mouth or on his own mission in the paddock. Same with the dummy, 6 ish or so (indoors still) and then he's lost interest. David, my children and I have worked very hard with him on retrieving balls, so a bit surprised that he is not more enthusiastic. This concerns me for the future, any suggestions? Helen [/quote] When a dog is not a natural retriever and the desire to retrieve has not been nurtured from puppyhood in can be quite tough to teach a good retrieve. I have had the same problem with my cocker who was 14 months when I got him and who had no desire to retrieve at all. I have taught him quite a satisfactory retrieve through clicker training using the 'reversed retrieve' method. It requires quite a bit of patience from the handler and an understanding of how clicker training and backchaining works. The cocker will retrieve now but he will never be a retrieverholic like my other dogs. For them retrieving is everything and I often use it as a reward for other things in their training.
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Thank you Pippa and Heidrun We got Charlie at 9 months, he was 2 in December. At the moment I feel I am drowning in training and realising that I am not doing Charlie any real favours. Helen
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Look Helen, you are doing the best you can, not just training Charlie but also trying to learn yourself about effective dog training, and that is a lot more than what most people do. Whenever I get to stage where training is getting to me I just give myself and the dogs a few days off. After a break I am always a lot more enthusiastic about training and I can once again look at things objectively.
Re: Not SURE Pippa - sorry Make it all into a game if you can. Training is also meant to be fun for you both. I think you are doing great. Remember KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON! ;D I've also decided that as the Buddhists might say "In order to draw a perfect circle it is first necessary to become perfect oneself". So Lady gets by and I'm working on it but hey, maybe getting by is as good as she and I can get. Woohoo!
