Does anybody else have an obsessive sniffer? In the last month or so any outside training has been a real challenge in terms of keeping Harv's attention focussed on the task at hand rather than running off to sniff. If we do heelwork his nose is a millimetre from the ground. If we do stays he will stop in place but sniff all around while waiting for the next cue. And as for flyball, which he really liked until recently, forget it - we now at the stage where we keep him on-lead and I run alongside him to keep him focussed and prevent any sniffing (and I find it somewhat less entertaining than the smiling onlookers seem to!). Is this a phase that all dogs pass through? How is it best managed?
When we do agility, Harley is allowed a few mins to walk around and sniff. When I call her back she is much more focussed on the task. Have there been any bitches in season nearby? Maybe this is distracting him?
Yes, yes, yes. Me, me, me. I do not think it is about bitches in season, I think it's an engagement thing. Charlie is a horror for it. He always has been. I solved it before our last period of rest, and then 5 months of just sniffing on slow walks (there wasn't anything else for him to do) returned us to square one. Very thankfully, it has been quicker to work through this time. Where to start....well, I start in a place I can get his attention and keep it, and work up from there. I'm really wary of just upping and upping the activity and rewards - if I need to do this, I'm working in too an exciting place. I do practice in very smelly places, but I don't try to train there until he can manage to respond to a "ready to work?" cue and stay engaged in a less distracting place. Free running is the absolute enemy of engagement, I find. It's like Charlie has to have the expectation of "lead off, we are working" and not "lead off, I'm sniffing". The solution is absolutely not constant activity on my behalf (hard work, toys, treats....) because that just ups arousal levels and is exhausting. So I look to draw out the period that he will stay engaged with me and up the environment distractions slowly. The other thing I do is I get out of the car and he walks 2, 3, 4 circles at heel - no matter how long that takes - before he gets to sniff. I do give him a "go sniff" / "go free" cue, but work on first engagement with me, a chance to sniff, and then re-engagement. And if he can't respond to a "ready to work?" then I need to be in an easier place. Lots of other things...on walking to heel, I have my lead short and I treat his head going down in the same way as a pull forward. I just stop. My lead is short enough he can't reach the floor (it doesn't stop him trying) and I just stop, relax my hand (I do not pull his head up) and I wait. I reward for head up.
Hi Naya. I'm afraid that a pre-emptive sniffing session before we start just doesn't cut it for Harv (if anything it makes him worse!). People are generally pretty good at not bringing in-season bitches to training sessions so I don't think its that. Hi Julie. Glad to hear that Harv is not alone in his obsession Thanks for the feedback, I can see that we have some work to do.
I'm in the 'no sniffing at all on lead' and 'as much sniffing as you want within 20 yards of me when off lead' camp, so long as they recall whenever I ask. It's easy to train and Twiglet has 'got it' already at 18 weeks. She will be having to guide people through busy shopping centres etc by 18 months old - so random sniffing can't be allowed. But I find it a good policy for my pet dog, Tatze too - because it's so unambiguous At puppy class we have a 'sniffy room' where we all put our dogs' blankets down and one-by-one as we arrive we let them in for a good sniff. That way they get all the information about each other without the excitement - it works extremely well.
I think it's a problem of engagement in the presence of massive distractions (being the sniffs - what is a distraction is decided by the dog, not us) - whether it's a young intact male thing, I'm not so sure. It might be, but one that can be addressed by training.
Me me me me me me me me too too too too!!!!!! It is a relatively recent phenomenon. Pongo goes to agility on Monday evenings, and until two or three months ago was absolutely fine - off-lead most of the time when not working, and focused on me (albeit only when I had treats in my hand ); and pretty focused on the task when it was his turn to perform. NOW..... I can't let him off lead until I have a scrap of roast chicken thrust in front of his nose, otherwise he is off sniffing around the arena, utterly happy but in a complete world of his own. And if I'm not right next to him when he is working then he is just as likely to dash off to sniff a far corner as he is to jump a fence or run through the tunnel. I thought it was because of some new smells (we use a riding school arena, and there might have been some particularly interesting horsey smells?) but the trainer says it is more likely to be a stage he is going through where he suddenly becomes sniff-obsessed. So I am not stressing too much about it, just plugging on with (some!) training ..... and eating lots of chicken. Pongo is 21 months old - how old is Harv?
Sometimes dog sniff as a distraction, they are 'worried' and as John Fisher said 'go down to the shops'! Also as we go into the Autumn there are such new smells about. When I had German Pointers I used to think how good they had become during the summer and congratulated myself on my training, then come the Autumn they changed, all those scents in the air! I taught my present Labs times when they could sniff and times when they couldn't! I had a command 'go sniff', perhaps you could begin to train that?
Harv has just turned 2 years old so not dissimilar in age to Pongo (and I think Julie's Charlie is around that age too, a few months older perhaps). I hope it is just a stage - it's going to be a lot of hard work for all of us otherwise! Hi Stacia. It could be a distraction thing but I don't think so - it has an altogether different 'feel' to it, not worried or anxious but completely and utterly absorbed in the sniffing process ... So absorbed that I think a team of bitches in season could play a game of football, with his favourite ball, against a team of squirrels, immediately behind him and he wouldn't notice!
I really, really "get" where UncleBob is coming from here.... It's not "train your dog to recall from having a sniff" or "have a quick sniff before work"....it's more "NOT A NUCLEAR BOMB OF HOME ROASTED CHICKEN AND A TON OF SURF AND TURF STEAK AND LOBSTER TRIMMED WITH WARM FOIS GRAS SPREAD ON RABBIT SKIN DUMMIES" held under his nose, would get it off the ground. I don't want to constantly make excuses for my juvenile delinquent....but he is one, regardless that he is old enough to know better. But still, it's what I have to work on. You have the dog you have. It's a massive distraction thing. The good news is treating it in the same way as other massive distractions works. Slowly.....it works.....
Haha! My lovely Boogie used to get 'stuck to the ground by his nose' when on walks. He, too, was an entire male. I put it down to being a 'man thing' My husband goes deaf in a similar way lol. I use such times to tell OH of my impending purchases/jaunts as he says 'yes' to anything in deaf mode.
Fred is now 18 months old and he is an entire male. He could sniff for England. One book I read said it was like reading a newspaper for a dog.
