So chuffed, been training Baxter to stop at a distance and we've been at it just over a month. He knew the command wait as we'd used it before so that helped. The first time the trainer put four cones out in the middle of the hall and we were to put him at end of training area then get him to stop as near to the cones as possible, he was fab and when i said wait he stopped right in the middle of the cones and sat down. Over the next couple of weeks he was good, then last week I don't know if it was teenage deaf ear or I'm fed up now but he wouldn't do it I actually think he was fed up doing it, that I was doing it too often so I left it and did other things. Roll on tonight, When we went in I told him if he didn't do it tonight he was going to be relegated to the 6 o'clock class it worked lol.. I put him at the end of the training area told him to sit/wait and walked to other end of hall. I called him to come then told him to wait.. perfect he stopped then went down, he was still a little away from me so I called him again then did the same.. Wait.. he stopped and went down then called him to my side to a few aw's and wow's, I was bursting with pride Baxter sheep dog in the making lol.. Next week may be my downfall if he doesn't play ball but this week was a good week
Well done Baxter, clever boy, and you of course Elizabeth for the great training. A very sensible approach. I think sometimes we forget when we're working on training something that it's meant to be fun for us and our dogs.
What a good boy. I always found too, that a break helps them as much as us. There is some research to show regular breaks help training, at least in Beagles. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016815911100181X#bib0085
That's a very interesting idea raised by the summary of the article. I found the results surprising and would have liked to have read the whole thing (but not willing to pay that price ) Have you read it all? I wonder how long each training session was? And also if there could be another explanation for the success of the one session - once a week group.
In her book 'The Culture Clash' Jean Donaldson suggests that when training a new behaviour with a dog you should allow at least a sleep between training sessions, preferably overnight, to allow the brain to assimilate the new learning. When I thought about it, it made sense to me as our brains file and sort information while we sleep, so why shouldn't a dog..
Yes, having an overnight break makes sense, but I'm still surprised that in this study the best results were from one session a week. I'd like to know what the dogs were being taught as well - I suppose it must have been something that they weren't going to do incorrectly by accident in between training sessions ( thinking of lead walking for example).
I guess there are so many variables that can affect a dog processing information. For example, what was happening to the dogs inbetween training sessions? What was the environment like? It stands to reason that a period of rest would benefit a dog, and sometimes switching to a different cue...or going back to something very easy helps a dog too in terms of confidence. I have to be careful with Benson, as he is sensitive and can switch of very easily in training if he fails, or another dog is around, interesting concept to explore however. Most importantly well done Baxter! I have personally found the sit stay really difficult!
http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2012/05/how-often-should-i-train-my-dog.html Just found this which gives more explanation of the study. @Bruer I hope you don't mind this on your thread. You've done really well with the sit /down at a distance. It's taken me a long time to get there with Molly.
Great to hear Baxter is doing so well and good for you for judging right when you needed to vary things up a bit x
Thank's everyone, I'm still on a high Going to let Baxter have a few sleeps before we try it again, let me enjoy this small victory for a little longer. @Joy No I certainly don't mind I found the articles really interesting
No, I haven't read it all either. My interest was piqued a few years ago when a lady who writes a weekly dog training column referenced the study. I had been told by one of our field group it was so critically important to train EVERY day that most sent their dogs away for that training, fearing they might miss a day or two. This information would seem to contradict that BUT, I didn't know what the Beagles had been trained to do. I have since found the link below which gives a bit more information on the training. http://www.wired.com/2011/07/training-your-dog/
