Hi everyone, I started off with gusto training my wild rescue dog and got him to do the basic commands but I am looking for a structured training plan so I can continue progressing with him. I created a basic one on Excel but I wanted to know if anybody had made a more detailed plan (or have links to one online) that continues to advance week by week whether it is distance, distraction or duration. I'm also looking for any advice regarding reducing the value and number of treats as I have found this difficult to adjust, particularly with his recall. I'm absolutely loving the experience so any advice would be appreciated to help me make life better for him.
Have to admit I've never done a training plan for Jen. I've just worked on different behaviours and worked on extending/improving the behaviours. With cluents I do gave a training plan dependant up in the number of sessions booked but tge pkan gas to be dkexibke to r accoubt for each cluent/dog as no two are the same. I would say continue to work on your pkan being aware that weekly improvements may not happen but it us good to know what you are working towards and monitor progress. Once a begaviour is very reliable on cue you can introduce an intermittent schedule of reinforcement where you reward the behaviour on a random basis- but you never stop rewarding. You also reduce the value of the rewards but throw in a 'jackpot' every so often. With recall I tend to always reward at various levels. Recall us so important that I prefer to reward to help ensure a good response. Sometimes it's a tasty morsel, sometimes plain kibble and sometimes a handful of treats.
I've often thought I would do this, but kept putting it off until tomorrow -- and my Cassie is 2 this month! She's not a rescue, I've had her from 8 weeks. Somehow though with +R I find that it all sort becomes one, whether you're training for loose lead walking or Look at That, or keeping close on walks, it's as if they want to be making those choices so we make overall improvements in time -- with occasional set backs of course. What age is your puppy, and what is his/her name?
When I adopted the Pig, I needed a really structured plan to work through because I was new to dog training. I found Sue Ailsby’s Training Levels and would absolutely recommend it. It works through step-by-step every foundation Behavior you need for a functional dog (leave it, sit, down, stay, come, target, handling, communication, go to mat, relax and more) and gradually develops and proofs them. Each key behaviour is split into levels, and each level into bite-size steps. It starts right at the beginning but gets really advanced as you work through and you end up with a dog with so many useful behaviours for everyday life. She is a service dog trainer but also does a lot of dog sports. So it is from a very domestic/service perspective - for example, my Pig’s first ever retrieve training was with an old remote control (which would be great for lazy me when watching tv if she wasn’t such a drool-bucket)! But I can honestly say, when we branched out to do the Kennel Club Good Citizen awards, gundog classes and most recently agility, she had pretty much 100% of the behaviours required in all of those things (send away to targets, jumping, retrieving, marking, steadiness, directions and going round things, etc), from this book. Yes they required proofing in these different contexts and sometimes different cues, but I am not sure I have taught her anything truly new that hasn’t already had foundations from the training levels, for a long time! The production quality of the book is a bit budget but I honestly think the content is gold dust. And writing this reminds me I must go back to it, as we petered out half way through the final level! Here’s the link to her website and book: http://sue-eh.ca/digital_products/
Oh and if you like systematic geeky approaches like me, it is very amenable to turning into an excel spreadsheet and there are also flash cards somewhere on the website to go through the steps without having to refer to the book all the time.
Excellent to read @Lara, you have certainly done well with the Pig, that sounds like a very good resource for any dog owner.
That's interesting @Lara haven't come across those. The print edition is quite pricey with the shipping, have you tried out the pdf versions at all, I'm wondering if they are a bit of a faff on an e reader.?
Yes I think even the e-book is a bit pricey too...I got the e-book and mainly read it on my phone which was pretty annoying but only because the screen was too small. But not sure if I got the e-pub or pdf version. It is a bit amateurishly put together (well the version I got was), with pictures in the wrong place and things like that, but it did the job! Also you have to get used to her very North American style
Am wondering if I can get OH to do a cheeky print out of the pdf at work.... They way you've described the steps broken down sounds really good , I'm terrible for trying to jump ahead too quickly and I think some books gloss over the minute steps you have to take sometimes. And then you feel a bit rubbish and don't go back to things. At least I have been like that in the past.
One of the best books I know with a step by step guide to training basic behaviours - sit, down, loose lead walking etc is How to Train your dog like a pro by Jean Donaldson
What age is your puppy, and what is his/her name?[/QUOTE] He is about 2 and a half years old and his name is Bernie. I've been meaning to do a more detailed plan for ages as well but wasn't sure exactly how to. I've looked online but not really found anything. We have a newborn baby in the house (sorry for the late reply) so it has got me wanting to sharpen him up so my wife can take him and the baby out together while I'm at work. He's pretty good but I want him to keep being challenged and progress instead of standing still or going backwards.
I think that this sounds exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! I also put my basic training into an Excel spreadsheet so that also sounds fantastic!
I have definitely ran before I could walk with some of the things, especially recall. I gave him far too many distractions and too much slack on the long line before he could handle it. He loves dogs and there were too many smells and actual dogs before I had gone through the other stages.
Thank you! I watched the video on YouTube and have implemented some of this. I will have a look at the book too.
Can you remember which cues were different from the book and what the new cues were named with the Kennel Club? One of the other reasons I want to sharpen my boy up is because when we move back to England I would like him to go through the Good Citizen Awards and it would be great to skip having to retrain a new cue for some of the behaviours. P.S. I love the name the Pig!
I don’t think it is necessary to change cues unless the behaviour is slightly different or you want to keep a specific cue for a specific situation for some reason. I was stubborn and used all my existing ones for the good citizen awards. Even though my instructor kept saying “oh you should say ‘wait’ not ‘stay’” I wanted to tell her I could say ‘run away’ to the dog and get the same stay behaviour if I had trained that, of course it doesn’t matter what words you teach. She also had problems with me sending my dog to bed with “go to mat” because it wasn’t a mat yes but the Pig doesn’t know that! I think for some other things (not good citizen) i am changing cues just because they are slightly different - for example, although the Pig knew what I meant when I said ‘hup!’ (her jump cue) to go over an agility jump, I more ordinarily use it to get her to jump into the car or up onto a bench and stay there so I decided to use ‘over’ for agility. But I wouldn’t bother for things that are conceptually the same. Just be stubborn
Yeah, the words don't matter at all. I'm surprised that they would have minded at all as long as the behaviour is correct then you could say fish n chips for sit if you wanted and as long as the dog responds in the correct way then it's fine. Especially with the recall where many people change it when they realise that they have made an error and need to start again. I'm considering switching the word for that to try and improve his. I'll have to think of a really random one to shout in public. Thank you for the information. I've been looking at how to get the training levels books to Korea as they sound like exactly what I need.
