training help.

[ditavonteesed]

Ok training seems to have gone completly to pot, pup will pay no attention to me and seems to have forgotten everything we ever learnt. she is shocking at training class and never does anything #i ask, her recall has gone in that she will come, she knows what i am saying she just is chosing not to.

So I want to get her back on track, we have no dog class until Jan now and I would like to not be flusterd, bnright red and worn out when we go back.

I have brought the crate back out as she has started destroyind things when we are not in the room with her.
so this is my plan, to take her for at least an hour walk every day most of which will be hopefully off lead to try and work on recall again but also wear her out a bit.
I also though at home we would work on basics, sit, stay, down and wait but trying to increaser time and distance rather than trying to do more iyswim. I also want to work on her heal as she has started really pulling me, I am trying turning round and walking the other way when she pulls but not quite surewhat I am doing with this method.
She is ten months old now, should she be able to concentrate for longer by now? I try to do training in 5 min blocks, at least 3 times a day. can anyone think of any games I can do to get her to focus more on me?

She's a teenager! Keep going and you'll get there! We got through masses of rawhide chews for a while. You could try finding games, tug games, fetch games, ball games, football....food games....Lots and lots of bribery!

I would get super 'strict' with her. So she gets absolutely nothing unless she earns it. You might well do a lot of it anyway, but make her sit and wait for her dinner to be put down, make her sit for her collar/lead to be put on, wait for you to go through the front door first when going for walks (not anything to do with dominance, but it helps her learn to control herself when excited) make her sit or do something else for every single treat or bit of attention etc.

I would also do several shorter walks per day instead of one long one and would actually keep her on the lead for most of the walking. Being off lead is a priveledge to be earned. With heelwork/walking on a loose lead, I simply stop if the dog pulls or the lead goes tight. You can either call her back into the correct position with a treat or simply wait for her to get the idea and correct herself. Then, walk on again, stopping every single time the lead goes tight or she pulls and only walking forwards when the lead is loose again. It is painstaking but it's really important to stop every single time or it won't work. It might take several weeks or even months, but you'll notice some difference quite quickly. (after a few days you won't have to stop every step! ) The more you walk her on the lead, the quicker she'll learn.

I would get her in a better frame of mind before trying recall work and then do it using a longline.

You can also increase the likelehood of the dog keeping interest by using different/more tasty/smelly training treats and training when she's hungry. Mine love salami or really mature cheddar or you can get dried fish treats in Pets At Home which mine love too.

thanks, definatly been a bit soft with her (she is so little and cute). the other issue i have is she runs and jumps up at peo0ple when we are out, she is getting better but it can be a big problem (especially when its muddy) I was hoping a lot more general training will help her focus on me and do this less, is that the case?

Like midori says stop your walk whenever she pulls, with holly is used to actually walk backwards a few steps she very quickly learnt that we were never going to get the park if she didnt behave!! there was times that we only walked halfway down the road and back again as it had taken half an hour to get there! by this point it was time to go home hence she didnt get her run round! but she learnt not to pull from a young age when she didnt really need alot of physical exercise. as regards the jumping up, you need to never let her jump up at you or the girls push her down quite firmly and dont give her any attention until she sits nicely. That way if you dont let her jump at you she shouldnt jump at strangers either :).

thanks again for the advice, have tried stopping every time she puklls and it is definatly getting better, been making sure that even when I am just throwing her ball I make her sit and wait for a second first, also trying to train pretty constantly so everytime I go in the kitchen I opick up a handful of treats and do some work with her until they are gone. she has been to the groomers today and actually bit the groomer so I definatly think I need to get on top of this now.