Reflection #8 -- Lots of good stuff and Maya is relaxing.

Hi everyone,

I use martingale, plain buckle, choke (metal or nylon) and gentle leader. I used gentle leader when Louie was a puppy and I didn't know anything about dog training. It was very easy to control his strong pull. I'm using it with Maya now. She doesn't pull, but I can have better control when a dog comes up to her face (all of you know by now Maya hates face to face interaction with dogs, especially unfamiliar dogs). I can close her mouth, so she doesn't get chance to snap at a dog and I can pull her head toward me. I put it on her when we arrived at the draft test last Sat. She got more relaxed later, so I took it off. She actually did good greetings to other dogs and even played a little bit ( I was actually more happy to see her like that than passing the test). I know your dogs don't have aggression issue, but I just wanted to say I love gentle leader : )

I agree with Kathy. It doesn't matter for a dog which collar he/she wears once the dog is trained. Just make sure you need to "release"
the tension, especially with choke and prong collar. You use a collar to "pop" and get attention. When I lose my dog's attention and start forging or lagging, I walk or run to different direction to give a dog surprise and fun. I love using clicker. It is really easy for me to teach "new" things to dogs.

As lots of very experienced handlers say, you need to teach one thing in the way you build blocks. You need to break one exercise into pieces. For example, I click when my dog just lift his/her butt to get up at heeling. Make sure your first step is small, so your big fellow can keep up with you. Then I start teaching just a couple steps, click and treats. My obedience instructor always say don't keep walking in the same direction if your dog lose attention/interest. Training has to be FUN. For recall, you just don't leave and call your dog straight. Sometimes, you run away once your dog starts moving. Sometimes you start running away while you are going away from your dog, so your dog doesn't know what will happen next (which means you can keep your dog attention). When your dog comes to you straight, pat his/her body, be silly !!! You've seen Sue Marino is making very happy voice and hugging her dog, right ?
You need to show your dogs how happy you are and how great they are.
Dogs communicate much better with body language.

To train attention with my dogs, I just click when they make eye contact without saying anything. Then add "watch" command once a dog started just looking at me. If your dog really doesn't make eye contact first, bring treats to your lips to show what you want him/her to do (I also spit treats from my mouth. I know some treats are disgusting to put in mouth, but I usually use cheese). You need to "show" them what you want. My dogs know "watch" without treats, but I sometimes put my finger to my lips and say watch to make sure they respond. I do this especially when I get ready for an exercise in obedience ring. One of the good places to practice attention is dog shows. I sometimes took Louie to Walmart or any stores and trained him in front to the store. Some people wanted to say hi to him (it is a great socialization), but people usually leave you alone since you are doing something with your dog and sense you don't want people to just come up and say hi (or maybe they just thought I was strange and they didn't want to get close to me...).

"Leave it" command is also useful. I used a lot when I was doing maneuvering course. I also use "With me" command to just let them know to stay close to me, but not necessarily at heeling position. I also tried to say "Good girl" to Maya at the test, so she knew what she was doing right. It is easy to say no than yes, I think.

Here is one way to teach halt.
Put a leash on your dog. Hold the leash on your left hand. Start walking like heeling. Say halt/stop/ whatever your command to stop and put your right hand in front of your dog to stop (even touch his/her nose). When you stop, you are half step ahead of your dog.
When your dog stops, pull the leash forward to give tension and keep saying "stop" command a couple times. You can teach the dog a real meaning of "STOP" by giving tension. I actually use this tension technique to warm-up for an obedience trial. Just before going into the ring for group sit/down stay exercise, I make my dog sit, say stay and stand in front of my dog. Then I pull the leash toward me to give tension just enough to pull his/her collar a little bit (make sure you hook the leash to the dead ring instead of the ring to choke if you are using choke collar. I just want to give pressure on back neck.).

Be silly and physical to your dog when you train. I DO wrestle with my dogs. I know I'm small, but I can stop them just before they become out of control (before they kill me!!!). I let them jump up on me when I ask them (not when THEY want to). If your dog have favorite tricks (such as spin, twirl, back-up, shake hands), ask them to do it during practice. If you feel tired and don't feel like to train, don't train. You need to give 100% to your dog, so they will give 100% back to you. If you get frustrated with your dog, take break and think how you can help your dog. I admit I enjoy getting titles, but building good relationship with my dogs through training is much more important and rewarding. With Louie I've gotten CD, DD, WRD in last couple years, but I finally felt we are "TEAM" when we were training for WRD last summer. With Maya I've gotten WD and CD so far, but I do not feel we are real "team" yet (I know we are getting close, though).
I can make her work, but she doesn't "ASK" me what's next. I know she just wants to play : ) I hope our group keep helping each other including people outside of our group and also people who love other breeds (wasn't it nice to see Greater Swiss Mtn. Dog at our test ?
They are very nice team.).

Anyhow, I'll think more what training helped me. I would like to keep getting together since Maya just started getting more relaxed among dogs.

Kiko