Hi guys. My 8 month old GSD is doing all basic obedience but with a small problem. He always have to move 1-2 steps before he finally settles in the position or especially in down, he will crawl few steps toward me. Is there any way to get rid of this bad habit or correct it. Thank you.
You are giving him too much time to obey the command. Its all timing. Correct sooner after you give the command. Praise when he obeys immediately. Its tricky. You have to make sure your timing is good and be sure that the correction dosen't come so late that the dog is starting to go into the position he was commanded to go into. You don't want to screw the dogs head up. Make sure you use the lowest level correction necessary to achieve the desired results.
This assumes that you are using corrections at all to teach this. I would not. You teach the down in motion in steps. Assuming the dog already knows the heel and down command. The first step is to heel with the dog and as soon as you say DOWN you bend down and drop a piece of food in the location that you expect his head to be in. At this step you do not continue walking. The next step is to continue on and take 1 step before circling around and heeling again. You progress by adding more and more distant each time. Remember that the dog is only trying to be closer to you which is not something that we necessarily want to destroy.
I know what you are saying Vince. I just looked at it as the dog knows the command, but he sorta lollygagles around and finally does it when he feels like it. I see it more as a situation where the dog needs to obey immediately or he gets the correction. The correction being all about proper timing. Of course, we have to be sure that the dog knows the command and is past the "learning stage". Good point about the dog wanting to be closer.
He does know down, sit, stand. With food he will do it immediately, but if he does not expect that the food would be given as a reward, he starts fiddle (step there or there - it looks like he is rethinking of whether to do it or not). I know that I cannot work with food all the time, so what kind of reward I should be using or what correction should be applied.
What you described is why I stand by ny first post. He knows the command, but unless he gets a food reward he takes his sweet time to obey the command. This is where I believe that corrections are needed. I would use a prong collar and use the absolute lowest level of correction needed to get him to obey immediately. If you have never used a prong collar before, get Ed's basic obedience tape and there you will learn how to use one correctly. There will probably be some opinion against the prong to follow from others. Either way, I believe that some form of leash correction needs to be applied here.
Reward for the dog doing it after the dog is down. If it takes a step or two just ignore it and don't reward. Once he figures out the reward is coming he will do it. You are just attempting to skip a step for this dog. Any teaching is a question of the pupil understanding what is expected. If they don't get it, back up and come back with smaller steps.
If you can't be a Good Example,then You'll just have to Serve as a Horrible Warning. Catherine Aird.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. . . Reading the second post I am not so sure about the corrections. Sounds like the dog needs more work in the "weening" stage of food reward. The dog should always think he is getting somethin gooood. . .
Question? Why the heck don't more people use prey object reward (ball) in teaching the heel and heel and motion commands? I do. I don't even start teaching the heel with food. Am I crazy?
Well Vancamp not all of us were taught that way. I had never attempted to train without food until after I bought Flinks tape because I had never been shown HOW to make the ball work for me. It is easy to keep a dog in position with food, but not so easy to keep a high drive learning dog in position with a ball if you don't know what the heck you are doing. I am still learning everyday from my dog, but now that I have a dog with the prey/ball drive to work with I could give a crap if I ever slice another slimy hotdog so long as I live <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Not to mention my fingers are much happier with the ball on a string.
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