Hi,

My dog is does pretty good with obedience, he has a good sit, down stay and come. Im in the process of teaching him the fuss, the only thing I want is for him to come around to my left side and look up at me. We've been doing the exercise for about a week and a half now and as long as he's got either a ball or treats he'll come around me and do it. If he doesnt then I cannot get his attention.

My question is am expecting to much in a small period of time. How many times should I go over the exercise before he'll get it and I dont have to use anything to lure him around me?

Thanks,

Hi Javier and welcome!

First, tell us about your dog...how old is your dog? Breed? How long have you had him?

 Quote: Javier Vazquez

Hi,
My dog is does pretty good with obedience, he has a good sit, down stay and come. Im in the process of teaching him the fuss, the only thing I want is for him to come around to my left side and look up at me. We've been doing the exercise for about a week and a half now and as long as he's got either a ball or treats he'll come around me and do it. If he doesnt then I cannot get his attention.

Initially, focusing on you and moving into proper position are two seperate commands. I would work on them seperately and then combine them. Others may do it differently, but I've personally found that it's much clearer for the dog that way.

Secondly, a week an a half is not very long so I wouldn't be upset about not being solid yet.

And finally, if the dog won't do it without you presenting a reward, then your reward-training has actually turned into bribe-training.

I would take some steps back and start over. You need to gradually phase out the luring and the visual lock the dog has on the reward, IMO. Do you use a marker word or clicker? These are really important aspects of shifting over from the lure to the reward and making sure that it doesn't turn into a bribe situation.

Also, make sure that your training is fun for the dog so that he's happy to do it even without the reward directly in front of him. Don't forget the praise!

 Quote: Javier Vazquez

How many times should I go over the exercise before he'll get it and I dont have to use anything to lure him around me?

Sorry, I forgot to answer this. This depends on the maturity of the dog, the specific learning-ability of the dog and how you train, IMO. No magic number, unfortunately.

Make sure that you are giving the dog time to think, also. Sometimes people show a dog something, and keep luring them through the command (bribe like mentioned above) and forget that the dog has to have time to processs what happened. Sometimes you will see the dog flick their head in the direction that they are supposed to go then look back at you like "you mean that?" If the dog does this, WAIT. Give them a chance to work through the "puzzle" without bribing them or distracting. Sometimes all they need is a second or two without a response to do the action without your help. If, however the dog seems to have *no* clue, then you need to work on it more until the dog understands what you are asking from it. The amount of time it takes depends on both the dog AND the trainer. Some take longer, some take less.

My dog is GSD a year and 5 months old, I've had him ever since he was 3 months old.

One more question usually, (i know that all dogs are different) how long does it take a dog to learn the competition heel?

Thanks

Usually I teach the dog to focus first. The dog falls into a heel naturally when following after the item done this way. Focus exercises take between 2 days and 2-3 weeks depending on the dog.

Javier wrote in part:

"How many times should I go over the exercise before he'll get it and I dont have to use anything to lure him around me?"

The number of times is directly related to the work ethic of the dog as prescribed by genetics.