Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum, and am happy to be so. I cannot be more grateful that a friend introduced me to Ed, Cindy, and their training protocols and philosophy. I am making my way through the DVDs. The "Train Your Dog with Food" is FANTASTIC! Leerburg is saving my dog from having a half-baked, misinformed, inconsistent, and confused handler.

I am the happy owner of a 6-month-old black Lab pup named Cali (breed rescue). She is a focused, smart, trainable, pooch with very high drive. She also has a tracking nose the instructor tells me is pretty amazing for a dog her age. All-in-all, a very cool dog with lots of potential.

One problem I'm having when training her is my delivery of the food reward. (Ed's voice saying, "handler error" rings in my head! ) In training the lure with her, or putting the "watch me" command on cue, or anything else for that matter I drop the food A LOT. Or pieces fall out of my hand. The net result is that I have now created pattern where she will do what is expected in the training, then quickly go nose down, scanning the ground for tidbits. It breaks the rhythm, flow, speed, and distracts her and me. Now that it feels like a pattern is what bothers me the most.

Dumb question, perhaps, but has anyone else had this pattern happen? Anyone have suggestions how to hold/deliver the food more effectively? I am trying to do it the way Michael does in the video, but I'm not having much luck. I watched the streaming videos of the 12-week old puppy that was sent out this week, and watching that young woman deliver those rewards was enough to give me a complex!

TIA,
Linda

Practice in front of a mirror without the dog. Seriously. I did that to neutralize my treat hand, to stop telegraphing the reward, to smooth my getting the reward out of the bait bag, etc.


eta
Oh, and you can then break that pattern with "doggy pushups," or rapid commands with excellent rewards coming from you.

Practice, practice, practice.

Oh, and WELCOME!

what is important is the "mark" as long as the pupper understands that everytime he hears it, its payoff time

edit to add:

this may be an excelent time to introduce a toy as a reward

Thank you all! I hesitated posting that question, but am glad I did. I just moved the full length mirror to my training space, and am about to go practice.

Great idea too Dennis about whipping out a toy when I mess up too much with the food. That's a great way to change it up, and have something high-reward at the ready.

Have a great day everyone!

you're not clumsy, clumsy is when you can't kick the tug or sleeve out of the way fast enough and get bit on the butt by your own dog for your trouble