Hello,
I am hoping you guys can help me.
I have a 9 month old german sheperad that I have been traing for the last 4 months. He does great when it is just him and I training, he listens and everything, but when ever my 2yr golden reteiever is around he is totally focused on her.
He still will listen most of teh time, but he is constantly focused on her and not me not matter what i try. Also When we use the golden and playing fetch as a distraction all trainig goes out the window as all he wants to do is run and chase her and the ball. What can I do get his attention to focus on me and not the distractions. I use the prong collar, also no matter what I try to do to make trainging fun for him he does not seem to be having a good time and just goes throught the motions. what do I do? Thanks

Ken-
He's still pretty young to expect him to want to
do ob drills while goldie locks has a ball and plays! If he's the only one with a training collar on, and the only one expected to listen, that's a bit more distraction than one could "proof" with, and not expect some breaks!

If he does all of it with you alone with no problem,and hopefully with some joy, then count your blessings at 9 mos!

Am I misunderstanding, the 2yr old is released
all this time? Make her do some work too, he'll
show her how to behave.

just my $.02
-do

Bonding would be something I would think is causing some of the problem (other than the obvious to early for that level of distraction) I like the dogs to be bonded to me before they are allowed to play with the other dogs, and then only in small increments. Take three weeks of just being with you and see if that helps. I have found that this is a big thing, you see other dogs don't ask puppys to do anything and thats alot easier than being with us who are pestering them to do things in a language that they don't understand. I like to do distractions after I am getting really good results in my training where there are no distractions. I then go to another field and try the training there, without distractions this is usually enough to mess up things. when it is good there I go to where there is some sort of activity going on. I go to the farthest point and ask for focus. If they do well I do some work, if they don't thats all I will work on. If you take the time to measure a dogs reaction to the distractions and work slowly thru them then you don't need to use a large amount of corrections. The problem with using corrections instead of going through all the steps is that eventually you either have to correct really hard or the dog gets the ever so much fun problem of "learned helplessness" This is when if the dog doesn't understand, they stay still instead of trying something. This is a bad thing that is very easily avoided. Take the E-collar off the puppy and put it away. Get ahold of one of Eds people and get a video that will take you thru the steps. I feel that you can do just as well in obedience without the collar. I know people that hunt that use them for obedience but they are REALLY GOOD and EXPERIENCED trainers. That being said I wish you good training!

I again was onthe phone while posting and we were talking about e collars I meant to address the prong collar. I do this stuff all day talk about it most of the night so I apologize. I am basically only good for eight hours. not in a row haha I still think that the steps should be followed before getting into corrections. If you had a class in a foreign language for example and class #3 I spoke to you pointed or pulled and then slapped your face you wouldn't have a very good understanding of what I wanted. So take more time. Plus this stupid typing thing is killing me I can barely make my point sometimes and have to go back. No harm intended

You guys are awesome and have given mesome great advice. I need to tkae it slower, I just know he can do it do it , but I will take it slow and continue to get him to bond to me.
So I sould not let them play or just give them a few mins. of play right, I just want him to focus on me not her, I see how I can be asking to much from him at 9 months, thanks guys.