Hi Lee
I know what you mean, My Dogs are 15 months and 8 months old now and you do have to work,
Its a good thing really i am 67 years Old. But Hey' i am just starting the Hill for the second time, and i guess i will be a lot fitter than the first time, so it may be a little easier
Norman, I am sorry that you have had a bad life seeing your only 20. take it e bit easier 'Young Un'

That was fun, Norman. Thanks for sharing. Were you in your front yard or back yard? I have a hard time keeping my dog's focus on me once we go out the front door. Any tips would be great. He loses some of his fanatical food drive as soon as we're outside the home or not in the backyard.

Sandy he may not be hungry enough at the time you train and or try this, walk him around your training area and let him check it out and no playing. Then while walking begin your obedience and in an effort to bridge this behavior give him more food than usual and remain clam. If that doesn't work and he continues to act up then calmly put him up and give him no treats or food just water. Then take him out in a few hours and do the same thing again and if he acts up let him and when he settles down and give you focus give him his treats and every time after that do the same, he will soon learn what gives him what he wants and what doesn't. Norman Epstein

Great advice, Norman. Thanks. I'll do that.

He'll do anything for treats in the house or backyard, hungry or not, but when we leave the house to go for walks or just out in our frontyard or at parks, his food drive goes down. He just wants to explore and smell everything. But I think your advice just might work for him. I'm going to start doing that tomorrow morning before I feed him. In fact, I just might feed him his morning meal by hand tomorrow at the park, see how he does.

I think the advice given is good, and I would just add that you need to make sure that the pup or dog, as the case may be, needs to be in the correct position that you want them in BEFORE you reward.

Example: Ember jumps on me, I stand still, avoid eye contact and ignore.....as SOON as all four feet are on the floor/ground, she gets a "yes" and I step away as I reward her ensuring that all feet remain on the ground.
If she even had one foot touching me when I rewarded, then this would be the behavior she would display to get a treat.

Sit=butt on the ground
Down=back end AND elbows touching the ground

Ect......

Hi Norman;
Thanks for sharing your videos. I was wondering what type of collar you are now using for Dap and why are you giving leash collar corrections for inattention at this young age?
Great little dog and you have instilled great joy in his work.
Good job!
Roni

First of all Roni thank you for your comments. The collar is just a flat one I got at a pet store.

There comes a time when food or praise won't change a dogs focus from what he wants to do into what you want him to do and at this age that is all I am trying to accomplish. Moreover if you give food in an effort to correct inattention then the dog might translate that into a behavior he might try to emulate in order to get his reward i.e., look away in order to get food. But whether you should or shouldn't give leash corrections and the force of those corrections can be answered by your last comment, is there dog has joy in his work. If there is then you have balanced the correction and reward properly if not stop and go back until there is joy. Another note different breeds/types handle compulsion differently. I trained a Boerboel (mastiff) and at that same age and a leash correction on the dog while it was out of drive or confused was always counter productive, as this breed at a young age seem to take corrections personally. Here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSoC6q_J89c of obedience training at 7 months of age. I trained the both dogs the same way just with the Boerboel no leash corrections at all. That said the method and the results are almost the same except the GSD is more geared to redundancy and has a much higher work ethic than the Boerboel. Norman Epstein

I agree with you Norman, concerning the dog emulating the incorrect behavior to gain a reward. It's amazing just how intelligent our dogs are, lolololo. My belief is that attention
is a learned activity and it is also a duration exercise. So in my practice, I have broken up both the exercises and the length of time working and also the chaining of the exercises, along with manipulating the drive that we are working in. For example, under a "more distracting environment, pulling out chicken instead of hot dogs" as opposed to leash pops.
Thanks for conversing. Happy Training!!!!!!!

I'll try that and thanks. Much success and good training. Norman Epstien

Please keep the videos coming, Norman!!!!!