Quote: kelly at leerburg

The others may go a little crazy. Mine whine and bark when they see me working with someone else. It gets distracting for the dog that's working.

In my opinion.... Dennis may have a different take on it

exception: when Erika was about a year old, I could not get her interested in chasing a ball or doing alot of tug work. later on I got her mother Roxie. I staked Erika out and started working Roxie with the tug and ball and Erika went apeshat, she turned into a ball and tug nut. She just needed to see what was to be done. another time I had Roxie at the park and couldn't get her into the water. I got Erika out and threw the toy out and she went after it, and so did Roxie. You still need to teach the basics in isolation, later you can do it all together. Dogs have a natural sense of "fairness" if you are throwing the ball, have two balls, if treating do not fail to treat the both of them.

Thank you Kelly and Dennis. I think M.E. mentions it in one of the DVDs or free vids that sometimes it's good to have a dog watch another dog play with a toy to get the first dog in drive. When we got our first dog she was so shut down, wouldn't play, wouldn't walk, had to have one of the cats show her how to play, chase a ball. Plays just fine now.

I try to give each of my 3 one or two 15 minute training/working sessions each day by themselves. Then I also do group walks and group fetch with them.

I train separately because it is easier for me - I just need to focus on the dog I'm working with and don't have to keep my eye on the one I've told to "stay". Especially if we're doing high energy training with a high value reward.

Thanks to all of you for your input. We start serious training tomorrow...The heeler just to get her under control!!(ha-ha) the 2 GSDs for SAR work once we conquer the basics. These 3 really try my patience sometimes I got one GSD after losing my 10 yr old GSD to cancer 2 yrs ago, one GSD I rescued from a busy intersection and the heeler I just acquired.
Thanks again for your help!

They will try your patience at times. They will make you frustrated. You will make mistakes. They will make mistakes. There will be times when you feel like giving up.

When you experience these feelings, stop and take a breath. If you get frustrated you will get tense. This will put them on edge. If you have to stop the training for a day or two, to regroup, do it.

Remember to HAVE FUN training. Your dogs will enjoy it so much more if you are too

They will all get there. It will take time and patience and consistency.

I work both my dogs twice a day or more. Remember training is often best left for 5min depending on the dog. i work for 10ish min max at a time. i'm sure you can squeeze 15-30 min a day for training.

 Quote: kelly at leerburg

My dogs will all be out as a pack and will do random commands like here and sit and down. They all have their own release word, as well as one for the pack.

Kelly, you rock. As the youngest of five children who grew up hearing "SUSAN! STEVEN! PATRICK! STACY! Oh he&&, BARBARA!!!" I am in awe of you having multiple dogs, soon to be more, all who have their own release words!!

"Son? Ness? Turn around damn it so I can see who you are!"

No, we were not twins but we did have a strong family resemblence.


As for release words I only have dogs going out the door one by one by name.....I don't think "Damn it! NO! not you!" counts. All the dogs have the same releases. But too, I have family pets only with therapy visit work....so then you WANT them to listen to other people sometimes.
Training multiple dogs I take one or two out with me to either just the yard, pet friendly stores, therapy visits or just up to the kennel for work. Separating fritter brains helps cut down on mommys stress level. :0

As a new comer, the one and one time spent with individual dogs should be like goal, and as Kelly also stated the time factor is not a long one, I incorporate re-call, sit, focus old stuff with play and new command in ten fifteen minutes several times a day.

 Quote: barbara schuler

Kelly, you rock. As the youngest of five children who grew up hearing "SUSAN! STEVEN! PATRICK! STACY! Oh he&&, BARBARA!!!" I am in awe of you having multiple dogs, soon to be more, all who have their own release words!!

Awwww shucks....

To be honest, training seperate release words isn't hard. Each of the dogs learned them independant of the others so they don't know what the other dogs' words mean.

I used marker training. Words used are very basic. Toni's word is "break", Cat's word is "pop", Drift's word is "snap", and Shyner's is her name. Pack release is "OK dogs".

Working with the dogs as a pack, there are different ways of issuing commands. For example, if I say "SIT" when I have all the dogs out, 4 butts hit the ground. If I say "TONI SIT" then only Toni's butt goes down. The dogs understand that if I don't use a name before the command, they all have to obey it. If I do use a name, then only the one I singled out has to obey. I am not entirely sure how we all figured that out, but it works really well for us

Shyner is a pet and the new dog will most likely be a pet as well, but the basics are all trained the same as the working dogs. My dogs are trained in a positive and motivational way, so they enjoy working and learning new things with me.