Lori i read what you wrote and tried the off leash out of curiosity – m not ready to do it yet, dont know exactly what Karly might do ... – but he just does the same, walks around a couple of meters ahead and just waits for us but i m mostly with him in familiar places.

side note: i never had the opportunity to say this, but Kasey looks ADORABLE in this pic Lori! i always wanted to tell you but we re caught in sthg else

It is always a matter of exposing & training anywhere & everywhere, anytime. I would have taken the opportunity of all that distraction & used it to MY advantage & done a couple of training sessions with my dog in this new environment. I know that most people would not do that, but I would have.

I pop my dogs out of the truck anywhere I feel there is something new that will make a good distraction to work them under. I have always done this since my dogs were very young. So basically, my dogs will work anywhere. I put my dogs in a down & chase geese off the field or send them to chase them off & call them back. I will go up & down fire escape stairs & do obedience there. On a sport field while a game is going on & balls are flying every which way. I go to boat docks, buss depots, fire stations, train stations, parades. I have several friends that have horse farms & chickens & ducks etc. They go there & learn that they can't chase the animals & still have to do obedience around them. No corrections needed, just a phoey & obedience. Anyplace you can possibly think of going. That way the dogs just learn that no matter whats around them it is no big deal they still have to listen. It just takes time & effort, but they figure it out.

I do that with behaviors that he knows like stay, but I admit I avoid it with the leash because HE'S SO LAME still!! I just started over again last week with the leash work. I was doing correction training with that, but have switched to marker and am starting from the beginning. So I know he's not ready to practice that anywhere but my neighborhood so far. But I know for sure, that if I would have put him on a down stay on that boardwalk in Cambria, he would have stayed. He would have been looking around while staying, but he would stay!

Lori, incorporate the leash work at home. Get him used to doing the ob with the leash on, inside, outside, around the neighborhood. Don't avoid it, all the more reason to do just that, work him in the leash ONLY. In fact, I'd make a big point of putting it on right after I asked him if her was ready (to train) at the begining of the marker training session. That way the point is made in his mind that the training includes the leash & it gives the leash a positive rather then negative attitude toward it with regard to training & listening. If I had a dog that didn't want to listen or thought that the rules changed with a leash on I'd only do training with it on. Keep after him, be persistant. You will get thru to him.

Each dog has their own 'little thing' that makes us have to think outside the box at times. It is better to out smart them then to have to correct them, if you can find a way to do that. Keep up the good work.

Anne, I never thought of that. I have been doing heel training with no leash! A lot of marker trainers work with no leash - even in the Michael Ellis DVD - so I didn't think about it the way you described. You think it would be ok to put the leash on and then just put it around my neck so I didn't have to carry it while training?

Excellent post Anne.
Lori, do you have a leash with a loop handle on the end? Most do, I think... could you just put the loop around one wrist - then you would sort of be "holding it", but you would still have free hands...

~Natalya

 Quote: Michel Karsouny

side note: i never had the opportunity to say this, but Kasey looks ADORABLE in this pic Lori! i always wanted to tell you but we re caught in sthg else

He does look a bit content, doesn't he? Goldens are beautiful.

 Quote: Lori Hall

HE'S SO LAME still!!

Lori, is this part of your post refering to the injury he had a little while ago?

Is it still bothering him?

I took it that she was referring to his being 'lame' in the sense that he is still behaving like a jerk or knucklehead when on leash. But maybe I'm wrong.

That's the way i took it at first too,
but then i remembered this post
http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/267933/page/0/fpart/1

and just wanted to make sure that she wasn't refering to that when she said he's still so lame.