Quote: steve strom

Most everything you train, you break into separate parts Angela. If you want the dog to look at you, you teach that first before you add moving, and the last thing is distractions like other dogs or wildlife, etc..

Another thing to work on is making it clear to the dog when its done. A release. The dogs looks at you, you reward, release, start again.Dog walks without pulling, release to sniff around, start again. The nature of walks changes, its all about training for a while and for me, thats one dog at a time. I always had a three wheel stroller so I could take one of my kids too though.

With the kids in the room getting knocked over by the dogs, I look to do two things. The dogs get a place command out of the way and the kids are taught to give them some space. It sounds like you are pretty close to that with your relax.

Thx..So I just start with getting her to pay attention or watch - she is good for this in the house, and in the yard when I have a ball. She has to back up, lay down and watch before I will throw it for her - this is her reward for paying attention. We can definitely work on attention when walking, just won't likely get too far! The reason I press on with the walk is so she gets some exercise, but I'm thinking I need to find another way to exercise her and use walks as training time instead?

I do let both dogs in the house when the kids are here, they just have to relax upstairs while we play downstairs. They will lay at the top of the stairs together usually while we are down stairs. This is ok for me. I was just thinking of some suggestions I've seen where you are supposed to have the dog tied to you all day so it has to follow you around and learn to watch you that way. This wouldn't work for my daily schedule with five little kids running around me. Is it ok for the majority of the time I spend with the dogs to be on training/exercise time? When I think about it, they probably get about 3 hours of training/exercise time with me in the house and outside in the yard or walking, another 3 hours of time where they are to relax away from us in their place, then an hour or so of grooming and free time to play in the house before bed. Is this enough time spent with them? The rest of the day/night they are with each other either in the yard or in their sleeping area. I think I created Ghost's anxiety issues by letting her follow me everywhere when she was younger, and bringing her everywhere I went. Thought I was socializing her - and she is very good around other people and dogs, but very anxious when I leave her at home. At least when she is left with Pippi now she doesn't destroy the house or try to follow me. So I am not letting her follow me everywhere in the house anymore. Off topic again..sorry. Raising dogs to be good companion animals is much harder than I anticipated.

 Quote:

I have to walk them separately, as Pippi will bite Ghost out of frustration when I correct her after she loses it seeing, smelling or hearing another dog. The trainer I am working with has told me to just stop moving when we come across another dog and Pippi starts barking, and wait until she calms down before we move again.

Along the lines of what Aaron pointed out as unfair corrections is that your almost always going to be too late in a case like this, so even if your correcting for something she may know,once she's spun over something, she doesnt know it anymore. To me just waiting out these kind of things, reinforces them doing it. They go off, other dog goes away, they get to start walking again. You have to think ahead and manage with distance so that she can give you what your asking for and be rewarded for it. The more you put her in the position where she's going to act out, the less chance you have to show her what you want.

Maybe you need to stay 100 yds from other dogs in the beginning, whatever you need to allow her to work with you and not be concerned about the other dogs is where you need to start.

For me personnaly, I don't try to keep moving when I come accross other dogs. I have mine sit off to the side and I insist the other people keep moving. I just don't trust that others will control their dogs for me to take my attention away from what they're doing. But in the begining, distance is real important.

 Quote:

Thx..So I just start with getting her to pay attention or watch - she is good for this in the house, and in the yard when I have a ball. She has to back up, lay down and watch before I will throw it for her - this is her reward for paying attention. We can definitely work on attention when walking, just won't likely get too far! The reason I press on with the walk is so she gets some exercise, but I'm thinking I need to find another way to exercise her and use walks as training time instead?

Thats three separate things. She doesnt know she was rewarded for watch. I wouldnt bother tethering them. I'd probably end up with kids twisted up in the line and me tripping over everything. I would stick with the place command and teaching them to remain calm in the house. No other training besides manners indoors, everything else outside.

3hrs is a lot. Training is usually better broken into 5 or 10 minutes at a time, a few times a day. Look to create a routine and schedule with it that makes it predictable to them. It helps with teaching them when to relax and when to work/play. You have a little idea of how that works with your first dog having gone everywhere with you and now she doesnt. I think The best thing you can do for her is a strict routine she can depend on.

 Quote:

For example, both want my attention and try to push each other out of the way to greet me first.

You better put a stop to this. This is something that could escalate into a nasty fight.

Ok, so I need to work on rewarding for separate behaviours. In the 3 hrs of training, I was including our walk times and play time with each dog, so hour walk and 1/2 hour play 1 or 2 times a day per dog. It is just 3 hours for me Now that the -30 C weather is over here , I hope!, our routine is to do a play session outside in the morning at 10, after lunch at 1, walk at 5. Getting them to relax and stay at different places in the house for 10 minutes twice a day before we do the play times. Having them relax at the mat at the door for longer periods when the weather is really cold or muddy, or at night when they need to dry off before coming into the rest of the house. The generally will do a long stay at the door in the evening, I think because they are tired from their walk and have just eaten. Does this sound like an ok routine to start with? Will need to work out how to reward her for the back up/lay down/watch when we are playing. I really need to get some of these videos.

 Quote: steve strom

 Quote:

For example, both want my attention and try to push each other out of the way to greet me first.

You better put a stop to this. This is something that could escalate into a nasty fight.

How so I stop it? I've just been ignoring both of them until they settle. Or have them sit and then pet them one at a time.

Don't wait for them to settle. Make them settle right away. Then ignore them for a while.