Many heartfelt congratulations! The feeling that comes with results from the work can hardly be described. You have given your dog a whole new world with your efforts. I'm sure that you are so very proud of her--but also take time to applaud yourself. Well done. And the exciting path that you're now on...wide open.

Many heartfelt congratulations! The feeling that comes with results from the work can hardly be described. You have given your dog a whole new world with your efforts. I'm sure that you are so very proud of her--but also take time to applaud yourself. Well done. And the exciting path that you're now on...wide open.

Edited by Sharon DeGaramo (12/02/2011 08:03 PM)
Edit reason: Duplicate post.

Great. Nice to hear that it is starting to come together for you both. Keep it moving forward.....but don't start to rush or pressure her in any way or you may shut her down. Take it slow. It's all new to her.

Get her working well in a your home enviroment before you 'take on the road' so to speak & expect her to work (under distractions) in other enviroments.

Go from the backyard to the front yard to the sidewalk to in front of the neighbors to down the street a bit etc. etc.

Then when you think she is solidly engaged with you when playing tug in a few other areas, then start to slowly introduce more distractions over a period of time. If she keep focus on you & playing tug up it a notch to the next distraction level & then the next & the next. Just like training anything else. One step at a time.

If you think that she is really turned on to playing tug with you after a month or so you might take her to the club & see if she will play tug there with you for a couple of weeks & then eventually with the decoy. You want to start her in prey with the decoy & having fun. All the 'other stuff' type work, with the decoy,comes down the road later in training.

Since she is an adult dog that has had no bite training as a pup...you are still basically going to start her just like you would a pup. She may progress faster then a pup might in some areas. But you still start her that way.

HUGE milestone for Sadie!! Today she played tug with me at one of our tracking fields. This is the first time outside of our own yard, and she still hasn't tugged at the club.
We tugged for about 10 minutes, and she got more intense the longer we played. We did about five outs, also; some of them were reluctant, but she shows an understanding, so I'll take it. She wasn't ready to quit, but I left it with her circling me and snapping at the Orbee.

In retrospect, I made the mistake of thinking that the club was where I needed to get her to tug first (after home). Too many distractions. At the field, we were alone, and had just finished a nice track, so there were few distractions and she was nicely engaged. I now have a clearer idea of the direction I need to move.

So proud I could pop!

ETA; THANKS to Anne, Steve, Ana, and everyone else who helped to get me on the right track!

Edited by Duane Hull (01/20/2013 09:55 AM)
Edit reason: appreciation

Having patience & persistence has paid off for you both.

 Quote: Anne Jones

Having patience & persistence has paid off for you both.

I couldn't have said it better.

Tonight, Sadie played tug for the first time at our club. I tied her to a fence and got some engagement, the I backed off and produced her Orbee. When I approached, she was in drive and we had a good session of tug, while another dog worked OB 25 feet away. On top of that, she was more intense than ever before.

She is also starting to show more interest in the toys that I keep in the house.

Sometimes all it takes is the first step of them playing in one new place to snowball into being comfortable playing in other places.

Good work to both of you!

Anne (and everyone else);
I'm still concerned about something.

Even at home, she won't tug under heavy distraction. She will engage, because I can do OB even if she's distracted, but she'll ignore the tug during the same session. I can call her off of a rat or cat and do commands, but forget about the Orbee.
Last night at the club, I was able to put her in drive and tug while on the fence. She was highly engaged, as we had just done some OB and dumbbell work. Later, when things had quieted, again no interest with very little distraction. Then, when we got home, she was begging for engagement and tried to grab anything I picked up.

This is so different from the other dogs. The tug puts them in drive. She is basically deciding when we will tug, and I know that's not what I want. I'm guessing that you will tell me that's she just starting to come out of that repressed drive state, and that I should keep being patient and persistent, but I just wanted to check with you and all of the others here to see if there are any other suggestions or something that I'm missing. Will I always have to get super engagement for her to play? If so, this prey drive will still be useles for training because of the very low value.

Duane, you got me on this. I guess that I would say to keep going as you have been...since this IS a great improvement over what you had been seeing up until now. But I don't know. You certainly don't have anything to loose in doing so.

I've honestly have not had a dog that would not engage with me anywhere & play with a ball or tug. Even the fearful guy that I had was high drive & would play with me with a tug or ball no matter the distractions. But he just wanted to bite anyone if they came into his bubble & he was very serious about it.(He lives on a farm up north now)

All my dogs have had & do have orbie balls that they play with in the yard with & without me..but this does not decrease their drive for the ball when I pick it up one iota. Even as pups they were this way. Although the male I have now didn't develop CRAZY ball drive until he was about 8 months. Then it was thru the roof. (very slow to mature lines) I know that this is not always the norm..

So I am not much help on this. Maybe Bob, who has had vastly more experience with many, many dogs, then most of us here (I've had a number of dogs but only 4 GSD W/L dogs) will have some help to offer.

If you continue to use the same scenario as you did (ob, tieback etc) & see if each time you can get her to extend the time she is tugging. She may get more & more comfortable with it over time & offer you more each time.

Bottom line may just be that this dog just may not have the kind of play drive that you need to engage the way that you want her to be able to. Hard to tell.

You really don't know what went on in her life prior to your ownership as an older dog. Many things that happen, good & bad, as you know, to young dogs especially during the 8-12-16 week age can really form the rest of their lives. She most likely was never played with as a young dog & REALLY doesn't know HOW to really play. Any attempt she may have made as a pup to play, may have been squelched due to owner ignorance (thinking she was getting mean/aggressive) or just because she was an ignored/neglected dog. I don't know what went on. Just guessing. So it may take a lot of time & patience to draw her out to learn that play is ok & a fun activity with you.

Wish I could help more or wave a magic wand for you. I can understand your frustration in this. Hang in there.