LOL!



It all depends on the dog. Some need to be not-too-hungry so they don't flip out at the bait bag, but yes, some definitely need to have food-reward-training sessions before and not after meals.

I haven't been posting daily, as we've been doing the same stuff everyday. There's some older stuff that was losing it's polish, and some new things that I want to reinforce well before moving on.

Dumbbell work is progressing nicely. Her retrieve is solid and she has pretty good form. We've been doing numerous reps, especially of the holding behavior, to get it rock solid. I'm trying to get my timing better so that I'm not marking when she's crooked or mouthing, or dropping before the out. Once in about every five reps, I have to coax her a little tighter. We'll keep working on it until it is polished.

I didn't lay a very good foundation for her "stand", so we are working on polishing our sit/down/stands, and adding distance. I also use that exercise to add distraction to her long downs(mostly me acting like a chimp and walking around and over her). We've also been working quite a bit on heeling and stopping position, entering the "fuss", finding the heel, backing, and pivots.


We are tracking several days a week again, but we have settled on an approach and are working steadily and slowly. It basically resumes where I left off before reading Patterson's book, but there is also some remedial work going on. I've backed up a little bit to add back in the articles and some other problems that I quit working on. I met a superior tracker that trains pretty much the same way we started out, and that's the road I want to take.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

LOL!



It all depends on the dog. Some need to be not-too-hungry so they don't flip out at the bait bag, but yes, some definitely need to have food-reward-training sessions before and not after meals.

I have both in the same dog. Manipulating food intake and drive is a normal ordeal for us.

 Quote: Duane Hull

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

LOL!



It all depends on the dog. Some need to be not-too-hungry so they don't flip out at the bait bag, but yes, some definitely need to have food-reward-training sessions before and not after meals.

I have both in the same dog. Manipulating food intake and drive is a normal ordeal for us.

Same here, it never used to bother her at all and sometimes still doesn't but if I want a guarantee, no breakfast and come that afternoon she's busting to work and get her reward!

Hey Brad;

One thing I do to help control intake and maintain a consistent level of drive:
the training treats I use are a whole meat dog food product, which are very valuable to my dog. Because the food is nutritionally formulated and because I use a significant amount of it, I subtract it from her normal food intake. When we are tracking or finishing/prepping, half of her meals come from training treats, so I reduce her meals by half (half a cup twice a day instead of a full cup twice a day).

Even with these reductioins and deductions, she still will skip a meal from time to time. She acts like a starving child and is a chowhound, but she only consumes about half the food that most resources recommend for a mature GSD.

Another thing is, and you might see this with your dog, even when she skips a meal on her own, she still works for any kind of treat (just not as hard as when she's really hungry).