Hi,

I have a question for Ed, and some other trainers. I have a 2 yr old male Shepherd. He is great in every respect. I have trained him with the help of my friend, who is 2 time National USPCA Champion. He is been obedience trained up to off lead. Which by the way he does well in. Over the last 3-4 months, I have not had time to train him, due to my wedding, and buying new house. Well i wanted to polish him up a little. I began going back to the basic's and he has responded well. I wanted to make it more fun for him, so I purchased a kong which is used only during training. Problem is, he is so toy driven, he becomes so fixated on the kong, which I hold in my pocket while training. Although he performs well, he becomes sloppy, because of his intensity on the toy. After 5 minutes or so of training, i give him a break, and give him the kong to play with. Should I not train with kong in pocket?? Only give it him once or twice during session? I want him to have the type of toy fixation, on me , not on toy. Any tips would be appreciated.

Mike

A good way to get that focus would be to take the kong, not during Ob. then hold it in your hand and stand still. He might try to get at it, but prevent this by giving him a little correction with the prong collar. Ideally he will sit, but it is not a big deal if he doesn't. He will at some point look at you, and when he does, give him the toy, realease him. Over time it wil not take him long to figure out that he has to look and focus on you to get the kong and he will then drive you to get it. This works alot but depends on your timing.
Another way is put the toy under your left arm-over time he will develop the habit of looking up at you-you can hide the kong under your pit. After time goes by you can put the kong back in your pocket if you choose, and when he loks around to your right pocket, give him a little correction and make him look up at you then realese him and give him the toy.
THere are other ways, but I hope this will help you.

Without seeing the dog I cannot tell if this is the case but if a dog has too much ball drive that it becomes too much of a distraction then the ball cannot be used when control is desired. In this case food can be used. The ball can still be used in exercises like the recall where speed is desired.