Keira is our 11 month old GSD. She is pretty solid on sit, down and stay in my house and even in the yards. She wasn't so good with distractions going on. With the emergence of early spring here, we've been able to actually get outside to train at the park, in parking lots etc. these last few months.

I started working on sit, down, stay with her while my son played outside (shooting baskets or catching lacrosse balls against the house). These were obviously distractions (like i wanted), but they actually kicked in her prey drive and it was a disaster. She loves rolling, bouncing balls and goes after them. I figured I had overloaded her and stepped back. I had my son and daughter just be outside WITHOUT a ball, just talking and walking around. She soon got good with that going on. Cars don't seem to interfere with her focus in training. She's getting there with other people, bikes and the big noisy machines at parks. So I brought back the kids and balls - challenging again. What I also realized was challenging were squirrels and birds at parks -- and small dogs, big ones she has interest but can be redirected. Small ones she becomes intent on.

It seemed the prey drive was her biggest challenge in staying focused and very difficult to get her back on task. That is not to say she is perfect with "normal" distractions, but very workable and I can see her getting there. I started working on stay while I rolled a ball on the driveway from one hand to another, then rolling them a little further and now i can roll them almost across the driveway without her going after them. But she still watches them...sometimes very intently!!

Prey drive is good, but I want to be able to direct it and tell her when to act on it, like in fetch. Eventually, I want her to look at me and/or notice "prey" things but not go after them in training and eventually when a lacrosse ball goes flying by. I'm not sure how to get there though. I feel like it's almost impulse control training. And I have to admit, I feel "mean" taunting her with a rolling ball, but I want more a well mannered dog. Going in the wrong direction, have a better way???? Next step???

There is nothing mean about what you are doing. Just keep introducing the distractions at a level she can deal with, and very slowly increasing the difficulty for her.

Make sure you're rewarding her with high value treats for holding her positons when she doesn't go after the prey item (ball, whatever).

Also, remember to vary only one element at a time...when you increse the difficulty factor, decrease the length of the stay; when you increase your distance from her, decrease something else, etc.

Keep it up...great work!

leih

Thanks, Leih.

The high value treats are definitely there, but your point on vary only one element was a good one. I was keeping the time just increasing difficulty. I'll back up a bit. I have to keep reminding myself that there is no deadline to getting this accomplished. We have a lifetime together. Slow is fine!

Yesterday, I tried rolling the ball (slowly - fast still gets her acting like crazy puppy) and then waiting for her to look at me, marked that and rewarded her. Trying to get her to look at me.

Last night, we went out in the front yard and just played - bounce/jump/catch the ball (acrobat puppy). The only objective was to have fun and blow off some energy. I did wonder if this was confusing her. Sometimes I let you get the ball, sometimes I need you to leave it. But really, that's exactly what I want her to learn :-) So unless you feel otherwise, I will keep playing with the ball as well as training her to leave it - just at separate times.

 Quote: lisa harvey

Last night, we went out in the front yard and just played - bounce/jump/catch the ball (acrobat puppy). The only objective was to have fun and blow off some energy. I did wonder if this was confusing her. Sometimes I let you get the ball, sometimes I need you to leave it. But really, that's exactly what I want her to learn :-) So unless you feel otherwise, I will keep playing with the ball as well as training her to leave it - just at separate times.

Leih has far more experience that do I, so if she disagrees with this = listen to her! However, no, you are not confusing her by playing with the ball sometimes then telling her to leave it other times. We don't always get an icecream cone either, do we?

Think of all the sports dogs are trained in... Schutzhund, Mondioring... sometimes they get to bite, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get to run after the ball, sometimes they don't.

You may have found something which will aid in your training however, and that is to wear her out a little before training. She will have expended some of that energy and might be able to focus a bit more on you / your directions. Then as she "gets" the lesson more, you can begin training when she is a bit more energetic - almost like introducing another distraction.

Hang in there - it sounds like you are doing really well.

I agree absolutely with the above posts.

The one thing I found helped me with my higher drive Leonberger (Yes, I said Leonberger) is at first I would skip a meal. So if I knew I was going to train her and I knew there would be distraction, I wouldn't feed her dinner the night before. So you can imagine the next day when I get my turkey, bacon and cheese combo treats out, she was more than willing to ignore just about everything!

I don't have to do that anymore, she is just conditioned to be attentive. But when I started it out I did it about twice a week. But I will tell you, I have never gotten more done during a training session, as I have when I have a hungry dog.

Barbara, that is a great idea!!!

Niomi, there would be so much work involved in skipping a meal :-) She starts heading to the cabinet where the food is around 4! She eats around 5:30-6. She just stares at you like hello I'm sure those clocks are wrong; it's surely time to eat now! How about now? How about now? How about now? You get the picture. But you are only talking once or twice a week, so I'll keep it in mind :-)

And wouldn't you know it? Rain all day. So ideas on hold. Will work on extended stay at the door while kids go in and out. They keep you flexible :-)

 Quote: lisa harvey

And wouldn't you know it? Rain all day. So ideas on hold. Will work on extended stay at the door while kids go in and out. They keep you flexible :-)

You can do the distraction stuff indoors, too. Just roll the ball or bounce it on the floor.

Agree with Barb...no problem at all with playing fetch with her with balls (or any good fetch toy), and also using them as distractions. In fact, as your distraction training evolves and she gets better, you use the most distracting things you can find.

And, cues are your friend! "Get it!" "Leave it!" Etc.

leih

Leih, we did :-) (and we also worked on stay at the door while it is opened and closed).

Winter is just so long here. We realllllly wanted to go outside :-)