Hi Hillery,

I am feeling much more confident about where I am at with Tasha and our training after reading everyone's reponses. I am so very grateful for the reassurance. "Fuss" is a great option for focused heeling and I intend to use it when we get to that point in our training. For now I am sticking with the commands that I already have in place for her. I will name new commands as I go forward.

Since I have never been in the competition ring I get paranoid that I will use a command word or a hand signal that will cause me to loose points with the judge, but I have to put that aside and just focus on working with Tasha the best I can.

For us (my husband and me) the boarded training was a good experience and probably necessary. We were fortunate to have a great facility available to us when were on a project assignment in Columbus, OH. In fact the facility we used has a very active School for Trainers so it was not just your average corner store front dog training center. It was what I would think is one of the best training facilities availalbe with a great staff of people. In retrospect however I wish I would have understood the importance of establishing a solid Pack Structure. While our trainer did an outstanding job of training the obedience macanhics we completely missed establishing the pack rank fundamentals. We are working now to make sure that the pack structure is solid. My husband and adult daughter who lives with us due to a medical condition are "softies" so I am all over them like monkeys on cupcakes to make sure they understand that the best way to love this dog is to be consistant and to provide solid firm and fair leadership. I am definately the alpha but Tasha is always jocking for control of Rick and Kelly...and always in very subtle cunning ways!

The first part of the boarded training prgram was two weeks for on-leash obedience with a prong collar. She learned sit, down, heel (not focused heeling) and come when called, all with automatic stays built into the commands. After the training we went once a week to meet with the trainer to refine the commands and our handling skills for three to four weeks along with group classes once every two weeks.

Six weeks later she was boarded again for 2 weeks for off-leash training with a remote e-collar. At this training she learned the sit in motion, down in motion, heel from down, and sit and "place" command. Again we met with the trainer once a week for refinment of commands and skills after the program and attended group classes.

She took the CGC test and passed it at 5 1/2 months but I am going to have her repeat it before we go to our first competition.

In general it was a great program and we did benefit from it. Unfortunatly I missed out on a couple of very important training areas. That being, building focus (I did not learn to "mark" behaviors or build her focus on me when she was a puppy) and learning to build drive. But perhaps the thing I regret the most is that I did not understand how important building pack structure is. We picked Tasha up at the airport when she was shipped to us and immediately showered her with toys, love and lots of praise and affection. If our trainer had only conveyed to us the importance of pack structure, drive and focus I would not have to go backwards in order to go forward now. Don't get me wrong dispite my ignorance Tasha has been a great dog. In fact she is awesome, but of course I am biased. She is resiliant and loves to work with me. I just wish I would have known these things first so that she would have been in a better, more rewarding relationship with me from the beginning.

Hopefully that gives you a snapshot of my experience. I would say this, boarded training may have its place if it is a reputable facility. However I now believe that the best results would be acheived by personal training under the mentorship of a qualified trainer and only after the handler has a thorough understanding of pack structure and how to develop a focused relationship with the dog.

Quote;
"Since I have never been in the competition ring I get paranoid that I will use a command word or a hand signal that will cause me to loose points with the judge, but I have to put that aside and just focus on working with Tasha the best I can."

Contact the local training clubs. They can put you on to any obedience fun matches. No points and some allow mild corrections in the ring in order to keep the dog from becoming ring wise.
Obedience competition is all about making mistakes. That's what most of us do best. It's character building!

 Quote: debby meder

I would say this, boarded training may have its place if it is a reputable facility. However I now believe that the best results would be acheived by personal training under the mentorship of a qualified trainer and only after the handler has a thorough understanding of pack structure and how to develop a focused relationship with the dog.

I think this is almost always the case, since doing it yourself teaches you every step of the process. Easier to go back and fix something if you know the specific details of how it was taught in the first place. However, it also sounds like you did all your follow up classes, something many owners don't bother with, so you are ahead of the game anyway.

I'll second what everyone said about just using another command. Also, realize that Malinois are smart, and any smart dog can figure out situational commands. I got a kick out of the look on the AKC obedience judges faces when I was trialing Cali, my older Malinois. When she's at a distance facing me, her recall to front command is "aux pied" (French for at my feet). When she's sitting in front of me, her finish (go to heel) command is "aux pied". And when she's next to me her focused heeling command is "aux pied". :-) She also understands "devant", which is a "come to front" command in case she's in heel and I need her to come to front, or she's off to one side and I want her to come to front instead of heel, etc. I still think it's better to label each similar, but different, behavior with a separate name, but don't worry about what you have already taught her, you can easily teach her more advanced behaviors by either adding new criteria to the existing commands, or just teaching a new name for a new behavior.

Didn't read through the whole post, but if you wanted to train a focused heel, but she already knows the command heel for something different you can use the german word Fuss. and just introduce it as a totally new command. Instead of trying to "fix" all the old commands, you could really just switch the language and start from ground zero as if she was just a puppy again =)

ETA: Ahh I see it was already mentioned...thats what I get for getting ahead of myself. Not going to lie, I am a little, ok maybe a lot, excited I came up with an alternative that other members more experienced than I also suggested. Maybe I am learning something =)