I have a 16mo gsd that i have been attending Sch with for the last couple of months, she is doing fairly well at the OB and is so far pretty consistant with the small tracks i have been doing for her but until last night i have not done any bite work with her, she shows very little intrest in playing with toys etc as she would rather human "rough housing" over uesing her mouth. The guys at training decided to put her on the back tie to see how her interest would be in the roll and she was more interested in saying hello or sniffing the ground, when i was finaly able to get her to take the roll in her mouth she would carry it around for a bit and i would take it off her with lost of praise. she was happy doing this and we did it a couple of times all very happy....then like a switch had been flicked she was no longer interested at all! total switch off, no longer interesting to her.
What her problem seems to be is that she has a VERY short attention span, what, if anything, can be done to work on her attention span? or is it just a "wait and let ger grow up" thing?
All tips welcome!

Don't tell me no-one has any ideas!
Come on! I know ya'll have it in you!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Julie,

Try working her in short (2-3 bites)sessions at home. Then as she learns the game, increase the number of bites and number of sessions. Using the Flinks style of keep away to increase the interest in the tug. This is a brand new game and it will take a few times for her to learn the rules.

Thanks for the advice....makes good sence.
Should i back tie her or leave her free?

Julie,

I would do a little of both. Start with the dog free. Then move to the back tie, and then trade off with it a bit.

I may be reading too much into a simple post, but it sounds to me like there's a lot more going on here than just a short attention span. She doesn't like to use her mouth and doesn't have much interest in toys - if the dog isn't showing much prey drive in her interactions with her own handler , it is unrealistic to expect that it will suddenly appear in bitework. When the helpers tried to interest her in the roll, she was "more interested in saying hello or sniffing the ground". The first behavior is submission to the helpers, the second is displacement (avoidance) behavior. So we may have a dog with low prey drive, low confidence and little exposure to playing with toys, balls, rags, etc.
Before I would do bitework with this dog, I would work on raising her interest in toys at home. I would vary the types of toys to generalize the behavior to all prey items. Keep play sessions extremely short, always stopping when she is the MOST interested, by stealing the toy and making it "disappear". Then leave her alone - either put her up or go in the house. When you get her out, intense but short play sessions, when you see her interest aroused, steal it, and you're gone. By leaving each play session when her motivation is at its highest (even if it is only a small improvement), you leave her with a good association/feeling for the play, and the next time you bring the toy out again, she will be slightly more excited. You can build this up, but the key is to stop when the dog's interest peaks and not a moment longer. It's very hard to make yourself stop when you see improvement; we all want to fo just a little further, but then we overdo it, the dog's motivation drops off, and we end up quitting on a low note instead of high.

The second issue is the confidence - make sure she is getting in amongst people at the club, ask others to rough house with her, play with her with any and all toys, have others take her for a walk without you and try to initiate play/roughhousing with her. She needs a certain measure of self-confidence before more formal bitework training should start, in my opinion.

There are many fun things to do with a dog besides SchH. Not every dog is cut for the work. OB and tracking are very fun and satisfying on there own.

As far as her confidence goes she has no fear is very outgoing and is very well socialised, any situation she is happy with. i have other dogs that have new place issues, new anything issues but this one is a cool as a cucumber.

As for pray drive im not sure that she has a low level as she will happily spend hours chasing bugs that fly around with the utmost dedication and intent and she also loves to stalk other dogs for the heck of it all the time never detering her deep stare at them. She has not had an "education" on toys so she has not learnt that they are for use with people and that it is a game, i think she sees things im my hands as mine and that trying to Get them from me is not the norm.