| Maybe you are expecting to much to fast. However, I will give you some general rules that I go by on corrections and praise. I work on attention exercises without commands. Because when I give a command the dog must preform the exercise, or he will recieve a correction. Now if he does the exercise he gets a reward. Rottie loves praise, and handlers don't give enough praise. Break the exercise down into it's smallest parts so that it is easy for the dog to do it right, then PRAISE. Go and play as many attention games as posible, and work on attention without giving commands. It takes time to build that attention we seek in the obedience ring.
I am one of the first to say there is a place for corrections. But you must be fair with your dog. You must give him time and many hours of training to build that attention span. I would never expect a dog to give me constant attention for 5 minutes in less than a year of working on attention under distractions.
Congratulations on the CGC |