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Originally Posted by mamamia1  I keep her on leash for training, but I really do think it's important for her to have some really good "DOG TIME" off leash.
I'm glad to hear this is normal behaviour for her age. I'll keep working on it. THANKS! :) |
I assume you have her off leash in an area where you can guarantee her safety, right?
As for picking up everything, we do our off leash work in a fenced, wooded area where our goats and cow browse - so there are all sort of tasty animal poop temptations just begging to be sampled. We also have open coal seams and apparently that stuff is fun to crunch and chew on.
We find that keeping a pocketful of dog food kibble and doing recalls as soon as someone gets focused on a prohibited taste treat has been a big help. I'm not sure dog food is actually tastier than cow pie, but getting a little treat right from the owner's hand is a big deal.
We also train that certain super tempting areas are just totally off limits - so no climbing on or digging in the compost heap looking for treasure.
It doesn't totally stop all sampling, but it does stop treating the area as one big buffet. Gradually our guys get the message that keeping one eye on the people, following, and racing for a recall is more rewarding than hoovering around the woods.
It does mean that our free play sessions actually do have a steady background of gentle training going on the whole time, but with it being paced differently than focused training time I think our guys do find it as fun as free play. Possibly even more so because they keep getting those tidbits of human attention or treats thrown in so that we all interact as a relaxed team when we are in the big yard.
Lynda