| Re: Two Lives
Chasing a young dog who thinks they've found a new toy usually ends up being a lot of fun for the dog, and a training set back for the human.
Does your dog like peanut butter? I'd train her to learn that a tiny dab of peanut butter is a very special treat.
Then the next time she picks up something she's not supposed to have, instead of chasing I'd go get my jar of peanut butter, sit down, and talk quietly to the jar of peanut butter - not the dog. When the dog comes to investigate the strange goings on and good smell, I'd let her watch for a little while. When I was sure I had her full attention I'd give the "come" command, and then teach the command "give it" as a trade for a taste of peanut butter.
I'd also keep her crated during the times when I was too busy to keep one eye on her. That would give her far less opportunity to make mistakes, and ensure that when she did make mistakes I was prepared to turn the situation into a positive training situation.
I don't find yelling "no" to be very helpful in training dogs, and much prefer to keep them out of trouble situations through prevention and then set up some good trouble situations as training exercises. You should be getting a feel by now for when your dog is likely to break training or for which situations she has training gaps. If you know she loves a good game of chase (even when you don't) then don't give her that game and instead be prepared with a training exercise that gives her a really good reason to want to do something different.
We currently have one training gap that's a lot like what you are going through. Our 6 month old girl is learning how to behave around livestock, and she knows which particular young goat she can spook into a game of chase. But we know that she likes playing with a tennis ball even more than chasing - so we reserve tennis balls for training only. When we work around the animals, hubby and I each have a couple of tennis balls in our pocket so that we can be sure to get Georgia Rae's attention off chasing Molly the goat and onto something equally fun (carrying a tennis ball in her mouth as she follows us) - but where we're controlling the shots.
If instead we tried to chase Georgia Rae, shout, and pull on her collar - all that would happen is that she'd think it's chase time for everyone in the family, and it must be important to chase because of all the exciting noise and chaos.
Hope that helps.
Lynda  |