met the class tonight

[debbiej]

the new session of obedience is not as big, and has more big dogs, with more issues. I am more comfortable with this class, they seem a little more aware of their dogs. there are some small dogs, but at least there aren't any young children in the class. Boris took quite a while to calm down, he did ok after a while, but never really gave me full attention for more than a moment. Am I expecting too much in expecting him to pay full attention to me in a class?

Also he lunged at a dog, I collar corrected him, and grabbed his loose neck skin, and was giving him a verbal correction. the instructor yelled across the field, "Debbie, don't clench your teeth". ????

the class is held in a field across from a school. While I corrected him, a loud speaker boomed out "HIT EM". really startled me, but I found out it was the custodian at the school using the intercom to tell the others to lock up and turn out the lights.

[flyballmom]

Sounds like a good group Debbie. Your comfort level with them will be helpful. HA! I would have jumped out of my skin if I'd been near that loudspeaker!!

[debbiej]

I hate it when I think about what I wrote, and realize how ridiculous something sounds. Boris has not been in classes consistantly enough to settle and pay attention to me, nor have I worked with him correctly or consistantly enough to have trained him to keep his attention on me when there are distractions.

so I think my question is what are good ways to train a dog to pay better attention?

[miccmill]

The first class we went back to after Hannahs surgery went like that.

The instructors had me interrupt her with little tugs on the leash, bending over, calling and/or waving a treat past her nose. This is just interrupting her for thinking about looking or wandering. If she was actually doing it, I would shorten the leash and walk us both around in a circle ending up where we were with her sitting on my left. I had to do this once or twice too.

She's soft so they had me use soft corrections or interruptions to get her attention back on me. Not that she has to look at only me for 45 minutes but you can tell when they're just looking around the room or looking for trouble.

It was still 2 classes before she would offer this instead of me having to remind her a lot. By the last class of the session it was very noticable that she ignored lots of tempting distractions so she did "get" what I wanted her to do.

Boris, being of proper temperment, probably needs a little more inducement but your trainer knows him and if she uses interruptions can tell you how.

[debbiej]

here's how it goes. we get there and he is just beside himself with excitement. other dogs are coming in on lead, he is looking wildly from dog to dog. I am walking him around at a distance from the other dogs, but in the training field, letting him smell, potty if needed (not mark) hoping to give him a minute to calm down. then we start heel two steps sit, heel two steps sit. then more steps and a left turn, then more heeling and about turns. we do this a while, and I'm trying to limit the collar corrections and use calm praise, until he is focusing on me. at this point he still is very very easily distracted, even though we are quite a distance from the other dogs. the class is supposed to down their dogs and sit in the grass with them a while as the instructor speaks to us. I make Boris down, but don't sit down with him. I ususally wait until the group is sitting on the grass to join them. He is pretty good then. when the class gets up to start the exercises, he gets all excited again. even though he is walking along in heeling position, turning with me, sitting when we stop, he is constantly looking at all the other dogs, over his shoulder, left and right. when he gets too stirred up I distance us a bit from the group and regain his attention. I've tried treats, pops, praise. If I make him sit, stop and look at me, I have his attention for just a moment. getting his attention while working in a group of dogs feels like trying to read road signs in a car going 100 mph. the instructor has no suggestions other than to get in with the group and work, which is good advice.

I think I need to try to get him out everyday, so he isn't so excited by new situations. treats don't interest him enough to keep his attention in a class situation. I am working on some exercises I read about, but it is hard to visualize things like that.
I admire the control and attention that the other trainer we used to go to has with her dogs, but don't like some of her methods. He is vastly improved from the first class we tried to attend, but still just way overstimulated and distracted. At this point, I just want his attention, I think that would solve so many problems!

[spidey]

You're right, you need to get him into all kinds of situations and work on attention, and do it regularly (there seems to be a "magic number" of repetitions, where all of a sudden the dog "gets it" - dogs don't generalize well, so you need lots of repetition in lots of environments before they really understand). Remember to reduce your criteria - what you expect at home should not be what you expect when there are distractions, at first. For example, my dog will give as much eye contact as I ask for at home and with no distractions, all for a very tiny reward (he seeks, offers and maintains soft eye contact of his own accord). When we first started working on attention out in the "real world", all I expected at first was a glance at me in order to get a pretty big reward (of something really high value, like cheese or roast chicken), and gradually increased the criteria (don't get greedy! In my opinion the more gradually you go at first, the better your end result will be). But when we're in a new or especially distracting situation (like the first night at class, for example), I start very low on the criteria scale for a few repetitions, and work my way up again - this gets quicker each time, and I will also move my dog away from the group to get his attention back on me if I need to.