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Scout's Eval and training

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  performanceknls 
#1 · (Edited)
I have this Boot Camp dog named Scout who came to me because he is super reactive with other dogs and they are having a hard time controlling him. I did an Evaluation on him after he had been with me for a week and you can see where he starts to have issues. I let him pull and just observed what he would dog in a park with lots of other dogs. I used good treats then tried to get some focus and you can see I started the Zen Game for treats to see how he responded. After he got board with me you can see not even hot dogs could break his attention from the other dogs. You can also see how to make a correction with a leash. I promised I would upload some video so here is Scout.



Next after some training he started working for his food and the results are coming along. This is something you can start with your dogs and it only takes a few minutes at meal time. He is working for his breakfast.



I will post more videos as he progresses.
 
#3 ·
Scout reminds me of my Labrador who is a big buthead and high strung.LOL I just now have mastered the stay and wait for his food with him. Should be starting some OB classes at a local trainer so I can actually physical do the OB myself and then going for in house training probably this summer for field/retriever training since the only hunting trainer is about 2 hours away. Always like watching training exercises :)
 
#4 ·
Very nice! I always wanted to watch field training it fascinates me! Scout is a Hound Rottie mix, he is so hound in the face his expressions are funny! lol Sometime in the next few months I'm going to mentor a detection dog class and I'm super excited!! I've been wanting to get into scent work after working my dogs in Nosework. I think I might train Barca and Venom to do cadaver work. I can't wait!!
 
#5 ·
One of Bouncer's son's was trained for narcotics his owner was a deputy sheriff unfortunately he went through a bad divorce and sent him back to the bitches owner and later died on his yard due to insufficient care. I thought about trying to find someone who can help me train one of Akiliya and Bouncer pups for nose work. i have alot of plans for those pups though I'm tired of setting on the sidelines because hubby is an a-hole.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Here is Scout after a week of working on not paying attention to distractions. He is getting much better. For him I used an E collar to help with the staring at other dogs. In this video he got nicked only once. The rest of the time he avoided the action and exactly what I want. It was on very low set to 20 and I only had to get him when she was running after the decoy. We used heavy distraction with him being in the middle of a training session with another dog. The reason for going to the E collar is the prong wasn't very effective in breaking the attention on other dogs and he is a little sensitive to the prong. The idea in making a correction is to stop the behavior not squish the dogs spirit. That is why when he gets a little unsure I am right there with praise. Now this session is stressful for him but that is what he needs to learn is to work through stress and distraction. He is having a hard time turning his back to the action and I would like him to feel comfortable having his back to other dogs. It's a work in progress but much better than the first tape I posted of him.

 
#8 ·
I wish I payed more attention to your training style when I first started working with my boy instead of all the trainers who convinced me positive training only was the way to go. I am convinced if I started implementing some of these great suggestions earlier I would not need as much work as I did to get Mel to listen and not react towards other dogs. Scout looks really good. Amazing the change in such a short time. How long do dogs typically stay at your boot camp? or does it depend on the dog?

I do find I feel we are at a wall right now. Not sure of ts related to all people and animals hibernating this winter, we have not seen ANY distractions for about 2 weeks now. We went on a structured walk this weekend without about 12 bulldogs and he was really good, but his leash pulling was not the way it was a few weeks ago when there were more distractions and more training opportunities. Do you find dogs regress more when there are fewer training opportunities or could he be desensitized and should I look to go to a smaller prong to make it more corrective?
 
#9 ·
I wish you were closer I would love to help. Thats what I don't like about those trainers who never correct a dog. They learn they can get away without paying attention and that is a hard habit to break. I start motivational and teach what I want so the dog is happy to comply but there comes a point where you have to phase out the treats and reward not lure. That phase does require correction but once they know they have to do the command and if they do it they still get rewarded then it all comes together. Most of my dogs keep up with the training with very little reminds but that's because I'm consistent and never let them ignore me when I give a command.

Dog normally stay about 2-3 weeks for bootcamp. I have this guy that is on his last week unless his owners want to pay for another week. After him I have a Rottie girl coming to stay with me for 2 weeks. She is much worse than this dog. This dog is just reactive and prey driven. He is part hound and that is to blame! lol The Rottie is truly DA and boy will she get a shock coming to live with 15 other dogs! But that's the beauty of having them come stay with me, they work on DA the second they get here. Dogs board for about 5 days with no work other than any fence fighting out in the kennels. I let them settle in for a few days before going to work.
 
#10 ·
me too! I would love to get your take on him. Very cool that you look at each dog different, like they should be, and adjust as you go. Mel would benefit for sure. Oh well!

One thing I do not allow is him to not do what I am asking. We may sit there for what feels like forEVER but I do not allow him to not do what I ask. He tries to play it off at times like he didn't hear me, but I don't move on unless he does what I said. How do I make him do it FASTER? Or like instantaneously?? Which is why your comment on the initial style being tried for too long create a dog who can wait me out, HOW do I break that?

On that note, How do I re-train wait, ie DON'T YOU MOVE ONE INCH, which I accidentally turned into stay and hang in the general area you are in until I say so... I kinda screwed that up. I know I should pick a new word, but how to actual enforce it right then to not move. on MY time not his.
 
#12 ·
Sounds like you are giving him too long to react to a command and also have created a lot of conflict. I would go back to making training fun for him. Go back to lots of treats for a few days and he will be fast on his actions. Then you can put the treats in your pocket and reward but only after he does what you want and with some speed. So say down and if he doesn't react within 1.5 seconds you need to enforce it with a pop. and soon as he drops ton of praise and food.
For the stay problem I would pick a new word like freeze, I always thought that was cute... And start over. It also sounds like you are asking him to stay too long without properly building up to longer periods of time. I'm going to be doing some more videos here soon and will do a few on Stay since I have a new boot camp dog coming this weekend.

I can see why you had trouble with a prong on that dog! He is uber soft and very nervous. He doesn't look like he knows what is expected of him yet or how to shut off the pressure. Looking forward to his progress in the next vid!
The big problem with this dog is previous training. The owners over used the prong collar and the E collar and created some of these issues you see when he is on the prong. The problem is the martingale doesn't work well and the prong's a bit much even on a dead ring. I think today I'm going to play around with a few more collars and I might try a prong collar that has rubber tips. I HATE rubber tips in most cases since it makes the collar useless for most dogs but in a case like this it might be the right solution. I need to find something that the owners will have luck using without over using a collar, make sense? Some people think the only solution is to put a prong on and make a dog listen and cower... Not how I like to train! Also when an E collar isn't used correctly you get a lot of these problems where they were just shocked to hell and now have a huge overreaction to the collar. This is why I hate when someone brings up using an E collar on GP because they are not used correctly and not something you give a novice person to use. Anyway.... You can see what problems can happen with the incorrect use of training equipment.
 
#16 ·
The big problem with this dog is previous training. The owners over used the prong collar and the E collar and created some of these issues you see when he is on the prong. The problem is the martingale doesn't work well and the prong's a bit much even on a dead ring. I think today I'm going to play around with a few more collars and I might try a prong collar that has rubber tips. I HATE rubber tips in most cases since it makes the collar useless for most dogs but in a case like this it might be the right solution. I need to find something that the owners will have luck using without over using a collar, make sense? Some people think the only solution is to put a prong on and make a dog listen and cower... Not how I like to train! Also when an E collar isn't used correctly you get a lot of these problems where they were just shocked to hell and now have a huge overreaction to the collar. This is why I hate when someone brings up using an E collar on GP because they are not used correctly and not something you give a novice person to use. Anyway.... You can see what problems can happen with the incorrect use of training equipment.
Oh, I agree. You can see in the dogs body language his confusion and fear/nervousness. I know how easily this is brought on by the mis use of training gear, and one of the reasons I cringe when I hear people advocating slapping prongs or e collars on dogs when they know nothing of how to use them properly. They are training TOOLS, they are not a cure all and they are not a replacement for training. I look forward to seeing his progress with you!
 
#17 ·
Coming along! He did great today with our last Boot Camp training session. He has the basics so tomorrow we will see if his owners can take over or they want him to do more. If they want more he will stay a week or two more.

Working the Down without a lure, he did not want to down without food. It was a rough couple days for him to understand down means down even with no lure.
Scout Obed - YouTube

Then we move on to stays with a little food distraction. He has a long way to go for a solid stay with lots of distraction but again he has the foundation in place now.
This is for you Ames ;)
Scout Stay - YouTube
 
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