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Linda:
Wow! thanks for all the GREAT advise. I
printed it out so we will have it handy. I tried the computer desk treat
thing. It took a couple of times then he seems to be figuring it out. I am
doing it about an hour before dinner, so I know he will do anything for the
blueberries I have as treats for him. I will keep all of the other things
on the desk to show my husband and let him pick out his favorite to work with
him with.
In reference to which part he has trouble with, it
is the fourth...bringing it all the way back to you without
dropping.
He should get lots of exercise, he is running after
Sasha from about 6:30am till about 9:00pm!! Poor Sasha, she better get her
golden halo for all of her putting up with Hunter and the kids!! More
patience than I have!! When he is really tired, his behavior gets worse,
he chews, cries and will not listen to anything anyone says, can't say as I
blame him, I act the same way. Besides the chewing thing!
Hunter is being a very great puppy. Much
better than I had expected. Not much digging, as long as he has several
sticks at his disposal, he leaves my plants alone, the picnic table thing is no
big deal, all three dogs and the two kids have teethed on the thing it seems
kind of like a signature book to us!! He is playing with our friends 20
week old yellow lab, they really have a blast!! Chewing on each others neck till
they are ringing wet. He is not as dominant as he has been, he will not
jump on children or chew on them at all anymore, he tries to get away with it
when new adults come around. He is getting better about not stealing food,
but Sasha has learned that trick from him and steals constantly!! Oh
well!!
Yes, there are days, when he gets put in his crate,
but not hardly at all, he is such a sweet guy, he very rarely does anything
wrong, always wagging his tail, ready to give kisses anytime and really becoming
buddy to all of us. Would not trade him for the world!! Very much a
lover boy!! He still thinks he can sit on my lap while I work on the computer or
put on my makeup!! I don't think he realizes that he has tripled in size since
we brought him home! km.n (message from Hunter can anyone
translate?)<smile>
Thanks Linda again!!! It will be put to good
use!
Carol
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 4:46
PM
Subject: Re: Growing Pups
At 10:17 PM 7/24/00 -0700, Carol Jackson wrote:
One question though??
Is it to early to get him to retrieve?? He will chase it sometimes, but will
get almost to you and run the other way
I've been super
busy the last two weeks and just now have time
to answer your post.
Maybe others have posted privately. But
anyway, I'll take a shot at
answering.....
It's never too early to play retrieving games!
<s> But they should
remain just that....fun and games...at
this age. What you want
most when working with puppies is a happy
attitude. It sounds
like from your last paragraph that you already
practice this principle.
Good work, Carol! :-)
At this age, they
really don't have that much focus. We tell our puppy
classes not to
train more than one minute for each month of their puppies'
lives at one
session. It's better to have two or three of these 'short'
sessions
throughout the day, than one longer one where the puppy
tires and becomes
frustrated. You score an A on this too!
You want your puppies to
grow up associating good things with you
and training. Keep it fun,
keep it light, keep it interesting. Don't
expect a lot until you see
the puppy understands exactly what you
are asking and can consistently
deliver it. Hunter's still too puppyish
to do this
yet.
Now....that said.....our Angel, as a pup, was very much like you
describe
your puppy boy. If we called "come", she would look us
directly in the
eyes and run as fast as she could the other way.
Forget about retrieving!
<vbg> She loved to chase and snag the
toy/ball, but then would run off
with it.
Angel just turned 17
months and I think we may *finally* have her trained
to retrieve to
hand. This was a really important skill for her to have because
we do
obedience, field and tracking training, all of which require picking
something up and bringing it back to hand.
More than formal
training, we've had lots of games we play around the
house.
Sometimes, when I'm working at the computer, I will keep
tiny treats on the
desktop to reward Angel's retrieving when I
throw toys down the
hall.
When I first started this game, she would jump up on me to
fetch
her own treats off the top shelf of the computer <g> I
was firm that
she wasn't going to get them that way. Then she would
sit quietly
eyeballing me and the stack of treats. No go,
Angel! Go do your
fetch! Neither of us budged for a
while. Then she started bringing
back the toy. Now she will initiate
a game with me, by bringing a toy
because she understands what the rules
are.
We take short breaks and run like wild animals up and down the
house
and then throw toys and try to beat her to them, or run wildly back
the
other way. All of this is done with excitement and craziness and
Angel
thinks it's a big game. LIFE IS A GAME for Angel! That's
our mantra :-)
Iris is our A student because she's smart and has a
great work ethic.
I used to think Angel was missing a few cogs upstairs
because we
were used to Iris' ways. As it turns out, Angel is like
the super-gifted
student that goofs off in class, teases the teacher, never
seems to
be paying attention and then snags a 100% on the test. But you
have to capture her imagination first to really involve her in
training.
Two other things that you might try are throwing the item;
then
running backwards as they pick it up and start trying to decide
what to do with it. We learned this from someone else and it worked
in transitioning Angel to bring it to us instead of running off with
it.
Another possibility, which we have used with both our girls
when
they got to be teenagers and a bit more independent, was to
long
line them. Find about forty feet of rope in the hardware
section.
Put a swivel clip on one end that can attach to their
collar. Let
the rope lie on the ground as they run around. But
when you want
them to return to you, you slowly and gently tug the rope
toward
you until they are within reach. This is good for dogs that
don't
obey the "come" command also. Only takes about 3 days to
3
weeks of training like this and the dog begins to believe that it's
on a 40
foot line, even when it's off!
Another thought is to identify what part
of "retrieving" they need
help with and then work on
that....
First......going out after the toy and finding
it
Second.....picking it up in their mouth
Third.....keeping it in their
mouth while returning
Fourth....bringing it all the way back to you without
dropping
I have tried the treat
thing, but he just drops it and comes running for the treat, then there is
nothing that you can do to change his train of thought, he wants food and he
will not go after some stupid ball for nothing!!
Take
the food off your person and put it up somewhere where you can
go over and
reward him when he returns with the toy. This is a test of
wills
<s> He's trying to train you to reward him without his doing
any
work :-))) Our doggie mentor used to tease me
unmercifully that Iris
had me very well trained when I complained about
something Iris was
doing. Always look to see what you are doing to
reinforce behavior.
Then remove that action on your part or alter it.
In this case, it's to
get rid of the obvious food on your person that he
can beg for.
Food reward does not
work for him, because he is obsessed with it. He cannot manage to
think about food and anything else at the same time. I don't know what
to do?? We don't want to push him. So we only do it when he is
interested and not for very long, we try to stop before the game gets boring
to him.
A tired puppy is a good puppy is my
mantra. Does he get lots of free
exercise during the day? Does
he have other puppy playmates to wear
him down? Does his behavior
become worse when he's overtired or
overstimulated?
The other thing
I think Gina has mentioned also is that Hunter may be
a dominant
puppy. It takes a long time, a lot of patience, and consistent,
firm
behavioral reinforcement through puppyhood, but one day you will have
a
totally devoted, retrieving fool golden. Somehow, all the training comes
together as they mature, but when they're puppies, it sometimes feels
like
the training's for naught.
I wouldn't trade our Angel for
anything. She is a total kick in the
pants with her daredevil
attitude, confidence, and lively energy. The
benefits are really
paying off now of not pushing her too hard and
keeping training fun and her
attitude happy. She's bringing all this
enthusiasm and confidence to
the show ring and tracking...and she's
going to be a killer agility dog
<vbg>
But there were times during her puppy months when I
wanted to crate
her and throw away the key (don't worry, I didn't ;-)
after she chewed
the inside of Perry's car door, household rugs, stripped
out bushes
in the backyard, and more.
Been where you
are.... it does get better! As Angel continues to mature,
she's
gained more focus and desire to please. There's nothing you can
do to
hurry up nature; just try to enjoy the process <s> And hang in
there!
Linda
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Linda
Shipman
Juneau, Alaska
Linda.Shipman@chezor.alaska.com
http://www.chezor.alaska.com
U-CDX, UCI-Intl & CAN CH Goodtimes Flower
Power
Am-Can
CDX, Am-Can TD, CGC
"IRIS"
Mariner Aces High at Chezor,
CGC
"ANGEL"
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