Afraid of Training?

[Nickyb]

Try to do basic trick's while playing with your boy. Example, Zoey LOVESSSS tennis balls, and every morning and 3-4 times after work, we play out back and I throw the ball back and forth. In between throwing back and forth, Ill have her do a few obedience tricks and then continue playing. Perhaps you could do this as well.... Toss the ball back and forth, grab the hoop and toss the ball through it? I don;t know how high his drive is but I'm assuming he loves tennis balls
Just a thought.
GL on your training and I hope your boy comes around.

[frillint1]

Man I wish he did love balls. No he doesn't have a toy or ball drive him favorite thing in the world is just going outside and walking. I wish wish wish he had a ball drive I love playing fetch with dogs

[frillint1]

I thought I would begin t teach chief to close cabinets as I was playing with Smokey doing it and he seemed so interested, so I blocked smokey from the kitchen and had some cubes of ham and had Chief sitting in front of the cabinet and all I was telling him to do was give me paw which he knows and my hand was in front of the cabinet any time he gave me paw I gave him treat anytime he touched the cabinet instead of my hand he got jackpot he was doing good and was excited and out of no where he cowered rolled on his back then. I wasn't getting frustrated he was geting it, s if anything I was super excited. It just doesn't make since. Tricks are not important, to me it just seems like he really wants to try them. I just cant understand why he gets nervous when hes actually getting it

[marshies]

Not an expert but maybe your dog is worried about extreme emotions either way? What about interacting calmly for a while?

[frillint1]

We had been I haven't tried new tricks or anything for like 2 months only playing. It just doesn't make since when he IS getting what I am trying to teach. Then he randomally just shuts down. He was abused before I got him. I have been trying to built his confidence. He seems like he has been getting more so with the toys, but as soon as I try to do obedience or teach something new he is okay for a minute, then as I said he will start to cower and just go lay down with his ears back.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Can't get frustrated or mad, instead you need to learn a new way to train.

Clicker training is perfect for you situation but you need to read up to understand it then teach your dog. Tons of teeny treats, your dog is always right. Perfect!

Intro to Clicker Training (perfect for puppies!)

How to Help Your Fearful Dog: Become the Crazy Dog Lady | Karen Pryor Clicker Training

Helping Shy Dogs Blossom Using Targeting | Karen Pryor Clicker Training

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AElT...e_gdata_player

[RowdyDogs]

If he's only comfortable being trained for a minute, then only train him for a minute.

Hear me out here. You describe the cabinet training session..."every time" he touched your hand he got a reward, and "every time" he touched the cabinet he got the jackpot. How many times did you ask him to do that? How long was this training session? Obviously it was too long for Chief.

What I would have done is only expect him to do a new behavior once, maybe twice at the very most depending on how quickly he got it. He does what you want, you give him the jackpot, you're done. Then you guys go do something else and in a few hours or the next day or whatever, you can come back and try it again. Do the exact same thing.

I have a dog who did the exact same thing. She was never abused, but she would just shut down and freak out if I focused on her too long...so I just didn't focus on her too long. I broke everything down into the tiniest steps that she could get right away, then quit as soon as we got one good response. Eventually we were able to train for longer duration, but even so I have to keep it very short.

Really, though, for trick and obedience training, I don't like to train for more than 5 minutes at a time with any dog. Very short but relatively frequent training sessions tend to work better than longer ones.

[frillint1]

When I first got him I started clicker training him. I just found it difficult to always get the clicker when I wanted to train or be able to get the treats right after i clicked and I wasn't sure I was timing it right, so I quit with the clicker.

The cabinet thing we tried was probably 2 minutes at the most. I don't know how may times I had him do it, but it was only 2 minutes probably less before he freaked out. I want him to enjoy is at much as Smokey does.

[RowdyDogs]

That was kind of my point...you don't know how many times, and you should have quit after the first time he got it right. Or at least, that is what I would do. I meant for a dog who really likes training I would still keep it to about 5 minutes. For a dog who is scared, you might only be able to work for 30-60 seconds at a time at first.

He can probably learn to really enjoy this, but you're going to have to build up his confidence in baby steps. When you have a training session that ends in him cowering, he's not learning and he's obviously not having a good experience. If you keep it short enough that he doesn't have a chance to go over threshold, he'll be able to learn and he'll gain confidence and begin to think training is fun rather than scary.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by frillint1

When I first got him I started clicker training him. I just found it difficult to always get the clicker when I wanted to train or be able to get the treats right after i clicked and I wasn't sure I was timing it right, so I quit with the clicker.

I tend to decide to learn a new trading method if I know it will help my dog. Just read up and watch the videos and you will be able to clicker train, for your dog.

If you are late or early with the click, that's part of the genius of the method! If I click early, the dog gets a treat. If I click late, the dog gets a treat. So my dog keeps thinking they are brilliant and keep trying, and I just think that was/early/late and work on my timing. As long as my pup is still there trying to earn the treats then its all good.


If you have the treats right there, and the dog right there, then you will get the treat to your dog in time. That's why the clicker works actually. All the clicker is is a 'marker' that actually is a bridge between the behavior YOU want (a sit?) And the reward the dog wants/earned (cheese?). Initially to help the dog learn the method the time between the click/treat should be fairly quick so the dog learns to link the sound to their behavior and the reward. But later when training progresses the time can increase for all of us and the dog still understands and learns.

:-)