[KZoppa]

i'm not sure if this is the right place to post but i figure it will probably work since Shasta is 6 months old and being trained to do a new trick.

As the title says its 1:30 am, my kids and my husband who has to be awake at 5:30am are sleeping and what am i doing? I am teaching Shasta the "speak" command. i know. i know. its late, everyone is sleeping, i should wait until everyone is awake. i'm weird. When everyone is asleep its the best time for me to get anything done. So maybe Speak isnt the best thing to teach her this late at night but she got it down pretty quick! now we're working on other basic commands. I'm highly amused. I've never trained the speak command before but i did it!!! i'm not a total idiot!!! hehe. Love it. Very proud of our accomplishment. If i could just get her to focus without treats involved that would be awesome. Any tips?

 

[Whiteshepherds]

If i could just get her to focus without treats involved that would be awesome. Any tips?

If you mean she'll only do something if you're holding a treat in your hand start increasing the number of times she has to do something before she gets the treat. Instead of rewarding for each sit, make her sit and then stand before rewarding. Mix it up so she never knows when the treat is coming.

If you mean she's watching your hand with the treat instead of your face, put the treat in your mouth and spit it at her. This will make her focus on your face. (be careful if you use cheese, sometimes it sticks to your lip or chin when you spit it out...ask me how I know this. )

 

[KZoppa]

If you mean she'll only do something if you're holding a treat in your hand start increasing the number of times she has to do something before she gets the treat. Instead of rewarding for each sit, make her sit and then stand before rewarding. Mix it up so she never knows when the treat is coming.

If you mean she's watching your hand with the treat instead of your face, put the treat in your mouth and spit it at her. This will make her focus on your face. (be careful if you use cheese, sometimes it sticks to your lip or chin when you spit it out...ask me how I know this. )

no she'll do things without a treat involved but getting her to focus a little better than she does is what i want/need to accomplish. I know not to expect much in the way of attention span cuz right now her attention span is about the same as my 3 year old daughter so they get along great. lol. I guess i'm just wishing i had her complete focus instead of "mom said sit... okay i can si.... OOH!!! LOOK!!!! wait what was i supposed to be doing? OH! right... sit... okay.... si.... KITTY!!!!" We're working on watch me but she's a PITA about a lot right now. Guess she's making up for the perfect puppy she's been the last couple months. I'll have to try the treat in the mouth and spit though. That might get the results i want from her. She picked up on the hand signal i have for speak real fast so we'll see how well she retains the knowledge tomorrow.

 

[vat]

My trainer taught me this. Stand in front of her and put her leash on her so she can not wonder off. Have a bag of cut up hot dogs. Call her name the second she looks at you click treat. She does not have to hold the look on you yet. Keep doing this, when she is doing good at it now you sit in a chair. Same thing, leash on her and hot dogs. This time when you call her name she should already be looking at you and holding it. Now hold your click until she starts to move into you (you can offer encouragement) as soon as she moves into you click treat. She should start to step right into you. As she gets better start giving her the click but no treat, then click a second time then treat. So lets say Shasta, she looks at you, click no treat, she comes closer maybe even gets pushy click treat.

Now realize this does not happen in a matter of days. You need to practice allot. He uses this method (there is a bit more to it than I can type) to train his SCH dog to do the focused healing. So the point is you call her name she focuses on you. When she is good at that you can take this into a heal. As your healing call her name when she looks click treat, keep calling her name click treat. Eventually she should start to hold that. If I can find his utube I will post it.

 

[Deuce]

LOL you sound like me. My husband gets up at 4 am to drive to work. I train Deuce when both of my kids are in school after 12 each day.

 

[KZoppa]

vat~ thank you!!! Thats the kind of focus i want (that intense of geez whats mom gonna do next kind of focus). I just never knew how to go about getting it. Wonder if that would work with Riley too..... hmm.... have to give it a shot. Only i dont clicker train. I know its helpful for the dog but it drives me crazy. I hate clickers.

Deuce~ lol thats funny. I have insomnia so i'm awake all night. Doesnt matter how little sleep i get. I cant manage to sleep once the sun goes down. Wish my kids were in school. That would probably help with the insomnia but who knows. I pretty much train whenever i can and usually its with distractions which makes it harder but i think it helps the dogs learn and pay attention better and know even with distractions, they still have to listen.

 

[kidkhmer]

Stepping in dog **** in the dark? Was I close ?

Go the Shasta !

 

[48496]

I need to start taking notes of all this great training info! I think I will, starting now.

 

[vat]

Here is my trainer in action, you can see the end result the heal. My Max can do this pretty well, I am so proud of him

 

[KZoppa]

well i could live without the Johnny Cash (nope not a fan one single bit). Thats pretty awesome. I'll be lucky if i could get ANY of my current dogs doing any of that. I say down and they kinda look at me like i suddenly grew another head. Though Shasta and i have been working on Stay and Come outside in the driveway and she's doing pretty well. Just would like constant focus so i dont have to call her name more than once. when she's older i'll expect it no doubt. thanks for sharing the video. that stuff still blows my mind.

 

[KZoppa]

Stepping in dog **** in the dark? Was I close ?

Go the Shasta !

haha no. if i was stepping in dog poop in the house i'd have me some dog skin rugs. They know better. even Shasta doesnt test me like that anymore.

 

[Stosh]

From one insomniac to another- isn't it funny how much you can get done when the rest of the normal people are sleeping? Honestly, sleeping seems like such a waste of time some nights. I swear I have the only light burning for miles around. Nice to know there's another one out there!

 

[KZoppa]

From one insomniac to another- isn't it funny how much you can get done when the rest of the normal people are sleeping? Honestly, sleeping seems like such a waste of time some nights. I swear I have the only light burning for miles around. Nice to know there's another one out there!

OMG!!! I've cleaned our entire house except for the bedrooms more than a few times while hubby and the kids were sleeping!!! and i dont mean like tidying up either. Our house gets freaking tornadoed because i get tired of cleaning up after the kids, the slob hubby and the dogs i give up for a while. plus we also have too much junk that i'm trying to get rid of slowly enough my pack rat hubby wont notice... insomnia sucks too because i do enjoy sleep. But getting to sleep and staying asleep are just so much trouble. When i do sleep, i'm a light sleeper and i hear e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g....

according to my husband when i finally do sleep and i'm comfy and just totally exhausted from going going going like the darn energizer bunny, i'm gone. Nobody is home and the world ending couldnt wake me. little does he know, if the phone rings downstairs even with the bedroom door closed i'm wide awake. I miss sleeping like a normal person but i havent done that since i was 9. I either sleep for hours (12 if i can get away with it!) or i'm awake for a couple days just goofing around until i manage to exhaust my body so much it overrides the chemicals in my brain keeping me awake. but boy a lot sure gets done when the mood strikes!!!! I love when my husband wakes up in the morning, finds something got cleaned or the entire house and just shakes his head like i've lost my mind. for some reason thats just hilarious.

3 am dog training works pretty nicely too!!!!