I’ll take advantage, if you don’t mind. I need help specifically with obedience training.
I adopted my dog from the local rescue last year. She’s a two year old mixed breed, I’m thinking a rottweiler/bernese x golden retriever. As far as I can tell she’s had no formal training.
She’s an absolute doll and I love her to bits, but she’s as stubborn as a mule and when she’s committed to disobedience I can’t get her to focus on me. Do you have any tips on routines I could try with her, or any resources I could look at?
if she’s not paying attention to you, she’s telling you the distractions, duration, or distance are too much. i would start by using the name game in a quiet setting like your living room or whichever room in your home is most comfortable for her.
toss a treat on the ground right in front of you, let her eat it, and then say her name. wait until she looks at you, then mark the movement of her turning to look at you (some people use a clicker, some people use a marker-word like “yes!”), drop another treat, say her name, and wait for her to look at you again. the most important thing here is the timing. as soon as her eyes start to move in your direction, that’s what you want to mark.
once she’s got that down, you can start adding distractions. start very small. toss the treat a little further away from you at first, then maybe move to the other side of the room. wow! new place! new things to look at! we call this “proofing” the behavior. then you can move to another room. if she’s not reliably giving you the behavior you ask for, go back a step. she should be succeeding about 90% of the time before you move on.
these sessions should be short (5-10 minutes tops) and preferably multiple times a day. i typically train 3-4x a day on various skills, depending on what my goals are for any given dog. if she’s not responding to the treats, get better treats. my dogs tend to love string cheese and hotdogs the most, but every dog is going to be different.
I’ll take advantage, if you don’t mind. I need help specifically with obedience training.
I adopted my dog from the local rescue last year. She’s a two year old mixed breed, I’m thinking a rottweiler/bernese x golden retriever. As far as I can tell she’s had no formal training.
She’s an absolute doll and I love her to bits, but she’s as stubborn as a mule and when she’s committed to disobedience I can’t get her to focus on me. Do you have any tips on routines I could try with her, or any resources I could look at?
if she’s not paying attention to you, she’s telling you the distractions, duration, or distance are too much. i would start by using the name game in a quiet setting like your living room or whichever room in your home is most comfortable for her.
toss a treat on the ground right in front of you, let her eat it, and then say her name. wait until she looks at you, then mark the movement of her turning to look at you (some people use a clicker, some people use a marker-word like “yes!”), drop another treat, say her name, and wait for her to look at you again. the most important thing here is the timing. as soon as her eyes start to move in your direction, that’s what you want to mark.
once she’s got that down, you can start adding distractions. start very small. toss the treat a little further away from you at first, then maybe move to the other side of the room. wow! new place! new things to look at! we call this “proofing” the behavior. then you can move to another room. if she’s not reliably giving you the behavior you ask for, go back a step. she should be succeeding about 90% of the time before you move on.
these sessions should be short (5-10 minutes tops) and preferably multiple times a day. i typically train 3-4x a day on various skills, depending on what my goals are for any given dog. if she’s not responding to the treats, get better treats. my dogs tend to love string cheese and hotdogs the most, but every dog is going to be different.
here’s some fundamentals on clicker training which are really useful if it’s a new concept to you: https://www.clickertraining.com/whatis