creative training ideas needed

When I was looking at the Ridgeback links from another thread, I ran across this statement:

Can anyone think of ways to implement this for basic obedience-type stuff? Or even tricks, I guess. Don't you have to repeat things for them to learn it? I usually play with Nala between repetitions and try to keep things upbeat (and short), but I was thinking there MUST be a way to do it more creatively. Like, with human children, you can invent games where they are really learning something even though they think they are just playing.

Please, everyone share ideas that they have!

 

:lol: Like Ive said before, one of the most stubborn breeds Ive ever worked with...

I had a Dane mix years ago, similar personality to a typical ridgeback although I wouldnt say it was typical of a Danes, he was too smart for his own good (extremely 'street smart'), he was tough to train but loved the agility, at home I used to play 'hide'....anything, treats, keys, my daughter, myself, his toys, socks...I didnt know he would figure it out and it started by me just playing with him one day, my daughter had one of those games with dice and 3 cups, hide the die under the cup and mix them up, we exchanged the die for his treat, stuck his nose on the right one every time so then we started 'experimenting' with different things, and started hiding things in different places around the house or yard, he'd get so excited when he heard the words "find it", he was so quick to pick up on it all, so then I taught him to use his paw instead of his nose. That led to things like closing doors, switching lights on and off......
With the training, basic obedience i would say keep it short, you need the consistency for it to really sink in but short and regular with things inbetween, I always like to play with them or just relax with them for about 10 minutes (all the dogs) after a workout and occasionally Id skip a workout and just play with them or brush them out or something, breaks the 'monotony' of it and they do get used to the 'down time' and it can make a big difference in their enthusiasm to work for you

Just my opinion. .

 

How did he know which thing he was supposed to find?

Nala is a very stubborn dog. I really think she catches on within the first few repetitions, but she always has to decide if it is worth it to her to comply. We do agility, but I think she does it for the treats at the end and not for the love of it. Although, she does like jumps and really likes tunnels. She won't work for my approval - she could care less! She is a food hound, though, so treats always work.

 

I would show him what it was that he supposed to look for if it was things like the keys and Id make sure I kind of rubbed my hands on it, and I started off easy, like again with the keys, I would do the treat under the cup a few times, then with the scent of the treat rubbed onto the keys from my handling them Id just pull a cushion down over the keys....he could see it initially and it progressed from tehre.. or like if my daughter was hiding Id say "weres Tracie"...get him excited, initially I would keep repeating her name, then shed 'cough' or something to give him a clue....eventually I could just say were is she and he go and find her., he just knew the tone of voice and my body language, who knows, he might have been a good scent dog had I worked with him more...sometimes his reward was a treat sometimes it was his 'toy of the day'....like I said it started just by 'accident' really I wasnt trying to teach him any tricks but the consistency with it paid off.
I think agility is more of an adrenilin rush than them doing it for approval, I know whenever Ive done theres been more than one dog, all held back on leashes, get them excited and then let them go, with Rambo, I always had to wait at the other end and grab him fast, he was dog aggressive but loved the jumps more, so he would do the full course and if I didnt grab him he would go for the closest dog to him as though it was part of the course!!!!....except my moms dog for some reason, he liked her (the dogs were all behind a chain link fence when it was Rambos turn to run).

 

I've seen flyball people rev their dogs up like that more than agility. Some agility people do try to get the dog excited, but usually you sit the dog at the start and lead out so the dog has to be able to stay even when he is excited.

For my part, I have to calm Nala down before we run at a trial. If she goes into the ring all excited, her brain falls out and she just dashes around the course in any order she feels like, all willy nilly. If I want her to attend to me, she has to be at least somewhat calm. Our speed suffers for it, but she's just barely two years old, so we have time to work on that later.

Hmmm. I need to start working with the dogs again...

 

Ive never done any flyball, I saw a video clip in here not too long ago, it looks like a lot of fun. Id love to get back into agility, havent really had the chance to do it regularly since about the early to mid 80's, The dogs were always 'revved up' we did a lot of summer fetes around Merseyside (in UK) so the crowds would be cheering the dogs on as well as the overall excitement, I need to get back into that.