phone consultation

I had a phone consultation with Suzanne Clothier last night (author of Bones Would Rain from the Sky). She's just as awesome in person as she is in her book!

She said I was going in the right direction with Nala and gave me some more suggestions. I asked her if I was asking too much from Nala at 13 months, and she said no - this is a good time to get tougher on the rules. She said in about 9-12 months we should have a really good dog!

I am working on stiffening up my criteria for the NILIF program. I say the command ONCE and if she doesn't comply within 3 seconds, I walk away. After a few seconds, I come back and we try again. I think it took about 6-8 tries before she got to go outside this morning, but she eventually figured it out.

And she said when she is doing it really well, I should change the command or make her do multiple commands. For instance, she is really good at sitting instantly when I am holding her food bowl, so now I make her down. Soon I will have her do a couple different commands and change them all the time. I am going to teach her some new tricks as well so we have some new things to mess with.

She told me about games I could play to help her focus on me. It sounds similar to what goob has told us about training Annie. She said to take them to a park and when Nala glances back at me, I should take off running and yelling and carrying on in the opposite direction. Then I should do my best to avoid Nala - keep changing direction, let her shoot by me, etc. Eventually she will manage to get in front of me and then I should be really happy and treat her. This is supposed to make her learn to keep an eye on me and where I am going. Sounds a lot like goob's hide-n-seek games.

I think I will be taking them to the off-leash park at some odd hours to work on some of this stuff, perhaps one dog at a time since they have so very different issues. It is hard because Bonnie needs different things. This morning, I wanted to let Bonnie outside for sitting but Nala didn't earn it yet - but when I open the door even a little, it's very hard to keep Nala from squirting out....and then Bonnie wouldn't go! I finally gave up and ignored Bonnie and just went by Nala's responses for now.

She also talked about practicing "come" at odd moments in the house. Like when you are watching TV at night, when there's a commercial jump out of your chair and race out of the room and yell "Come!" Or have two people jump up and race in different directions and one yells "Come!" and if the dog goes to that person only, then they get a treat. She also said to change "come" to some other word and start over, which I have heard before.

She also said to stash treats all over the house in various containers so they are always on hand. Use a clicker or a marker word whenever a dog does something good. Since the marker is linked to treats, using a marker enables you to mark the correct behavior instantly and then gives you enough time to find the closest treat container and get some. That way the dogs don't fall into the trap of only obeying you if you are wearing a treat bag or they smell them in your pockets, etc. She said she got the best look from one of her dogs once when she pulled a treat from up in a tree on a walk - the dog thought she was nuts!

She also said with a smart dog, you have to insist on more from them. Which means making Nala THINK and tow the line better.

I am hoping I can hold on to my new motivation and work on these things. The NILIF definitely gets done. But I need to work on her off leash commands and I need to have the kids help me with doorbell issues and I need to hire their friends to come over to work on jumping issues.

I need more hours in the day. Or a clone of myself. A clone would be good.


Jamiya

 

interesting and good advice, speaking of goob havnt heard from her in awhile.

I am wondering about the come command. I use it with Wylie and really try to work with her of leash when we go on hikes, she gets distracted because she is free. but she does come, I praise and give her treats

but If I use the come word in the house or backyard, she acts like I am going to hit her, If I say come, she rolls on the ground in a submissive posture. I cant figure it out. We have never hit her, weve had her 5 years.

honeybear

 

Thats great advice Jamiya!! Before I found this group I belonged to a group that did online obedience. They covered every topic you could think of and had 4 trainers per forum. It was the best thing I could've ever done. They helped me with Harley's SA and told me all those things you have posted aswell.

I hop everything works out!

 

I think I remember you mentioning that forum before. Can you give me the URL again?


Jamiya

 

Sounds great Jamiya! I wish you the best of luck.

What an excellent idea. I think I'm going to try that. I bought a clicker and I think I will start really using it now if I can hide treats all over.

 

Yes - program them to the clicker first (click-treat-click-treat-click-treat). Then for a while, treat RIGHT after you click for a behavior you want. Once they really have the association (usually doesn't take much) you can be slower between the click and the treat. However, you NEVER fade the treat after the click. You ALWAYS treat after clicking. You can fade the clicks, though. Does that make sense?

I need to buy more treats. Always something...

I also bought some of those stretchy wrist things with a key ring on the end - the spiraly phone-cord like things - so I could attach the clicker to it and wear it from my wrist. I think I will just wear it all the time for a while, so it is always handy. I also have ones that can clip to a belt loop. I bought about 4 cheapo clickers at PetsMart and now I can only find one of them. *sigh*

Or you can use a word for a marker - I use "Yes!" in an upbeat, cheery voice - if you don't have a clicker handy. The clicker is supposed to be better because it is totally consistent, but some people don't like them.


Jamiya

 

Jamiya the site was moved to www.doggiedoor.com.

They still have the same trainers and great advice!!

Good luck with the clicker trainging. I had a friend that used a pen to click because she didn't want to purchase the actual clicker. It worked wonders.

 

I practiced a little tonight with the clicker. I think their going to get the hang of it pretty quickly. I have used it before but that was months ago and I did'nt really know what I was doing so I put it off for a bit.
Let us know how it goes Jamiya!

 

I'm around, mostly just reading these days because the nice weather and dogs/nephews (my mom watches them, and since they're out of school, they're around all day, several days a week) have been keeping me busy. I am glad to hear though that what I did with Annie wasn't completely outlandish, kinda nice to see someone with a lot of experience uses a similar method to teach something.

I got a clicker a few months ago, spent a couple weeks conditioning them to it (I've used marker training to teach them most things they know, but just used a "good!" to let them know they were on the right track), but as it always goes, as soon as I started actually liking it (I'm horribly uncoordinated, so it took longer for me to learn than them ), the clicker grew legs and wandered out of my room, to who knows where (funny how I heard a suspicious clicking sound from the nephews' room a few days later :roll: ). I did teach Goo and Haley to target using it before it disappeared, and will say that it worked well once I figured it out. I think I'll buy a few next time, and have them handy, even though I won't use them for everything, it was nice for some things that were harder to pinpoint via voice marker.

Anyway, glad to hear that things are going well, maybe try writing out a loose schedule for training and posting it up? Doesn't have to be real specific, just the basic "train x concept, y place, z other factors (distractions, whatever)".

 

Hi Jamiya,

What a special treat for you to get to talk to someone you admire so much, and it sure sounds like she knows her stuff! Good luck! I know you'll do great!

Susan