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Apr 2016
9:21pm, 19 Apr 2016
9,169 posts
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Sharkie
Oh and on lead, when she was younger and there was less off lead fun, we used to do 'trot' as well - which she really liked.
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Apr 2016
9:26pm, 19 Apr 2016
5,418 posts
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BaronessBL
If I have Wanda on a short lead e.g. on the road/pavement I try to get her to walk at least quite 'nicely' if not an actual close or heel but in the 'countryside' on the extendable she can pretty much do what she likes. Wanda does like to sniff and investigate though, which I do let her do to a certain extent - this is also good for practicing the 'leave' command as she is usually sniffing/investigating discarded burger boxes etc 
Again, because of her breed, I don't want people looking at her and thinking 'look at that badly behaved Staffie, owners of those dogs never have them under control' and if another dogs barks from inside a house, or behind a fence Wanda still goes nuts anyway, so a short lead is essential for any faint hope of control then....
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Apr 2016
9:28pm, 19 Apr 2016
2,672 posts
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Alice the Camel
That sounds about the same as we do, Sharkie. Except I need to remember to do some proper heel training too, rather than us simply ambling along all the time. Letting him off the lead is a little way away yet - my problem more than his.
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Apr 2016
10:18pm, 19 Apr 2016
13,930 posts
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LazyDaisy
If I say 'With Me' Floss understands that she should not pull ahead or loiter behind me too much, but be roughly alongside. 'Heel' means by my knee and nowhere else. Flossie has some on-lead walking at the start and end of our walks but the majority of her walking is off-lead. We let her off lead fairly early on, I think, though perhaps we were a bit too gung-ho as her recall was not great (still isn't, to be honest.)
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Apr 2016
12:14am, 20 Apr 2016
3,034 posts
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Helegant
We both went to obedience class tonight, which is always a struggle for Jet as he wants to interact with the observer (me) as well as the handler (Mr). Tonight was quite good, it was part two of the annual 'how much progress has your dog made' test. All went well until 'Recall over a treat'. The trainer announced the test and everyone looked at Jet and laughed. He has history of sneakily, silently and almost inconspicuosly snaffling the treats left by other dogs without folks noticing until too late.
Tonight R was kneeling on the ground ready to put her hand over any treat that looked at risk. Out of six dogs working tonight, five achieved the desired result, albeit with R protecting the treat at times. When it was Jet's turn R commented that she didn't know if she could move quickly enough to stop Jet from eating the treat. I saw Jet's nose drop slightly when the treat was paced on the floor...
I was hopeful though. Mr called Jet. Jet started to return to Mr, and veered out and away from the treat, which is what the 'avoiders' do - getting out of the way of temptation. I was very hopeful.
I saw R relax slightly.
So did Jet.
Before she could react he had swooped left and the treat had gone. Her attempt to reach it before him left Jet licking his lips with satisfaction as he returned to Mr, and R spread eagled on the floor. The entire class was chaos for a few minutes as people fell about laughing.
After three and a half *years* of almost weekly training we still haven't managed to over-ride 'the nose'. Training is never-ending...
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Apr 2016
4:21am, 20 Apr 2016
14,498 posts
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GimmeMedals
I love reading dog tales
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Apr 2016
8:27am, 20 Apr 2016
5,420 posts
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BaronessBL
Poor Jet I am not sure that Wanda would recall over a treat either. I'm already wondering if we will have any choice about the food we offer for the food manners section of the Good Citizen test. I plan to take her normal kibble that she has or perhaps a couple of gravy bones, but if the examiner gives us all a bit of liver cake to tell them to 'wait' for it will be much harder for Wanda
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Apr 2016
9:08am, 20 Apr 2016
3,035 posts
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Helegant
That's interesting about Wanda. She's been so good that I suspect she'll do what you want in the test because it's the handler who gives the treat and she clearly wants to please you. Our trainers use black pudding!
One of last night's judges (herself an owner of show-spaniels) turned to me after the recall and said, "Sometimes you're better off with a less intelligent dog. Working spaniels have to make decisions in the field based on changing circumstances and you've just seen an example of that" Hmmm. 'Natural cunning' is more what came to my mind.
As well as resource guarding for our own benefit I've been working on the 'food manners' section of the Gold test recently, and Jet will now happily sit with a treat on his paws waiting for permission to eat - albeit drooling! He knows he'll get the treat in the end, so he'll do what he has to. But... 'leave it' on recall suggests he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by making his own decision.
That's the most important command I want him to learn now, especially with the occasional incident of poisoned food in the fields. So I'm at a bit of a loss how to move this on. Ideas?
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Apr 2016
11:51am, 20 Apr 2016
2,673 posts
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Alice the Camel
Ah... I was wondering why you'd need to teach a dog to leave a treat (I've found myself asking "does it really matter?" when Charlie fails at some tasks) but you've answered the question before I asked Helegant. I have no ideas at all, I'm afraid, but it's not something I could imagine Charlie Boy ever mastering. He's far too greedy.
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Apr 2016
2:28pm, 20 Apr 2016
3,036 posts
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Helegant
I think food manners can be important if you have a dog that is likely to fight you if you try to remove his dinner.
Funnily enough, for all his instinctive resource-guarding Jet has never been bothered about us removing his food. He's always joyful around food, which was partly why folks were laughing last night.
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