how to train a dog..

[gaited horse]

I want to train my dog to stop lagging and to retrive a dumbbell for obedience

 

[cariboujaguar]

I have no idea what you are talking about, sorry

 

[Fudgie]

ok, the very first thing you need to do is get his/HER attention. Put a training collar on her ...the slip chains. They WONT hurt her. Then attach a lead to it. Start walking...come across obstacles like a tree or a car or whatever and if she goes towards it turn immediately in the opposite direction and RUN so she has to come with you . Her chain collar will rip and it will sound horrid and she might yelp but she will decide that every time you do this that it is WISE for her to pay attention to YOU or she will get yanked in the other direction. Keep her on your left side ALWAYS! Dont let her get accustomed to being on the right. That is not correct in dog training. Do this for only about 20-30 minutes at a time or you will really burn her out. After about the second or third time of this, she will learn to follow with you and come along and stay up with you. ALSO you will be the Alpha female!

Go at a tree where she can go on one side and you on the other and let her get "caught" on the wrong side. KEEP WALKING, she will come. (THEN PRAISE HER) Don't HURT her but keep walking. Like I said eventually after the 6 days of doing this she will be by your side like a champ. At that point you can move on to sit and such. Please try this. You will be amazed!

This will eliminate the tendency for her to lag and not pay attention. The element of surprise works wonder. You don't have to kill them, just surprise them into knowing You are boss!


to get them to hold the dumbell, you have to gently place it in their mouths and HOLD it in there for a few seconds then tell them to release and PRAISE. Do this several times over and over again until they easily take and release the dumbbell! Once you get them used to the dumbbell in their mouths then it becomes a game of 'Sammy take it" "Sammy release" and they will learn to go retrieve it on the "Take it" command. By the way you say this command when you gently place it in their mouth.

 

[Akane]

How does a chain help teach a dog to retrieve?

That's entirely unnecessary. Chains and training collars have their place (I actually have used a remote aka shock collar on my akita for certain circumstances) but most dogs can be trained just fine without them. There's no reason to go up a level when you don't need to. Plus most dogs are smart enough to learn what collar they have on and what it can do. If you plan to have a buckle collar on your dog most of the time then train them to listen on a buckle collar or the one time you are without your choke chain you may have problems.

It sounds like your dog just lacks motivation. You need to be more energetic and make a game out of it. Maybe rub some type of scent on the item to be retrieved or start with a more desireable item. I put rabbit scent on mine since my akita loves tracking rabbit and I don't plan to actually teach her to hunt anything so having her go after rabbit scent all the time does not bother me. My akita would not retrieve a standard hunting dog target. Akitas have very little retrieval instinct in the first place and won't naturally bring back balls or toys. They often won't even pick them up after chasing them down. I instead started with a velcro bag that held treats. I'd put some smelly training treats in there and throw it. Then run toward it all excited and scoop it up again to throw it again. Eventually she was racing me to get the bag and if she picked it up I opened it and let her get a treat. Then threw it again the other way. She will now run after things, pick them up, and mostly return. Sometimes the item gets dropped part way back to me but like I said akitas have no retrieving instinct and they are very hard to keep motivated and on task. Just getting more excited may be enough to motivate your dog and praise or treat greatly for any progress toward picking up and eventually toward bringing back any item you want retrieved.

Positive motivation works far better than punishment for not being motivated. If a dog really wants to do something they will perform far better than if they are just trying to avoid doing something wrong and facing a tight choker or being dragged on the end of a leash. Animals that are doing things for positive reasons are also much less likely to quit on you when things get stressful, equipment breaks, or distractions come along. They really want to do their job instead of just doing it because the consequences suck. They aren't look for loop holes to get out of it or waiting for your attention to lapse.

 

[knittychickadee]

Have you ever heard of 'drive training'? Google "Natural Dog Blog" or Neil Sattin.

 

[Fudgie]

Quote:
It is not helping them to retrieve, it is teaching them to pay attention to you the leader/master/alpha dog. if they won't listen to you on lead they SURE won't listen to you off lead to retrieve something. The OP mentioned the lagging, this is because the dog is not LISTENING to them and "watching" for the next instruction. If they don't have their head wrapped around the idea they are working, they will not do a dern thing for you when it is important.

There was 2 parts to my post one for lagging and one for retrieving. Shock collars have their place, I just don't care for them personal opinion, just like different flavors of soda pop. My daughter's 4-H dog leader states it to them this way. the regular collar is on when they are not "working" and relaxing just being a dog, when the slip chain collar goes on we are in "work mode" they need to be on their super best behavior and pay attention more than with a regular collar. I have noticed that after they get them trained on the slip collar, they also work the same with a regular collar. You as a master do not have control with a regular collar, there is no way of correction. With a slip chain collar, they hear the ripping of the collar(don't have to necessarily FEEL the rip) hearing is enough.

But you will get a hundred and one ideas on training and generally most of them work, it is a preference and which one do you want to try out. Keep trying until one works for you.

 

[gaited horse]

my dog is competing in subnovice a and we got marked down for lagging and I wanted to work her on a dumbbell now so she gets used to it faster. does any one know if the akc has subnovice a classes. part of her lagging problem migt be my fast walk so How do I rain my self to slow my long legs down