~*Shell*~ Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 Hey all! When Smeagle told me about this forum she mentioned that not many of you trial your dogs in obedience so i thought I would post up a couple of videos of me working with my 5 year old siberian, Zero. I get a lot of people telling me that huskies are untrainable or not worth training because they never do what you say so I thought i'd prove them wrong Zero is definitely not untrainable (in fact, once he got the idea that I wanted him to give me the dumbbell he learnt the formal retrieve in 2 days) but there are times when I think he would give me the finger if he was physically able to. Usually it takes me about 2 minutes to teach Zero a simple new command - in one of the videos, i ask him to do a "spin" which i'd only taught him the day before. Oh, and I train with a clicker and low fat training treats. Anyway, for anyone who's interested, here's the proof: Training: heel, wait, formal retrieval (sit at heel, throw dumbbell, and "take" so he'll retrieve it then "give" to i can take the dumbbell from him), finish, drop, come, automatic sit, stand, stay, sit, come to heel, left about turn. Tricks:back, sit, wait, hi 5, wave, rock on, shake, paw, down, beg, stand, spin, heel, circles, stay, come to heel, touch and dance. Formal Retrieval (for obedience trialling) - The aim is to have the dog sit at heel, you throw the dumbbell, tell them to get it, they do, bring it back to you and sit right in front, then you tell them to return to heel so they go around the back of you and sit back where they started. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bec Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 Yay! Zero is amazing He is a real testament to the work you put in him Shell, especially considering how he was when you adopted him. For those who aren't familiar with obedience training, teaching a formal recall can be really difficult - in fact many people find it one of the hardest if not the hardest thing to train for the trial ring. I did a couple of training sessions when I bought my dumbell a few months ago and then put it away and I haven't taken it out since, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~*Shell*~ Posted August 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 It took 7 months to teach the retrieval from start to finish (i wasn't that dedicated though) - the biggest obstacle is teaching the dog to take the dumbbell from you hands. In all fairness, how can you be expected to give them a treat if their mouth is full of dumbbell! Once Zero had worked out that he was supposed to pick the dumbbell up off the ground and give it to me, the rest came very very quickly (2 days) but the first part is the hardest and most time consuming. He's still no where near perfect at it but the foundations are there and he's getting better!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bec Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 It took 7 months to teach the retrieval from start to finish (i wasn't that dedicated though) - the biggest obstacle is teaching the dog to take the dumbbell from you hands. In all fairness, how can you be expected to give them a treat if their mouth is full of dumbbell! Once Zero had worked out that he was supposed to pick the dumbbell up off the ground and give it to me, the rest came very very quickly (2 days) but the first part is the hardest and most time consuming. He's still no where near perfect at it but the foundations are there and he's getting better!! I spent ages with Daisy out, dumbell on the floor and treats in one hand, the problem is she won't even look the dumbell if I have food But it will be like it was with Zero - once the light bulb goes off it's easy Thankfully it will be a looooooong time before I actually need to have her do anything with the dumbell in the trial ring!! You don't need it in CCD or novice thank god although I want to train her to do it because it looks so cool, hehe. Mish will run after it, pick it up and bring it back but he thinks it's a toy which it isn't. He won't take it and hold on to it for long and gets bored with it and wants his cuz toy, haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~*Shell*~ Posted August 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 I taught Zero to "take" it from me - grab your clicker (if you train with one - i found it easier to teach with the clicker) and have daisy sit in front of you. Put some food on the dumbbell and hold it out to her - the second she goes for the food, click and treat. Keep doing it till she learns dumbbell = food. It took ages for Zero to get to that point! The when that started happening, i would take the food off the dumbbell and wait until Zero opened his mouth (panting was a good thing for us) and then i would put the dumbbell in his mouth and click at the same time, then take the dumbbell away so he learnt dumbbell in mouth = food. Then it became him taking it out of my hands, then it was picking it up off the floor. The second he started doing that, he had a lightbulb moment and it was 2 days from there to being able to do the whole thing. Daisy'll get it - she's a smart girl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bec Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 Hmmm, I hadn't thought about putting food on the dumbell. Thanks for the tip, Shell. I'd been (attempting to) shape it by marking and rewarding when she touched the dumbell (or looked at it, or showed remote interest in it...lol). The thing is she likes it and thinks it's a toy, and will run after it and pick it up if I roll it but then she tries to run away with it haha. It's getting that lightbulb moment where she understand picking it up = getting a treat. I'm not in a hurry because we're focusing on drive training (moving on to heel work in drive and recalls soon!! woohoooo ). But I really just want to train it because.... I want to. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~*Shell*~ Posted August 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 I know the feeling - I just thought it looked really cool so decided to train it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bec Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 Yes! That's exactly why I want to train her to do a formal retrieve I guess if I get really stuck I can just annoy Steve and see what he suggests LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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