Bit of background:
I am retraining Yogi to 'formal' obedience since his show career is now over. He has sucessfully completed his 3 levels of KC Good Citizen awards so has a basic level of control, but I have never attempted the presicion or 'extra' parts, such as finishes or 'heelwork'. He is a dog who dislikes a hands on approach so collie orientated methods I used for training Revel would not work as they rely on 'man handling'. Yogi is very keen, attentive and focussed to the point of obsession. He has been know to carry on long after younger (and more lively) dogs have become tired. I have introduced him to the clicker some years ago to teach a send to bed, with huge sucess in that it is a retained and enthusiastic behaviour. (He was reluctant even to go down prior to this).
The issues where we need help!:
Retreive - Yogi adores chasing and bringing back the dumbell, but the few attempts I have previously made to get him to sit and do a 'static' hold have been failures. I am using the clicker and really high value treats (chicken/cheese/tuna) for this. To begin with, I tried to train the sit and hold, but felt sucess here was being limited. I have therefore decided to aim for a standing static hold and introduce the sit and hold at a later point. He is now at the stage of being 100% on putting his mouth round the dumbell, but I'm unsure quite how to take it from here. When I try to withhold the click for more than a second after he has put his mouth on it, he lets go then grabs hold and I am concerned if I keep clicking this it is just telling him the hold - release- hold is acceptable.
Focus and barking- attention is mercifully (unlike Revel) not an issue but I am struggling to find an 'off switch', particuarly on walks, which is where we do a lot of the training. As soon as I have brought out the clicker for a bit of attention training, he is 98% focussed on me the whole time. I've tried putting the clicker away, showing empty hands etc but he carries on bouncing around in front and barking until I resume the training. I'm not sure who is training who?
I was wondering if I can click him for any 'relaxing' or is this going to be counter productive and make the problem worse? Nothing I've read explains how you deal with a dog that dosn't switch off, but I'm sure some border collies must have this issue.
Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions any of you clicker trainers can provide.
I am retraining Yogi to 'formal' obedience since his show career is now over. He has sucessfully completed his 3 levels of KC Good Citizen awards so has a basic level of control, but I have never attempted the presicion or 'extra' parts, such as finishes or 'heelwork'. He is a dog who dislikes a hands on approach so collie orientated methods I used for training Revel would not work as they rely on 'man handling'. Yogi is very keen, attentive and focussed to the point of obsession. He has been know to carry on long after younger (and more lively) dogs have become tired. I have introduced him to the clicker some years ago to teach a send to bed, with huge sucess in that it is a retained and enthusiastic behaviour. (He was reluctant even to go down prior to this).
The issues where we need help!:
Retreive - Yogi adores chasing and bringing back the dumbell, but the few attempts I have previously made to get him to sit and do a 'static' hold have been failures. I am using the clicker and really high value treats (chicken/cheese/tuna) for this. To begin with, I tried to train the sit and hold, but felt sucess here was being limited. I have therefore decided to aim for a standing static hold and introduce the sit and hold at a later point. He is now at the stage of being 100% on putting his mouth round the dumbell, but I'm unsure quite how to take it from here. When I try to withhold the click for more than a second after he has put his mouth on it, he lets go then grabs hold and I am concerned if I keep clicking this it is just telling him the hold - release- hold is acceptable.
Focus and barking- attention is mercifully (unlike Revel) not an issue but I am struggling to find an 'off switch', particuarly on walks, which is where we do a lot of the training. As soon as I have brought out the clicker for a bit of attention training, he is 98% focussed on me the whole time. I've tried putting the clicker away, showing empty hands etc but he carries on bouncing around in front and barking until I resume the training. I'm not sure who is training who?
I was wondering if I can click him for any 'relaxing' or is this going to be counter productive and make the problem worse? Nothing I've read explains how you deal with a dog that dosn't switch off, but I'm sure some border collies must have this issue.Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions any of you clicker trainers can provide.