Herding

O

OntarioSheltie

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Sadie herds us constantly, she delights in grabbing at our heals when we're walking around. She also likes to jump up and grab onto clothes when she's in a particularly mischevious mood and often catches her teeth on what we're wearing.

She's good at stopping the herding at home when you tell her to but I'm not too sure how to address the clothes grabbing.

This problem is not really that bad at home but she's becoming a particular problem when we're at agility. Often when we're both running instead of watching where I'm directing her she'll start herding me instead and also jump up and grab at my clothes. Some times she's not too bad and other times, like our last class, she is a big problem.

Rather than completely discourage what comes naturally to her, my trainer suggested putting a verbal command to the herding behavior, once she understands what the command is I'm supposed to encourage it at times that are inconvenient for her (I'll have to figure out if there IS such a time) so that she won't want to do it anymore.

Does anyone have a good word I could use as a command? I thought of 'feet' but I think its a word that gets used too often in conversation. Also, any suggestions on how to stop the clothes grabbing? Its a hard one to discourage since she doesn't do it all of the time, only some times when she's very happy and excited.
 
In one of my classes we were taught to use a command word that isn't usually used in our daily vocabulary. That's why the word no doesn't work too well because we use it in our conversations with others.

I came up with the word PHOOEY as a correction command. I only use that word when the dog is doing something I don't like. When I say PHOOEY! I stop all interaction and ignore the dog. It doesn't take these smarty pants dogs long to learn that when PHOOEY is spoken everything fun stops!
 
SunChaser said:
In one of my classes we were taught to use a command word that isn't usually used in our daily vocabulary. That's why the word no doesn't work too well because we use it in our conversations with others.

I came up with the word PHOOEY as a correction command. I only use that word when the dog is doing something I don't like. When I say PHOOEY! I stop all interaction and ignore the dog. It doesn't take these smarty pants dogs long to learn that when PHOOEY is spoken everything fun stops!
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Phooey, thats a word I definitely didn't think of!

I try not to say 'no' to her for exactly that reason, that it doesn't work. It slips in some times though just out of habit. I have a sound that I use that works well but its hard to make noises or even a command when I'm concentrating on running and direction and she's herding me and grabbing my arm. I have to figure out a way to fit that in with everything else. I almost wonder now if I should have posted this thread in agility, since its more of a problem while we're training than at home?
 
There's been a few times when I was walking that I felt Treader jump up and nib my and hands and/or heels. He doesn't appear to have much herding instinct besides that, but who knows?
 
When teaching my dog Roxy on the down/stay command, I chose an interesting and geeky word for her free command. I chose a Klingon word (from Star Trek) MajQa' which means well done! or very good! in Klingon. You can be extremely creative when it comes to the words your giving to them for commands.

The only problem is when someone hears you give it, they always want to know what language its in and then you have to show your geeky side and say well, Its Klingon. You usually get some good laughs from that.
 
DoomsDay said:
When teaching my dog Roxy on the down/stay command, I chose an interesting and geeky word for her free command. I chose a Klingon word (from Star Trek) MajQa' which means well done! or very good! in Klingon. You can be extremely creative when it comes to the words your giving to them for commands.

The only problem is when someone hears you give it, they always want to know what language its in and then you have to show your geeky side and say well, Its Klingon. You usually get some good laughs from that.
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that's great- it's hard sometimes to get a word that you'll remember that isn't so common that they hear it all the time. never thought of klingon :lol:
 
Yeah, I like to be a little creative in some of the things I do. The one downside to picking klingon is if I ever actually went to a star trek convention and took my dog, she would probably be very confused hehe.
 
I use EEEH! as well (often accompanied by several swear words as my darling 18 week old draws blood, yet one more time!) He doesn't mean to, really, but he's still has his razor sharp baby teeth that catch on to just about anything.

"OFF" worked well with my last baby. It's easy to say and can accomodate a very nice menancing growl from me.

Not that any of this is working at the moment!!! :winkgrin:

To OntarioSheltie: Can you elaborate more on this verbal command at a time when it's not convenient? I'm ready to try anything!
 
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