Is it too early?

[mbfrench]

For the record, once again everybody seems to have completely looked over what I am trying to say. I taught Smudge to sit and lay while on a leash.

Smudge was 10-11 months old at the time.

He did not strangle himself, buck, ect. I own a sheltie, not a bronco, and I am not trying to wrangle or wrestle anything. Just teach him to sit.

There is nothing wrong with using a leash to train your dog to do something as long as you do it the right way. For the record, Smudge's last walk through in obedience class was better than most.

I could not agree more.We used a leash for ALL of Earnhardts training.It was nessassary,as he was WAY out there as far as attention span.

With Trapp & Jasper,again we used a leash(80% of the time),never had problems.The training was two fold actually,they were taught early to not be chewing or trying to get away from the leash,and also the command at the time (sit,stay)Especially in public. I feel as an owner for me,this is important.

We still have some leash issues with Jasper,but he does well,actually better than Trapp ever did at 7 months.

 

[Smudge]

I could not agree more.We used a leash for ALL of Earnhardts training.It was nessassary,as he was WAY out there as far as attention span.

Yup yup. Having a short attention span does not mean the dog is wild, either. Here's Smudge doing a sit in the park.

He's around 11 months old in the video. Plenty of chances for him to run after random squirrels. You can see how short his attention span is. No bucking, screaming, or kicking...from either of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUjVjf46po

 

[LuvtheShiloh]

Ya'll are fantastic!! We did a training session this afternoon and she did fabulously. I think she is getting the clicker=treat=good concept. She started barking going into the sit too. I'll take that as a good sign that she is enjoying herself I changed her treat too. We may start doing chicken or cheese from now on...she doesn't seem too motivated with the hot dog.

I took jerros' advice and put chopped up pieces of hot dog in the microwave...and almost burned my house down lol! I think I did something wrong!! It reeks of burnt food now. Oh well, live and learn right?

 

[mbfrench]

He did so very well there Jess! I was going to comment,but has been disabled.
He has changed so since that time,grown to be very handsome~

 

[Justicemom]

I think it really depends on the puppy and the age. I can only speak from experience with my dog Bailey. At 11 weeks old, there is no way she would've focused on training if she was on leash. She would've been too busy trying to chew and play with the leash. I also, want to make learning fun for her. So, I felt that keeping her on a leash would be like forcing her to learn. I wanted her to want to learn.

She is 13 months old now. We are taking rally novice classes. Rally novice is performed on leash, so a lot of her training now is on leash and there are no issues. All she wants is that treat and figuring out what she has to do get it. She could care less about the leash.

I very much agree what you can do depends on your pup. I always start training my pups right from the moment I bring them home. I feed half of their morning and evening meals by hand at first atleast 1-2 months. This helps the attention, all good things come from me. Why waste such a good reinforcment. First couple days I sit on the floor bowl of kibble in my lap. Pup on lead. I use a lead 50% time from 8wks up. I have never had a pup buck around on it. Even the wild woman Diva. A leash is just to keep them safe and keep them from wandering off. If your doing it right the pup never realizes it has a leash on ever.

Anyway I start by teaching attention. Bowl in lap. Say pup name, give piece of food, 10x or so teach them to follow the food ,move their head, around give food as they follow it, teach them to touch my hand with their nose and touch a target lid. They are getting good a name and following food we start watch. Pup watch lure attention to face, yes, give food. Then watch my face with the food to my side. The key with pups keep it fast, fun and short with lots of reinforcement one after another. Don't expect behaviors like you would from adults or older pups reward effort.

I got Justice at 11 wks. His breeder had already potty trained him, taught him sit, taught him to take his dumbbell and walk on a lead. He took 1 puppy kindergarten class, one beginners class, 1 advanced, 1 comp. Novice class and finshed his first comp Open class by 9 months. He was so smart and quick it was unbelievable. Diva trained the same way could not hold a thought in her head of more than a couple seconds until she was 8months old. She did precomp superpuppy at 5.5 months and did ok all the other pups did so much better and passed her by. Around a year she was coming around and at 14 months could do her first comp novice class and how at almost 20 months is in her first comp Open class and well beyond 90% of the pups in her superpuppy class. But Justice and Ember both had already titled in Open by her age. My point being, start training take what the pup gives you. Be patient. I pushed none of my dogs each learned at their own rate. I think the problems start when you expect more then the pup can give at the moment.

 

[labgirl]

There is nothing wrong with using a leash to train your dog to do something as long as you do it the right way. For the record, Smudge's last walk through in obedience class was better than most.

I'm with you Jessica, nothing wrong with on lead training, after all as soon as you start puppy class the dog is on a lead and learning. As long as you keep the lead loose and long the dog should not even notice it, and if it did react, well then I would spend a few minutes getting it to accept the lead and maybe making that the focus of the training session.

Until recently Cadbury's training at class was always on lead, and at home I would sometimes have him on lead because otherwise he would walk off and ignore me (but then he is a stubborn lab!)

My priority commands with a pup are 'sit' 'come' and 'wait' (ie. wait while I put food in your bowl). I would also be working on teaching 'give' by swopping toys for treats etc. And lastly I would be practicing nice loose lead walking for that wonderful first walk!

 

[LuvtheShiloh]

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! Shiloh is doing fantastic now. She learned sit and down in ONE training session. Just amazing! I'm adding commands little by little now. She absolutely adores learning too. She barks her head off and spins when I tell her to sit It makes me super happy to see her like that too!! The clicker is an amazing tool!

 

[Toffee's Mom]

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! Shiloh is doing fantastic now. She learned sit and down in ONE training session. Just amazing! I'm adding commands little by little now. She absolutely adores learning too. She barks her head off and spins when I tell her to sit It makes me super happy to see her like that too!! The clicker is an amazing tool!

ANOTHER convert
The clicker IS the best thing since sliced bread, it has made me happy for sure!