One Step Forward, One Step Back?

[pgwiz1]

Pebbles and I have been training for a while with the "look at that" game. About a week and a half ago, I saw a dramatic change, where as soon as we saw a school bus, we'd play the game and she'd sit down, look at the bus, look at me, etc. I was so proud of her!!!! We even went on a walk on a very busy trail, and she didn't bark at the cyclists, the people jogging by close to us or even other small dogs (she didn't care for the rollerbladers, but I can look past that).

This week, it's a whole new story...she's barking and lunging at squirrels, busses, motorcycles, you name it. Is it common for dogs go back and forth? I still take treat and try to play the 'look at me' game, but she seems to have forgotten how to play (or chooses not to).

 

[Lovely]

I think that is very normal as you start adding lots of different locations because dogs have a hard time generalizing. Keep at it and in a month, you will be quite impressed with yourself and your pup.

Is this a Control Unleashed technique? I seem to remember it from there.

 

[labgirl]

Yes, it is very common for a dog to come on and then for no apparent reason revert. Sometimes this happens before a major breakthrough with the behaviour or sometimes it is just an off day (or even week).

Keep at it and make sure you have not relaxed a little as she is doing so well and are letting things go.

Remember consistency is the key to all training. If she gets to go back to her bad habits even once, this blows the training you have done.

I have learnt this the hard way with Cadbury's lead training.

 

[Katherine]

Good job with your LAT work. Keep it up. There are ups and downs with training... and then there are days when something specific (such as a rollerblader or particular truck engine, ie: UPS) will send my dog over threshold.

 

[pgwiz1]

It is basically the control unleashed method (tho I haven't read most of the book, so who knows if I'm doing it right). But so far it has worked, where before Pebbles starts barking if I say look at that she'll look, sit down next to me and look at my hand where the treat is.

She did really well today, and let a dog walk past her on her walk. I guess I can't stop taking my bag of treats with me on our walks yet (perhaps that's where I messed up last week, where she was doing so well, and so I didn't take treats with me on few days, and she'd look at me, and she's just get praise and petting, and apparently she wanted more )