sinman

Anyone have any ideas as far as how to extinguish a behavior, specifically eating cat poop out of the litter box, using positive reinforcement? Is it possible? I will admit I'm not a fan of purely r+ training, but I'm always willing to try things that I feel might work. I'm not worried about when he's left home alone; that would be impossible. Normally I keep a baby gate across the doorway to the bathroom where the litter box is, but when I am home I keep it down so I don't have to hike my leg 4 feet in the air with a full bladder or in a towel. He likes to sneak off and steal and I caught him yesterday while I was in the shower, and yelling is just unproductive.

Okay...wow! My schedule has been much crazier than I anticipated so I completely forgot about this whole thread till someone PMed me. I will say my plans are not to, literally on his birthday enroll in the next obedience trial (although, if they have some of those new baby classes like Beginner Novice or Pre-Novice I might consider it just to expose him to something). Based on his performance thus far, that was my pre-determined timeline. Since I've been working with him this week on the heel, he has improved so much, even off leash. I think he's just a "latent learning" dog, who has to really think about things before doing them perfectly. The clicker has definitely helped targeting wise and I bring it with me now (and some treats) when I drop him off and pick him up from daycare. My task this coming week will be to figure out how to dog-proof food bins with latches that he can open.

I've been training dogs for years,but I think the fact that he caught on quickly has thrown me off. My parents had/have Shelties at home but they don't have the nuances of the BC. He is not a shy dog, but if we are in a strange place (Petsmart, for example) if I ask him to sit he will sit so perfectly next to me or even just on top of my feet. Not so much the case in other places that are familiar to him. Yet he's actually climbed a tree to get to a group of kids he wanted to say hi to at the park. I don't do drills as much as I do quick rapid successions and we play a LOT. Usually at the end he gets to play fetch which he loves, even though I consider him more food motivated than play motivated. I never train more than 10 minutes at a time, just long enough really to get something good out of him and leave it at that. Currently I'm really trying to work on his "stay", since he did have the habit of breaking it the first time, and then the second time was when it stuck (as in Donald's post). I started using the clicker as a faster way to target rather than me fumbling with the treats in my hand. I don't find myself getting frustrated with him, I have had some very slow learning dogs so he's well ahead of the class still at this point. Quite honestly he makes me laugh all of the time, especially since I've gotten to watch him go through his last growth spurt. It's funny you're all saying to give him time and give him positive experiences and allow him to bond....Obedience, ideally, is all about creating a language that you communicate in and for most under-confident dogs, it helps to give them things that they know how to tackle. I really honestly wouldn't know what else to do besides what I'm doing (I do tend to take him everywhere that it's acceptable for him to go, and he does go to daycare since I don't work from home and can't bring him with me). I alternate "active" weekends and "rest" weekends for us since he does get a little worn out if he's always on the go, even though he'd probably run himself into the ground if I wanted him to. I don't consider him a "tool" about how fast I can train a dog--the other 300 and something dogs/clients I've worked with can attest to that, along with all of their testimonials. However, I do feel like a dog trainer should have a dog that is trained up. When you're looking for a horse trainer you don't pay money to someone who's never shown or even ridden and dogs should be the same, although they aren't for some reason. I do feel like 6-9 months for a CD dog is a reasonable timeline, considering that, other than the off-leash heel, the AKC/UKC standards are all pretty much household behaviors.

I recently obtained an 8 month old BC puppy from a rescue group in my area. They had him listed as a BC mix of course because they can't guarantee anything, but I would say he's pretty high content if not full bred. I am a dog trainer looking to strike out on my own, so my plans are to make him my demo dog. I want to at least title him up to CD/CDX in competitive obedience; not sure if I want to go for UDX or his OTCh. After 4 weeks of inconsistent training (we worked pretty regularly for the first 1-2 weeks I had him and I'm starting to revisit the daily sessions now) I would say overall he is a very good house dog; basically potty trained (still working on holding it overnight sometimes if I sleep late), he'll sit and down fairly reliably and I do trust him off-leash--his recall is the most rock solid thing about him, although sometimes he does make me use my "angry" voice if there's a squirrel in a tree nearby. He knows a handful of other commands, "wait", "leave it", "easy" (for playing with the cat), etc. I would say the two biggest things I'm having an issue with are heeling, both on and off leash, and his "fronts" or the comefore. He is a very submissive dog, and he will lean on me if he's unsure about something, but he really doesn't like being close to me for the sake of being close. It's so strange--this dog had to sleep on my neck the first week I had him but if I ask him to sit riiiight in front of me, he can't do it. He prefers to sit at least 3 inches away. I would say I lean more into the "traditional" methods of training, but I don't do straight compulsion. I am trying using a clicker with him and have had some small successes in targeting the heel, but what other exercises (are there any) to boost his confidence so he feels comfortable enough to sit in front of me and look up, and walk next to me without leaning? Are my expectations too high for an 8 month old? I don't plan on even thinking about showing until he's at least a year old so that gives me till the end of the summer.