When I am training, my dog is engaged and excited and attentive. The connection with my dogs is vital in all we do together. You might think getting your dog focused entirely on you is ninja-level dog training, but it’s possible for everyone. Today I’m sharing with you one of the most important things you could be doing that will hurt engagement and connection with your dog, and how you can easily fix it.
In the episode you'll hear:
- What being at a party has to do with dog training.
- The ways inadvertent time outs impact on your dog’s confidence.
- How we can be present for our dogs.
- Where I see inadvertent time outs in the sport of dog agility.
- When I change tack to make things right in the world of my dog.
- One of the secrets about what I’d rather be when I’m with my dog.
- How to get focused attention from your dog.
- About being intentional when you are with your dog.
- Ways you can easily set your dog up for success.
- What I learned from Buzz about high drive dogs.
- How to be a Zen master when working with your dog.
I got about 1/4 through this and felt bad … I decided I could blame you, lol … I am on tablet a lot watching podcasts and your other online training videos … got feeling bad for her … so got two of her toys you put treats in … and played with those with her, then I did about 4 recalls down our hallway to get her exercised … (evening is one of her better times to play games … as a puppy this was her zombie time .. just before bedtime. Anyway she wanted to go out … let her take care of business in her area … then I did 4 recalls in backyard … grabbing collar before she got treat (we had already done the grab collar) thing. Then I had hubby do same thing twice. You coukd tell this was not enough. So … took her out in our large arena (used to have horses), and I have a combination obstacle course/agility items but don’t have tunnel yet and she loves the tunnel. Here in AZ where we live, it I’d 8 pm … 94 outside and she wanted to run … so we played a couple of fine mommy/daddy … not quite enough yet so I sort of let her choose what to do … lol,, I think she only missed one item … she took off on her own and did 2 ‘walks’, a regular size A frame, a smaller A frame … over teeter, 2 jumps, I also have a small set of stairs hubby made for as a puppy but large enough for even at 3 … the only she skipped was weave piles so I made her do that slowly to bring her down some. Mind you she wasn’t running for competition speed … just her zombies speed … walked back to house … came for about 5 min … went to get a drink … and now is resting … lol, so now I am back on tablet to watch some more videos of yours. Never thought of that telling her I’m too busy for you. But will say … my attention is always on her while walking her. Never on phone unless an emergency. Lol, now I have to finish watching this podcast 🤗
Thx so much. I am that disorganized owner running back to get this and that!
I had never thought about it this way.
Will try harder!
Yet another revelation! Yes, I do give inadvertent time outs. It comes when I end games. I will start celebrating each time we play. Great information and another way to see my dog.
This podcast part was great! My biggest weakness is that I can’t spin myself up and pull the dog up to make me feel like working with me so we both vibrate moderately or low. I try, but somehow I didn’t figure out what would help to have a good party with my dog 🙂
Susan, yet another excellent episode! I just stumbled upon this podcast not too long ago. I have shared this episode with my students (I teach introduction to Novice obedience class). I’ve encouraged all of them to sign up.
Even though I’m not new to dogs or training I love learning and all your episodes are just loaded with great information! One example is counter surfing problem I’m having with my dog. Boy, you did make me squirm asking question…Does you dog ever lick dishes in the dishwasher? Bottom line is we are taking action and working on this!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your passion for people developing awesome relationships with their dogs.
Susan, love your podcast. Been listening every time I get since I discovered it two weeks ago.
With this episode in mind. What is the best way to end a training session? Or how do you end your sessions.
Keep on making this podcast.
Love from Belgium.
Thanks for doing this series, Susan, for a first time dog owner and a lifetime dog lover like me, it is a goldmine. As for the inadvertent timeout in particular, I just started having a hunch about that maybe being a thing a couple days ago. I am teaching my dog a toy cleanup game. I throw out a few toys, three as of now but aiming to increase the number, and doggo needs to bring them back into a bucket. She was doing a stellar job on this session, so I thought I would video her for bragging purposes 🙂 So I threw the toys out, took out my phone, started filming her…and only managed to film a dog who had no focus and was just sniffing around. So i put the phone away, and played another perfect round of the game. Tried filming her again, same thing. Then it started occuring to me that maybe having me watching her play the game and cheering her up and being proud of her is a lot more important to her than I was giving it credit. I guess I will need to get a tripod for the phone in the future.
Thank you Susan!!!! I’m guilty of that on our walks…..from now on this changes me!!!!!! Thank you thank you!!!!_
Fabulous message and timely. Thank you Susan!
Loved this. Thank you Susan. I have a 2 year old high energy saluki/spaniel (we think). He has become so much better at recall since starting Recallers (we are now on game 30). However, he comes in so fast when I recall him that he just flies past me instead of stopping do you have any suggestions please ?
Can you do a podcast about stimulus control? Touching on points like how you get behaviours under stimulus control, how you differentiate between free shaping sessions and more structured sessions. I have discovered since I started shaping and not luring, that a lot of my dogs behaviours are not under stimulus control. The offering is starting to interfere with training sessions.