Obedience for a 6 months puppy

[gilaort]

I keep reading about all the obedience and other training classes in the US, and I envy you guys. You have puppies classes, and than so many stages of training classes!

We have a 6 months female boxer. The first boxer in our life, after many other naturally obedient dogs. We find her very independent, and the gentle loving methods we used on our other dogs - don't apply here. She has her interests, and the cat in the kitchen is more attractive and interesting for her than us, calling her even with a treat...

We do have some training groups, and private trainers, but most of them use the choking collar, which I will use on this gentle dog only as a last means.

Our daughter (25) used to be a dog trainer during her military service, but the methods used in the army for adulst dogs, who were adopted by the army from rescue, are too violent, and don't seem to be suitable for the boxer.

I even had the book "The dog listener" sent to me through Amazon, but find it difficult to adopt its method.

Our puppy is so sweet and good, and is willing to listen, and it seems we don't know the right method to explain our demands. She knows well not to jump on the furniture, to sit and wait before crossing the road and sit and wait until permission is given - to start eating. but other things seem difficult to achieve.

Good luck to all the pupils in the training classes. Hope we will have an obedient dog after all too....

 

[neilsmom2000]

Hi there..

"Our puppy is so sweet and good, and is willing to listen, and it seems we don't know the right method to explain our demands. She knows well not to jump on the furniture, to sit and wait before crossing the road and sit and wait until permission is given - to start eating. but other things seem difficult to achieve."

Sounds like you're not doing to badly already! Your pup is still a baby, after all.
The Dog Listener was an okay book, imo, but The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson was even better (provided you can swallow her sarcasm and venom towards her peers and 99% of dog owners). I thought the Culture Clash really explained well the minds of dogs. If you ever took Psychology 101 in school, the Culture Clash will make sense to you, because it's all B.F. Skinner/Pavlov style training. I've found it extremely helpful in training Lara to do things that seemed very difficult early on.
Those are really the only two books I've read. Renee has suggested some other even better ones (I will get around to reading them, I promise!), maybe she could re-post the titles for you?
Good luck! Here's to being a pioneer of positive, gentle dog training in your country!

Barb and Lara

 

[Renee&Jake]

Good luck to all the pupils in the training classes. Hope we will have an obedient dog after all too....

If you're interested, the American Kennel Club (www.akc.org) has an outline for a basic 8 week training program which you can work on at home:

http://www.akc.org/love/cgc/guidelines.cfm

(and of course, you can take as many weeks as you want. You don't have to complete everything in 8 weeks).

Some of my favorite training books;
Training Your Boxer by Joan Hustace Walker
ASPCA Complete Dog Traning Manual by Bruce Fogle D.V.M.
and on Behavior:
Bones Would Rain From the Sky by Suzanne Clothier

I've also read The Dog Listener and while you won't catch me eating out of Jake's food Bowl or any of the other Alpha-related ideas, I think the basic principal of positive canine training does shine through in her book if you look hard enough (although it's too bad you have to look so hard.)

I've noticed a lot has been written about *new* positive training techniques, and sure, it might be just the techniques that are working.

But what I see, whether I am just training MY dogs, or helping someone else train their dogs, is that a conscious decision to be 'kinder' to your dogs, really opens the doors to you own ability to communicate with an animal. It isn't the clicker, or the quadrant training falls under, or what kind of treats you use. It is the fact that you 'put the leash down' so to speak and start working the mind - the mind of a dog, which is really an amazing animal, and one with it's own extensive vocabulary.

When we correct a dog in training, (such as a collar pop) is isn't going to change the way the dog is acting, only stop what it is the dog shouldn't be doing. As a dog owner, we still have to show the dog what we want. When training a dog became only about being harsh, a fair many dogs became labeled as stubborn or untrainable, when they were only being corrected, and not trained at all! Boxers fall right into that category.

As for the cat issue, try having the treat as close to her as the cat, and see if it helps. If Josie and my cat (any of the 3 cats) are on one end of the kitchen, and I am on the other with a cookie, saying "Here Puppy!" Josie won't fall for it for one second. If, however, she's on leash, I'm RIGHT there with the cookie, and I can be really active in helping her, she is more likely to make the right choice. It also helps if I make the decision to work on having Josie not chase cats, vs. waiting untill she IS chasing the cat, and completely engrossed in the cat before I try to get her to leave the cat alone.

Happy Training!

-Renee
Jakob CD,NA
Josie

 

[Slugger6969]

Don't Shoot The Dog

This book by Karen Pryor is a really good read. She's a behavorialist influnced by B.F. Skinner. She used to train dolphins so for nothing else, it's interesting to read how they train dolphins. She also has experience with many other dogs. Her premis is shaping the animal through positive reinforcement.