Will hot dogs help?

[clearlykoi]

Thor completed his 8 week basic obedience class a month ago. My instructor told me he was ready for advanced class. Im not sure why she said advanced not intermiedate. But, I trust her very much. He did do very well in basic, but still had attention issues. I didn't use very many treats.

Now, Im worried about his advanced class. Today we went on a "training session" to the pet store. Thor was horrible. He was on a choke chain and not his haltie, and paid me no attention, and when he saw another dog he was back to his old hyper self. I had a ton of soft chewy treats that I was sticking in front of his nose, but he didn't care one bit. Im the first to admit with the cold weather, we haven't gone outside for much training, and just basics in the house, but it still seems like he was over board.

Im hoping that changing to a more desirable treat, like hot dogs, might help during my January class, if I can't get it under control by then at least.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[boxer]

Why do you have a puppy on a choke chain? You might find that using positive rather than coercive training methods makes it easier to get your dog's attention in that sort of situation (ie. when the 'reward' of pulling and other dogs is a greater motivator than the correction delivered by a chain).

 

[Kerry Jane]

I would recommend continuing to train with him and also to try other treats to see if you can find one that he really likes - hotdogs would be good to try. However, a treat that he might really like at home might not be good enough when there are other dogs around.
My girl, Star, is very well behaved at obedience class (or at home) and does everything that I ask her to, but if I take her to a pet store, or the park she goes crazy. You need to train your dog in many different scenarios to ensure that they will behave well wherever you take them.
The way he behaves at the pet store is no indication of the way he will behave in class.

 

[Jan]

You need to find what treats work. You usually need a selection of treats as different ones work for different things. It also usually helps if they are hungry.

 

[clearlykoi]

I hope you are right Kerry, and that the petstore wont be the same as training again. I take him to the store a lot, so I guess I figured he'd be use to it now, but the other uncontrolled dogs do put a damper on his training.

As for "Why do you have a puppy on a choke chain", he is not a puppy. He is three years old, and the choker is not used to pull him around, but the sound of the chain does get his attention more. Once I got basic control over him, and he did well on his Halti, we moved to the choke chain, since he doesn't pull much at all, if any. Like I said right now its more of an attention issue.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[gmacleod]

Before the issue of the choke chain goes any further, I'll just remind everyone of the Rules for posting on this website.

From the rules:

Topics inappropriate for discussion here include:
__discussion of deliberate use of devices or practices that cause or have the potential to cause physical trauma to a dog. Boxerworld does recognise that people do have genuine questions regarding training tools (prong collars, mousetraps etc) and methods, but we support and promote wholeheartedly positive training and behavior management, that is, teaching the dog what to do by using positive methods, not teaching a dog what not to do by causing it discomfort and pain. Any threads which appear to promote "negative" training and methods will be closed.

Clearlykoi: Choke chains are right at the forefront of devices that have the potential to cause physical trauma to a dog. And as stated in the rules, Boxerworld wholeheartedly supports the use of positive training methods only. We will *not* allow the use of choke chains to be promoted on this site. If you want to ask questions about why such devices should not be used, or about why positive training methods are a better way to go, then go ahead. Otherwise, I suggest that this topic be considered closed.

Here is a recent thread on the issue FYI: http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64158

 

[mancin]

Im hoping that changing to a more desirable treat, like hot dogs, might help during my January class, if I can't get it under control by then at least.

I've had really good luck w/ using hot dogs w/ Tyson. I use chopped up pieces of hot dog when I take him to the dog park to call him back to me. The first time I went to the dog park I brought some Old Mother Hubbard treats, and when I called him to me and tried to give him a treat for coming, he wouldn't eat it. I guess it wasn't as interesting as the other dogs! Nevertheless, that first time I had a hard time w/ calling him back to me. After I started using hot dogs as a treat, he comes much more frequently (sometimes without me calling him.... he'll sit in front of me and stare as if to say "OK mom, here I am. Where's my treat?")
Long story short, hot dogs work great for me, so I think it's worth a shot!