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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on February 2, 2013 at 6:33pm

No, just keep it up, you're on the right track :-)

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on February 2, 2013 at 6:47pm

Oh,I will add that  some dogs respond well to a toy, thrown at the end of the routine, as a reward rather than a treat.  Some breeds use tug of war, in this same fashion. Reward is anything the dog responds to, even just verbal praise is enough for some dogs.  I personally never used food in obedience training except for puppies and for the recall. i had one dog that I took to CDX and only worked for food, I never wanted that again, it's not very satisfying, and thereafter looked to work with dogs that were motivated by the desire to work ( which is different than the desire to please, although that will get you results just as well ), rather than only by food.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 2, 2013 at 7:21pm

Have you tried getting her to associate her name with treats?  This works for some dogs and not others.  Basically, when you are NOT doing obedience, you say her name and when she looks at you, you jackpot her.  IF it works, after a few times she will get just as excited by your saying her name as she does by food.  

For me, this works wonderfully for my airheaded Madison.  If I say "Maddie Maddie Maddie!" in a happy voice, she practically pops out of her skin she gets so happy.   (I did this specifically to train her to stop hounding the cat).  So if we are doing heel work and she's lagging, all I have to say is her name and I get a perfect response.

Jack, my thinker, could not care less whether I say his name or not.  He works happily when his agenda matches mine and otherwise blows me off.  Jack would have been a great farm dog, but is an awful obedience dog.  I can count on him to not only follow, but enforce, house rules whether I'm there or not, once I get buy-in from him.  But random meaningless obedience commands?  Forget it.  He's a very independent dog (which is basically what we asked the breeder for) and therefore would make a not-so-good competition dog.  

Maddie is a happy follower who rarely has an independent thought and honestly would be an A+ competition dog if I put the work into her.  

My only other suggestion is to be truly random with your rewards.   Sometimes, make her heel for only two steps and then stop and jackpot her.  Other times make her do several patterns before her reward.  And everything in between.

The other thing is to practice frequent changes of speed and direction to keep her attention on you.   Jack will heel beautifully for speed and direction changes, but not so well in a straight line because it bores him to tears.  Maddie is beautiful at heel on or off leash.  Again, personality is as big a part of this as training.  I think Anna alludes to this in her response when she mentions choosing dogs who are motivated to work for you; some just will never make the cut.  

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on February 3, 2013 at 2:33am

Just keep practicing and use lots of verbal praise. We're getting ready to do our first rally competition, at the end of February! I'd love some advice myself, like what do I need to take and how do I get rid of the butterflies?

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