can I teach my old Dog a new trick?

[Pepperchini]

My dog, a 7-year-old border collie and GR mix named Pepper, just recently had her electric fence broken. Since she did not stay in the yard very well with the electric fence (as soon as she saw a squirrel or bunny, she'd go for it) she was doomed to the leash. My dog needs her excersise, and because she is a big dog, she gains weight easily. I'm wondering if there is ANY way I could get her to stay in the yard without any leash or electric fence, or if that is out of the question.....

PS- I also am wondering if I could get her to walk besides me on walks with no leash...I don't know if that would work, considering that she loves squirrels and bunnies....

 

[Roxy's CD]

Hmmm.. My guys will stay in the yard, but I never leave them out there un supervised... Too much can go wrong...

A large part of keeping your dog in a certain radius is obedience. Does Pepper have any basic obedience? Taken any novice classes or anything?

Well, before you can heel her off leash, she has to know how to heel on leash, 100%. Once she understands the concept of heelin on leash, than you can practice off leash, start somewhere safe, like your back yard. Keep it happy and up beat, (You want her to WANT to be by your side)

Ex) Pepper, heel, good heel pepper, come on that's a girl... have lots of treats, when she's in the position you want her to be big praise and treats (not too much, she'll get excited and forget what she did that was good! LOL)

You know your dog better than anyone else. If you think that you could keep control of her off leash, than give it a try, of course in your back yard first.

A bit more info and I might be able to help you out more... I'm kinda tired right now, lol

 

[Pepperchini]

Thank you so much Roxy! I really appreciate your help. Pepper is a bit of a handful, and since I am quite young I do not really have much experience training, but I have the patience to do it and the will. Pepper is good at heeling on the leash, but I think I could improve her a bit more. It's a good thing my dog likes treats, or she probably would try to wander off. I am concerned about one major issue: other dogs/ animals. Pepper has hunting blood in her, so she does try to go after squirrels and rabbits. Also, the neighbor lets her dog roam freely, and the dog comes into our yard often. How can I control this behaviour...or can I?

 

[Roxy's CD]

Hmm. as for chasing other animals... By guys don't really bother going for other dogs as long as their not coming to me, or in our direction. But squirrels/birds etc, yes they do chase them, but in the park away from the road. They go out in the front yard to eliminate and if they see a bird, before they take off they'll usually stand at attention. Strong position eyes intent on the bird/squirrel. As soon as I see this is give them a command, like "watch me" or "come" to break their focus on whatever I don't want them to chase.

Do you know the watch me exercise? Is Pepper familiar with it? Have you practiced heeling her off leash in the back yard yet?

 

[Pepperchini]

NO, I am not familar with the watch me excerise, and neither is my dog. Could you explain it to me the best you can? If you can I will be very grateful. No to the practicing heeling, there has been very bad weather in Wisconsin lately, and also today I am working on a rec. room.. I'd rather be training my dog, but the basement is my first priority. I am planning on having time later tonight, though!

 

[Roxy's CD]

Ok, so there's many different variations the point=

When you say "watch me!" your dog looks at you. Pretty simple.

Ok so the way I did it to start, was I got Roxy to sit. I stood directly in front of her.

You hold a treat up to your face and say watch me, they'll most definitely look at the treat. Give them the treat. Repeat this 10 times.

Ok so now, hold the treat out to your side directly, arm straight.
Pepper will probably follow the treat with her eyes, when she's staring directly at the treat say "watch me!", as soon as she looks at you reward her very quickly. (It's also very important that you don't give her the treat from the hand that was out, keep your other hand behind your back with the treats and feed her from that hand)

She should pick up very quickly that looking at the treat in your hand doesn't get her the treat. She has to look at you. You know that she's improving when she automatically looks back at you without you having to give her the command. When she does this say "Good watch me" and reward. When she's consistently looking at you from this position it's time to move on.

Next I get the dog to sit, I stand in front of them and say "watch me", usually pointing to my eyes. I'll walk around the dog, she should follow you with her eyes, switching sides when you get around behind her. When you get back to the front, "Good watch me Pepper!" Reward.

Practice this often. Once you've done the intro to the exercise, the first two, you can do it anywhere, but you have to have treats to reward her! If she's lying down and your just sitting on the couch, "watch me", if she looks up at you treat.

 

[Pepperchini]

Thank you so much for your help. I am going to try this out right now, and I'll get back to you with the results later.

 

[Roxy's CD]

Ok. I'll keep checking to see if you've posted

 

[Pepperchini]

Alright. For about an hour we worked on everything you taught me. The beginning was really frusterating because Pepper wanted the treats so badly she kept barking and barking....anyways, we made progress. she started to settle down after she caught on to what I wanted her to do, but she still was barking a bit.

I have a question: when I circled Pepper with the treat, she didn't quite sit through the whole process, she sometimes stood up and followed me, pivoting on her hind leg. Is that ok? I wasn't sure, but I tried correcting her anyways and it didn't quie work.

Anyways, she seems to be doing quite well, and I will continue this tomorrow for a bit. What else do I need to do to train her to walk along side me?

 

[Roxy's CD]

It's ok if she moves a bit to start, at least she's got the idea that she's suposed to be watching you! That's great!

Keep working on the "watch me".

How I started heeling Roxy off leash (I can't heel Hades off leash yet):

After her run and she was tired out on the way home, (we heel on the way home anways), once on our street, it's empty at eleven o'clock at night, I tell her to heel, completely normal, than I would just place the leash on her back, out of my hands, but I can grab it very quickly should anything happen, ex)car is coming, I see a cat/squirrel etc.

Basically the first couple of times you don't want her to know that your not on the other end of the leash. (This is why she has to already be good at heeling on leash, if she pulls at all she'll quickly be out of your reach. A good heel,means no tension in the leash) Than start sitting her, and showing her that you are no longer holding onto the leash, keep the routine the same. When you feel supremely confident that is NOT going to take off, you can try off leash, But remember your always doing this in some kind of controlled environment. Ex) parks late at night, backyards etc.

Good luck.

 

[Roxy's CD]

Oh and if she's giving you some kind of unwanted behaviour when your working on the "watch me", like barking I give a very strict sounds "ssshhhhtttt", not "shuush" but "shhhhht".... If you can understand that. Don't go on like "Pepper! Stop Barking! That's enough! No more barking!" etc. Just one quick "sssshhht".

 

[Pepperchini]

thank you. Later I will be able to practice more with Pepper. I'll get back to you later with her results. Thank you so much!

 

[Pepperchini]

OH! Ok I get it! Before I was trying to shush her with saying "quiet" and stuff! I will definitely do that! Thanks....again!

 

[Roxy's CD]

That's one technique I got from Cesar Milan that I use.. LOL

One of the episodes I watched he kept doing it when the dog was barking at the door. (The problem with the dog was they had it at their work place and he would bark whenever clients came in) He said it works on any type of unwanted behaviours. I use it with my guys all the time. For stuff like: getting over excited and barking while training, barking for no reason (at ghosts! LOL) etc.

the "ssshhhht", to people would be like, rudely telling you to shut up, or a teacher in class telling the kids to shut up and listen while "sssshhh" it just like, "Hey be quiet, do you hear that" lol. I don't know, it works great on my guys.

Can't wait for updates

 

[Pepperchini]

I'm working on everything, and it's coming along great. We need more time, though. I'm trying to train her every day. the SHUSH thing is working great. She stops barking and stares at me when I do it. I think she thinks I have issues when i do that! LOL

 

[RudyBaby]

Just wanted to say this is great advice. I adopted a 5 yr old dog in January and have had problems training/leash training him so I'm sure this will definately help.