The beginnings of "tug"
I worked on "tug" with Keisha earlier today. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. I've noticed that when teaching her something new for the first time she does a lot better if she is on her lead or if she can't run around the whole apartment.
She was in her crate, so I thought I would start out with her in there. I have an extra leash I had when she was a little puppy that has a broken clip. It's been on the door handle to the patio for a long time now, so I took it off and used it for her to tug with.
In a very short time she was tugging and having a lot of fun. She concentrates a lot better when there are not a lot of distractions and she knows she can't run around wherever she wants to. The next time we work on this, I will use her lead and then maybe go into the kitchen and work off lead., until we work up to doing it when she is free to explore the apartment and do whatever she wants.
I do keep the sessions short, and when she quits showing interest we stop. A lot of people wont agree with not letting her off lead from the beginning, but this is what works best for her. It's so hard to keep her attention at first if she is left to roam around and find other things that interest her.
She is "practicing" her "tug" with her leash on the door handle now. This one is going to be a very easy command to teach because she is really interested in doing it and has a lot of fun with it!
2 comments:
It makes sense to stop the teaching session when she looses interest. Quality training time is more important than demanding repetitive workouts. I think it would also create more trust and respect between the dog and the owner. If it was reversed and we were the dog, what style of training would we prefer? Hugs Kim from SisterNan.
I think your right. Both Sophie and Keisha work because they want to, not because they feel like they are being forced to.
Your comment about what kind of training I'd rather have reminded me of high school. We had 30 minute classes since starting school, but then in high school the classes were 50 minutes long. By the time the first 30 minutes were up, It was so hard to concentrate and I didn't feel like doing anything but count down the time until the class ended! The worst was having two math clases in a row!
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