Are there any other dog trainers here?
I spent a lot of my youth training my dog for obedience and agility. I sorta-kinda got back into it about eight years ago when I got my first dog while living on my own. My trainer at the time stopped offering classes a few years ago. This was shortly after my dog and I competed in our first USDAA trial (which was a disaster, but that's to be expected).
I finally got around to ordering some new equipment (four jumps, a tunnel, and a set of weave poles), and I was reminded of how much fun it is! My dog (Loki, a 7 y/o Australian Shepherd) picked up right where we left off when I set up a super small course in the back yard at lunch today.
Does anybody else on Tildes compete or do any dog sports for fun? I'd love to hear what you're doing or any other stories about dog training people have. :)
I'm not a trainer or anything, but I do have an extremely athletic 2 year old Australian Shepherd mix who keeps me on my toes. He seems to love to work, but his small-apartment-in-a-big-city life doesn't afford him enough chances to actually frolic and protect flocks from wolves as he would like.
I've been considering getting him into some sort of agility training to give him more of a mental outlet, but it's tough getting around with him. I'm about to buy a car, though, so getting him around to the trainer and agility courses should be easier in post-pandemic times. I'd love to get advice from people on ways to keep him stimulated. He's a total mutt, so his behavioral tendencies can be all over the place, but he's got a strong work-drive and is extremely crafty and stubborn.
He does sound like a good candidate! There are plenty of basics (also called foundations) you can work on at home. The obstacles are the easiest part of agility for most dogs, while impulse control and ignoring distractions tend to be the hardest parts. I actually adopted Loki when I lived in an apartment, so I did a lot of mental games with him to teach impulse control. He has one of the best "wait" commands I've been able to teach any dog I've worked with.
We also do hide-and-seek with toys, where he gets on his bed, stays, and I hide a toy in another room. Started out pretty easy (out in the open), but now I can hide the toy under something and he'll work out where it is. That's definitely one of his favorite games, and it's very mentally exhausting for him.
Yes. He's very good at focusing if a treat is in front of him. The problem seems to actually be that he gets so focused he stops paying attention to commands. He just kind of cycles through every trick he knows how to do until he gets the reward. But when there is no reward on offer, he seems perfectly able to understand and obey commands. . . if he feels like it. Even the people who work at the doggy day-care say they've never met a dog who is so assertive about doing what he wants. We're lucky he just seems to like pleasing us most of the time.
I'm curious, is he toy motivated at all? Some dogs do better with that as a reward vs. treats/food.
I’d say he’s mostly play motivated these days. He loves playing tug or fetch, but cares less about other types of toys unless you play with him when he takes them. In fact, the best way to get his attention if he decides to run after a squirrel or something is to call his name and take off running in the opposite direction. He’s actually okay following commands unless he knows something is up.
For example, if I tell him to get in his crate normally he’ll do it with no fuss. But if he senses that I’m leaving home before telling him to get in the crate he will avoid doing it. At one point, he realized that if I changed into work clothes before feeding him in the morning I would leave him and if I changed after walking and feeding I would work from home. He would refuse to eat or go to the bathroom so I had to change back into my pajamas until he did his business and then change back into work clothes. After that I started getting ready before taking him out every time.
He really is just the most obstinate little thing.