Anyone any suggestions

This will be Jas' third week at training and the only prob we seem to have at the mo is he's very easily distracted by the other dogs.

We have tried distracting him with food but believe it or not.......he's not interested in the food

Anybody got any other suggestions I might try

Hi,

As I don't know exactly how & what your instructor is training my suggestions are necessarily general. First you need to train Jasper to 'watch' and to 'leave'. The rewards for compliance should be really very high value. E.g. if you are using kibble or cheese for normal rewards the rewards for 'watch' & for 'leave' should be special, something extra yummy, perhaps chicken, liver, sausage,. I have known smoked salmon to be used in desperate cases Use anything that will get his attention focussed on you.

If his attention turns toward another dog give the 'leave' command and, the instant he looks at you, reward. Similarly with watch. Hold a piece of food & raise your hand to between, or just above, your eyes. Say 'watch'. Again, the instant he makes eye contact reward & praise. The 'watch' should be practiced several times every day.

Don't get too uptight about it. Three weeks is not long and, for an older dog he is probably doing very well.

The main thing in obedience is to have your dog's attention, without that every exercise will fail..... This needs to be the first thing you teach your dog.... You may need to do it away from other distractions... Im not sure of your method of training, I use totally positive.... which means that when the dog looks at me he gets heaps of praise/reward... You said that food wasn't working.. can you tell me more about this... what food r u using, when did he eat last.. how r u using the food....

I'm sure I can give you some tips for teaching your dog to watch...

Donna T

Have you tried livercake Staffy?
Gus loved any treats but Libbys not as easy to "bribe" with food treats - although when someone at handling class tried her with liver cake she went potty for it

Thanx guy's for your suggestions.

SB will try him with a little cooked sausage in our next training class, unfortunately due to me not feeling well we couldn't go last night.

Donna, our trainer likes us to use the dogs normal food and we try not to feed him after 12pm on a Sunday so when he goes to his class on a Monday night's he's dying for something to eat (I'm not a huge fan of starving my dog for 24hrs unless he's ill). Even then I can hold out his food for him and he completely ignores it. He even pushes my hand away. If he looks at me I give him loads of praise and try and give him some food but then he will turn away and start watching all the other dogs.

Lel, thanx for your suggestion. I might try making them with Tuna or something and I'll give that a go too

you could always try to keep talking to him and keep his attention focused on you rather than the other dogs- but staffs are naturally nosey anyway

or maybe take a favourite toy- which you would need to keep for special occasions so he begins to see the toy as a treat if that makes sense...

Yep that's my problem right there Lel, he's a staff

Apparently they have a young staffy bitch pup in the class b4 mine and she's exactly the same.

I'll try the suggestons next week and let you know how we get on.

you see its not natural for a staffy to sit still while the trainer yabbers on and on - they want to be playing and doing exciting stuff

ell me about it, Jas is always being told off by the trainer, cos Jas just wants to bark and play. Quiet embarrassing really

One owner even mentioned how Jas was not so vicious last week as he was the first week he went. I did explain that Jas was not being vicious he just wanted to play

HI Staffy....... Ok so food is out... then you need to find something else that your dog wants more than life... ie.. ball, fav toy... you can just as easily use this as a training tool as food.... The process is slightly more difficult, but IMO the end results are even better... Let me know if your interested...

Donna T