How to get Dottie's attention when there are distractions?

Hi,

If any of you read my previous posts, I'll give a quick update first. It's been quite hard work but Dottie is settling in really well now. She has stopped trying to break out of her crate when we leave her and we are building up the time and she now sleeps happily at night (although she is still in the bedroom with us at the moment).

The problem we have now (and it's not a major one) is that she has moments where she gets so focussed on something that I can't get her attention whatever I do. Normally it's squirrels, sometimes it's birds. If there aren't any distractions we have pretty good recall and even when there are smaller distractions she's pretty good but there are areas of the park that whenever she gets near it is almost impossible to get her to even look at me.

This morning I took her to the edge of one of the areas, made her sit and treated her every time she looked towards me. It seemed to work quite well so I let her have a run/look around the area as well. I then put her back on her lead and tried the same in a different area but this time I couldn't get her attention at all-the one time she did look at me, she refused her favourite treat. Am I doing the right thing and do I just need to persevere or is there something else I should do?

Also, last thing-is it possible to allow her to chase squirrels but stop her chasing sheep? Or would it just be easier to stop her chasing anything? I'm not bothered if she catches a squirrell but I don't want her worrying sheep.

Thanks,
Scott

This article may be worth a read
http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk/how-do-...y-dog-chasing/

It may be that you're expecting a little bit too much from Dottie - if your recall is only "pretty good" when there are no distractions, to expect the same when there are high distractions may be shooting a little high for now. With dogs, it's important to take babysteps - never try to do something if you're not as near to 100% at a slightly easier "difficulty" - so rather than "pretty good", aim to get it as near perfect as possible, then work on it with small distractions, until you've got that totally nailed, before you think about expecting a recall with major distractions. You could try working on her focus in general - again, work on it with no distractions and slowly build up to achieving this with more and more distractions. Commands such as "watch me" (making/holding eye contact), "look at that" (glance at the interesting object and glance back at you), a "check in" command when she's off-lead just to encourage her to come back to you every so often when she's loose, etc. could all help.
I don't know if you have kids but it can help to remember that dogs are similar to children in a lot of ways. Imagine trying to get a young child to sit quietly and listen to you if you walked into a party with clowns, music, balloons, sweets, etc. all around catching their attention. Imagine how much harder this would be if they hadn't been fully taught to sit quietly even at home in a quiet room, or out in a fairly quiet park. If you build solid foundations then it makes it easier to work with the dog as the distractions increase

Thanks, I'll have a read now.

I'm not expecting recall from her as yet, just some sort of recognition that I am there would be nice. I am definitely still working on recall (and definitely still need to) without distractions and aiming to build up. At the moment though she won't even walk past some areas of the park on the lead without me pretty much dragging her and I'm not sure how that will change if I can't even get the slightest bit of attention from her.

Scott

Haha I know that problem all too well. James was exactly like that 1.5 months ago
Keep in mind that if he doesn't pay you attention, he can not help it in any way. I know all too well that it can be frustrating if you feel ignored but once a dog goes in 'hunting mode' as we at home call it, his other senses are actually lowered to focus more on his scent. Instead of thinking that he's ignoring you, just think to yourself 'aaah the ears / eyes are switched off again...'.

Just keep at it with the attention training (the 'look at me'-training + recall + I've found that once they have 'sit' fully under control it's easier to snap them out of it) and always make sure you have very smelly treats with you to distract him
And yeah, one step at a time and eternal patience will help

Take a look at the recall article below, it explains how to train a reliable recall and the importance of lowing all criteria to zero everytime you take your dog to a “new” place. Dogs do not do generalising very well.

Recalling a dog when there is nothing better than you to entertain her, is simple. So you need to make yourself the centre of the universe (see below).

Also recalling a dog that is in hot pursuit of a (insert relevant animal) requires good control. But it is preferable NEVER to allow a dog to chase anything other than what you have redirected this chase drive onto ie a ball, Frisbee etc.

If you allow dogs to practise chasing anything they get better at it. And I think you might be bothered if your dog CAUGHT a squirrel as their teeth can cause TERRIBLE injuries to dogs (and humans).

Once the dog gets its adrenaline rush on chasing squirrels it can then leak to other animals such as rabbits, hare, cats, deer, and small dogs. It is simple to keep dogs away from sheep, not so simple to keep them away from wildlife and domestic pets.

A dog exhibits behaviour chains which form a functional predatory sequence.

Orient – stalk – chase-catch – kill –dissect – consume

So, if allowed to practise this chain you will have a lot of dead animals on your hands.

If the dog stops at the third step chasing, (unlikely with your breed) you may not have any dead animals, bar your own of course……….. as it could run into a road/railway line and be killed or cause an RTA and injury/death to road users.

So even if you muzzle your lurcher, the risk to your dog and others remains.

You have a breed that was designed to chase therefore you must be vigilant.

Why can’t I get a reliable recall? ‘

Come’ is no harder to train than any other behaviour but in real life it has a huge number of criteria that have to be raised one at a time in order to guarantee success.
Often when puppies are brought home to their new owners this is the first time they have ever been separated from their dam and siblings and so they naturally attach themselves to their new family by following them about everywhere. Owners find this quite attractive and wrongly assume that this trait will continue into adolescence/adulthood, whatever the circumstances. A dangerous trap to fall into…

At some point in time, usually from around 6 – 10 months, depending on the individual, “Velcro” dog will morph into “Bog off” dog (this is especially true of a breed that has been developed to exhibit a high degree of initiative). This is the time when owners suddenly realize that their dog will not recall when it sees another dog/person etc. Not only is this inconvenient but potentially dangerous as the dog could be at risk of injury from a car/train/another dog etc.

How and when do I start with a puppy?

My advice is to prepare for this inevitability from the day you take your puppy home. If you are lucky the breeder will have started this process whilst still in the nest by conditioning the puppies to a whistle blown immediately before putting the food bowl down during weaning.
Dogs learn by cause and effect ie sound of whistle = food. If you, the new owner, continue this from the moment your puppy arrives you will lay down strong foundations for the future.

By using the whistle in association with meals/food you need to establish the following criteria:
• Come from across the room.
• Come from out of sight
• Come no matter who calls
• Come even if you are busy doing something else
• Come even if you are asleep.
• Come even if you are playing with something/someone else
• Come even if you are eating

Once this goal has been realized in the house, drop all the criteria to zero and establish the same measures, one at a time, in the garden.

Once this goal has been realized in the garden, drop all the criteria to zero and establish the same measures, one at a time, in the park/field etc.

To train this, or any other behaviour:

1. Make it easy for the dog to get it right
2. Provide sufficient reward

Do not expect a dog to come away from distractions in the park until you have trained it to come to you in the park when no diversions are around. Be realistic and manage your expectations; your sphere of influence/control over your dog may be only 20m to begin with, therefore do not hazard a guess that the dog, at this level of training, will successfully recall from 50m or more away. Distance, like every other criterion, must be built up over time.

Some simple rules to follow when training the recall:

• Whistle/signal/call only once (why train the dog to deliberately ignore your first command?)
• Do not reinforce slow responses for the dog coming eventually after it has cocked its leg, sniffed the tree etc (you get what you train!)
• If you know that the dog will not come back to you in a certain situation, go and get him rather than risk teaching him that he can ignore you. (If you have followed the programme correctly you will never put your dog in a position to fail).
• Practise recalling the dog, putting him on the lead for a few seconds, reinforce with food/toy etc and immediately release the dog. Do this several times during a walk etc so that the dog does not associate a recall with going on the lead and ending the walk or being put on the lead with the cessation of fun.
• Eventually, when the behaviour is very strong, alternate rewards ie verbal praise, physical praise, food, toy and also vary the “value” of the rewards, sometimes a plain piece of biscuit, sometimes a piece of cooked liver etc so that you become a walking slot machine (and we all know how addictive gambling can be)!

In my experience recall training should be consistent and relentless for the first two years of a dog’s life before it can be considered truly dependable. You should look on it as a series of incremental steps, rather than a single simple behaviour, and something that will require lifelong maintenance.

What about an older or rescue dog?

Follow the same programme as outlined above however for recalcitrant dogs that have received little or no training, I would recommend dispensing with the food bowl and feeding a dog only during recalls to establish a strong behaviour quickly.

Your training should be over several sessions a day, which means you can avoid the risk of bloat. It is essential that the dog learns that there will be consequences for failure as well as success.

Divide the day’s food ration up into small bags (between10 – 30), if the dog recalls first time, it gets food, if it does not, you can make a big show of saying “too bad” and disposing of that portion of food (either throw it away or put aside for the next day).

Again, raise the criteria slowly as outlined in puppy training.

Hunger is very motivating!

For those of you who believe it unfair/unhealthy to deprive a dog of its full daily ration, not having a reliable recall is potentially life threatening for the dog ……………

How do I stop my dog chasing joggers/cyclists/skateboarders/rabbits/deer?

Chasing something that is moving is a management issue. Do not put your dog in a position where it can make a mistake. Again you need to start training from a pup but if you have already allowed your dog to learn and practise this behaviour you may need to rely on a trailing line until your dog is desensitised to these distractions and knows that listening to you results in a great reinforcement. Chasing is a behaviour much better never learned as it is naturally reinforcing to the dog, which makes it hard for you to offer a better reinforcement. If you want to have a bombproof recall while your dog is running away from you then use the following approach:

Your goal is to train so that your dog is totally used to running away from you at top speed, and then turning on a sixpence to run toward you when you give the recall cue.

You need to set up the training situation so that you have total control over the triggers. For this you will need to gain the co-operation of a helper. If you have a toy crazy dog you can practice this exercise by throwing a toy away from the dog towards someone standing 30 or 40 feet away. At the instant the toy is thrown, recall your dog! If the dog turns toward you, back up several steps quickly, creating even more distance between the you and the toy and then throw another toy in the opposite direction (same value as one thrown)..

If the dog ignores you and continues toward the thrown object, your “helper” simply picks the ball up and ignores dog. When dog eventually returns (which it will because it’s getting no reinforcement from anyone or anything), praise only. Pretty soon the dog will start to respond to a recall off a thrown toy. You will need to mix in occasions the toy is thrown and the dog is allowed to get it ie you do NOT recall if you want to make sure it does not lose enthusiasm for retrieving.

For the food obsessed dog, you can get your helper to wave a food bowl with something the dog loves in it and then recall the dog as soon as you let it go to run towards the food; again if the dog ignores you and continues to the food, your helper simply ensures the dog cannot access the food and start again. (It is extremely important that the helper does not use your dog’s name to call it for obvious reasons).

Gradually increase the difficulty of the recall by letting the dog get closer and closer to the toy/food. Praise the moment the dog turns away from the toy/food in the
early stages of training. Don't wait until the dog returns to you; the dog must have instant feedback.

Once the dog is fluent at switching directions in the middle of a chase, try setting up the situation so that it is more like real life. Have someone ride a bike/run/skate past. (It is unrealistic to factor in deer/rabbits however if your training is thorough the dog will eventually be conditioned to return to you whatever the temptation in most contexts).

Until your training gets to this level, don't let the dog off-lead in a situation in which you don't have control over the chase triggers. Don't set the dog up to fail, and don't allow it to rehearse the problem behaviour. Remember, every time a dog is able to practise an undesirable behaviour it will get better at it!

Most people do not play with toys correctly and therefore the dog is not interested in them or, if it gets them, fails to bring it back to the owner.

Play the two ball game, once you have a dog ball crazy. Have two balls the same, throw one to the left, when the dog gets it, call him like crazy waving the next ball; as he comes back throw the other ball to the right and keep going left right so that YOU are the centre of the game and the dog gets conditioned to return to you for the toy. Once this behaviour is established you can then introduce the cues for out and then make control part of the game ie the game is contingent on the dog sitting and then progress to a sequence of behaviours.

HTH

Thanks beachlover and smokeybear.

Smokeybear, are you saying that I can't do anything more immediate to get her attention while she is fixated on something else? We are working on the recall and it is getting better but I am realistic and know that it's not going to be 100% for quite a while yet. In the meantime, it would be nice to be able to do something to get her attention back to me rather even when she is on the lead. When I have her attention, she actually walks to heel really well.

Scott

Silly q..how much do you play with her at home, and how much access does she have to her toys at home?

Not a silly question at all. I would love to play with her more but we have only just found a toy that she is interested in at all. Even then, she has a pretty short attention span with it. I know we should always leave her wanting more but it's really difficult to do-sometimes she will play for 5mins and still be wanting to play and other times she'll look just as enthusiastic then stop after 30secs and show no interest at all.

To be honest, at the moment, we are so happy that she has started playing at all as she showed no interest in any toys until about a week ago. I've never been so happy to hear a squeaky toy being squeaked!

have you tried tug of war?

Yeah, no interest whatsoever in a raga-I've tried pulling it along the floor, ticling her nose with it and all sorts. She just stands there and looks at me as if I am slightly mad.