I've had lots of lovely moments with shy rescue dogs that I've got to know as a dog walker for DT. The first time they were brought out to me there was this wariness & reluctance & a sort of "now what's going to happen?" resignation. But after I'd taken them for a few walks you suddenly see the recognition in their eyes as they see you, then their body language changes to wiggly "yeah, it's you!" & they come running towards you. And all I've done with these dogs is whatever I think they can manage ~ a few treats, a calm voice, sometimes just nothing that quiet walking with no eye contact is all they culd manage at first. But the change as they progress is so lovely

And with Wilma who was very quite wary of new people at first, shied away from body contact, very frightened of people coming towards her ~ she's now such a happy bunny & loves meeting new people ~ especially young children that will throw her ball Again, I didn't do any sort of formal training programme but just limited Wilma's exposure to anything scary, & just let her meet people I knew would understand her & not put any pressure on her. The rest she learned all by herself

Some fantastic results for postivie training! I think it's a much nicer atmosphere created with positive training rather than negative.

I think we have a few pages to catch up though...

Axel has also learnt 'lie down' and 'wait' using only positive methods. I agree with Tomthelurcher that the pointies can be trained too! It took a while before Axel was ready to learn 'tricks' as it were, but now he's doing great.

To teach lie down we simply held a treat on the floor and waited til he lay down and gave it him straight away while saying the word. After a few repetitions he clocked on and it's got faster and faster

Clicker training literally saved Ruperts life. I was about to have him put to sleep because he had no quality of life. He spent around 23 hours a day living under my bed, terrified of everything in the house and on the street. Even being spoken to scared him if the tone wasn't exactly right. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to speak in the exact same tone of voice all the time? Someone suggested I try clicker training for a month and if I got no results from that to go ahead and put him to sleep as there are fates worse than death.

I remember sitting on the floor by the bed clicking and piling treats in front of him. He wouldn't eat the treats then but he ate them at some point while alone. After a few days he'd crawl out from under the bed to huddle in my lap when I sat down on the floor and things got better from there. I taught him to touch my hand with his nose so I could move him around without speaking to him or touching him (he enjoyed being stroked but if he thought you wanted him to do something while you touched him he just melted into this black heap on the floor and went completely blank). From there I got him touching objects with his nose and his confidence just rocketed. Under the bed remained his safe spot but he started spending less and less time there and more time shadowing me around the house.

It's almost 7 years since I brought Rupert home and to see him now you would never know he was once going to be put to sleep for being too frightened to move from under a bed. The couch is now a good place to sleep rather than a dog eating monster. The sound of a packet of cooked meat being opened is a signal for him to run and sit in the kitchen doorway looking hopeful rather than a signal to shut down. Even the evil traffic cones no longer have the power to frighten him. And he is absolutely rock solid in heavy traffic. We've stood on a little island in the middle of a main road with traffic whizzing by in front of us and behind us and he didn't bat an eyelid. When I got him just one car moving slowly was enough to send him into a state of complete panic.

He still has his quirks. I still daren't speak to him if I'm not in a good mood as he'll shut down. He still shuts down if anyone tries to physically manipulate him. He's still very easily spooked. If I drop something and it makes a noise or if I make too much noise washing and drying dishes he'll head for his safe place but he no longer hides there shivering for hours.

So...although we haven't achieved anywhere near as much as others when it comes to obedience I think we've achieved a hell of a lot in other ways.

That is amazing, I never knew this about your dog. Poor boy! Well, not now, but back then! Excellent result for positive training for sure

Wys
x

THAT great achievement would be worth more to me than winning Crufts Sarah, it's a fantastic result, thanks to all that long, hard perseverence and dedication from YOU!

Tremendous achievement, Sarah. Your dog is so lucky.

Today, Max stopped barking at a passer-by when asked!

First of all i am a very proud mummy of Toby. The first 4 1/2 months was spent in an outbuilding. And we have only had him 5 weeks.
All his training has been with positive reinforcements.
House training - he is completely clean in house now
Sit, down and stand with hand signals and verbal commands.
His recall is good, in puppy class he was deliberately being distracted, which he was for a split second, i called him and he came straight away, the only dog to do so
we are working on stay at the moment.
I think our bigges atchievement is putting his colar and lead on, walking to the field with out fear, whining and crying
For our last puppy class we have to perform a trick, i know most of them are going to try give a paw but to be different i decided we should do jump through a hoop, not a huge jump cos he's only a puppy but he took to it really well, I am lucky he is very treat motivated.
The bond and love that is developing between toby and myself is amazing, I dont believe this would happen without the use of positive training

Thanks He's like a completely different dog now in most ways. Give him an audience and he becomes a first rate clown Great for making me look a fool and demonstrating how NOT to do certain exercises He does still have issues but he has a good quality of life now and I see no need to put him to sleep. He's certainly converted me to positive methods.

Mine is getting Ludo used to strangers. Don't get me wrong, he got very well socialised as a pup, but I guess his sheltieness took over as he got older and some bad experiences of people being scary when out and about put him right off. We've taught him through positive methods to do a nose touch on their hands and then he can back off. This keeps him and them happy as they've had contact too and he loves touching peoples hands now and isn't terrified trying to get away.