training the new dog

[josebrwn]

Butch,
I got a new dog, 19 month old adoption, who has some training. He's getting settled in and I've been starting him out on some low-key heeling, trying to introduce him to the idea of eye contact and heeling off leash. His previous owner was a pretty good trainer (Koehler Method - you know it?) and the dog seems to have an automatic sit, which is good.

Otherwise, lots of challenges. PLATZ seems to mean lie down on your side and look up at me all goofy. And there's the distraction of another dog. Put one one the pole and drill the second in sight of the first? Put one away entirely? My training "facility" is an unkempt back yard.

Also, we are headed to two different training clubs this weekend. The dog is supposed to be good with other animals, I've noticed him being very alert around strange dogs but no hackles or pulling or anything. Still he's an unknown quantity.. What do I prepare for, think about, purchase? Prong collar? Bullwhip? :)

[josebrwn]

http://www.bessie.tv/images/jpg/elpresa/latest/Dscn0757.jpg

what have I learned so far? two dogs, are two DIFFERENT dogs!! wow.... for all their similarities, abilities, interests, aptitudes, they are markedly different. both are typical, willful guardian breeds, but this is more pronounced in my female. I don't know if I'm a better trainer now or he's a quicker learner or both but it's taking minutes for him to get something it took weeks for my female. he has a lot of promise and right now I'd say there's nothing she could do he couldn't do better. except maybe weight pull, but we'll see about that.

he is calm and gentle, very gentle. we couldn't interest him much in the decoy - he'd never been to club before and when all the other dogs fired up, you could just see the wheels turning in his mind as he looked around from one dog to another, fascinated. "What's going on?!" :) He did eyeball other dogs a few times and I'd distract him with quick OB drills, foos turn sit down turn foos ....... down.

logistically, it's a bit of a challenge bringing two dogs to school. tie-outs really help. so far it worked pretty well, I drilled Brick with the puppies yesterday leaving Bess tied out then worked them one at a time in agitation. but, this is all very new to me, how do people go forward working and training two dogs?

[josebrwn]

well golly I am talking to myself eh? that's ok, kinda known for that, heh..

that picture speaks volumes about these two dogs.... so man o man, did some OB drills this afternoon with the dogs, used the prong but kept them in drive with a favorite toy. here's how I did it for you multi-dog challenged families.

1. put Brick (lesser trained) dog on tie out (porch rail, cotton horse lunge line, 10' long) where he could see everything but not interfere.

2. worked Bess in drive simple foos, turns, sitz, on leash. Off leash and a couple sitz out of motion and one platz.

3. reward with a run for the puppy sleeve. (she still won't bite the hard sleeve :toomad: )

4. switch dogs.

Brick is picking up sooo quickly, in one session made all kinds of progress, introduced the sitz out of motion (dropping the leash) he almost has it.

then, oh boy, the sleeve. I wore the puppy sleeve, ONCE. He came in so fast and so hard I just about dropped a load. I kind of let him miss the bite. It was just scary. On with the hard sleeve and he was SO PROUD.. just a joy to work with. This dog has never been agitated - this is not my job - and in SchH they don't really do that - now the big question ......... if I only train at Schutzhund......... HOW do I prepare this bad boy for K9PS?

;)

[ButchCappel]

Jose
Sorry about that. I posted something yesterday, guess I didn't push the right buttons to get it up!

If I remember all that was in the past posts, I think I was not sure if there was a question or just a statement. Let me recap the other post.
1. Very familiar with Koehler. Still refer to his books a lot. Basic concept
is to teach all new things in distraction free areas to insure the dog has max chance to learn, then add distractions, very effective and all it takes is patience.
2. Use the collar that works at the time. Keep compulsion to minimum so you always have somewhere else to go.
3. Females are usually a little more handler oriented, so your improved skills are probably a major reason this dog is learning faster, for this your new dog should say thanks to you, and the female dog you learned on.

You seem to have figured out the 2 dog thing quite well, dogs do learn a lot from watching other dogs, especially if they are all part of the same pack.

As to the ScH & K9PS question, it really shouldn't matter. Sch is very prey oriented these days so getting him sleeve oriented works for ScH. Because he is a mastiff he will have a defensive nature and that drive with the basic responsibility to protect the pack is what we use in K9PS to make a proper PP dog. So because of his nature he can learn ScH very well and when threatened with a little more realisitic PP work should still respond quickly and well.

Hope that answers it all, and sorry for the delay

[josebrwn]

Hey Butch,

Thanks for the reply. I found an out of print Koehler book I think I'll order. They're hard to find.

Felt I needed to clarify, nothing to do with your comments, Butch, that I wasn't talking about doing "sleeve work" with my dog. This is just Drive, Focus, and Grip.

Joe