new Schutzhund club - OG Landshark

[icvanstra]

Not sure what opinion to pick out of your 'First friends' remark in the last paragraph?
Are you in agreement with the middle of the road attitude, or do you prefer harsher or softer treatment?
To me too, it is ask, tap, spank. More or less. So I am wondering what your preference is.

First Friends is the name of the place that I went to right after I got Abigail. the owner at the time was very heavy handed. Which I do not like. At the time I didn't know any different. It resulted in Abigail being handshy.

With Cino I have taken to the idea of when initially learning something it is fun/rewarded/motivate. Then as I work towards perfecting a given task then there is more of the ask, tap, spank. With reward when done correctly.

Reward for Abigail is easy - she is a highly food motivated dog. But she has little ball/toy drive. So for her all I need is some Bil-Jac and praise.

Reward for Cino is a little more involved. No food drive unless I haven't fed him for a long time. So for him it is all about the toy - a ball, rag, tug, etc... He will even try to steal the toy.

I guess I would be the middle of the road. Motivate/reward to start and then correction after the learning is done.

....

Judith - we all know what your idea of food motivation is! A 40 pound bag of dogfood doesn't cut it.

[vneerland]

Judith - we all know what your idea of food motivation is! A 40 pound bag of dogfood doesn't cut it.

Quit TELLING on me!
I cannot remember who ever told you the story, but I am sorry you have not forgotten it yet.

Eric is referring to an incident when a guest dog/DS/bitch managed to tee Nico off and he jumped her. I had just been carrying sacks of dogfood from the truck to the house and had one on my shoulder as it occurred. The closest thing I had to a tool to break up the fight, was that heavy sack on my shoulder. I tossed it slap on top of Nico who proceeded to let go. -ya think?- Right afterwards we joked this gave food motivation a whole new meaning.......

[Christie M]

That is an awesome story Judith!

Someone once was making fun of me for clicker training. He said "Oh, I LOVE clicker training. I carry a big bag of clickers and smack my dog in the head with it as a correction." Nice. Very nice.

[vneerland]

I will have to add, that at that time, Nico was pretty much cocked and loaded, after his long competion career. While generally fine with bitches, he was not too tolerant of 'insubordinance'. If he wanted to sniff, he was going to sniff. If the bitch said 'no' by means of a quick snap, that is where he would take offense. At the same time, Kwinny still bombs him every day when they get out the door. She hammers the heck out of him, but it is all in good humor. Let's just say that he never did appreciate a 'correction' from another dog. I in turn, never tolerated that nonsense so my verbal disapproval plus the food motivation was enough of a reminder that day. Right afterwards, I think I said something along the lines of "Darn! food motivation works!"

I never did try the bag of clickers. I always thought that clicker training was to set your Ecollar on buzz/click instead of shock? (just kidding!!!)