Dutch Shepherd Forum

Tonight Hendrix and I learned how to teach OB in drive at our club. I'm curious to hear if others have heard of/used this method before and what their thoughts on it are.

For the sit, take a piece of hot dog in hand and then proceed to run backwards in a circle, moving the hotdog about. Then, pull your hand in towards you and up so it stops at your waist. The dog will naturally come in and look up. You have two seconds from the point he sits to give your marker word but you want to wait until the dog is calmly in position, not shifting, a brief half second pause, THEN treat. As soon as the dog eats the hot dog, rinse and repeat.

For the down, repeat the process for sit, except this time lower your hand and them push back on the dog. You want them to down with weight on their back legs, not their elbows. (We had some funny examples from people demonstrating what their dog does at this point) Again, two seconds to mark, pause, treat.

For the recall, have someone hold the dog on leash, you call "name, come" and wave a piece of hotdog around. As the dog approaches, repeat the motion for the sit to get them to sit, following the same marking process.

Hendrix seemed to love this but then again he loves hot dogs. We have done a bit of OB with food and luring, but not in drive, so we'll see how it goes.

I dont know any PSA training but just for regular OB, it sound fairly normal. you have 3 seconds to mark so the dog makes the connection. For the recal, that is pretty common too, someone holds the dog and you make yourself very desirable and Name, Come, and then they let go.

Good! The whole thing with the minor delay in treating after the "release" word kinda threw me. But thinking about it, I think you're teaching action and release then fun thing. So if you send a dog in for a guard, he holds and then after the "release" he knows something really fun he loves will happen. That and teaching a down with weight on the back legs was totally new to me. They said it makes it easier when they're doing a running down.

He's going to whip me into shape real fast with all the running around I have to do! Who needs a diet when you have a DS?

yeah, the fun thing is the reward. Personally I dont like using food as reward. I use a tug and would throw it and play for a bit after they did the good thing. After 3 seconds they dont make the connection of thet reward to the good deed. When we taught the down, they down towards the back, and if the weight is on the back they can spring up better.

I'm a little confused about all the running and going backwards. The marker training sounds right. From what I get with the hot dog, you're luring to get a behavior (which is perfectly fine at first). What I don't understand is why you're teaching in drive.

I think it would be far less confusing to teach out of drive in a calm undistracted state, fade the lure to just a marker reward, and then proof in drive with distractions once the dog knows what is expected. It will also make it easier to work without food in the future. Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but it sounds over complicated to me, especially with a smart dog like a DS.

Yeah, they had me running around backwards, moving my hand with the hot dog around, basically getting him into prey drive. I thought it was a little weird too. I asked why and was told "it's to teach the dog it's fun". I'm wondering if it's not maybe conditioning them to respond while in a heightened arousal state - sort of a short cut? I'll have to ask other members about this at our next practice. Luckily I've taught Hendrix a basis of OB in quiet and slowly building with distraction areas, without the running. He already knows what he needs to do for sit, down, and look.

I don't like using food rewards either but Hendrix has a crazy high food drive, it makes luring and teaching behaviors way easy. However he's also a huge short cut attempter, which is hilarious because you see him thinking and testing, which makes teaching with food a pain at times. I'm building his interest in tugs and he loves (chewing) on the ball. I'm told we will be moving him to tugs and such as soon as "he understands what he's supposed to do and thinks it's fun".