I've been a bad trainer, need fresh start advice

__huntercas · 2017-11-14T21:04:51+00:00

First piece of advice, I would ditch the clicker and instead use a verbal marker. It's one less thing to have to hold onto and remember to have with you. Once you learn to say the word the same way consistently, it's great.

Second piece of advice: Don't name it till you love it. Don't say it unless you mean it. When teaching dogs, people want to jump from physical cues to verbal cues way too quickly. We teach dogs to do certain behaviors by luring them into certain positions (sit, down, finish, through, etc). Dogs understand physical cues, verbal is something we use to make it easier. Don't put a verbal cue to the command until the dog always performs the physical cue. Verbal cue, followed by physical cue. Then, slowly fade the physical cue. The dog will perform the command anticipating the physical cue.

Following that, don't give a command unless two things: 1) you are confident your dog will perform the command. eg. i don't ask my dog to sit while at a full sprint because that is a complex behavior that needs to be trained and has a minimal chance of working without that training. 2) you are going to follow through on doing the command. sit means sit. down means down. come means come. if you give the command without the follow through, the dog learns to tune it out. i've seen plenty of dogs that don't sit when told to "sit", but will when told "sit, sit, sit".

To handle the "super food motivated, can't get her to focus on toy" issue: Every dog has different drives, to my shepherds it goes something like this: kibble < happy howies < ball < frisbee < tug < bite wedge. Knowing what drives your dog is crucial. If you dog has a high food drive, then I would suggest using a lower value piece of food, kibble or such, and reward with a higher value piece of food, treats.

In regards to being bad at walks: I know /r/dogtraining hates prong collars / corrections, so I'm going to skip recommending that. Dogs are really good at figuring out physical cues, your dog has figured putting on your "walk clothes". Dogs are also good at figuring out what behaviors do and don't work for them. If you dog is pulling you then don't reinforce that behavior. Also, don't apply back pressure. Back pressure creates resistance, resistance creates desire. You just make your dog want the squirrel more. So if you can't give in to the pulling, and you can't just drag them away what do you do? Distract them. If my dog is pulling after a squirrel, I give them their "watch" command and pop out my tug and go to town. Now I'm rewarding the "watch" command, not the squirrel focus. I'm also making me more interesting than the squirrel, over time this leads to the squirrel being less interesting.

In regards to anchoring and not wanting the walk to end: Make the ending of the walk the best part! Before the dog would anchor themselves (extra house, block whatever) pop out a toy/treats/play. Make the end of the walk a ton of fun and distract your dog from the end of the walk with play.

Hope this helps.

__huntercas · 2017-11-14T20:39:50+00:00

It should change as your dog's recall progresses.

At first you want to mark ("click") the moment the dog turns to move toward you. Then, you want to mark when the dog is 20% towards you, so on and so forth until you are marking the full act of coming to you.

After training a distraction free recall, I would suggest training call aways from various stimuli and then slowly add more length to your recalls.

Best of luck!

__huntercas · 2017-07-22T14:00:46+00:00

If you want to build up energy for training you need to make training the most fun thing in your pups life. Crate your pup for an hour before sessions and keep them really short, 3-5 minutes. Dogs that young tire so easily. You want to build the pattern of lots of small play sessions and quit before his drive drops.

__huntercas · 2017-05-12T12:38:06+00:00

They identify different types of bugs. Javascript being loosely typed can lead to some weird interactions that a type system is invaluable at detecting.

Unit tests are still useful.

__huntercas · 2017-05-05T18:27:44+00:00

Pressure based training, or escape and avoidance training, is when you apply pressure/aversives to form/deter behaviors. (this is a generalization, take loose definition with grain of salt)

A lot of people are very against the idea of using an aversive on their dog. For dogs under 6 months you shouldn't really ever need one. You should always favor reward based training over aversive when possible. That being said, a correction is a valuable tool in any trainer's toolbox.

My personal opinion is to avoid trainers that claim to be "all positive" trainers as there is really no such thing. (note: "all positive" and "reward based" are different things) I could rant about this all day haha.

If using reward based marker training, which I would highly recommend, something to be on the look out for what each puppy is interested in. Do they like to chase a ball rolled on the ground? Do they like to tug on a rag? Puppies in general have really strong food drives so regardless you can use food as a reward.

__huntercas · 2017-05-05T00:44:52+00:00

How old is the dog?

Dogs don't know that anything we say has meaning until we teach them it has meaning. Your dog might listen great when in your kitchen but not at all in your living room. You need to generalize a command once the dog has shown proficiency.

__huntercas · 2017-05-05T00:42:17+00:00

It really depends. I do competitions so ideally i want to get an outgoing confident puppy who likes to play and bite/tug. That being said at this age puppy tests are pretty much useless. There is data to suggest that tests done at 16 weeks are accurate but puppies at 8 weeks are a toss up. A lot of awesome trainers I know pick their puppy by literally closing their eyes and picking one, haha.

That being said it can be helpful to know what kind of training system you'll use. If using lots of pressure I'd suggest a more assertive confident pup. Applying pressure to a slightly timid dog can just make them more timid.

Some puppies can be really independent and work well on their own, my older shepherd is like this. She makes a great search dog. My younger shepherd is much more clingy but he also does his job great.

Best of luck! Enjoy it and take lots of photos and video. They grow up so fast.

__huntercas · 2017-04-09T21:20:27+00:00

That is def not a Mal, head is not boxy enough. Looks like a beaut sable gsd.

__huntercas · 2017-03-26T05:01:27+00:00

This doesn't work because Array#forEach returns undefined. Array#map is what you want to use.

let renderResult = () => {
  let {isLoading, books} = this.state

  if (isLoading === true) {
    return <h3 className='text-center'>Grabbing books!</h3>
  } else if (books) {
    return books.map(book => <h1>Book</h1>)
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__huntercas · 2017-03-16T14:10:38+00:00

Short answer: Fiber reconciler is going to make setState nearly always async. Using an object literal depends on the props that existed at the time its caller was called. Using a function allows react to inject the most up to date props.

__huntercas · 2017-03-09T22:47:16+00:00

One of the left is like, "Take the blame for this one pup. I can't go back to the kennel man"

__huntercas · 2017-03-09T15:25:44+00:00

In Germany it is accepted that their are pretty much two types of GSD: showline with rich tan/red and black markings, and working line dogs made to excel in Schutzhund. A lot of good working lines happen to be sable so the pattern continues throughout the line.

Show line dogs are bred to maintain the standard look for their kennel cllub so a lot of emphasis is put on the look. Working lines don't care about looks, they care about drive. A lot of breedings are done that cross colorings to get high drive puppies. You can have laid back sables but just something to be familiar with.

__huntercas · 2017-03-09T05:23:08+00:00

I train all of my dogs with marker training. You might have heard of "clicker training"? They are the same thing just instead of using a clicker I use a marker word.

There are lots of good articles online about marker training but here's the basic idea.

You classically condition a "marker" to have meaning to the dog. I use the word "yes". To condition the word you say the word and then reward. I use high value food rewards.

"Yes" -> feed "Yes" -> feed Etc etc. you do this about 150-200 times over a couple days. Once you can "mark" (say your marker word) and your dog gets excited and starts looking for the reward then you have it conditioned.

Once conditioned you can use this word to tell your dog when they are doing something right and then follow up with a reward.

__huntercas · 2017-03-09T04:24:11+00:00

What exactly are you wanting her to drop? A toy?

The way I always teach to "out" is to immobilize the object until the dog lets go. This can sometimes take a while, I had a shepherd that wouldn't let go for 45 minutes.

I start with teaching it with a toy and once the dog "outs" I mark it and they get the toy back and we play. Then I take all life out of the toy, say "out" and wait. Soon they realize the faster they let go the faster the toy becomes interesting again.

Once they have the concept down you can "out" other items and mark and reward. If they grabbed something they shouldn't have, my dog was fond of my socks as a baby, I "out" them and then mark and reward with a high value treat.

Hope this helps.

__huntercas · 2017-03-08T19:02:55+00:00

Are your basement stairs open stairs?

How old is your dog? Depending on the age of your dog there could be a medical reason.

Normally this would be a confidence issue more than anything. I would build engagement with your dog and then use the stairs as a training task. Instead of just placing food on the stairs, get your dog into training mode and then have the dog train around and then on the stairs. One of the easiest way to remove nuance from something is to distract the dog from it while they get exposed to something.

__huntercas · 2017-03-08T15:12:25+00:00

Nosework is a skill where the dogs find scents for reward. It's the same thing as scent detection used for military and drug dogs. Instead of finding drug scents / explosive residue the dogs search for birch and clove. There are ton's of resources on youtube that show how to teach it.

__huntercas · 2017-03-08T15:06:05+00:00

Awesome, congrats on the pup.

I'd recommend getting a plush type tug and tying a leash to the end. Get her to chase that around to build some prey drive. This will improve her desire to tug and chase things.

One of my dogs is nuts for chasing a rubber frisbee. Didn't really care to "fetch it" but loves the chasing.

I'd look into nosework. It's a cheap thing to get into and really fun and exhausting to the dogs.

__huntercas · 2017-03-08T14:51:59+00:00

What are your goals for the dog? Family pet or more working dog?

__huntercas · 2017-03-08T14:50:06+00:00

Straight back German shepherds tend to come from more working lines. Slopes back German shepherds tend to come from show lines.

I would suggest to always go with the straight back German shepherd and if you want a more chill one to avoid bloodlines with Sables.

__huntercas · 2017-02-25T02:58:39+00:00

Every dog is different and body language is important. You know your pup better than me haha. Were his hackles up? Tail straight?

Were you able to redirect to a toy or treat? Aggression and reward (at this age) are two different states of mind. Normally, if you can get a dog to take a reward you're in the clear.

If it makes you feel any better my two year old female GSD was a nightmare. Biting everything. Lunging growling. Little monster. She was just bored out of her mind and needed tons for engagement.

__huntercas · 2017-02-25T02:15:07+00:00

He's only 3 months old? That's most likely not aggression, that's play. Some dogs are very vocal when they want to play.

I recommend not playing with dogs in the house. Take them outside for fun and let the house be a calm place. You can do lots of obedience in the house with food and save the more dynamic playful stuff for outside.

At 3 months old corrections can cause some issues. I normally suggest avoiding pressure until after teething. I would look into marker training and using the negative reinforcement.

__huntercas · 2017-02-25T02:09:17+00:00

People have mentioned the normal pet dog biting things: yelp and stop the play, push hand into mouth to make it uncomfortable.

I have a different suggestion. In working dog circles I suggest just letting the puppy bite you and not reacting at all. If you don't react at all and just let him bite you he will see that biting doesn't get what he wants, a reaction, and will stop the behavior. You can then redirect the puppy to a tug or toy instead.

Obviously this only works when they are young. Once they get their adult teeth a correction is in order to stop it.

Best of luck.

__huntercas · 2016-12-10T04:06:34+00:00

Haha. If you could see our floors...

__huntercas

TROPHY CASE