teaching left & right / direction

[cornishbirdabroad]

After a long break away from gundog training, I have recently taken it up again with Herbie and have been taking weekly lessons with a trainer and we’re doing ok

We’ve got to a point where I’m learning to teach Herbie to go right and left with the whistle, hand signals and a few words and I have continued to practise as the trainer showed me. However now after I have completed the hand signal to the left or right depending on where the dummy has been thrown, Herbie will either sit and bark at me in his position or charge at me trying to jump into my arms whilst barking or like this morning lay behind me barking.

Any ideas of how I can overcome this with him? This is so far the only area in our lessons where he demonstrates this behaviour and there appears to be no improvement. We’ve a lesson booked for Friday where I can discuss it with our trainer but I’m just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them?

[Wendy M]

Sounds like you dog is terribly confused by this exercise...

Have you done a lot of steadying work on dummies previously?
Or have you been throwing a dummy either side of him and giving a correction as he goes for the wrong dummy?

Either way you need to simplify...

Not sure how your trainer has been starting you off with this exercise but I would work on one side at a time, so throw a dummy out to one side use your hand signal and then use your usual release to retrieve command i.e "fetch" or whatever.

Once your dog is confident with going out to retrieve on that side begin to work on the other side until confident

Only then begin with a dummy out either side.

I taught this differently by use of a clicker, which I can explain if it is something you interested in.

Wendy

[cornishbirdabroad]

Hi Wendy

We're still at the simplified route, throwing a dummy to one side at a time, using the hand signal before verbal cue to retrieve.

In one of my lessons a few weeks ago my trainer suggested I slow down my hand signals as she thought I was going too fast and confusing him - which I did and he appeared to have got it. We also have continued to do one side at a time at her suggestion after we attempted once to do either side of him and he just waited in his sit position.

But now following a few throws to one side only I'm having this response with him, we had started off really well on this exercise so I would be interested in learning how to do it with a clicker.

[trekmoor]

I am curious to know if he also barks when you send him from heel position for a dummy ? I think your dog is confused, uncertain and excited all at the same time and it's "release" from all that stress comes in the form of a bark.
If you allowed him to run in as he hunted when a dummy was thrown would be bark then ? Very often it is easier to cure a run-in problem later than it is to cure a bark or whine problem later.

Wullie

[cornishbirdabroad]

Wullie

He doesn't bark when sent from heel for a dummy nor whilst hunting. He sometimes whines quietly, usually when in sit, when we're training but compared to what he was like when we started a few months ago he has vastly improved on that front! I'm not sure how we managed to do it but we have.

[crackerd]

Cornishbird (or Cornish game hen as our poultry industry might say ), I'm sure your trainer knows best, but I would never teach directional casts this way of throwing the dummy then sending via hand signal. Why wouldn't you use instead the time-honoured idea of the "card trick" or three-handed casting as it's called hereabouts? For that, you could hup ol' Herbie (presumably a cocker from the photo?) then walk out and place the dummy/ies away from him (but always in plain sight), walk back to a position that's directly in front of him, then cast him to the dummy where you want him to go - right, left or straight back.

Can't discern why the dog's barking at you, or "charging" you, but it sounds to be in part as wullie noted confusion, but more probability some sort of avoidance - that there's something else he'd rather be up to.

MG

[Wendy M]

Ok, so, clicker training right/left and back directions:

I began by teaching my dog, using a clicker, to run to a target mat, touch it with its feet and return to me to get a food reward.

This is a very good video showing you how easy this is to teach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjrJCdJqd4Y

I then added the word “spot” as the dog touched the mat.

Then changed to only giving a click if the dog went to the mat on my cue.

Then I added my hand signal (appropriate arm outstretched to my side) and then cued “spot”. After a while I began dropping out my “spot” cue and the dog went on my arm signal.

I repeated this till there was no hesitation and the dog was confidently going to the mat, where she heard the click and then ran back to me to get her reward.

Then I started all over again on the opposite side using “spot” first then “spot” plus arm signal then arm signal only.

Then I introduced a mat either side of the dog and cued her to go to either one on my arm signal. If she went to the wrong mat she didn’t get a click, I brought her back in front of me and cued again.

After she was confidently choosing the correct side 90-100% of the time I increased the distance and then eventually began fading the mats into long grass so that she was going out “blind” on the promise of locating the mat.

Then I began planting blind dummies so that on my arm signal she would run in the direction sent and the sight of the dummy would cue the retrieve.

Job done!!

Wendy

[Megsdad]

When Meg was younger and she was teaching me what her quartering pattern was I used to throw or pre-plant tennis balls in the hunting area. I am not too slow at learning and realised that if I blew two pips on the whistle and waggled the relevant arm in the air it would let her know that there was a ball 'thataway'. That's how I learned my left and rights. Now if I want to keep her informed I've learned to blow once to catch her attention and she knows that the retrieve is roughly where my arm is pointing and 'I have got a nose!!' usually finds it.

I have been very lucky to have such a patient trainer!

[Rascal]

Best left and do no more, (you don't want that behaviour to be rehearsed) till your trainer can see you and Herbie in action he or she will be much better placed to see exactly what is going on...

Rascal

[farmboy]

Barking,I haven't got a clue? I have always wondered why agility dogs can perform in the ring perfectly all the while barking? I have thought that it was a form of disobedience,the only thing they could do to thumb there nose at you.
Years ago I would run against a chocolate lab with line manners so bad he would bark and squeal on the line and a good part of the retrieve. Only the (good ole boy system) with the judges looking the other way was he allowed to compete,they had pups out of this dog. Yes,sometimes we just have to put up with stuff like that,I just came here to dance I didn't ask about the music,that is the way I dealt with it.
I think Wendy will be able to help with a clicker technique,although I know nothing about it,she has some good ideas. You really don't want this to become a bigger problem. Fix the barking first then worry about the handling .