Selective Hearing and Distractability
So Lacy.... I'll just give the "on our walk" example here... She will not pay any attention to me WHATsoever if there are: Cars, birds, grass, sidewalks, kids, wind, bugs, or really anything at all. Just flat out will not give me her eyes, will not respond to her name, won't obey any command, NADA. I am about to go flipping insane. Yesterdays walk was a disaster. I had started walking the girls separately, even though it takes twice as much time to do it that way, because together, it's even worse. I got Ava's behavior on leash sorted out. But Lacy wanted to pull, and pull and pull - to the point where I just couldn't cope with her. I tried everything I know to try. I had put her in Ava's old harness so she would stop choking herself on the choke chain - that was worse. So I switched back to the choke and made sure it was up real high behind the ears. Still didn't work. I don't mean a LITTLE pulling. The whole time, I'm trying to get her attention, teach her to heel. She could not even give me her eyes, would not respond to her name, just pull. It was like a furry little freight train. She also barks her FOOL head off if someone is walking even on the other side of the street. I'm at a loss. How can I train a dog who just will not give me any of her attention? She is driving me completely bananas. |
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| You will see several topics about this-----But, consider a PRONG collar! It was a blessing and I absolutely love walking Dahlia now! Not only can I walk her safely, but, my in-laws can as well! Also, is Lacy food motivated? Perhaps, keep some high value treats in your pockets to use to get her to come back to focus on you. When we were first starting to train Dahlia about focusing on us, we held a wooden spoon with peanut butter right on our left side and that kept her paying attention bec/ she was too busy licking that instead of looking around at things blowing in the wind. It is kind of messy, but, OK for outside. |
| Sprocket has never "given me his eyes" even when food put in front of his nose which is hard to do if he is pulling on either his slip lead,choke chain+lead or the half choke collar. When I resorted to using Fred's halti (he had a heart complaint from puppy so used halti for calmness and no pressure on neck as advised by vet) he is different dog. Looks at me for commands,walks to heel tho does need remindinf,sits etc and insn't so worried or whatever his issue is with cars. He likes to sit and watch them go by and then pull after them-on the halti he just has a look over shoulder and carries on walking with me saying "leave" and "good boy"-give it a try.x |
| i use a gentle leader but what you need to do is not walk until she stops and you say WATCH ME then when she does then start walking when she pulls stop again do command yes it will take you hour to go one block but it worked for me |
When she is not watching, turn and walk the other way. If she's really being a twirp, turn into her (not away from her) and bulldoze her a bit back. As soon as she looks at you - have a party, and go on like the bad never happened. This will work with a regular collar. If you resort to the stronger collars, but don't get the attention part - all you accomplish is getting a dog who is trained to a collar. Or in the case of the gentle leader - a dog who has no option but to walk next to you...NO learning is accomplished. They only learn when the devise is on them that they have no options. NOT the best scenario, and definitely no teamwork or advancement to off lead learning going to happen anytime soon.  As mentioned by Suzi - this will take you eons to actually get anywhere, but with a stubborn dog, YOU need to outlast them. When you go forward - if she reverts to pulling, etc, just whip a U-turn and go back the other way. When she recognizes you, you may go back the way you were, and all is well. Make sure your timing is spot on - or this will not work as well. Have super happy voice and body language the second she is doing what you want. Same for the bad, - make it obvious this is NOT good, and then switch back to "happy wonderful" the second she responds. This really works. I take people's naughty dogs in class (when they are frustrated), demo this, and I have their dogs walking perfect, tails wagging in about 2 minutes.  |
| dawn you rock |
| I know your pain. Oscar was a terrible puller as a puppy, really just awful. I was so used to my sweet, calm Quincy Bear that Oscar the maniac was quite a shock to deal with. Sounds like Lacy is reactive to movement of any kind, just like Oscar. (Oscar even hates windy days, as everything outside is in motion. Makes him extra anxious.) I tried everything as well. We started with a prong collar, but he still pulled so hard that the correction was ineffective and he was starting to do damage to his trachea. At this point, he was 4 months old and about 40 lbs, and getting stronger by the day. I switched to a halti harness, but that really didn't help either, as he would just whirl around like an idiot, and I was afraid that he was going to injure himself.  (I saw Dawn's post, and wanted to comment that these techniques did not work for Oscar. Turning unexpectedly and going in another direction made things worse with Oscar. It just escalated his anxiety, because he couldn't anticipate what was going to happen.)I gave up on the idea of a no-treat training strategy and started working with him using nummy treats, and a simple leather collar. First, we did training in a distraction-free environment until I knew that he reliably understood what I was asking with my hand signals. (We trained on-leash in the house, and also in our fenced-in backyard.) Once I was sure he knew heel, down, stay, and sit, we moved back out to the street and took very short walks, with lots of commands so that he was forced to pay attention to me and my nummy liver treats, as opposed to passing cars, etc. As he grew into his brain,  I was able to make the walks longer and longer.Then we moved into a neighborhood with no sidewalks, so we are forced to walk in the street, not a good idea for a car chasing sheepdog. When we moved here, I started moving Oscar to the grass with a piece of kibble, and putting him in a sit-stay. When the car passed, he would get the kibble, and off we would go. It didn't take him long to start moving to the grass and putting himself in sit-stay whenever he saw a car coming. I just make sure I always have plenty of kibble in my left pocket, which makes the "heel" position very enticing.Of course, this whole scenario only works if you have a food-motivated pup. Hopefully, Lacy loves her num-nums and you can use that to your advantage. Laurie and Oscar |
| I can see where this might not be the thing for a deaf dog, like Oscar. Without getting a verbal command in, the movement (and he has the double whammy of being that movement sensitive ) would just add to his problems.And reading back, in my fast typing, I note I forgot to say add in your VERBAL command. That way your dog can link a behavior to the command, not just to your turning. Because eventually, you want to be able to give a command and have it happen - not just when you turn or have a lead on your dog. |
| I like the peanut butter on a wooden spoon idea, that would probably help with Eevee's pulling a lot. |
| I am going to try the leather collar only today on our walk and try the turn into and walk other way etc when pulls. I do not like to use the halti for the reason of people asking why he has a muzzle on. When halti on but lead only attatched to collar he doesn't putt so much so I tend to think something must be working in his fluff brain!!x P.s training class was just shout as loud as you can and yank on slip lead-I can't do the yank as have 3 damagaged discs in lower back-hense the halti in crowds etc 'cos I can;t handle otherwise but would like a gentle walk on just collar.x |
Yeah, Dawn, maybe not the best idea for a deaf dog. I was working with a trainer at the time, and she recommended that I switch directions unexpectedly while Oscar was on leash, in an effort to get him to focus on me. Let's just say that it did not work for us.  Laurie and Oscar |
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