[Mike Schoonbrood]

Well for the past month or so Cujo's been a lil lethargic, I mean, he'll play n stuff, but he doesn't have his old balls to the wall hauling ass around the house when I chase him type energy, I don't know why, I thought maybe because he's maturing now that he's almost 2 n is just calming down. Then I got a puppy added to the mix n it all got worse, he turned into Captain Lazy, didn't really care to play fetch properly either. But I know the first few weeks of adding a puppy can cause a dog to act in a way that is out of character for him... but tonight for the first time he's really started to just be the way he used to be, mischevious, mouthy, running around at top speed when chased, really wanting to play, jumping over furniture, being able to rough house n roll on the ground with him n everything. He's his old puppy self again! So I'm happy now, because I was worried that thru maturity and some of the training we've done with him may have made him forget how to play... but I've been doing lots of playing and prey work with him recently n just letting him enjoy everything with no corrections, walk him on a flat collar n let him pull n jump over park benches n stuff etc. So maybe that's helped him return to his usual self.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

Well for the past month or so Cujo's been a lil lethargic, I mean, he'll play n stuff, but he doesn't have his old balls to the wall hauling ass around the house when I chase him type energy, I don't know why, I thought maybe because he's maturing now that he's almost 2 n is just calming down. Then I got a puppy added to the mix n it all got worse, he turned into Captain Lazy, didn't really care to play fetch properly either. But I know the first few weeks of adding a puppy can cause a dog to act in a way that is out of character for him... but tonight for the first time he's really started to just be the way he used to be, mischevious, mouthy, running around at top speed when chased, really wanting to play, jumping over furniture, being able to rough house n roll on the ground with him n everything. He's his old puppy self again! So I'm happy now, because I was worried that thru maturity and some of the training we've done with him may have made him forget how to play... but I've been doing lots of playing and prey work with him recently n just letting him enjoy everything with no corrections, walk him on a flat collar n let him pull n jump over park benches n stuff etc. So maybe that's helped him return to his usual self.

And maybe he knew something was going on when you were awaiting the arrival of his new sister, but he didn't know what.....and then when she came, it might've taken him a while to decide she was OK.

That's good that he's his old self again!!

 

[susan tuck]

Mike, I'm really glad to hear Cujo is back to his old self. Probably between the training issues, the tooth & the new sister, he was a little dazed for a while. It's obvious both your dogs mean a lot to you, they are lucky to have you & vice versa of course!

 

[Bob Scott]

Very 8) ! With any training, if the dog starts slacking off, it's usually a sign it's no fun anymore. give em a break and have fun. Course I'm a believer in fun training from the start. Just make sure that you spend plenty of time with Cujo.
If terriers taught me one thing, it's have fun when you train. NOTHING more stubborn then a 15lb terrier that's decided you'r boreing him. Yea, yea, I know! He weighs 15lbs. MAKE him do it! :roll: Getting heavy handed with a terrier gets you one of two things. The either go flat or they come up the leash. Either one is a sign (to me) that my training has let down somewhere.
Am I rambling again? :wink:

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

One of the mistakes I made with Cujo was because of the big deal people make about a dogs lineage. I pushed him, what I consider to may have been, too hard. I was too keen on finding out how much pressure he could take to see whether the whole "showline dogs crack under pressure" stuff was true. My dog has never shown avoidance, he will bite in defense no problem, but his confidence isn't "up there" where it should be when you want to start defensive work... so when going to work with a new decoy in a new location, I was finally seeing a problem that someone else had pointed out to me -- that, even though he's not backing down and he's right there barking defensively, he's not pulling on the end of the leash to get the bite, he's doing it because he has to... n when the decoy was trying to agitate him in prey, he wasn't focusing at all, like he had "forgotten how to play" due to too much defensive work... the decoy had to put some defensive pressure on him to get him to bite, then switch to prey and keep moving to get him to hold on - the clatter stick made a huge difference here. When the decoy stopped moving my dog would let go. Since then I've done nothing but fun happy work with him, n really encouraging him to hold onto stuff after it stops moving so that it might translate over to a prey bite on the sleeve so he doesn't Out when the decoy stands still. He's been doing this very well with his usual decoy in his usual location, so hopefully on Weds night I might give him a bite or two on a soft sleeve (due to his tooth) just to get him used to working in prey with other decoys in a new location while he has the opportunity.

So, now that I've learnt from my mistakes, and have seen that my dog hasn't got the type of nerve issues I was expecting from him, the focus is all on getting him enthusiastic for the bite. I think I've done a pretty decent job at this.. because everytime I walk around the house with a sleeve on I find a dog attached to it, LOL. I think there may be some benefit to having the decoy play with Cujo on Weds, maybe Cujo will focus a lil more on a guy who's been playing with him without a sleeve on his arm... maybe his focus will be better because of the stuff I've been doing with him over the past 6 weeks... and maybe his focus will be better because it won't be the first time in that location anymore.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

Very 8) ! With any training, if the dog starts slacking off, it's usually a sign it's no fun anymore. give em a break and have fun. Course I'm a believer in fun training from the start. Just make sure that you spend plenty of time with Cujo.
If terriers taught me one thing, it's have fun when you train. NOTHING more stubborn then a 15lb terrier that's decided you'r boreing him. Yea, yea, I know! He weighs 15lbs. MAKE him do it! :roll: Getting heavy handed with a terrier gets you one of two things. The either go flat or they come up the leash. Either one is a sign (to me) that my training has let down somewhere.
Am I rambling again? :wink:

No, you're not. I've seen both results from "getting heavy handed with them" in my limited observations of working Terrier training. :lol:

 

[Connie Sutherland]

One of the mistakes I made with Cujo was because of the big deal people make about a dogs lineage. I pushed him, what I consider to may have been, too hard. I was too keen on finding out how much pressure he could take to see whether the whole "showline dogs crack under pressure" stuff was true. My dog has never shown avoidance, he will bite in defense no problem, but his confidence isn't "up there" where it should be when you want to start defensive work... so when going to work with a new decoy in a new location, I was finally seeing a problem that someone else had pointed out to me -- that, even though he's not backing down and he's right there barking defensively, he's not pulling on the end of the leash to get the bite, he's doing it because he has to... n when the decoy was trying to agitate him in prey, he wasn't focusing at all, like he had "forgotten how to play" due to too much defensive work... the decoy had to put some defensive pressure on him to get him to bite, then switch to prey and keep moving to get him to hold on - the clatter stick made a huge difference here. When the decoy stopped moving my dog would let go. Since then I've done nothing but fun happy work with him, n really encouraging him to hold onto stuff after it stops moving so that it might translate over to a prey bite on the sleeve so he doesn't Out when the decoy stands still. He's been doing this very well with his usual decoy in his usual location, so hopefully on Weds night I might give him a bite or two on a soft sleeve (due to his tooth) just to get him used to working in prey with other decoys in a new location while he has the opportunity.

So, now that I've learnt from my mistakes, and have seen that my dog hasn't got the type of nerve issues I was expecting from him, the focus is all on getting him enthusiastic for the bite. I think I've done a pretty decent job at this.. because everytime I walk around the house with a sleeve on I find a dog attached to it, LOL. I think there may be some benefit to having the decoy play with Cujo on Weds, maybe Cujo will focus a lil more on a guy who's been playing with him without a sleeve on his arm... maybe his focus will be better because of the stuff I've been doing with him over the past 6 weeks... and maybe his focus will be better because it won't be the first time in that location anymore.

Mike, I'm following all this carefully (about showline dogs doing this training) and I want to ask what you mean by "nerve issues expected" in the bottom paragraph.

 

[susan tuck]

I agree Bob, with my first Sch dog (cadet), he would flat out quit on the track if I put too much pressure on him. Just lie on it & stare at me. He was a mix of show/working lines, & he really couldn't take any sort of pressure. I made a lot of mistakes with that dog, but I sure learned a lot from him, too!