 |
| Author | Topic: Send Out |
| Thad Stacy |
posted 4/18/06 10:27 PM
We have been working some advanced tactical obedience and run into some training challenges teaching the send out. There are some traditional schools of thought along the lines of motivational training which are often successful, but as with all training, there are always several approaches to teaching a dog to quickly advance down field un-attended, accomplish an obstacle objective and either recall or go into a downstay after the obstacle. In some cases we use decoy trainers to provide a target when beginning work in SendOut. But I have found that when we go straight to this step, it is often difficult to get a high prey dog from taking a bite. In the years I have been doing this we have always used a training aid like a ball or stick to get a quick sendout then relied on a strong background or foundation in commanding the dog into a downstay/or obstacle routine at the end of the run. I would like to open a discussion on training the sendout. This is an interesting exercise which usually varies from dog to dog and trainer to trainer. Please give me some good pointers. Can cognitive conditioning be in any way applicable here? http://www.k9prosportnetwork.com |
|
Terry Byrne (Moderator) |
posted 4/19/06 12:32 AM
Thad, Just got into work so I'm still a little fuzzy in the brain, LOL. I'll write another post on operant conditioning as it may apply later today (having taken Psych 101 I'm sooooo qualified, LOL), but for now, I wanted to say that you may be in danger of over complicating things. Getting back to the basics, of course what you are talking about is control, and that control, whether in relation to bitework, a summer walk, or fetching downed ducks, is nothing but obedience. The dog downing prior to the bite or after the bite, it simply put, obedience. If you attack the problem from that viewpoint, and leave the bite out of your thinking, you may hit on a variety of ideas that otherwise might not occur to people viewing the problem from a bitework perspective. After making several mistakes with my own dog, destroying his work and rebuilding it a couple times, I am now committed to removing the bite from any exercise where he is failing at the obedience element. We go back to basics, get the routine down without the bite, then work the bite into it. I treat the seesions as any OB session, same corrections and rewards I would use in any other OB session. Once he understands what is expected of him, I correct the living heck out of him (prong, long line)if he blows it once the bite is reintroduced (or a target, if passive), and reward enthusiastically when there is success. I achieved a dramatic change in his offleash control in bitework last summer just by changing my manner of thinking and my approach to the problem. Butch used to hammer on me that "bitework is Obedience!" and although I was listening, I wasn't getting it. Once I did, and the littele lightbulb came on, it made a heck of a difference. Except in his guard. His guard still sucks. LOL. |
| Jason Farrish |
posted 4/20/06 11:01 PM
Best training information I have read. If I keep reading here I could learn something about dogs. [This message has been edited on 04/21/2006] |
| Thad Stacy |
posted 4/21/06 2:22 AM
Thanks Mr. Farrish, I really appreciate the kind words. If you ever have any questions or feedback related to positive training skills, please be sure to post them. I always learn good information on this forum board! Isn't it great! http://www.k9prosportnetwork.com |
|
|