[nagdu] Wanting to Chase all moving animals, especially small ones...

[Tami Kinney]

Larry,

That's pretty much the same thing I do with my poodle nut. Well, she 
grew out of frequent extreme distraction frenzies... Though she still 
has a few saved up for special occasions.

But pretty much what I do is plant my feet and stand with my attention 
elsewhere until she settles down and gets bored enough to let me know 
she would like to go forward and get back to work. Depending on how 
snotty and rowdy she has been, I will wait a few beats, still giving her 
no attention, just to help her remember who actually mades the decision 
in this team. /smile/ But for the most part, now, I can simply give the 
forward command quickly and off we go. Then I look at her and smile and 
praise or click.

Actually, I seem to have a "leave it! Forward!" command that is separate 
from just leave it or just forward. It's mostly for sniffing but also 
for more exciting distractions... Usually it works to get her refocused 
and going when I first feel her starting to react to a kitty or some 
such. Puppy Zay is learning that one now, too, around this neighborhood. 
/smile/

I think one reason I have really come to like the GL -- or the slightly 
different headgear I have for Zay for her different construction -- is 
that it is self-correcting while enabling me to keep control. I could 
not believe how strong my seemingly featherweight poodle pup was when 
she would get a yen to pull against her collar. Also, I learned that 
poodles will do that and pull so hard they damage their tracheas. So I 
would walk her in a walking harness or a GL. I still do, just in case. 
Also, when she would get psycho distracted in harness, if she was 
pulling and yanking too much on the harness handle while I was standing 
ther planted, I could just drop the handle and let her run herself into 
the nosepiece of the GL... Then it was up to her to decide if she wanted 
to do that again. Me? I was just standing there! /lol/ Stubborn little 
cuss would really go rodeo at times, a bucking and rearing wild 
stallion! But it didn't pay for her to keep doing that, and all I was 
doing was standing around with my attention on something else, so... She 
would eventually decide that what she really wanted to do was to get on 
with a nice civilized walk or working errand. /lol/

Funny, adapting to our good old-fashioned mutt from poodle... Zay is 
really responsive and shows some brains, and she is learning a lot of 
good habits from Mitzi on our double dog walks. But she needs a bit more 
firmness in correction than Mitzi, for whom finesse is the only way to 
go... When I have the two fo them together, I have to use different 
leashes so I don't accidentally offend Mitzi by treating her like a 
common cur. Or let Zay get too far out of bounds by giving her light 
voice reminders and only a pinky twitch on the leash... Well, Zay is 
coming along nicely, so I can now get through most of a double dog walk 
without too many exotic threats upon the persons of both of them... /lol/

Tami

On 04/23/2012 05:00 AM, Larry D. Keeler wrote:
> Yah, Holly would love to chase squirrels, rabbits and especially 
> scunks! One of those got her a couple of years back and you'd figure 
> she'd learn but, I guess not!  I sure did though!  Interestingly, she 
> like cats and ferrets.  She has played with both.  And, like Marks 
> dog, she will sometimes get distracted by pidgions.  Especially when a 
> whole flock of them!  But, I'll just stand there and hold on tight!  I 
> usually correct her and just stand until iether they go away or until 
> holly gets bored!
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy Ray" <cindyray at gmail.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 7:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Wanting to Chase all moving animals,especially 
> small ones...
>
>
>> Hannah, everyone's dog, I am sure, has some issue with something. 
>> They are one of them perfect because they are dogs. For some it is 
>> cats and squirrels, for some it is other dogs. You have to keep 
>> reminding her that this is not the time to be going after them. For 
>> mine it is dogs. He is a little better, but he still has not overcome 
>> it and I've had him three and a half years. You won't ever have a 
>> perfect dog, so just keep working on it and be attentive to the fact 
>> that you are going to run into a problem like this from time to time. 
>> I am not saying you shouldn't keep correcting, and maybe some kind of 
>> reward if you know that you have passed up a distraction, but dogs 
>> are alive. Just relax and enjoy the dog and pay attention. That's 
>> really the only advice I would know how to give on this.
>>
>> Cindy
>>
>>
>>
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