[NAGDU] {Spam?} Re: Following and Forward

[Tami Jarvis]

Julie,

Hm... Changing things up for him the way you describe is a good start 
and should get him onto the idea of listening to you while doing follow. 
It will also require him to think more to return to the follow, I bet. 
So I think in addition to praise/reward for doing what you ask to 
interrupt the blind follow, it would help to praise/reward him when you 
feel him thinking during the follow. Even just subtle reinforcement for 
tiny improvements can add up. You could also interrupt the follow by 
simply stopping and doing touch, then going back on follow. You know, 
just something quick and random to engage the brain until it becomes 
habit to keep the brain engaged.

Arranging to work with a friend he likes to blindly follow (you said it 
first! /lol/) could really help. I'm thinking of some sort of obstacle 
course with some spaces just wide enough for your friend but not for you 
and the dog, but with an obvious alternative he can take to get to the 
same place. Just use obstacles that are flimsy or moveable enough that 
you won't get hurt if you run into them. I've used lawn chairs in the 
yard a couple of times to work with Loki on obstacle avoidance, then we 
made an offleash game of it and had some fun doing patterns around them 
on heel, which also helped with the guiding obstacle avoidance. So doing 
that only with your friend going ahead of you is something that springs 
to mind to teach Thai to be engaged while following someone.

How to work with him on general initiative when moving forward would 
depend somewhat on why he's losing it. If it's just general lack of 
motivation or something like that, you could figure out what does 
motivate him and add that when he starts to flag, then reinforce when 
his pace picks up. If he's slowing down because of anxiety or because he 
has some pain, then the approach would be different.

So, for instance, Mitzi would slow down when she realized we were headed 
for home. Boring! She wants excitement and adventure and new vistas. 
None of this walking back the same old way to the boring old homestead. 
Been there, done that. And so on. So I finally figured out the best 
thing was to simply stop and stand still awhile, which is more boring 
than walking home. She would still make it clear that ending her fun was 
bumming her out, but she kept moving and pulling enough to satisfy. I've 
noticed Loki is starting to slow down if we head for home before he's 
had enough adventure, but he's not so obvious about it and doesn't hold 
onto a 'tude like Mitzi. I'm not sure how just stopping and letting him 
get bored will work with him if he gets serious about slowing down and 
lallygagging. He's more patient than Mitzi, so the few times we've tried 
that or the time-out, I'm the one who gets bored first. /lol/

Also, have some sympathetic understanding. /smile/

hth,

Tami


On 05/12/2016 07:53 AM, Julie McGinnity via NAGDU wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering if any of you have dealt with this problem: my dog loves
> to follow other people.  Now, I know some schools and trainers teach
> the follow command, and some teams do very well with it.  For some
> reason, Bill cannot handle it.  When he follows, he loses initiative,
> does not guide, and won't even listen to my commands.  I have not been
> able to turn follow into something productive because it is unsafe for
> us.  I have run into things because he was following a friend and not
> paying attention.
>
> My solution?  I stay in front whenever I walk with a friend, trick him
> so that if he starts following I give him a command and work with him
> until he follows it rather than blindly (haha) traipses on after the
> other person.  Now his issue has reached new levels because he has
> recently begun slowing down to try and follow.  I have to encourage
> him to speed up and stay ahead.
>
> I would like suggestions so that I don't always have to walk ahead of
> everyone.  Yes, I am faster than most people, but sometimes I just
> won't be ahead of them.  That's life.  I would also like suggestions
> for working on his initiative when we move forward.  I believe this is
> related to his following issue, but Bill has been hesitating or
> refusing to move forward at all.
>
> Any ideas, suggestions, sympathetic understanding?  :)
>
> Thanks guys!
>
>
>