Hello everyone
I wonder if anyone could help with a couple of issues we currently have with Ella.
Firstly she has recently decided it would be a good idea to bark at us for attention.  This happens mainly when we are out walking and maybe stop to talk to someone, and particularly if we've been playing ball with her.  The bark is really demanding and loud and can go on for a long time.  We have tried ignoring her, turning our back and turning round to treat while she's quiet but nothing seems to work until we start playing with her again.  Her walks consist of playing ball (a few retrieves), walking through the woods and chasing squirrels (ball away) and plenty of off-lead training (heel work, dance moves, recalls, down stays etc) so we are really trying to stimulate her and don't just leave her to get on with it.  Perhaps we're doing too much and she can't bear it when she's not centre of attention?

Problem number two is her recall.  This is really very good to an extent, she will leave other dogs, come almost every time she's called and barely leaves our side.  She has always thought, however, that coming to us consists of being within a foot of us and leaping around if we try to touch her collar, treat her etc.  We have worked extremely hard at this over the past year and, really since she's been off-lead again since her last season, she's been excellent and putting her lead back on has not been a problem.................. until last week when she decided to play around again.  She will always wait for us to put her lead on at 'our' exit from the woods but sometimes we want to take her out another way, or need to hold her if a 'dodgy' dog is coming and we can't seem to do this at the moment.   I should add that recalls at home, at training class etc are perfect.  Do you think this is a temporary lapse and we should go back to using a long line for now, or have we done something wrong?

I am sorry this is so long but I wanted to get everything down as I'm not able to be on Champdogs as much as I'd like!!

Thank you for your help.

Best wishes

Alex

I think Ella has learnt too things here - 1) If I keep on barking they WILL pay attention to me - maybe you weren't told when ignoring her it was quite normal for her to up her efforts to get attention (technically known as an 'extinction burst') and if you give her what she wants, she's just learnt that more barking means she will eventually get attention.  Can you practise praising her when she's quiet?  Work with this, and KEEP UP the ignoring when she barks, reward even the smallest periods of quiet to start with.  Another technique that may work is to teach her a 'quiet' command - when she barks say 'quiet' the minute she stops, and reward her..........  Eventually she will learn the command means quiet.  

2) She's learnt taht allowing you to grab her means the end of the fun and is not rewarding, so why should she repeat it?  I'd go back to the long line when a known command starts to fail again, and use a jackpot system of rewards, so that coming back (and allowing her collar to be held) is actually waaaaaaaaay more rewarding that anything else.  Ensure you have an irregular pattern of keeping her on lead, don't always put her back on lead at one spot, and sometimes put her on lead and then let her off again....

Thanks Digger.  We'll keep at the ignoring and try not to get despondent and I like the idea of a 'quiet' command.  I have been using 'hush hush' but when she starts barking (normal barking not demanding) not when she's quiet so I think I've been doing this at the wrong time.

We have always put her lead on and off irregularly (when we can!) but I have to say we have not used the 'jackpot' method and this is certainly worth a try.  I am quite sure we will all get there, there are just some days when it seems really hard!! :)

Thanks for your help

Best wishes

Alex

Yes Alex - unless hush hush is a command you've taught her previously, she is learning that it means bark! Ops! :(  Dogs don't understand english you see - it's an easy mistake to make when they seem to understand so much of what we say.....

Using the jackpot system - use large rewards frequently to start with, then more and more intermittently - until you're down to a ratio of around 2 in 10 times (the rest she gets a bog standard reward - fuss or small treat) the jackpot must really be coveted - and timing a walk before a mealtime is always a good idea too - you can always use part of the food ration as a reward - make it as big or small as you like..