ok hands up if youve ever tried to teach something to your dog and failed miserably or taken an excessive amount of time and/or effort to train something that you thought would be simple?.

i have , more than once i absolutely cannot get my lab to spin , its never going to happen and since it doesnt matter im happy to admit defeat.

picking up a dumbell , shes finally starting to get it but omg its taken forever to get to this point where she picks it up by the right bit more often than not , another two years and she may be doing it reliably lol

then there is bobby ..... ughh im sure he isnt stupid , he just likes to drive me nuts . for some reason sit is the most complicated thing lol he sits just fine, he will sit on a hand signal during atraining session but he will never sit on a verbal command from down and never sit up from down on a hand signal . every time he sits up he barks , so im loathe to even reward it when he does because i absolutly dont want to reward barking ... hes not called gobby bobby for nothing.

i admit i havent put in the neccersary effort so its probably simply my fault and not him at all but he has this habit of just walking away after 2 minutes or deciding that he will just bark to get a reward .

i will teach him to sit stand and down in every possible combination . i will even if it kills me . i think i shall need a plentifull supply of ear plugs .

so fess up , am i the only person who struggles or are any of you secretly struggling with something simple ?

I have to ask. Why do you want your lab to 'Spin' Perhaps I'm missing something here but given your other problems with the basics why waste your time trying to teach your dog to spin, whatever that is. I have to devote enough time training my dogs to do things that will be of use without complicating things even more.

totally agree, i dont it was just something they asked us to do in class .



QUOTE=springerpete;1061442128]I have to ask. Why do you want your lab to 'Spin' Perhaps I'm missing something here but given your other problems with the basics why waste your time trying to teach your dog to spin, whatever that is. I have to devote enough time training my dogs to do things that will be of use without complicating things even more.[/QUOTE]

Don't be disheartened - it took 3 weeks to teach Louie to spin (5 minutes 3x a day) and we had to do it at a distance too.. it's not pointless - it's something to engage your dogs mind and to get you to work out that if it doesn't work one way to change your tactics and train it another way. We had to teach Stand (I call it back though - I can get him to stand and walk back depending on my hand movements) and it didn't work with treats - so I tried a ball..

It's taking me ages to get a retrieve to hand though - but thats because I taught him to drop and I taught it too well :/ Take retrieve in stages - go back to the beginning. Get her to look at the dumbell first and reward that, then after a few sessions move to touching it with her nose, then a few more and get her to mouth it.. then withold the treat until she picks it up - reward as soon as she does, after a few more sessions of just this, then with hold the treat until she is holding for a few more seconds and so on and so forth.. Lana Mitchell's "The Clicked Retriever" is an excellent book for this. It's step to step and simple. And using a clicker is so much easier to train with.

It's took me 2 weeks to get him to open, bring and close the cupboard.. but again I train a lot and he has had 10 days of rest, so I needed to do something to stop him annoying me .

If it's any consolation, Sadie and Benjie won't spin - they just give you paw or bark at you.. I tried to get Sadie to heel (as in competition) just getting her into position failed - she sat on the spot and gave me beg instead She is 10 and Benj is 8 so they're getting on

Put your feet up - have a cuppa then try again, my top tip for training anything is to relax and to bring in a clicker - it made my life so much easier..

Of course we all struggle at times, thats what makes dog training so fascinating.

hehe im pleased im not the only one ! the retrieve part is ok and in the house she has finally got it , but in the field she runs out so fast and pounces on the dumbell a bit too enthusiastically lol

i love my clicker too . and yes tea is a big feature when im training bobby lol 2 mins tea 2 mins tea etc etc .

Then calm her down with walking her on the lead to it.. a lab is to be steady to game/dumbells/dummies etc. I calmed Louie (Lab x ESS) down by doing sit - stays then retrieve.. a bit of impulse control as he is over enthusiastic too.. It'll come, just be patient - if you rush you'll have to train the basics again - like me with the retrieve to hand - it's tedious but it's the foundations and without good foundations - you've got a crumbly main and then the finish will be rubbish.. (like mine and Louie's )

Bobby barking may not be him being a pain - he might just be saying "I don't understand". I'd teach him a speak and quiet command, reward him for speaking - on command and then ask him for quiet and reward him for that.. that way when you're training something else you can ask him to do it quiet..

Other than that your girly sounds like she enjoys her training but she's not too clear on what you're asking her... I show my dogs what to do sometimes - I look stupid but it can work (Hoops mainly though)

lol i think bobby barks because he has a really short attention span and gets bored really quickly . i think with maddie it will be a case of increaseing the distance slowly and maybe like you say walking her too the dumbell , mind you i tried that last week and she nearly ripped my arm off to run lol we will get it , at least she will do things more than once lol bobby can speak on command . hes always been very vocal , he barks when he plays and when hes bored .

Open the crate door, two minutes using a clicker and targeting my hand. Close kitchen cupboards and drawers 3 minutes, same technique but you have to push them the right way. Roll over, 2 years and counting!

I taught a spin in order to teach myself how to shape, it is not the prettiest spin and I have only taught one direction, but it did help my shaping, which has in turn helped me with lots of other things. Still can't shape a roll over though because my dog hates being on his back, he will lie on his side fine, but as soon as he is upside down all he does is sneeze, scare himself and jump straight up!

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