Sienna Brick Road

This series of articles is based on my experiences training with an electronic collar.  

This article is about getting your dog’s attention and how to perfect the attention exercise under distraction.

In Part 2 of this series I covered how I prepared the dog, fit the collar and how I determined the correct intensity to use for that particular dog.  I also talked briefly on the theory behind the e-collar training method and I will go in to more detail on this as I progress.

I started teaching my dog to look at me when he was a pup.  If he would look at my face when I said “look” he got rewarded with a piece of hot dog or a toy.  This was in part, preparation for the heel with attention exercise that we would be doing later on at trial.  It is also a useful command to teach for times I want the dog focused only on me.  For instance when he is being examined by the vet or  when the lady in the parking lot just let her little barking dogs out off leash to become potential prey objects to my dog.  When I am in public I feel responsible for my dog’s behavior and there are times I need him to focus on me. 

In the beginning I trained for sport, either for CKC Obedience or later for Schutzhund. (I am not counting the endless hours I spent as a child teaching tricks to the family dog.)  Now I still enjoy sport but train mostly for myself and my dog or to help others manage and enjoy their own dogs.  The theory and methods I use are the same but my end goal is no longer a title or ribbon.  I try to train beyond the requirements of trial to use in real life.  With that attitude, when my dog is reliable in my eyes, he should be able to perform to high standards in any situation whether it is a CKC ring, a Schutzhund field or a busy downtown sidewalk.  The most important being real life where you often do not get a do-over.

Getting Attention

I want my dogs to think that there is nothing better, more fun, more rewarding or more exciting then being around me.  Fortunately its not that big of a stretch for most dogs to really want to be around the handler.  No wonder we love them so much!  I am really fun to do stuff with in the dog’s eyes, but it is because I work at it.  I am very consistent in my training which includes my mood.  One of the reasons I love training is because I can leave my problems and negativity somewhere else and hit the training field for an hour and just have fun with my dog. I always have toys, sometimes food, and a positive happy and playful attitude.  I mix the training and corrections with bouts of excited play and then long leisurely walks.  My dog knows his name and when I call his name it does not necessarily mean I want him to come to me.  It is more of a heads up thing.  When I say his name, he must look for me.  This might mean he lifts his head and stops sniffing that dead stump he found and looks in my direction waiting for a command.  It might mean, look I have your toy, or its time to go.  So when I say his name he must look to me for further instruction.  When I say “here” it means you must come to me immediately.  So with that in mind, my dog was wearing the e-collar, I had it set to the intensity we chose the day before and he was also wearing his training collar and long line.  I took him to the field where we train and play ball.  I had two hoses in my back pocket for toys as well as a tug on a rope that I can throw or play tug of war with.  I think that’s his favorite game. If I were to start playing with him I would no doubt have his full attention, but I want to be sure that no matter what he is doing he will turn his attention to me when he hears my name.

Preparing for the Exercise

To prepare for this exercise he had been wearing his collar for about 45 minutes, we had done some on- leash heeling with his regular training collar and reviewed some of the exercises he already knows and performs fairly well. I purposely took him to an area that I know would distract him.  There were cats in our barn and he is VERY interested in chasing those cats.  Smelling them and hearing them move around in the building is distracting.  I put him in a sit-stay position and moved about ten feet in front of him.  I could see him air scenting and was turning his head to the area the cats were. I hit the continuous stim and said his name almost simultaneously, he was more interested in the cats and it took about 3 seconds for him to turn his head and look at me. The second he looked at me I released the stim and waited for him to once again become distracted and did it again.  I did not correct him for looking away at this point.  I just waited till he stopped looking at me and returned his focus to the barn, then I pushed the continuous button and said his name, repeating the first time.  The fourth time he seemed to be wanting to look at the cat but was trying to focus his attention on me. His eyes stayed on me even though his ears were on the barn.  I made him look at me for about 20 seconds without looking away and released him verbally and immediately ran backwards while pulling the hose out of my back pocket and held it for him to take a bite.  This is a huge reward for him and he took the bite and we wrestled a bit before I put him in a sit stay and repeated the process.  

Success

It did not take long using the e-collar for him to figure out that he could turn it off if he responded very fast.  That is why the timing of saying his name and the stim is so important. Gradually I changed slightly in my timing but this was when he was getting consistant under increasing distraction.  In the very beginning I was hitting the stim and then saying his name perhaps a half second later.  Once he was wise to the ”game” I started to say his name slightly before the stim.  It is a very subtle difference and would probably be impossible to notice if you were watching.  The results were excellent.  I gradually increased the distraction and he eventually got to the point that he viewed a distraction as a cue to look at me!  I had to make sure he was properly rewarded at all times and it was well worth it.  

The next article is about perfecting the recall and heel position and heeling with attention.

[[[part one]]]    [[[part two]]]

You can find a selection of electronic collars at the SBR store.

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