Ah yes. Focus. Kimma's lack of such will surely be her downfall.
Having an independent dog is good, in that they give you space and can play on their own sometimes, but it can be annoying when you're trying to train them. It's quite interesting, though, because Pentti has become my little shadow, while Kimma just needs to know where I am and she will give me space. I think it may be one of the male vs. female differences with Finkies.
Anyway, since I've decided to pursue agility and obedience with Kimma, I need to get her focus issues under control. She's VERY food motivated, so I'm able to use that to my advantage, but since she has been put on an extremely limited diet, it's gotten more difficult. Alas, her beloved hot dogs are not a part of the "vet approved" treats she can have. Poor girlie!
So while we're at training, I basically have to be my own one-woman-circus act. I spit out trick after trick, command after command, but eventually, her nose gets the better of her (and she gets bored), and she MUST go sniffing.
Things that have worked for us have been a strong "leave it," after which we walk away and do some flatwork training and "follow me" type of games; and of course, the whole "look" command (a la the title of this post!).
And yes, she's completely different inside, it's just the grass is full of interesting little goodies! Heck, this girl loves the grass itself. I think she was a cow in a past life....
It's gotten so bad that she will zero in on a specific plot of grass at agility training and run to it every chance she gets (basically, whenever I actually need her to do something off leash).
After weeks of frustration, however, I can safely say that she is on her way to becoming a more focused dog. It all started with making our backyard a place to play AND work, rather than play and sort of-maybe-sometimes work. I put her back on leash (which hasn't been the case since she was a baby!), and did some flatwork with her. Any sniffing was met with a firm "leave it" and a treat when she looked at me. Then we would continue to walk, treating along the way for eye contact. We did change of sides, turns, slow walking, to runs, normal paced walking, everything! Eventually there were no attempts to sniff. So we went inside, and did it all again a couple times a day. About a week later, and we could do all of that off leash with minimal, and often no, sniffing.
Next we brought the jumps back out, off leash. We kept working, never taking a break so that the temptation to sniff didn't present itself. It was awesome. One of the most productive training sessions we have ever had. And we capped it at 10 minutes, played some fetch, and came back in. This has been repeated a few times in the past week.
At agility class itself, I can say that things are going a lot better. We have to do a bit of "wait" work, as she doesn't always know what that means anymore, but her latest clean run is a testament to all of our hard work lately.
Yes, she is off leash, with other dogs nearby, and plenty of yummy grass to sniff! Though, I will be honest in saying that this is the third time the run was attempted, but she looks like a real agility dog!
Another positive is that she has been easier to get back after she breaks her wait, as she now tends to go towards other equipment instead of towards a random patch of grass... Then she walks over to me and stares as if she's saying, "What? I didn't do anything! Look, now that I'm here, can you spare a treat?" What a treat-hog!
Ah well... At least we know that she's not afraid of any of the equipment!
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