Walking Along Sniffing Around 'argh'

[sportsmonki]

I couldnt find another post answering this, so i hope the question has not been asked before.  My pup is great, I have been taking her to obedience classes and she is doing so well, so proud of her.  However, there is a part of her behaviour I am unsure how to correct.  She knows how to walk close, she can do it perfectly when she wants to, but there are times she becomes so distracted by a smell on the ground that she either wanders along with her nose stuck to the floor, or off lead just wanders off following the smell (right out of the ring when practising an 'a' recall last week 'sigh').  I often find it difficult to regain her attention once she has become distacted in such a way.  It is so natural for her to want to follow the smell along that I just find it hard to compete against that instinct, and she often ignores my calling of her which is becoming problematic on lead because once she is hooked onto a smell she pulls on the lead or stops, and off lead because she wanders away from me.  If I am holding a treat or toy she is less likely to become distracted in such a way, but as soon as the treat or toy is out of her vision her attention is more likely to waver.  The trainer at the obedience class is excellent, but he suggested to give a sharp jerk on the lead to regain her attention .  I am very relucant to try this as I am worried of damaging her neck, and I would never wish to inflict pain on the dog in order to get it to understand what i am asking of it.  I just wondered if there is anyone here who may be able to offer any suggestions as to what i could try with her to overcome this?

sportsmonki    

[PennyB]

Sound distracts them from scent more than anything by using either a squeaky toy or a simple phrase that gets you to look at them (I use 'whats this'). Just doing this and treating each time and (in time you will make them do more to get their treats so don't worry about too many treats at this stage).

My trainer taught me to treat mine initially just to look at me as the basis of his training is to start doing things in 'bite sizes' as it were (excuse the pun bit its about breaking down training into small manageable elements that you treat each stage for rather than the complete stage you want to achieve if that makes sense).

As your dog bonds more with you and so they will listen more. As my trainer says the spaniel and other scent hound owners always had to work twice as hard in his classes—the hardest bit getting their nose of the floor).

As far as jerking the lead this doesn't need to be done heavily anyway as you'd use this teaching a dog to walk to heal anyway.

[dillydolly]

I know your problem well    before we got our zorro we had a basset hound whos sense of smell is very strong indeed and once he got a scent on him that was it he was off tail high in the air nose to the ground ears sweeping ( ahh bassets bless them lol ). We dont have our basset Dilly no more he became very very poorly and the vet recommended he was put to sleep   .
  The way to over come this is either keep your dog on a long line  and dont let the dog off the lead or you can try simple recal exersises. The only way we got him to come back was to make sure you had something so worth while he would come back and the way we did this was throw something out like food use a clicker like we did when the dog gets what you want it to get click with the clicker and the dog comes back to you waiting for a reward. Start off with a short line and once the dog gets the hang of it make the line longer and longer also as the dog comes back say something like 'here'.
 Another method we used and recommended by our trainer was to have a treat pot when the dog goes off on its sniffing trail shake your pot of treats if the dog comes back straight away reward him from the pot if the dog takes its time and comes back to you say something like 'ah ah to slow ' and carry on walking ignoring the dog for a few mins this worked well with dilly, but you need to do it at home so the dog knows that the pot has something it in so yummy, try a few exersises with it at home to see how the dog responds.
 I carry food around with me all the time tiny pieces of cheese or ham really tiny bits so when my pup comes to me even without being called he gets a reward and if i ask him to do something like sit i always click and treat ( my clicker is my best friend   ) . I dont know if you have heard of the Ally Oopp toy well its a weighted ball with a stick in it with a small ball on top, so what you would do is place it in the middle of the room and when the dog goes to it and touches it you click with the clicker and the dog naturaly comes back to you for a treat. As the dog touches it you say something like 'touch it' i found that was a great game of recal for a dog.

i wish you good luck
dillydolly  

[sportsmonki]

Thank you both so much for your replies.  

Penny, that is an excellent idea of using a squeaky toy to distract her from the smell, as my voice is not incentive enough for her to lift her head sometimes (yet?), often food isnt either.  I shall certainly try that one, but it will have to be out of earshot of my mothers collie   I was probably trying to move too quickly for her also, and will go back to treating more frequently.  She is a cheeky little madam, if she thinks i should have rewarded her already and i havent she switches off.  

Dillydolly I am so sorry to hear about Dilly, I send flowers to you for him.  I will practise the recall in the way you suggested, with the long line and try that with the treats when she is hungry.  That sounds like a great little game with the toy.  Storm is not clicker trained, but i am sure she will be able to pick it up, i'll try it with her as it sounds like fun.

Thanks again to you both for your responses and encouragement,

sportsmonki

[dillydolly]

you are welcome and let us know how you get on    

[Jaljen]

Dillydolly seems to have this issue sussed!

My pup never shone at classes for the same reason.
"Mmmm, food. Sniff, sniff."

He just wanted to inhale all the yummy scents. It was a shame he didn't perform at this best and make me look good    but the main thing is that he's obedient at home.

At 10 months I still recall him on walks a couple of times just to keep his attention, praise him and send him off again to crash through the undergrowth.

Thanks to Dillydolly.    

[sportsmonki]

Storm is doing better, many thanks for all the tips.  General walking she still gets distracted by smells occassionally, but in obedience class she is brilliant now (I guess she knows that I'm happiest when she is really paying attention there.)

Thanks everyone,

sportsmonki

[JoHarborne]

We've put this behaviour down to "gundog instinct" and the phrase "it's his genes" gets bandied around alot during walks.  Will take on board advice given or, let's face it, Woody is never going to be Crufts material is he?!?!    

[taniac]

Neo is a real nose to ground hound too (Jovi's not bad but only 7 mths so time will tell)....

If I didn't give a tug on the leash and make a no noise ('uh' uh') he wouldn't lift his head up, I try not to let him sniff the ground at all when on lead so he knows he has to pay attention to me, but he still doesn't like to look at my face.  I'm sure at training class he's watching my shins and guessing where to go from that... He can even follow my every move with his nose to the ground!  

I have always used a clicker and tried very hard to get Neo to watch me.  His recalls are pretty good 80% if the time, so I have accepted that he's never going to be a dog that watches me closely (2 yrs of training and alot of work hasn't knocked it into him).  

I would definitely use a clicker no matter if you haven't used one before, dogs can pick them up at any age, and you can be more accurate with the behaviour you're praising, verbally you are often just a bit too late.

Jovi however really likes to look up at you and think he'd be much better at obedience, he even prances!!  I hope he doesn't grow out of it because it's good to know one dog is paying attention!

[Luvly]

 

[sportsmonki]

Storm is getting better at last     I got tired of trying to distract her with voice, it wasnt working.  If she is on lead and sniffing or pulling I just stop.  She soon looks at me to see what i am doing.  If she is off-lead I just turn round and walk in the opposite direction.  Before long she zooms past me...nose on the floor, so i turn again and keep doing that till she comes in close...then i praise her.  It seems to be working  

The trainer also advised me to practise lots and lots of figures of eights to maintain her attention as i will keep changing direction, but we havent really practised that enough yet to know if it works.  

Luvly, Storm does a similar thing when walking to what your trainer suggested.  I live near some woods with overgrown edges etc.  Walking along I throw her toy into the bush and send her to go find it and return it to me.  Sometimes it works and Storm's tail is going 19/12...othertimes there is such a fascinating smell that she meets on the way that when she eventually has sniffed it all she wants to she has forgotten what she was doing, and i have to treck through the undergrowth to retrieve the toy, lol.  

Good Luck to all,

sportsmonki