Not listening

[laurenollie]

Ollie has decided this week to test my patience. We walk in a morningb efore work in the same filed and this week Ollie has been a terror and it seems he refuses to listen, when we hit a certain part of the walk. We seem to walk around the first park ok, he checks back etc and when I call he pops his head up and looks - so it seems like he is listening. I do spontenous recalls with him as its something o like to practice all the time, so when he's gone ahead sometimes, I call him back he comes pounding and gets his treat.

When we hit a area where there are picnic benches this is where it seems he stops lisitening. The local youths hang around in the evenings on these picnic benches and often leave litter and food etc. So he always races to see what has been left - previously I could call him away and after a couple of calls he would come back to me. But now its all changed - this morning he refused point blank to listen and just had his nose to the floor snifiing. So i tried all the usual things that work to get him back - walked off shouting bye - come and get a biscuit - come and look at this eciting thing i just found on the floor that doesn't really exisit. Nothing  ! Then he proceed to skulk off into the bushes to do more sniffing!

I'm guessing with the ever changing weather being dry and wet there may be more smells than normal so this could be keeping his interest. We've also recently changed his food to CSJ so I was wondering if we aren't feeding him enough so he is searching for food becasue he is hungry

So my question is bascially how can I break his concentration to get him back to me - when all the usual stuff I do (and know it does work) isn't working in this instance?

Any clues?

L&O x

[bluegirl]

Phoebe is queen of "la la la I'm not listening" and has it down to a fine art now. so I understand how you feel. For me there are a few triggers on our walk that will have her switch to this mode so now because I've found its nigh on impossible to regain her focus once she's bolted I will call her back to my side before these triggers and either put her on a lead or more usually have her walk to heel until we have gone passed the trigger. I've found if I catch her before the event I can keep her focus (which is difficult, because one lapse in my concentration and shes gone) but if I leave it too late she's too focussed on what I wanted her to avoid and will not come back until she's finished.

[Karma]

Yup - pre-empt his ignoring....
We had this when Honey was younger - on the final stages of our walk she would always disappear into the undergrowth.  We weren't overly concerned as she never went far.  But discovered it was because householders were putting various food rubbish over the back of their fences for the foxes and birds and she was going and hoovering up... 

To put a stop to it, we had to get her attention firmly on us from well before she normally disappeared, and reward her with treats all the way along the danger zone - so it was more rewarding to stay with us than go off scavenging!!! It was hard work, but we got there in the end!!! 

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Here are a few suggestions!

1. As Blue girl says, get him on the lead before he gets to the areas you know he's going deaf at..
2. Go back to basics and stick a long line on him in these areas so he has to respond with your first call (if he doesn't you jump on the line and pull him back anyway) and give him a REALLY high value treat - roast chicken with garlic and lemon get my two without fail
3. Do it for 2-3 + weeks at least so you can get a good established behaviour pattern going - the more he learns to choose you over the picnic tables then more likely he'll be to do it!
4. If you don't use a whistle, you could try training him with that (whilst using the long line and roast chicken ) as the sharp tone often works more effectively than a voice command when they're distracted - Dave can be really slow with voice commands but usually bang on with a whistle. I also find with both of mine that their natural 'range' (i.e. how far they can be away from me and still respond well) is lot bigger with a whistle so I don't have to worry as much.

Hope that helps, it's SO frustrating isn't it!!!!!

[laurenollie]

it does help thanks guys - and is a obvious answer to pre empt now I think about it. THis is easy to do in the field on the morning walks as I know obviously where the 'bad' area is so can definatley work on that. Not sure how it will work if he does this on other walks when i don't know what is coming up - but I guess with doing it more on the normal morning walk will help with any other walk!!!

Funny you mention the whistle training I am currently followign the steps on the sticky Topbarks posted - so hopefully that might help as well!!!

thanks again

L&O x

[Karma]

it does help thanks guys - and is a obvious answer to pre empt now I think about it.

It's easy to see the obvious answer when you're removed from the problem!!! 
Not so easy when you're dealing with the problem every day....