# Improving Focus and Speed



## TK9NY (Jan 6, 2017)

So Dublin aced his puppy level one class - go Dublin! 

Level one was the basics - loose leash walking and heel, sit, down, come, stay. Some tricks like spin and touch. We are now on level two, which is essentially just working on sit/stay/come and leave it. He's doing really well but i have a few questions for you Poodle people. 

This is our routine in class: the trainer holds the dog's leash and the handler puts the dog in sit (or down) and then stay. The handler then turns their back on the dog and walks down the aisle. We started only going a few feet and now we've progressed to all the way across the store. The first pass is with no distractions. The second pass the trainer adds some toys. Then some rawhide. Then some treats. Occasionally there is a person who is shopping and just randomly appears. And just recently, he started having the other dogs in the class stand randomly in the aisle.

Dublin does GREAT with the sit/stay part. He does passable on the leave it, only needing to be told to leave it on the first pass or two before just ignoring pretty much everything. Sometimes he gets distracted, but that's happening less and less (go Dublin!) The only real distraction is other dogs, which we just introduced to the routine.

HOWEVER i have noticed that with the increased distance (with us on opposite ends of the store, more or less), Dublin seems to get confused. I call for him and tell him to come and it takes a few minutes of him looking around to get the hint that i'm calling for him. It's almost like he doesn't know where i am even though he saw me walk down the aisle and i am in his direct line of sight AND i'm screaming and waving my hands like a lunatic. The trainer has to walk him in my direction a good 1/4 of the way before he gets the hint and continues by himself. Is this normal? Something he will grow out of the more we do it? 

The second thing i've noticed is that he takes his sweet time getting to me. Literally, i've seen turtles go faster. He AMBLES down the aisle. Sniffing everything, but not taking it if i tell him to leave it. He'll look around. Stop. Sniff. Unless a cricket hops by, then all bets are off (he seems to think they're snacks). Then he'll keep going when i call him. He even DRAGS his FEET when he does it. It's like he isn't motivated at ALL to come to me even though i have the hot dogs, and he is usually super food motivated. He comes right to me, no detours, but it takes forever. Compared to the other dogs in his class... well, let's just say they FLY down the aisle to their people. Is Dublin just lazy? Unmotivated? How can i change that?

Those are my main two issues. Getting and keeping his focus from a distance, and getting him to not lag when i call for him. We try very hard to make training fun so the hour we're there he doesn't get bored or overwhelmed. When the other dogs are up i'm letting him explore the area, playing with him, etc. Working on other commands like touch and spin. He loves the trainer and the store and he's there several times a week. 

Is he just lazy?!? He's doing really well, so i don't mind him being slow if that's just his personality. Like i said he comes right to me. I'm a little more concerned with him seemingly not knowing where i am even though he literally just saw me walk down the straight aisle and am in his direct line of sight. Do i just need to build his confidence up a bit? Could he be nervous about leaving the trainer to come all the way to me?

Any tips would be appreciated!

Just FYI - he is going to be ten months in June (holy cow, time flew!) Not neutered, yet. If that has anything to do with anything.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Whenever you're training two parts of something that you want to improve upon, you need to relax one of the criterion. In this case you're trying to get your dog to come faster to you. AND you're trying to get him to notice that he should come and the distance is too great for him at this point for him to focus and pay attention and combine that with coming to you quickly. Sooooo...relax one of those things and improve on the other all by itself for a bit. Here's what I would do: FIRST and foremost, no matter what that trainer is doing, you should NEVER EVER call your dog from a stay if you want your dog to have a rock solid stay. If you want, you can distinguish between a "wait" (less formal, stand around in the general vicinity) and "stay." (stay exactly as I'm leaving you) Two different behaviors of which I teach my dogs the difference. I'd explain that to the trainer that you don't want to use "Stay" if you're calling your dog come. You can have the trainer hold the dog but not tell him to "stay." And then call him to come. 

Back to what I started to go into: Now that that is settled, lessen the distance your dog needs to come. Make it easier. Whatever distance he can succeed at best (promptly, definitely, crisply, without hesitation) do that distance. Work with little distance between you for a while. When that distance is good, increase it gradually. If he is draggy or confused about coming, you've gone too far away too soon. Go back to where he succeeded. Keep building until he's further away again. Once that's getting pretty good, you can relax that criterion and go back to a rather short distance between you. Make that part easier for now. NOW you're going to work on speed. Get him revved up, hyped up, fun, squeaky toy and try to get him to come fast. You can pretend like you're going to run away from him a little and do whatever you have to to make it FUN for him and he should speed up. Reward him when he comes with praise and a mediocre treat. With a fantastic treat (real meat, cheese) reward those faster recalls...the best. As he gets faster, pick out the best examples of those recalls and only reward the best with the high value treat. Still praise him for coming but don't give super treats unless he comes fast. Make sure to set him up so he'll likely succeed by making it easy for him to come faster or more promptly. The more reinforcements he gets, the more he'll be motivated and the quicker he'll learn. 

As that's getting better, start increasing your distance again and put those two criteria together. Try more space between (not a huge space) and try for quicker recalls that he's been practicing. Any time something back slides, think what you can do to make it easier for him to get reinforced. Break the parts of a behavior or a chain of behaviors down into smaller parts that are easier and work back up again. When you think about it, there are lots of things we ask dogs to do that are really a chain of behaviors, one happening after the next. If a dog is having trouble, those things need to be broken down and worked on separately and made easier so they can be reinforced more. Consequences are what will drive behavior...are the _only_ thing that drives behavior. So with this, the good consequences (lots of them and frequently) will help him learn faster. 

He sounds like he's doing great for such a young guy. Maybe at class he's tired out. Is it late in the day or evening? Or maybe he's just not the revved up type and you have to do some crazy things to get him more excited and be sure you're really a super duper fun person that has really good treats like rib eye steak that he'll be so glad to speed toward. Good luck.


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

PB's advice on juggling the criteria is solid.

I also wondered, is this happening at the end of class or the beginning? Archie's recall is usually super quick and enthusiastic when we first get to class, but by the time we've repeated a few times he starts to drag. It's like he's saying, "Yeah, OK, I get it, you want me to come to you, FINE." Especially if he's getting the same treats for each repetition. Even if they're awesome treats, he'd usually rather check out something new. Like that interesting smell over there. Plus he just plain gets tired after a while.

Do you ever practice this outside of class? If so, how does he do then?

A little trick that can help is to go where he can't see you. If you're standing still and watching him, then he knows he doesn't have to hustle. If there's a chance you might disappear or go somewhere unexpected, then that's a little more urgent.

An exercise we've been doing in Archie's class is to hook the dogs up to long lines, then just wander around (our class is in a park, so lots of room to spread out). Any time the dog gets distracted, you really quickly turn and head off the other direction. The dog looks up, goes "Whoa! Where's she going??" and runs over to catch up. Then you reward. I think this helps build that "centripedal attraction" that Lily/Javelin's mom talks about here on the forum.


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## TK9NY (Jan 6, 2017)

Makes sense to work on one over the other - and TBH i would rather he come right to me than be FAST about it. So i guess we'll work on speed later, and focus on just getting him coming 100%. It's just kinda funny that he literally drags his feet! He almost looks like a little kid throwing a fit - "but mooom/daaaad i don't wanna!"

All the training i've ever done has been through Petco or Petsmart, and both classes (now and years ago with my first dog) did a similar routine where you put the dog in sit/stay and then did recall from the stay. It's how the company wants the trainer to teach it, i guess? I don't know for sure. It just is. I never thought about it before, but you're saying it shouldn't be done that way? Any particular reason? 

Just curious so i can bring it up with him next week. I don't know that he could change things since he has to do the class the way corporate has it set, but maybe we could work something else out. Would saying the release word and THEN saying "come" work? Like "Dublin, stay - (walk to a set point) - Okay Dublin (wait a second or two) Come!"

I'm not looking for perfect. This is a free class that i get because i'm an employee. And the trainer is a great guy, he does really well with the dogs that come through, and has put MANY dogs through CGC. Several therapy dogs as well. 

PS - The class is at 4:00, but Dublin is rarely tired at the end of the day - he goes in ready to play and he's got a good amount of energy... up until we practice, lol. The lagging is constant, throughout the lesson, as well - he isn't "getting bored". 

But i will say that he was much peppier today! We moved to the center aisle with more distractions, but less distance, and he didn't lag behind at all - it only took one pass for him to completely ignore most of the distractions, and he even ignored people and other dogs. Well, except for our classmates - on the last run she opened her bag of treats and Dublin stopped right in front of her like he thought she was getting one for him! I told him leave it, called him again, and he came. So....

I don't know if leaving his sight would make him any faster, lol - he doesn't seem to mind my not being in his sight. WE sort of tried that today in class - the trainer had the other dogs/owners in the class stand in the middle of the aisle. Dublin couldn't see me, but he could hear me. He stopped at the first person looking for treats, didn't seem to care that he couldn't see me! Then i yelled at him - LEAVE IT - and he moved on to the next person (by the third dog he was over it and just ignored that dog and the fourth lol.) 

The exercise you mention with the turning in the other direction when the dog is distracted is how i've been leash training him! It's worked wonders on getting his attention on me! We train in home, in our yard, and i try to train him in at least one other place per week. Which sort of ties into my above question about using a release work and then recalling from a stay - i don't have someone to hold him, so that's how i practice by myself with him. Put him in a sit/stay on a long line and then have him come.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

When you call your dog from a stay, you are putting it in his mind that that's an option....that there is indeed the possibility of breaking the stay. Sometimes he stays and sometimes he doesn't stay. Stay is stay at the end of the day. lol. :alberteinstein: If he gets it drummed into his little lemon brain, as Jean Donaldson would call it, that he NEVER, under any circumstance is to break away from the stay, never, ever, ever, no matter what, the likelihood that he'll stay when you tell him to when he winds up on the opposite side of the busy road from you for some reason has supremely higher odds. 

If you can find a place to practice that is fenced and safe and no one else is around, that would be great...even in your back yard if you have a fence. Walk around let the dog do his own thing and don't tell him anything. Then if he is already coming reliably from a cue, "Let's go" or "come" go ahead and use your cue. BUT if he is not that reliable yet, don't use the cue yet. You don't want him to not come when he hears the cue or it will become meaningless. Get him to come by having fun, enticing him, running the other way etc and then when he comes and you get hold of his collar, reward him a lot. And then turn him loose with your release word. Let him go back to what he was doing.

If you want to take him somewhere with a long line for safety if there's no fence, use that. Let him wander away a bit and then try to get him to come without your cue if he's not likely to come...if he's into something else. I don't know where you are with your recall. Some people will reel the dog in. I prefer to let the dog make the choice. And I make it so he _chooses_ the "right" way to do things. Get out your check book. lol.

Anyhow, most behaviorists will tell you not to call your dog from a stay. Of if you do, only one out of say....10-15 stays. You want the dogs muscle memory in his brain to have it's default setting to be stay when told to stay...not a mish mash of stay, come, stay, come. Stay means stay unless I come get you.

If you're sure he understands a release word, then technically...yes, you could release him and then call him. But there's more to it than just saying your release word. That needs some definite training on it's own as well. Here, watch this whole thing:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I would not expect your pup to come fast from great distances with lots of distractions. It is too much for him to sift through to then execute a behavior he may not yet fully understand. As said above you should deal with one criterion at a time. There are good step by step explanations of what to do above. 

I will add that I generally tell my students to work on getting duration of a behavior first (for static behaviors) then increase distance and then add distractions. If the behavior falters when you add distractions at distance the dog is telling you he doesn't fully understand the behavior yet and you need to go back a couple of steps until you again are getting reliable responses.

I also never call a dog off an ordered stay. For my dogs, stay means remain in this location and this position until I return to you and tell you you may move. Wait means stay in this place and this position until I tell you to do something else. The next order may also not be on my return to you but instead given from a distance.


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## TK9NY (Jan 6, 2017)

Hm, i'll definitely bring the recall from stay thing up with the trainer. It definitely makes sense that you don't want to confuse the stay with anything else or let the dog think they can move from stay without a proper release. Maybe he'll let me use "wait" for that exercise instead. I'm also going to slow things down a bit for him - when we where in the middle aisle with less distance (but more distractions) he did a lot better - and work some more out in the yard, maybe on a long leash to start.

I think that once this class is over i'll let Dublin take a break from structured class training and i'll just work on some stuff with him one-on-one. He went straight from puppy one to puppy two, and this class was put off a couple of weeks in the middle because i had jury duty. He could use a break. So could i. 

Another quick question though - when i put him in a sit/stay he has the habit of laying down afterwards as i'm moving away. Likewise if i put him in a down/stay he has the habit of sitting up. He does NOT care for the "down" command (we still struggle with that - is this a poodle thing?!?) but he seems to "stay" better in a down than a sit? Thoughts?


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

TK9NY said:


> Hm, i'll definitely bring the recall from stay thing up with the trainer. It definitely makes sense that you don't want to confuse the stay with anything else or let the dog think they can move from stay without a proper release. Maybe he'll let me use "wait" for that exercise instead. I'm also going to slow things down a bit for him - when we where in the middle aisle with less distance (but more distractions) he did a lot better - and work some more out in the yard, maybe on a long leash to start.
> 
> I think that once this class is over i'll let Dublin take a break from structured class training and i'll just work on some stuff with him one-on-one. He went straight from puppy one to puppy two, and this class was put off a couple of weeks in the middle because i had jury duty. He could use a break. So could i.
> 
> *Another quick question though - when i put him in a sit/stay he has the habit of laying down afterwards as i'm moving away. Likewise if i put him in a down/stay he has the habit of sitting up. He does NOT care for the "down" command (we still struggle with that - is this a poodle thing?!?) but he seems to "stay" better in a down than a sit? Thoughts?*




Again...don't ask for so long a sit/stay before reinforcing him. If he can hold it for 1 second, reinforce that and build on it...2 seconds, then 3 and so on. If you wait too long, he'll break it and change positions. To prevent that you need to give him feed back as to what he's doing right...and quickly before he gets up. Quick, frequent reinforcement as he sits and stays. Don't give him a chance to lie down when you are wanting him to sit and the same when you ask him to lie down. Rapid fire, tasty treats as he's doing the behavior you want. Again, make it easy for him by practicing in lower distraction places. Don't work him if he's sick and tired of training. Keep those practice times very short. Several little stints at home during the day. You want to stop your training when he's having fun and wanting more. This way you'll keep his interest up. He is a young dog still and short little bouts of training is invaluable. It's an accumulative thing.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I forgot to mention that when you're teaching him to sit/stay, you need to stand right smack dab in front of him at first...rapid fire delivery of reinforcer (treats) and as he gets proficient with that level, start spacing out your treats gradually, asking for a little longer duration of sitting/staying. 

Sit stay has 3 aspects to it. Duration, distance from you and distractions. Again...work on one of those by itself at first. Stand right in front of him and use a marker...a word or a clicker to help him know just exactly what he just did to earn the reward. It marks the behavior precisely for him. Always follow with a reward within a couple seconds, no more after using your clicker. (or word. I use "yessssss!") This is too long to type in too much detail. Look up Kiko pup's videos for pretty much anything. She's really good. I don't know if she does it just like me but I've always broken things down. After the duration is built pretty well, I try distance. I step back on step and return immediately to reinforce. I do not ask for duration at this point. We're working on distance from me. One step, then two, then three, always popping back immediately....no pausing whatsoever. As the distance gets greater and the dog is getting onto this game, you can put the two together. But make it easy. A little distance, a little duration. Work it up gradually. Then add in a little distraction, then a little more etc. Vary your locations that you practice and remember...don't practice too long with a young dog especially. They get tired, bored, distracted and you don't want to "sour" your dog to training. Quit when he's done something wonderful, make a big fuss, while he would love to do more. But don't. Go do some other game.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

My beginners start facing their dogs toe to toe for sits and downs. I have them keep the leashes on so that no one can go off the reservation if they break. I also start them off with baby times of just a few seconds, then good dog go back before they move. I have them build duration first then distance. There is no point in walking away and having the dog break before you even go out and turn to face them. When you start to add distance you may need to reduce the duration to ensure success.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Another little tip: Once your dog is getting onto staying put pretty well with you right there in front, then he's getting onto your stepping away a little bit more, start varying your relative position to him. Don't always stand facing him. Try standing obliquely and sideways to him. When he really gets going on this quite well, try turning your back and asking for a sit/stay...just a few seconds long. As he gets better and better with distance and duration, (at the more elementary level) start throwing some curve balls along the way so you're not _too_ predictable. If you always stand the same way, facing him, for instance, that in itself becomes part of the cue. He can only recognize what you're asking when you are in this one kind of position or one kind of context. This happens easily with dogs, as they don't generalize behavior all that well...not until they become very use to training. Then they get better at it, it seems. You want to be able to have him stay in all kinds of contexts, locations, relative position to you etc. If you stay too long in the same kind of way, dogs sometimes get kind of stuck there and it's hard to get out and change things up. So, as soon as you dare (but make sure he's getting it pretty darn well first...the duration and a little bit of distance) start mixing these things up a _little._ Later, you'll be able to practice more advanced things like asking for a sit stay from quite a distance or even with you hiding out of sight. That's fun. Remember to keep sessions short...just a few reps or as long as he's having fun. But try timing your stopping before he gets tired or bored. Try changing up the reinforcers too so he doesn't get bored.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

TK9NY said:


> I think that once this class is over i'll let Dublin take a break from structured class training and i'll just work on some stuff with him one-on-one. He went straight from puppy one to puppy two, and this class was put off a couple of weeks in the middle because i had jury duty. He could use a break. So could i.


Those class training's do get tiring. They are great for learning things and getting feedback from the trainer. My dog advanced far faster though when we just did several little 5 minute training sessions a day. He got so when I cheerfully announced "Training!" he would come running. It worked so much better than longer class sessions where both he and I got tired or frustrated. We always ended on a high note of fun play

You are getting some really good advice here. I too love Kikopup.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

kontiki said:


> Those class training's do get tiring. They are great for learning things and getting feedback from the trainer. *My dog advanced far faster though when we just did several little 5 minute training sessions a day.* He got so when I cheerfully announced "Training!" he would come running. It worked so much better than longer class sessions where both he and I got tired or frustrated. We always ended on a high note of fun play
> 
> You are getting some really good advice here. I too love Kikopup.



Everyone should do this kind of training for the lifespan of the dog. For my beginner and novice students, I place emphasis on the idea of lifelong learning and training and also remind them they don't need to look for an hour on their calendar, but instead take advantage of everyday situations to do a short life skills drill several times a day.


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