# Do your Poodles get frustrated?



## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Yep, Millie gets frustrated and she barks at me. I usually just try to re-think how I am asking the command so she can get it right. When Henry gets frustrated he just backs up and shakes his head while mumbling a guttural sound under his breath...LOL


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## debjen (Jan 4, 2010)

I don't know if it is frustration or what but when we are practicing a sequence or obstacle in agility if I practice the same thing too many times Flyer will actually start to do it wrong..I don't think it is on purpose but more "I've done this thing several times and mom makes me continue to do it so I must be doing it wrong so I'll try something different" . For instance we were practicing our A-frame contact. Did about 4 or 5 times correctly right off the bat..then started messing up and I couldn't get him to do it right unless I was standing right there..so went off and did other stuff and didn't do any more that day.. came back the next day and did it perfectly again..this time stopped with 2 and did other stuff..came back later in that session ..right on again.. Maybe mom will learn eventually. You would think I would learn..one of my Cavs patterns and if I do something 3 times with him and then try the same sequence with a different ending I practically have to stand in front of him and tackle him to get him to do it differently.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Mia shoots me a dirty look when I'm doing something "wrong," at least in her opinion. Like previous posters, it can be when we're practicing commands, but it can also occur when I break our routines. For example, lately she's decided that when we come home in the car, we should then go for a walk, even if we're coming home from a 2 hour hike. She gives me the dirtiest look when I close the garage door and then refuses to come out of the car. Oy vey, doggy.

ETA: the flip side to this are those times that she comes up to me to say "thank you." I've started organizing group playdates with friends in our neighborhood, and the first time we all got together, Mia was in heaven: all of her besties in one yard for over an hour! She came up to me and prodded me lightly with her nose, tail wagging, looking straight into my eyes, and then ran off to play again. It happened 5-6 times, and I swear it was her way of saying "thank you." Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but that's really how it seemed.


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

Cdnjennga said:


> So do others have dogs that get frustrated quite easily? And what do you tend to do when that happens?


On the bright side, frustration=desire to please. If a dog doesn't give a ****, he won't get frustrated!

A trainer I work with has taught me to look for signs of stress, e.g., floor sniffing, or silliness (Dexter stresses up, not down). She does the following in a brief training session:

--Start training session with playing and easy commands the dog knows.

--Intersperse hard stuff in training session with play and easy commands the dog is confident with (something as simple as a nose touch). 

--End training session on a successful note with more easy stuff and play. 


Darcy is still very young, even for a mini. His tolerance for longer sessions and training harder stuff will probably increase as he matures.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Vegas is too happy to get frusterated, and Viena is too blonde to. If anything, I'm the one that gets _frusterated_. Vegas just looks confused when I get upset when I think something easy to train (like going to a stand from a sit) turns out to be very difficult. I have to stop training and calm down, remind myself that dogs don't speak human, then try again when I'm positive again.


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Oh, yes. Vasco sometimes thinks I'm incredibly thick. If I'm clumsy with cues and making it too hard for him, he'll roll his eyes at me, go off to his toy basket and get a toy, and bring it to me with a "maybe you can handle this" look.

Oddly, when we are free shaping something, and he's stuck, he'll bark at me but not give up. That doesn't frustrate him, but he does get frustrated when he thinks *I* am standing between him and success :smile:.


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## ziggylu (Jun 26, 2010)

Cosmo has a low frustration threshold. When he was quite young, he'd get very agitated when he couldn't have something he wanted. When we were teaching him to sit for his food he'd go into ballistic barking and launch himself at us puppy teeth first for example( this was in the "difficult puppy" thread days). 

He's so much better about this now and has really learned patience. When he's not sure what to do you can now see him thinking it through trying to decide what action to try next. He still gets much more easily frustrated when on leash but that's coming along as well. It's also very important we just stand there calmly while he works things out. Any show of frustration on our part only increases his and then a negative spiral starts. 

I've had good luck with the techniques offered here: start with well grounded exercises first(we always start with eye contact exercises for example), mix in harder and brand new stuff with well known stuff, and for us, it's been critical to not do to many repetitions of any one thing, particularly new stuff.


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## Cdnjennga (Jul 30, 2009)

This is all very interesting! Maybe the easy frustration goes along with the high intelligence?

Darcy and I have been doing much more indoor training this week because it's been so cold outdoors, so that's probably why I've noticed it more. Last night he got very upset with me because I asked him to "sit pretty" one time too many (that act really gets him mad for some reason). So then I noticed that he got quite agitated and kind of forgot all the commands he knows! I asked him to sit and he sort of whined and agitated around and then went and sat on his mat (which is another command we've been working on). So at a certain point I can just see him thinking "ahhh, what does she want me to do, I will try everything we have worked on over the last few days just in case".

Anyway, the more we work on stuff, the more I start to understand him. So I think moving forward I'll be more sensitive to his cues. He's just SO SMART that I guess I have to get a little smarter too. 

On another note, my mom and I have noticed that both Darcy and Bria (her 7 mth PWD) get bored with tasks quite easily. They have little to no patience with too much repetition, so often we have to break off before we're actually "done" with a task to work on something else. It's like they're saying "um, yes, I understand that one why are you asking me to do it over and over?!"


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## babysdaddy (Feb 6, 2011)

A few things that work for me is to start off in a calm tone of voice telling Baby "time to work" and channel the excitement. If he gets too excited, I put him in a down stay for several minutes (slowly walk around him, over him, leave the room, come back then leave the house, come back and just across from him, etc...) and then release with a command to start working. When we were working on something in the past, I would see his frustration and add to it by my tone of voice (I would get firmer or more animated, higher pitch then normal, etc...). He's very responsive to a calm consistent voice command and to slow training down if he's not getting the task. The consistent voice has been very helpful for Baby and I.

I never let him wander off for toys or sniffing when we work, ever. I say when we begin and end (very conscience of the time we are training). I always go back to the down stay and sometimes end the training by leaving him in it for 15-30 minutes. After 10 minutes, he "naps" in his spot  That's fine by me as long as he stays down.

Most of the obedience training is done in the street during walks. Deosn't count if people say "well, he/she does it at home all the time..." Do you keep a diary of your progress? I did and documented all his building blocks from week one. This helps me through the frustration as well since I view each week as one brick to build the wall. 

Lastly, I give different treats for different types of training. Strict obedience outdoor in the streets gets very special soft moist treats. Still working on his "issues" with other dogs (my guy is a rescue with terrible leash problems). He went from ballistic "gonna get that dog" to "quicker walking pace heavy breathing". I can write a thread on this one, lol.

Never give up.


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

Yes. Riley will start to shut down if he doesnt understand something no matter how upbeat i keep it. I give him breaks, and lots of treats/praise. I think some of it stems from everything comes so easy to him/us while training. He usually picks things up very quickly, so when he doesnt it frustrates him as he is not used to that. ??


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