The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Well Zoey(and I) started her real world obedience class today...she did awesome inside(training area downstairs at vet)....down/sit stay with dropped leash, go to you place....untill... we went outside then I just could not get her attention, even with real liver I cooked(yuck! )and warm hotdog, one of the other hu-moms offered me cheese for a different taste.. nope her nose was stuck to the grass.... she can't have chicken or lamb... any other ideas for super yummies? next class we meet at a local pet store... Yikes! Zoey LOVES the cats that live there ... and snifffing the treats... how do I compete with that?

You have a tracking dog there! Rosey was like that. Very hard to get her to stop sniffing, even with treats.

Colleen

Make sure she's really hungry before you go to class. So, for example, if the class is in the evening, don't feed her anything past breakfast. She'll probably become more attentive anyway, once the newness of the classes is past and she settles into more of a routine.

My Chessie is very outward focused! I have to really work to keep her attention too! I use a combination of tasty treats and her favorite toy when we are working. I find that clicker training also helps to keep her attention on me more. One of the tricks my trainer has me do is to walk in the opposite direction of the distraction before trying to get her attention with a treat. Then start back towards what was distracting her while treating. Only go as near as you can and still keep her successfully focused on you. If you need to walk away several times ... then do so.

One of Chessie's favorite treats is Vital Essentials Raw Beef Niblets. She loves them! They are quite pricey so she only gets them for training, but that keeps them high value. http://www.vitalessentialsraw.com/html/ ... efNibs.htm

Good luck finding what works best for you. You will find that them more training you do the better she listens. (most of the time LOL)

I get baby carrots and cut them into "coins" to use when I am working on training. The carrots are cheap, help clean the teeth and aren't fattening.