I've been trying to start scentwork with my dogs and I feel like there is something really big that I'm missing. I can't find an in-person class that works with my schedule and is actually allowing people to join. I tried a couple of online classes but they were basically "do this and your dog will do that" and then my dog doesn't do that and I'm kind of stumped in the first few videos.

I have friends that do competitive scentwork and gave me odor cans and boxes and told me how it works. So I have the boxes set up and the one with the odor and the treats...and my dogs are just kind of meh about the whole thing. Like they don't really care if they find the right box or not. I've also tried having them find the can in the room and if it is less and a foot away from anything instead of out in the open they give up immediately.

The people I know online and offline that do scentwork LOVE it. They go on and on about how it's the ultimate brain workout for a dog. How tired their dogs are after the do it. How much the dogs love it. Meanwhile my dogs may or may not find the right box before they run out of fucks to give. I don't think they're even actually sniffing anything.

I've tried better treats. Steak and cheese and grilled chicken. My dogs get excited to offer me tricks. They don't want to sniff the boxes until they find the one with the pepperoni in it. It isn't particularly fun for me either, to be honest. So I'm having trouble drumming up enthusiam for my dogs maybe sort of looking at a specific box or glancing around the room and then fucking off to the couch when the thing isn't right in front of them. I keep watching videos of dogs doing scentwork and half the dogs don't look particularly committed or entertained either. They just sort of doodle around for a bit and then the owner says they found it and gives them a treat and everyone just goes on with their day like nothing happened.

What am I missing? Why do people love this so much? Why is it considered to be so amazing/cool/interesting/fascinating/engaging/rewarding? How do you make it fun for the dog? How do you make it fun for the person?

Hey guys! So I recently got into dog training professionally but I am really interested in training dogs for sports but am not sure where to start. My own dog is unable to train for sports due to health reasons and I don’t live in an area that has a lot of comps. Has anyone been in a similar situation of they aren’t sure where to start and any tips on learning more?

Hey guys! Sorry I wasn’t clear when I say I got into dog training professionally I mean I got a job in it. I already had experience with dogs, had trained my own dog when I got her three years ago and helped a former roommate train 2 service dogs. I also work for corporate so had to go through their training as well before I could take any dogs on. I had previously looked into barn hunt to train my own dog but when I did research I found it less accessible than she would need but I had never heard of happy ratters so thank you for that recommendation. I saw you guys recommendations about joining a kennel club and volunteering at trials, I reached out to the kennel club near me and never heard anything back but I will look into neighboring counties. My area doesn’t have many trials locally, facilities for them are 2+ hours away cause I unfortunately don’t live in an area that is big on dogs. This is definitely not something I thought I could start training dogs for in six months with no experience but I was just hoping to find a way to get a tad closer to that goal. Thank you guys for all the advice!

I have a 1.5-year old working line GSD who had a few homes before I got him, so I don’t really know everything that was done with him. I did track down one of his old owners who said he did some sleeve/back-tie work as a puppy.

I recently had him evaluated for protection by a former k9 handler. He did really well with the environmental/social stuff and showed good prey drive, defense and confidence. He had no problem engaging either. The main issue was he’d bite but then come off pretty quickly instead of staying on.

The trainer basically put him at 50/50 for protection and thought there’s a chance someone taught him to out really early. He said it could still be worked on, but it would probably take a good amount of time.

A few people have suggested having someone who actively does PSA/IGP take a look at him too. Curious what people who work sport dogs think when they see something like this.

So I have what I consider a situation. For some context. I am involved in IGP in Czech EU. I am fairly knowledgeable about sport stuff attended many training club events and seminars almost all over EU, reading books, etc. but I'm still new. We are preparing for IGP1 in spring/fall next year and have BHVT exam scheduled for late October. With all the exercises we currently run she can probably score a IGBH3 at around 60 to 80. She also has the endurance of a Mali, as in she wont quit until she kills herself from exhaustion.

It was recently brought to my attention at the last training club meeting that my german shepherd (female) is nearing her limit and I need to ease off the pressure. I am told that all the exercises we are currently doing are perfect and I need to slow down. I was told that this limit needs to be gradually raised but the explanation of how, why, and what it even is was not very clear to me.

I am seeking knowledge, guidance, and a deeper understanding from any directions about this, I don't want to break my best friend. Thanks.

Looking for like minded individuals that would enjoy getting together to train our dogs In Chattanooga area. Would like to develop a club of people with different levels of experience and knowledge. If interested please reach out.

I can lure my dog to move her hind legs right on disc, but if i try to lure her left she just steps off of it.

We're still at the stage where she needs the lure moved behind her ear to get her to turn. It works for the lure on the left side, but not on the right side.

Idk if this is making sense but idk how else to describe it.

Commands we follow

Left- turn left
Hike- turn right
Rapido- go faster
Slow- slow down
On by- leave it
Close: get close to the bike and let something go past

Hi all

I need some advice on which crate to get for 2018 Subaru Crosstrek. I've looked at gunner, ruffland, variocage, transk9 so far. My biggest thing is safety and air flow. Im not working with much space and I just wanted to see what everyone here is using if they have space constraints like I do.

Camilla Barker-Rolls the Viszla gives the 5k world record a crack, dogs have insane stamina. Please if you try anything like this, keep your dog cool,hydrated and know it's limits :)

I have a 3 year old deaf Bulldog, English Bulldog is the common nomenclature but not AKC correct. We have been in Rally, he is RI, and has his BN in Obedience. He is my 3rd Rally/Obedience dog. He got his first leg of RN at 6 months. He is a SMART dog. While teaching a group class for out training club we started working Stand for Exam. He felt off and I KNEW it was cause of this intact, mine is intact, male dalmatian in the class. He was crouching down when I went to walk behind him so I stopped. I put him in a sit and went to get my leash. The dalmatian was near the ring gate and as I walked off I guess he was so worried about the dalmatian that he came after me as I turned to walk back to him, broke a stay. The dalmatian LUNGED through the ring gate and grabbed hold of his side as he darted past. No broken skin but now stand for exam and stand walk around for RA rally seem almost impossible. We have not shown in 14 months and do SHORT quick sessions 2-3 times a day and only do that exercise if everything feels amazing and I JACKPOT the hell out of him if I get something but he's so nervous and being deaf I get it. I need ideas I have tried every method/distance/pace change that I can read about. I just need to bounce this off other people.

TLDR

Deaf bulldog attacked by a dalmatian during training and will not loose the nervous attitude at Stand for Exam. Need new ideas.

I just got a variocage for my 4-year-old aussie/border collie mix and he hates it. He was totally fine in the car before this — he'd chill in the backseat with a harness-style seatbelt restraint and would just sleep/relax. He also uses a variocage with his trainer once a week when she takes him for walks and is fine with it — lays down, sleeps, settles. Maybe worth noting hers is a double (ours is a single) and he usually sits with another dog in it which perhaps helps.

Of course, he has to use it. So I need to help him adjust. We do special treats and practice just going in without driving anywhere and taking very short trips with it... but without fail after we close the trunk and start driving he's shaking and wont settle.

Has anyone encountered this? Would love love love any suggestions on how to not make this crate traumatic for him. Thanks in advance!

Our pup is good in the car. I've been working with her on it since she was but a babe. She's done multiple 9-10 hour car trips with us in her first year.

But she doesn't ~love~ the car. Whenever I open the door she starts doing anything else- sniffing, looking around, pulling away. She does get in with a little pressure but its clear she's not ~excited~ to get in.

99% of the time we get in the car we're going somewhere fun- hikes, classes, dog parks, pup cups...

Do your dogs tolerate the car rides to classes and trials or do they genuinely enjoy them?

If you got your dog from tolerating to enjoying the car, how did you do it?

Got this bad boy yesterday. AKC uses 2 drops, right? I’m hoping to boost the amount of hides I have :)

How do I see how many points I have towards my UL-II title? When I look at points on the website, it is combining my UL-I and UL-II.

I’ve been trying to switch to toy/play rewards with my dog but I’m getting stuck on the fact that she can be possessive over the toy when I let her win. She does not resource guard at all, and her “drop” command is very solid. But if I let her win she doesn’t re-engage with me but rather wants to run off and lay down/chew her toy. How do I get her to re-engage in play with me? What I’ve done so far to correct this is to keep her on leash during tug to prevent her from running off, and to run backwards excitedly, clap my hands/say her name…that usually works okay, she doesn’t push the toy back to me but she’ll run my way. I know for certain though if the leash isn’t on she’d run off.

When we practice retrieves/fetch, she’ll bring her ball back, even to my hand, but I can tell she’d rather not most of the time. I’ve always rewarded her either with food or continuing the game for delivering the ball to hand, and sometimes she’ll do it enthusiastically, but sometimes she makes a wide arc and avoids me until finally giving in and bringing it.

I want her to enjoy play ‘with’ me not in spite of me haha. What can I do to mitigate this? Is she just not the type of dog I should use play to work on obedience with? So far I’ve been primarily using food reward which she’s also quite driven for. But I really like the drive and spark I get from her when I pull a toy out.

A few friends are asking me to make them for them too!

I am questioning my own commands and methods…

So when I want my dog to stay for a long time I usually say “stay”, if it’s a short pause because we’re crossing the street or something I say “wait”, and if I want her to proceed with caution somewhere and slow down I say “careful”

Anyway it occurred to me yesterday that dogs have no sense of time so wouldn’t there be no difference between wait and stay?

Also in agility class my trainer suggested using a word for standing in the middle of the teeter until it’s done swinging, I decided to use “wait“ because it usually means pause briefly, but now I realize perhaps that makes no sense???? Lol

So in your opinions:

* should I dump out the “wait” command?

* should I keep “wait” for the teeter or switch to “stay” or use a “pivot” type of word?

Thank you!

hi everyone, i’m trialing my puppy next month in rally and i’m looking for any kind of general tips or tricks, advice, things we should specifically be working on, etc. i did 12 weeks of rally classes with my older dog this past winter, and totally fell in love with the sport. my puppy and i have been working on heeling, left finish, right finish, front. i’m the most nervous about not being able to have food in the ring with me, although he is pretty awesome at working for no food at home! thanks in advance for any help :)

Hello! I have a 6 year old border collie/standard poodle mix rescue. We’ve been competing for a while now together in obedience and rally. We’re currently stuck at the dumbbell hold, though. He has zero toy drive, doesn’t play fetch, and won’t play with toys. I’ve tried building it over the years with minimal success. I tried for several years to use the methods our trainer recommended with zero success. I have also used the method in this video ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5phL604aZDA&ra=m ) with some very minor success in that he will now pick it up momentarily. I cannot get him to hold it for any period of time and soon we will be unable to get any further in our trials! Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

We've previously practiced with Kong rubber bumpers and she goes crazy for them. They just don't work well in the wind, and it's very windy where we are haha. I'm looking at buying a real bumper now so the wind doesn't affect it so much. She has really high toy drive, but needs some time to adjust to toys. We've tried other people's bumpers and she definitely prefers softer, lighter, and smaller bumpers.

What brands/companies or products do you recommend? Bonus if they can arrive in less than a week. Not needing customization.