# REALLY short attention span



## CorgiPaws

...anyone have tips on working with a dog that has a REALLY short attention span? 

I'm struggling in training classes with Timber because about 5 minutes into whatever activity, she's just flat out done with whatever it is we are doing.


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## whiteleo

Welcome to the world of what people with Terriers deal with constantly. When Cayenne and I were in classes, my instructor Laura had us move quickly from one thing to another and to make sure that when she did do what I was asking for, to praise her to high heaven and then move to something else. Good Luck!


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## MollyWoppy

Are you sure its a short attention span, or does she just get bored really easily?
I thought Mol had the attention span of a jelly fish, but it turned out to be boredom, especially when it came to classes. 
As soon as I mixed things up a bit and made it interesting for her, it made the world of difference.


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## Tobi

whiteleo said:


> Welcome to the world of what people with Terriers deal with constantly. When Cayenne and I were in classes, my instructor Laura had us move quickly from one thing to another and to make sure that when she did do what I was asking for, to praise her to high heaven and then move to something else. Good Luck!


This is what we go through with Tobi as well... 5 minute sessions and we'd do 3-4 of them per hour... 

Is she still interested in the food Linsey? because that's about the only saving grace that we've got with Tobi is that he's extremely food motivated. SUPER excitement and shrieking voices, usually after working with him my throat tingles and tickles :lol:


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## CorgiPaws

She is really food motivated... until shes not, if that makes sense. When she is done she's done. When I notice her attention span start to cut off, I get one more positive out of her and quit at home, and go back to it. 
She is also getting her meals as training sessions, I'm cutting them into pieces because that seems to keep her attention the longest.
She's smart, I just like to do formal classes because I like the structure. Our trainer molds each class to what we need... I just feel like here she is, oldest dog in the class.. shortest attention span ever. Luckily she seems to get things relatively quickly, I just worry we won't get past the very basics with her. The classes are an hour, and last week after 30 minutes of jumping to several activities, she was done, so I brought Kola in for the test. Kola is a rockstar at this stuff. She will sit and train for hours if I feel like it!


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## Tobi

PuppyPaws said:


> She is really food motivated... until shes not, if that makes sense. When she is done she's done. When I notice her attention span start to cut off, I get one more positive out of her and quit at home, and go back to it.
> She is also getting her meals as training sessions, I'm cutting them into pieces because that seems to keep her attention the longest.
> She's smart, I just like to do formal classes because I like the structure. Our trainer molds each class to what we need... I just feel like here she is, oldest dog in the class.. shortest attention span ever. Luckily she seems to get things relatively quickly, I just worry we won't get past the very basics with her. The classes are an hour, and last week after 30 minutes of jumping to several activities, she was done, so I brought Kola in for the test. Kola is a rockstar at this stuff. She will sit and train for hours if I feel like it!


makes sense completely, after about 45 minutes tobi completely shuts off to food as well, the trainer that we used to see would then just cut it off because he was a brick wall. I'm really not sure lins, have you tried free shaping with her? we can keep focus with ours a bit better doing that, it's like if he's getting to do things that he's offering he's all for it. some dogs i feel are more cut out to want to learn and some just want to be rebels!!! lol


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## chowder

Hour classes were really hard for me with my Chows. Half an hour was about the max I could get out of them for any enthusiam and that was moving from one thing to another pretty quickly. Being in a class that combined the basics with agility equipment helped out tremendously because it gave them a lot of new stuff to 'play' on and learn, while combining it with the basic sit, down, etc commands.

Maybe you can find a class similar to that near you. Mine really enjoyed doing the A frames, balance, tunnels, etc and we started right at 8 weeks. We combined them with 'sit' at the end, 'down' on the table, heel and sit between the obstacles, etc. It made the classes a lot more interesting for them. Chows get bored real easy!


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## cprcheetah

Shellie has a REALLY REALLY REALLY short attention span, I finally had to resort to private lessons because she couldn't handle the class environment. She can only pay attention for about 5 minutes MAX, although will sit & wait for her food bowl for up to 10 minutes if I make her before she eats. The tips my trainer told us was keep it simple, engaging and fun, if she's food motivated make sure to use lots of food to keep her attention. You want to set them up to succeed not fail, so whatever you need to do to make sure she's succeeding, do that. With Shellie, I did 'doggie' push-ups a lot which was fun for her, and kept her mind engaged, I would have her sit-lay down sit-lay down etc over and over then give her a treat randomly.


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## pandaparade

A few things come to mind. First is Ruff Love, by Susan Garrett... if you haven't read it I would reccomend it. Second is, quit before she is done, if you can only do one minute, make it exciting and STOP at that point.


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## CorgiPaws

I think that 5 minutes is just expecting too much out of her rock head. LOL. 
I'm just going to be happy when I get three positive results from her, and call it quits for her. She's not bad by any means. She knows most of the basics, and she will take herself outside to potty. She still tries to chew dumb stuff... like couches... but her leave it is pretty strong. She's smart, if she had an extended attention span, I think she'd be the smartest of the bunch.


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## pandaparade

Thats a big problem for everyone, you want to continue on because it's SO GOOD. I still have that problem!


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## CorgiPaws

pandaparade said:


> Thats a big problem for everyone, you want to continue on because it's SO GOOD. I still have that problem!


Exactly!! 
I guess I'll just be happy those three minutes she gives me are awesome. LOL.


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## cprcheetah

PuppyPaws said:


> Exactly!!
> I guess I'll just be happy those three minutes she gives me are awesome. LOL.


That's how I work with Shellie, when she seems to be drifting and losing focus, I stop. The one thing that will keep her focus however is a tennis ball, so I have been using that to my advantage for slightly longer sessions, HOWEVER she is a tennis ball freak and gets too antsy if I use the tennis ball too often to keep her focus.


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## IslandPaws4Raw

PuppyPaws said:


> I think that 5 minutes is just expecting too much out of her rock head. LOL.
> I'm just going to be happy when I get three positive results from her, and call it quits for her. She's not bad by any means. She knows most of the basics, and she will take herself outside to potty. She still tries to chew dumb stuff... like couches... but her leave it is pretty strong. She's smart, if she had an extended attention span, I think she'd be the smartest of the bunch.


I know this type of dog well. They are super smart, as you already suspect. They just don't see the point in doing something over and over again. They almost have a royal air, and poise about them too. We have a local "breed" in the islands called potcakes, and a good majority of them are this way. Super smart, loyal to a fault.

Susan Garrett is a good suggestion, she has some really good free webinars occasionally. Her training methods are awesome. It could be an attention span thing to at her age, but i'm just thinking that she's not into the doofy Lab/Golden mentality of "do it again!" " do it again!" "Yeah YEAH YEEAAHHH!":nono:

No offense intended to all the Lab/golden fans out there........:flame:


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## CorgiPaws

IslandPaws4Raw said:


> I know this type of dog well. They are super smart, as you already suspect. They just don't see the point in doing something over and over again. They almost have a royal air, and poise about them too. We have a local "breed" in the islands called potcakes, and a good majority of them are this way. Super smart, loyal to a fault.
> 
> Susan Garrett is a good suggestion, she has some really good free webinars occasionally. Her training methods are awesome. It could be an attention span thing to at her age, but i'm just thinking that she's not into the doofy Lab/Golden mentality of "do it again!" " do it again!" "Yeah YEAH YEEAAHHH!":nono:
> 
> No offense intended to all the Lab/golden fans out there........:flame:


This totally sounds like her. After a few repetitions she just gets this "Yeah, ok mom, I proved I can jump in the air and touch my nose to your hand like a million times already. Touch your own effing hand, I'm out."


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## cprcheetah

IslandPaws4Raw said:


> I know this type of dog well. They are super smart, as you already suspect. They just don't see the point in doing something over and over again. They almost have a royal air, and poise about them too. We have a local "breed" in the islands called potcakes, and a good majority of them are this way. Super smart, loyal to a fault.
> 
> Susan Garrett is a good suggestion, she has some really good free webinars occasionally. Her training methods are awesome. It could be an attention span thing to at her age, but i'm just thinking that she's not into the doofy Lab/Golden mentality of "do it again!" " do it again!" "Yeah YEAH YEEAAHHH!":nono:
> 
> No offense intended to all the Lab/golden fans out there........:flame:


OMG! That is seriously the funniest thing I have ever heard...and SOOOOOOOOOOOOO like my Shellie Bean....no offense at all


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## DoglovingSenior

Apollo was like that. He is so smart and would do something perfectly about 3 times on the 4th attempt he would look at me like Seriously? and sometimes walk out of the ring. Drove me NUTS! We must remember that with Us good ole Human Beings-a speaker can usually only hold his audience for about 20 minutes Hmmmmmm


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## minnieme

What about saving some REALLY nommy treats for the end of class? That's what I do with Minnie too...her attention span kind of waxes and wanes but if I save the EXCELLENT stuff for last (bread. yes, i know not at all species appropriate but she will do just about anything for it...sometimes a little TOO enthusiastically...) I can usually make it through the hour. That or I mix up a variety of treats so she never knows what she's getting. Seems less repetitive and boring that way.


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## MollyWoppy

Sometimes you just have to resign yourself to the fact you have a dog that doesn't really fit into the normal obedience classes. 
I had Mollie in agility classes, she picked it up really quickly, but after going through things a few times and then sitting and watching the other dogs do their thing, when it was her turn, she'd jump a jump or two, go through the tunnel (her favourite) and then just lie down like a dead dog. Nothing would get her to move, the instructor (he runs the #5 dog in the States said he'd never seen anything like it , any treat whatsoever, the only thing that got her off the ground was when I went and hid.
Obviously, that's not going to work in agility, so I had to admit that maybe it wasn't her thing. Or, maybe doing it with a class of other dogs wasn't her thing. She outsmarted me. 

So, what I'm trying to say is that maybe Timber would benefit from individual lessons with the instructor?
I honestly don't know what the answer is with dogs like this, they aren't dumb, they just can't be bothered for some reason.


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## SerenityFL

pandaparade said:


> A few things come to mind. First is Ruff Love, by Susan Garrett... if you haven't read it I would reccomend it.* Second is, quit before she is done, if you can only do one minute, make it exciting and STOP at that point.*


That. It's what I have to do with the hoodlums. Even playing fetch, I can tell, by the third time, (yes, only the third time), I throw the ball for Shasta, he's ready to do something else. So just before I throw it the 4th time I say, "This is yours", which he now knows to mean, "you don't have to bring it back".

With the girl, when we work on "come/stop", I can do this with her about 4 times around the giant yard and then I see she's starting to get bored...so I'll then go get her favorite disgustingly, filthy teddy bear, have her lie down for one more time, walk to the other side of the yard, have her do the "come/stop" exercise but now she knows, when she reaches me, she gets that grungy teddy bear to fling all over the yard.

I stop right before I know they are ready to quit. The only thing I can get them to do for an hour is a long down stay. Nothing else. Their training sessions have to be short because they get very bored or distracted, easily. (Yes, they are part Lab, you would think they could go on for hours but whatever they are mixed with says, "Sigh...again?! Didn't I just do this?!")


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## wiliana

Generally, the concentration is something that dog is learning with us, and you should go slowly with these teachings if you want good results. With dogs that I know, it worked best if first "lessons" were at home, where there are no distractions, and then gradually introducing him with disturbing factors. Disturbing factors can be different noises that you are playing from your mobile or pc... growling, crushes... Point is to learn our dog watching us while something else is happening. Offcourse, you have to be very interesting and motivational to him because that is what keeps them on us, our ability to be the most interesting thing in their lives. After reach their attention at home, we will go in front of the house where we have other things that would distract him, then in the company of one dog, and at the end somwhere where there are more dogs or different kinds of distractions. The whole point of a successful concentration is that the dog really wants to follow what we do, that we are more important than his surroundings.
I can not claim how much this is possible with all kind of dogs, but if handled well, even those with the smallest genetic attention for people, in some phase will follow us, more or less successfully. 

Dog schools can sometimes distratct rookies (I mean that rookies are dogs who dont have basic attention) more than they help. If dog doesent have concentration on us, he see other dogs arround, he wants to meet them, and we are asking him some stupid things and we are serious in that, while other dogs arround are much more interesting to him. He wants to sniff his classmate or to run with him, and we are not giving him that permission and we are asking him to watch us... soooo boaring for him.

A lot of people are passing this phase of learning concetration fast, and are going to the next levels, without they builted well fundation for everything else. If we make good base, and if we reach dogs attent on a high level, we will easy work with him further and learn him new things. 

Offcourse, every dog is different. Some of them will sell their soul for a treat, some for a ball, some are not so interested in anything. We need to find what is their bigger initiator and to convince them that we are in direct relation with that initiator. I think that dogs needs to realize that with us is the best party, and after they realise that- we will have their complete attention


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