# trying to train worlds most sensitive dog



## werecatrising (Oct 15, 2010)

I decided it would be fun to start clicker training Quinn. I thought teaching him practical things along with some fun little tricks would be a good way to boost his confidence. He is very sensitive, but I figured- what could be gentler and more stress free than clicker training?

So I bought a clicker. I sort of expected him to be afraid of it, but he wasn't. I "loaded" the clicker. That went well- didn't take much time at all. I decide to start with "watch me" using the methods described here How to Train Even the Hard to Train Dog to "Watch Me" | eHow.com

I cheerfully approached Quinn. He was excited to see the clicker. I lifted the treat to my head as I said "watch me" and he froze. I wanted a minute and repeated. His eyes glazed over- I could tell he was going into shut down mode. He slunk down, turned his head away, and gave a submissive grin. This is pretty much what he does when I try to teach him anything. I have only trained him using food lures. I never manipulate him into position, yell, choke him, etc. It seems no matter how gentle I am it confuses/frightens him.

Don't get me wrong, he has made MUCH improvement in the year I've had him. It just makes me sad to see his anxiety. Once he learns something he is happy and performs the task eagerly. It just when he doesn't know what I want that he shuts down.

Anyone have any experience dealing with this sensitive a dog? Am I going about things wrong? I know their are several people into positive training. Any insight will be appreciated.


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

I know in doggie language constant eye contact can be seen as a threat. Just a thought, but maybe Quinn is nervous about looking you straight in the face? Or maybe it makes him nervous when you look directly at him? Just a thought.....

The way I taught Duncan to "look at me" or give me attention was to just stand there. Whenever he walked toward me, turned toward me, looked in my direction, looked at me, etc I would click/treat.

Maybe with Quinn it would be best to work with him, but not have the treat up near your face. Maybe hold the treat on your chest and when you click/treat don't hold direct eye contact.

Just some of my thoughts....and I may be wrong. Hopefully someone else will chime in with their thoughts. Good luck to you and sweet Quinn!


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

I think Sara is right on about how you should approach Quinn about training "watch me". Break it into even tinier baby steps and let him initiate the first eye contact; as Sara said eye contact that lasts for a few moments (which in the dog world is so minuscule compared to ours) is often perceived as threatening. Click when he so much as glances at you for a split second or steps in your direction. What I would do is after clicking, before giving him the treat, bring the treat back up to the middle of your face or eyes and then reward - you have to do it in a pretty swift motion because your dog has a 3-5 second association time and after that most likely won't directly connect the treat to looking at you.

For a sensitive dog Clicker training is the best way to do it, I think. Clicking, treats, with praise and play that the dog will handle without shutting down will get a dog coming around pretty fast. With dogs, they are more eager to try when they think they are going to get something right, aren't we all? So I would rev him up by having him do things he knows and clicking and treating for it. A lot of the time when just starting out with a trick, the faster you are able to click and reward for something the more likely you are to keep the dog in the game. That often means breaking things down into tiny itty bitty flecks of what the behavior will be as a finished product. That's okay, because in the process you are making this so rewarding for your dog he will most likely want to try and try and try and when he gets to the finished behavior it will be very strong and completely laced with positive meaning. With eye contact that is just what you want as it is such a good behavior to have.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I agree with breaking it into smaller steps. It sounds like the pressure caused him to shut down. He knows he's supposed to do something but doesn't know what, so he panics. The first thing that came to mind was that you said the cue before he performed the behavior. When you start training something it's best to stay quiet and just reward the behavior when it happens without a cue. Only after the dog is doing the behavior over and over should you say the cue because you know for sure that the dog is about to perform the desired behavior. Saying the cue itself could be where the stress is coming from, he can tell you're giving a command but has no idea what to do with what you said, so shuts down. It's possible just by keeping quiet he could stay engaged longer.

If not, you could go about it in one of two ways. One is to consider teaching him to watch your hand first, when it's nearer to him, when it's on each side of his head, then bring it slowly up your body until it's near your face. I would try to get to this point in one training session if possible because you don't want the hand watching behavior to be super strong, you want him looking at your face after all. Reward for him looking at the hand near your face but if his eyes ever glance at your face, click and jackpot him. If his glances become more frequent you can stop clicking for looking at the hand and only click for when he glances at your face. Only do this if the dog will not shut down. Otherwise continue rewarding with low value treats for looking at your hand, and jackpot with high value treats for looking at your face.

The second way you can do it is just to capture it. Sit down with your clicker and treats and just wait for him to look at you. To start it might not have to be right in your eyes or even directly at your face, but you want him to look at you. Then slowly work towards only looking directly into your eyes. To get him started you can try making odd noises to illicit a glance. Squeak, pant, make popping noises, anything that will get his attention but won't frighten him. Then click when he responds to that by looking at you. This method might work better than the one above because you won't have to wean the dog off of staring at your hand. 


And as a helpful hint, I know for sensitive dogs, agility training can be a real confidence boost. Just make sure the trainer is familiar with soft dogs.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

I've never clicker trained (always found it was more for the humans, not the dog) but I got my dog to do it by placing the treat next to her nose and then slowly drawing it towards my eye, the moment i got eye contact I would praise her like mad and give a treat.

I didn't introduce the cue "look at me" until she progressed further and got the idea of it. Getting the dog to hold the gaze is a bit harder, but you slowly string them along. First it's just a glance, then you have to shape their actions to be a couple of seconds, four seconds... six... and so on.

Also, it's so important to end on a positive note. When i'm training something new, and Piper doesn't get it, I always will go back to things she knows "shake a paw" etc. so that she nails a few before we end. Another important thing is jackpots... so when you do get what you want you just unload on the treats (i'll give cheese as a special YAY!). Talk to your dog. Get that eye contact and just start babbling away. "Aw you love your cheeseburgers don't you? Om nom nom nom... who's a handsome devil? You are... yes... you are! SUCH A GOOD BOY!" Treat treat treat.

The only thing I couldn't get her to do so far is roll over. She doesn't roll for no one (even herself). BUT... it means she doesn't roll in poop.... so i'm cool with that. I could likely get her to do that, but I just don't care enough. 

Whippets (and sighthounds in general) are supposed to be "sensitive" but Piper takes everything like a champ. Nothing fazes her. If she doesn't get something, she knows it's my fault. I would second the agility. Any sport really, is really is a good motivator. I'm going to try disc with Piper this summer. Just see if anything provides some interest to him.

How is his recall?


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## werecatrising (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks everybody for the pointers. They give me a lot to work with. At first I thought maybe he was uncomfortable making eye contact, but he does it unsolicited. Maybe I should try capturing the behavior when he does it on his own.
I'd love to get him into agility. I think at this point it may be a little too much for him. There is going to be a nose work class near us soon. I have been waiting for something like that locally for a long time. I think that would be a good start because he loves using his nose and is somewhat obsessive about finding things.
He is recall is pretty good. Once in awhile he blows it if he sees a cat off in the distance or is trying to eat chicken, cat, etc food.


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## ben (Apr 12, 2011)

I have just joined this forum and am really enjoying all the great infor

ben


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I was never really comfortable with "look at me" because it seems like it is inviting a dog to challenge you or sending the dog a challenge - it just went against everything I had learned my whole life about not having a stare-down with a dog.

Even now, I ask him to focus on my hand, and not my face. We work with hand/voice signals at the same time. Probably similar to the "touch" in clicker training, except it doesn't require physical contact.

He tends to sit and stare right at me and he will also look at me without my asking him to, so he doesn't have a problem with it, but i don't require it. I want him to look at my hands, so he can still understand me if he is too far away to hear me, or if it is noisy. I tend to treat too much, so his focus is naturally on the treat in my hand anyway.

Maybe being able to do that is more helpful for a timid dog, or a dog without alot of self confidence. I think whatever you can do to give him confidence is what you should do - even it means rewarding him for moving his eyes a certain direction. I think asking him to focus on your chest (as mentioned earlier here) is a great start, and then you can try moving his eyes to your face later.

Hi Ben - I just joined also. The people here are wonderful.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I think agility is a great confidence-booster for a dog - but at least with my dog, some of those obstacles were pretty hard for him to figure out, and we never mastered the see-saw.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

werecatrising said:


> Thanks everybody for the pointers. They give me a lot to work with. At first I thought maybe he was uncomfortable making eye contact, but he does it unsolicited. Maybe I should try capturing the behavior when he does it on his own.
> I'd love to get him into agility. I think at this point it may be a little too much for him. There is going to be a nose work class near us soon. I have been waiting for something like that locally for a long time. I think that would be a good start because he loves using his nose and is somewhat obsessive about finding things.
> He is recall is pretty good. Once in awhile he blows it if he sees a cat off in the distance or is trying to eat chicken, cat, etc food.


I wouldn't force the whole look at me thing then. In all honesty, all I care about is that my dog will come to me when called, everything else is secondary. The more time you spend with you dog on walks and going out and exploring the world, the more they will become comfortable with you. All in good time. Let him try out nose work (he might even like lure coursing if he likes to chase things too) and just find something he enjoys doing.

If you want to practice some nose work, take a good stinky treat and hide it under a cup, then put a bunch of cups out and have him find which one has the treat in it.


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