Getting your dog to listen under heavy distractions, learning under stress, dealing with exhaustion and competing motivators.

My theory on dog training is pretty simple, everything we do is geared to providing the dog as much freedom as possible while fulfilling their genetic predispositions and of course, having fun!

I came to this conclusion after a trainer asked me "What's your goal?" Simple question, but I didn't have an immediate answer that I liked or even believed. I had to think about it.

What good is "obedience commands" without control and reliability?

Here's something I like to do with my dog that I find helpful (and super fun) that maybe you guys might like to add to your routine.

My dog and I play Chuck-it a lot. We do that more than anything else this time of year. There's a bunch of benefits, the dog is EXTREMELY fit, and I'm not getting my ass kicked like when we play tug.

My dog LOVES Chuck-it. Every single chase & catch is done with 200% effort and full power. He would run himself to death if I allowed him to. Our Chuck-it game is tight. LOL.

Anyway, here's how we start:

We don't start the game until I give the signal "you ready!" If he breaks the rules, there's some sort of penalty. Usually, I just give him a verbal correction and put him back at his starting position and then we start over. (Rules are important!)

Now he's fired up and if he's not barking at me (he usually is) I'll get him to bark at me. He is now barking with a lot of intensity too. He has a really nice bark and hold now.

At this point he's at a 9 on a scale of 1 out of 10. And we haven't even started yet.

Now I start chucking the ball and he's off like a rocket. As were playing, every few passes I ask for a little obedience in-between reps.

When he returns with the ball, he'll automatically out. Then, I might ask for a sit, a heel or a middle command, whatever.

Then I give my reward marker and I fling the ball. Occasionally I'll have him wait before releasing him to get the ball (practicing some impulse control)

After a few reps of obedience with me, I'll ask for obedience from a distance on the way back from the retrieve.

After a rep or two of asking for obedience on the way back, I'll up the criteria and I ask for obedience on the way to the ball. (The most challenging) Maybe a down while he's in full on flight, or even a recall out of the chase.

It's no so much about the obedience but more about getting the dog thinking, using his mind, and paying attention to me while he's working, exhausted and in a near frantic state of prey drive.

Our sessions average about 45 minutes to an hour. This is a lot and flys in the face of conventional wisdom on dog training. We take a few water breaks in-between reps and I'm only asking for obedience occasionally. It's like 80% play and 20% obedience. Maybe less. I don't want to tant the game.

This week was the first week I was able to get him to "stand" while he was at a distance, on his way back with the ball. This showed me that he's not only paying attention to me but also learning.

Anyway, we have a ton of fun doing this together. When he's gassed and the endorphins are flowing I make sure to show him lots of love, praise and gratitude.

Any who, maybe something like this might be fun for you guys to do with your dogs too!

Really great post Bitz. I 100% agree. Commands without control or reliability become just another word.

Your breakdown of play is great too. I like how you sprinkle in some obedience into it but not enough to ruin the fun of the game.

The stand on the way back is impressive! Good work. I’m curious, are you still doing a lot of obedience reps, or is it more about maintaining the habits you’ve already built now?

Andre said:

Really great post Bitz. I 100% agree. Commands without control or reliability become just another word.

Your breakdown of play is great too. I like how you sprinkle in some obedience into it but not enough to ruin the fun of the game.

The stand on the way back is impressive! Good work. I’m curious, are you still doing a lot of obedience reps, or is it more about maintaining the habits you’ve already built now?

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I'm not really getting any hardcore obedience training in at the moment. That's going to come when we start pursuing the IGP stuff.

We're concentrating more on behavior as he growled at mom a few times over the last few weeks - I'm getting her more involved with his training and playing. She needs to develop better authority with the dog.

She let him get away with too much when I wasn't around when he was small and now he's at the age where he's testing his pecking order status.

He's obedient to her, when it's on his terms. That's the way I'm reading the situation anyway.

Now that he's maturing and approaching a year old he's turning into a very sharp dog with a strong willed mind. There's been a lot of personality change over the last month or so.

He's very sweet and affectionate with family but he definitely doesn't suffer people who believe to be beneath him! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he's been a forward moving dog since day 1.

MyDogBitz said:

I'm not really getting any hardcore obedience training in at the moment. That's going to come when we start pursuing the IGP stuff.

We're concentrating more on behavior as he growled at mom a few times over the last few weeks - I'm getting her more involved with his training and playing. She needs to develop better authority with the dog.

She let him get away with too much when I wasn't around when he was small and now he's at the age where he's testing his pecking order status.

He's obedient to her, when it's on his terms. That's the way I'm reading the situation anyway.

Now that he's maturing and approaching a year old he's turning into a very sharp dog with a strong willed mind. There's been a lot of personality change over the last month or so.

He's very sweet and affectionate with family but he definitely doesn't suffer people who believe to be beneath him! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he's been a forward moving dog since day 1.

Click to expand...

I'm super excited about your interest in IGP, it will be so cool to see you guys get into it.

I've always called it "selective hearing" when they only listen sometimes.

He's a confident, good boy. How's he with the kids, ever a bit much for them or does he just have a different mentality when around them?

Andre said:

I'm super excited about your interest in IGP, it will be so cool to see you guys get into it.

I've always called it "selective hearing" when they only listen sometimes.

He's a confident, good boy. How's he with the kids, ever a bit much for them or does he just have a different mentality when around them?

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He loves kids but I wouldn't let small children interact with him because he can be a bit too much. He gets super excited when teenagers are around and he's incredibly mouthy - not a great combination for little ones. LOL.

The type of attention he gives my teenager is insane. People spend thousands on training trying to develop that type of focus and my kid (for some reason) gets it naturally.

MyDogBitz said:

My theory on dog training is pretty simple, everything we do is geared to providing the dog as much freedom as possible while fulfilling their genetic predispositions and of course, having fun!

I came to this conclusion after a trainer asked me "What's your goal?" Simple question, but I didn't have an immediate answer that I liked or even believed. I had to think about it.

What good is "obedience commands" without control and reliability?

Here's something I like to do with my dog that I find helpful (and super fun) that maybe you guys might like to add to your routine.

My dog and I play Chuck-it a lot. We do that more than anything else this time of year. There's a bunch of benefits, the dog is EXTREMELY fit, and I'm not getting my ass kicked like when we play tug.

My dog LOVES Chuck-it. Every single chase & catch is done with 200% effort and full power. He would run himself to death if I allowed him to. Our Chuck-it game is tight. LOL.

Anyway, here's how we start:

We don't start the game until I give the signal "you ready!" If he breaks the rules, there's some sort of penalty. Usually, I just give him a verbal correction and put him back at his starting position and then we start over. (Rules are important!)

Now he's fired up and if he's not barking at me (he usually is) I'll get him to bark at me. He is now barking with a lot of intensity too. He has a really nice bark and hold now.

At this point he's at a 9 on a scale of 1 out of 10. And we haven't even started yet.

Now I start chucking the ball and he's off like a rocket. As were playing, every few passes I ask for a little obedience in-between reps.

When he returns with the ball, he'll automatically out. Then, I might ask for a sit, a heel or a middle command, whatever.

Then I give my reward marker and I fling the ball. Occasionally I'll have him wait before releasing him to get the ball (practicing some impulse control)

After a few reps of obedience with me, I'll ask for obedience from a distance on the way back from the retrieve.

After a rep or two of asking for obedience on the way back, I'll up the criteria and I ask for obedience on the way to the ball. (The most challenging) Maybe a down while he's in full on flight, or even a recall out of the chase.

It's no so much about the obedience but more about getting the dog thinking, using his mind, and paying attention to me while he's working, exhausted and in a near frantic state of prey drive.

Our sessions average about 45 minutes to an hour. This is a lot and flys in the face of conventional wisdom on dog training. We take a few water breaks in-between reps and I'm only asking for obedience occasionally. It's like 80% play and 20% obedience. Maybe less. I don't want to tant the game.

This week was the first week I was able to get him to "stand" while he was at a distance, on his way back with the ball. This showed me that he's not only paying attention to me but also learning.

Anyway, we have a ton of fun doing this together. When he's gassed and the endorphins are flowing I make sure to show him lots of love, praise and gratitude.

Any who, maybe something like this might be fun for you guys to do with your dogs too!

Click to expand...

I would add what I call our” red light green light game, “I will throw the ball recal him off the ball back tome maybe 2out of 20 throws , just to keep his recall perfect. Once he gets the ball, let him come back towards you mid way back give him down or sit command, if he does it hold it for 30seconds to a minute , if he doesn’t you know that command is weakm and you need to go back to basics , , then free him Up do this again while he’s bring the ball back . ( hence my name red light green light )It works other commands, it also will give you an idea how strong his commands really are . Have fun , good luck

At some point you'll need to take that on the road and practice it places away from home where you can have him safely off lead or he won't generalize the behavior. With my dog and her job, the recall and emergency stop are her two most important commands, and they have to 100% no matter where we are since she works off lead and ranges. When you get those commands solid no matter where you are, you can then make particular situations cues for the commands. For example, if my girl sees a horse, that is a cue to do her recall without me saying anything (I don't want her to spook a horse and potentially throw a rider). We've also been fortunate to have riders that let us practice it around them, but it's mostly because there is a history of she sees a horse and I recall her.

PopeHolySmoke said:

At some point you'll need to take that on the road and practice it places away from home where you can have him safely off lead or he won't generalize the behavior. With my dog and her job, the recall and emergency stop are her two most important commands, and they have to 100% no matter where we are since she works off lead and ranges. When you get those commands solid no matter where you are, you can then make particular situations cues for the commands. For example, if my girl sees a horse, that is a cue to do her recall without me saying anything (I don't want her to spook a horse and potentially throw a rider). We've also been fortunate to have riders that let us practice it around them, but it's mostly because there is a history of she sees a horse and I recall her.

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He's not on lead. This is done in public space off leash. My dog has been fully off leash trained since he was about 7 months old.

MyDogBitz said:

He's not on lead. This is done in public space off leash. My dog has been fully off leash trained since he was about 7 months old.

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Ah cool, I wasn't sure if you were just doing it at home but presumed it's off kead. I see so many people wonder why their obedience breaks down when they're out and about and then find out they've never trained anywhere other than at home or at classes. That's probably second only to people wondering why their recall isn't solid and then I find out they'll recall the dog and correct it instead of going to the dog to do the correction.

PopeHolySmoke said:

Ah cool, I wasn't sure if you were just doing it at home but presumed it's off kead. I see so many people wonder why their obedience breaks down when they're out and about and then find out they've never trained anywhere other than at home or at classes. That's probably second only to people wondering why their recall isn't solid and then I find out they'll recall the dog and correct it instead of going to the dog to do the correction.

Click to expand...

I have pictures all over this site. I don't think there's a leash in any of them. LOL. I work hard to get my dog off leash. His recall is bomb proof.

A bomb proof recall is my favorite thing. Seeing the dog think my hoomin needs me, pin the ears back, and go full afterburners to get back to you is a beautiful thing.

So basically: structured chaos disguised as fetch. Also love the part where you casually ask for obedience while the dog is in full prey-drive meltdown. If they can think then, they can think anywhere. My dog will pretend she’s never heard me before, but still… worth a shot.

Good write up

This is exactly how obedience becomes useful instead of just rehearsed. You’re not training commands, you’re training decision making under drive, and that’s where real control lives. I like that the game stays the reward and obedience just becomes part of the conversation. Rules, structure, freedom, and fun all wrapped together. That’s how you get a dog who can think while they’re lit up, not just comply when they’re calm. Also appreciate you pointing out the goal piece. Once the goal is freedom with reliability, a lot of training choices suddenly make sense. This is good work.