Strugglnig To Train Her

[Guest Tuxi]

I adopted a greyhound cross about 3 months ago. She is now 10 months old and the most mischievous dog I have ever known. But I have fallen in love with her in spite of this. She is very good natured and a real gentle sweetheart.

 

However, I am struggling with her training. I have never owned a greyhound before. I have another dog who is a boxer x border collie and training him was so easy. He thrived on pleasing me and was very food motivated. However Lexi is the complete opposite. She is stubborn, independent and not very food motivated.

 

Initially I thought her sit, lie down, paw and stay - just through treats and positive reinforcement and she was fast enough to catch onto these. But after a while she just wasn't all that bothered anymore and would only do them when it suited her - no matter how nice the reward was.

 

So then I thought I might try clicker train her. Her attention span is like 10 seconds so I thought this would help her. She didn't take to it at all like I had hoped. I had to attach a long line to her, even in the house because she just walked off after a minute or 2 - she shows absolutely no enthusiasm towards it - no matter how fun I try to make it, even bringing toys into the training - nope, no interest there either.

Often if I ask her to do a trick and have a nice bit of chicken etc she will just back off and the more persistent I am, the more she backs off and gets a bit scared. And its not as though I am being over the top or threatening in any way etc. I will often come down to her level to do the tricks too to help her but again her attention span is so short.

 

Any other tips on how I could get more out of our training sessions? or how I could get her more enthusiastic etc?

[Feisty49]

Greyhounds often can focus for only a few minutes. Also, it's not uncommon for them (and maybe any dog?) to stop doing what they already know. It's as though they think, "I already know how to sit, so why are we continuing to do it?"

 

From your post, it seems obvious that she is not into training right now. If it were me, I'd back off for a while. I also think it's counter productive to try to make training fun but yet keep her tethered.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Feisty49

[Fruitycake]

Rewards are only rewards when the *dog* thinks they are great things to work for. You need to discover what she wants and use that instead of trying to convince her to work for something that doesn't appeal. (You never hear of children being 'rewarded' for good behavior with broccoli or liver!) It is great when they want food, because food is easy for *us* but you may need to get a lot more creative with her. Affection, toys, walks, going outside, brushing, different kinds of food, getting dinner..... See what she really likes and see if you can work that in. For my one dog (nongrey), sitting was required to watch squirrels when on walks, and sometimes we would chase them together as a reward! Our prior dog worked for fresh carrots, not so much for meat or dog treats.

 

Also, greys are very smart and have not been bred to want to please people - they are bred to be independent thinkers. There are a lot of dogs like that, and training them requires that you find what they truly love and use those things...and training itself needs to be fun, not stressful or forced. Most dogs would find general training fun because they want to please, but independent breeds don't approach things that way. It forces the person to have to work a lot harder and do a lot of thinking about how to make it fun. And repeating things is boring and will cause them to disengage and find training itself to be a chore. Short, short training sessions done at random times when the dog is already showing that she is engaged works better than repeats until she is bored. If that means *one* successful sit and then you reward and release, you can leave her happy instead of frustrated.

 

Force, implied with a leash tying her to you for training, will often cause resentment and not learning because of the stress. If you have to force her to stick around, she's giving you a huge clue that she's not engaged and learning isn't likely to happen anyway. What are you trying to train that is that essential that you need to force her to stay near enough to you?

Edited June 13, 2016 by Fruitycake

[Guest Tuxi]

I only attached the long line once in an attempt the teach her the 'look' command. Which is very hard when she tends to just walk away. I didn't attempt to tether her to me again because I didn't feel it achieved anything. I never spend more than 5 minutes or so doing training sessions with her.

 

I would like to teach her 'look' or 'watch me', I would also like to teach her 'leave it' and 'bring it' - but these are going to prove very hard as her attention span is so short and she has no real interest in learning etc.

 

Like I said I have never had experience with a GH before and have always had easy to train dogs that were keen to please so this is all very new to me.

 

Maybe il just stick to doing tricks with my other dog and keep her as my fun random goof ball. I am starting agility with her this weekend so that will be interesting in regards to her not having any motivation or interest in anything

[DocsDoctor]

This is a book which you might find helpful - I did.

 

The author, Mary Jane Fox, runs a greyhound sanctuary in Ireland and sometimes posts on here. She provides a wealth of information on the history of the breed, and how you can use that to your advantage in their training.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Greyhounds-Companions-Through-Ages/dp/1511911328

[philospher77]

5 minutes may be way too long. Well, if she is wanting to leave during training, I'd say it's definitely too long. I have a dog that loves training, and I have had to learn (and am still working it, trust me!) not over-training her. Sometimes I set an alarm for a minute or two, and stop when it goes off. Otherwise, it's easy to do that "just one more".

[Fruitycake]

'Bring it' is going to be very difficult to train a dog that has little play drive and isn't driven to retrieve or very focused on you. That is a very advanced command for an independent breed!

 

And we took a long time to train 'watch me' and did it by using Monty's wait before being given the ok to eat and actually waiting for him to look at *us* before we cleared him to eat. He is, however, a VERY food motivated dog, so that worked for us. If she waits at the door to go out and is excited about that, you could just try to wait her out and maybe trigger a glance at you (make a weird noise or something) and then make the opening of the door or release from her wait her reward. If she likes when you get excited, you could even use that (our nongrey likes when we chirp and clap our hands and jump around, but Monty looks at us like we're insane).

 

Have you done a taste test to find out what kinds of treats she likes best? Some swear by tiny pieces of hot dogs, or stinky cheese crumbles, or something similarly very highly scented. I don't know how much scent there is to chicken. And switch the treats up, so sometimes she's getting something great and sometimes merely 'good' so it is more like a lottery and she isn't sure what she's going to get. I love doughnuts, but if they were my only reward I'd stop thinking they were so great and lose interest in 'earning' them, and I think dogs can also get bored with a single type of reward even if they are food motivated.

[Sundrop]

Wow, 10 months old - she's so young! I have found, in my personal experience with six greyhounds, that the younger ones were typically harder to train. Again, just my experience, but they seem a lot more distracted, had more energy and just took a lot more patience and practice. We always use positive reinforcement (only) and lots of treats, and work in short bursts of no longer than a few minutes - but many times per day.

 

With our first two greyhounds, we actually hired a behaviorist to come in a help us. She not only helped us train the dogs, but she helped train us to know what we were doing for present & future dogs - it helped immensely.

[Guest Tuxi]

_{Thanks for the replies.}

_{I am thinking maybe 5minutes is too long.}

_{The past 2 mornings before her breakfast I have gotten her to do 'sit' and 'lie down' and am lengthening her 'stay' and am starting to use 'wait' when her breakfast is down and then releasing her with 'go' - she has been so good and considering how wired she is, her stay and wait are perfect. I just want her to learn some more self control etc.}

_{I might be asking a bit much from her but I am really happy with her the past 2 mornings.}

 

_{I would only ever use positive reinforcement. She is very sound sensitive so id never raise my voice and always use happy cheerful tones to keep her as enthusiastic as possible.}

 

_{I think I am just comparing her to my other dog too much - because by the time he was her age he knew loads of fun tricks - but he was just really easy to train AND we had him since a young pup. I need to relax a little don't I?? haha}

 

_{Really looking forward to starting her agility class this weekend.}

Edited June 14, 2016 by Tuxi

[Guest chickenpotpie]

I can attest that some greys will get BORED after a while. Don't stress over it. If you stress and get frustrated she'll see it and that likely will make her stress too. Keep it short. Chaining certain commands can take more time. You're both also in the getting to know each other stage as well.

 

Each dog (including greys...they're dogs after all) should be judged on their on merits, character, etc. What one will do the other may not. You'll be able to pick up on her cues and she will pick up on yours as well, given enough time.

[Guest Scouts_mom]

Have you discovered "neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com"? Jennifer has trained several greyhounds to be agility champions. Her blog tells their stories plus give lots of very useful information on training greyhounds.

[cleptogrey]

Having owned 4 sighthounds from puppy thru old age I will sau that it's confirmed that adolescence starts around 9 months of age.

Point blank their brain is not linked to their body. Be patient,it's more crazy physical growth and

Coordination that's going on. Lots of playtime,lots of stupid injuries,lots of pee in your pants antics and lots of hairpulling are in order. Stock up on your favorite alcoholic beverage.

 

I wpuld Ike to suggest good group obedience classes. Working solo with an adolescent hound is Very very difficult.

 

Play many times a day,limit training to one specif area,maybe just work on manners in the kitchen area while you cook. Figure out what the one special reward will be.I used dehydrated liver. It only came out in training sessions or a reward for what I was looking for(i washed tons of it left in my pockets). And reward yourself for working hard. Crate time,to settle,chew on something, play with special toys will be your best friend. To this day Felix adores his personal space,his crate.we startedclasses with Felix at 12 weeks and contiuned for the next 3 yeArs.he is a more than fantastc companion.he's 9 years old now.

Edited June 19, 2016 by cleptogrey

[Guest Scouts_mom]

I had someone familiar with greyhounds once tell me that greyhound puppies have 1 brain cell in their sweet little heads. They develop a second one during adolescence (to cause trouble) and have their brain fully developed when they are mature adults at five or so.

[Hubcitypam]

I had someone familiar with greyhounds once tell me that greyhound puppies have 1 brain cell in their sweet little heads. They develop a second one during adolescence (to cause trouble) and have their brain fully developed when they are mature adults at five or so.

Close to true. She is very young. It's been stated countless times that sight hounds are hard wired to "do it on their own" as they were bred to chase game independently and don't have the desire to please as in some other breeds. This may or may not be true, but it makes sense to me.

 

Wait/stay is valuable and could be lifesaving. Most of the rest are parlor tricks and other breeds would be better suited. As long as the dog isn't moving does it really matter if it is standing, sitting, or lying down for general purposes? That said, I had a grey win "best sit" in obedience class 16 years ago.

 

I think you'll both be happier putting your focus on agility. Best wishes.

[cleptogrey]

Agility is wonderful,but you need basics first. A good intermediate step inbetween is Rally*O. . Be patient,brain cells come and go. A good friend who also had a greyhound puppy laughed all thru felix's aolescence. So did all of my patient instructors at obedince school.t 9 years later I kunda miss the insanit. You will to.

[Guest Tuxi]

Thanks again for all the replies.

 

Cleptogrey, I had her in a 6 week group training course and she was so good. Outside of the class she is still pretty good and im still doing tricks and games with her each morning before I go to work. I started puppy agility with her last week and she loved it so I have another 5 weeks of that before we can move onto the next level. I definitely think she needs more basic training outside of certain environments though, she had no self control doing the agility but her fearlessness really stood to her when she was the first to walk up and down the dog walk with no hesitation.

 

Her crate has been an amazing addition to the family and she absolutely loves it. Any time she wants her brekkie/dinner/treats/kong she runs staraight into her crate and lies down. She is a happy little monkey.

 

Scouts_mom - that is hilarious, and so true, the mischief is only starting in her. She forgets how much energy she has and so takes it out on the furniture - well she has stopped for now but she CANNOT be trusted alone for 5 mins and so I tend to bring her everywhere with me in the hosue unless I am going out, in which case she can go into her crate