Training an NI dog your experiance welcome

I can't imagine mine doing flyball or anything [unless you swap the ball for a gerbil lol]...

But when I started biking with them I noticed they became alot more responsive on regular walks after.

When they are attached to the bike I teach them, left - right - slow - stop etc etc and it's all done at the speed they like - fast - so they enjoy learning it that way and also they are attached so they can't do anything but what goes with the command cuz you are stearing them. On the bike they HAVE to pay attention to you - they have no choice. When they arn't attached they still have to pay attention to know where I'm going next.

Not great advice though if the dog is to young to go out biking. But good for adults.

On regular walks the dogs seem to love the command this way rather than come back - they know it means a change of direction and maybe something fun around the corner.

trick them that something fun is always waiting lol.

To try get them to stop pulling onlead - the stop start thing frustrates them so much...changing direction till you make yourself dizzy is the better option, so that they are 'ok where next' rather than jeez would you just walk already!

Neither of mine are food orientated and only accept treats on walks if there are other, strange dogs around.

I can't use a clicker because Storm is sh1t scared of the noise (he's extremely noise sensitive).

Having said that, they are both well behaved and recall is 100% (or distance down if chasing). They will both ignore any 'prey' if told to do so, it is only if they flush it out that Meeka is dropped cos she is so fast that she is gone before I can react. We can walk within inches of 'prey' and they will totally ignore it and they are fine with my Chinchillas even if they are zooming around the room.

To be honest Shona, I don't think that as a breed they require any specific training regime, just firm, kind, respectful handling, the same as all dogs.

They haven't been any easier or harder to train than my GSDs or Akita and I have used similar methods on them all.

I do obedience, agility and showing with my NI's. They also pull a scooter and go biking. They immediately learn't that scooter and harnesses mean pull and collar and bike mean run alongside. We have had one try at flyball and within minutes Sacha knew to stand on the box meant the ball was thrown.

I've always found them very easy to train as long as they enjoy it. They are very food motivated. On walks we have never had a problem with recall as the dogs always have to know where I am. As soon as I call them and start to walk the other way then they are there. I also always have a pocket full of treats.

Sacha absolutely loves agility and we have been told by our instructor that she has the right balance of focus and drive to be very good. She does let you know when she has had enough though. The only problem we did have with Sacha and agility training was to start with she would get way over excited. Liadan is only 15 months old and is proving to like it just as much as Sacha. With Liadan I took her to agility from being a small pup and let her watch, do the tunnel etc which I think helped in keeping her calm.

I have made an effort to teach my dogs to use toys and retrieve which they didn't naturally show much of an interest in. I did this using a prey dummy. This worked and the interest from the prey dummy was easily switched to a ball or other toys with no problem.

I sometimes use a clicker but not all the time. I have found it does help when teaching them something new.

In my experience NI are excellent all round dogs that are easily trained and as long as they are having fun they are capable of many things.

Hi Shona,
As you see some are laid back but always easy to please.
2 of mine have their KC GC Award and one is just waiting to do hers
Treat training was great for my 2 but the 3rd was not treat oriented but wanted to please just the same. A sueaky toy when barking or not doing what shes told works for her. They are also good at clicker training , I hink one picks it up from the other . Not bad on the whistle..sometimes !!! I have 2 that like to chase animas which they shouldnt . This I am working on
I havent yet done any agility or anything else but they are a breed that needs to be stimulated . Repetitivness can cause boredom

Hiya

Well i have two NI now but one is a pup who i have only had 2 weeks! With Vienna once we were outside the house she was totally uninterested in food. She had never been a big toy fan either. I took her to puppy training and the only thing she would work for was praise! However this also meant if she didnt want to do it she would do her darnest not to do it! I think she does what i ask of her out of respect and because she wants the praise although it took me a while to realise this. I spent some time trying to bribe her with treats lol and i wondered why she wouldnt do it! Im not the sharpest tool in the box hey! Vienna doesnt show prey drive but is curious about all other animals. She wants to play with all other dogs and animals! People she has never been that fussed with and always a little aloof until maybe this past year when she has become more friendly to strangers. She was never unfriendly but she wouldnt walk up to a stranger in the park and wag her tail but now she will. She would NOT do agility as she doesnt like to jump even the smallest of things and can be scared and silly around things she does not know. She has no interest in toys and wont play fetch with a ball. We throw balls for the lab who loves it and so he races after the ball and Vienna races after him. She wants to chase the dog not the ball.

Quinn so far seems very food orientated but also very praise orientated. However like Vienna he does have the stubborn side and while he may know what the command means he is choosing to ignore it! For example when i get him to recall sometimes he just looks at me. So wen he wont respond to 'come' i do a really loud high pitched 'WOOWOOWOOWOOWOO' and because it is exciting he almost always legs it straight to me like a bat out of hell! Regarding prey drive we have 2 cats and when they run he chases them but it seems to be a game to him rather than to catch them. He tries to goad them into playing too by pawing at them and trying to mouth them on the neck like he does with Vienna to play. I'll have to let you know what works with him as he grows up cos its early days yet lol x

I think that early socialisation is very important, we took Sapphire to puppy classes and think this helped a great deal, start as early as possible with socialising. But this applies to all breeds

thanks guys for the posts on here, xx

It's noticeable that alot has to do with their influences. I see alot of the time the NI that are great with and have excellent recall around small critters are the one's that are brought up around them, on a day to day basis, from a very early age.

Also it's obvious the more keen the owner is with a particular activity that this affects maybe how interested NI are in taking part. There after I think the different lines of NI have alot to do with it because there seems to be different groupings that share very similar traits. I clearly have the lines that like to run ammuck but like I said I know alot of that comes from me.

Snap

I have an NI too. She is now 4 almost 5 and I find I still have to keep up her training otherwise she can be very head strong.She can be as good as gold but when it suits her. Would be grateful though if anyone can suggest how I can stop her from jumping up to greet people. She is such a friendly dog and loving dog though.
Lyse and Spirit.

Spike was jumping up at people too but he's MUCH better now. I use two methods, depending on whether the visitor is OK with jumping up or not (some people don't mind so much). If it's a person who doesn't mind the jumping, I let them in with Spike off-lead. If he jumps up or gets too excited in his greeting, he goes STRAIGHT out of the room - only for a minute or so - he HATES being removed from the rest of the pack. When I let him back in I repeat - if he's calm and greets the visitor properly, he's allowed to stay, but the SECOND he goes to jump up - he's removed from the room again. It's alot of 'inning and outing' at the beginning but Spike soon picked up the idea.

If it's a person we don't know, or who doesn't like dogs jumping up, I do the same thing but with Spike on the lead (making sure Spike is already calm before he's allowed to approach the visitor). Because he's on lead he doesn't get the opportunity to actually jump on the person. It's important to let the dog back in soon after being removed from the room otherwise they won't learn from it but the dog must be calm first. If they are making loads of noise, protesting to be let back in you must wait till they've calmed down.

Thank you so much. Spirit is so highly spirited that is can very difficult. Plus the little madam is able to open the doors. She's a bit too smart for her own good sometimes so again thank you for that bit of advice.
Lyse and Spirit

We did this with Chaos for any unacceptable behaviour she did and it worked!! I was surprised at how quickly too but obviously results will vary from dog to dog. ;-)

I have tried it with other unwanted behaviour too. I think it works so well with NIs because they are particularly social and really do hate being separated from the rest of the pack.

lol