Kai trainability? - Your experience...
Hi people.
I would like to know, how your kai(s) has been to train?
What did he/she respond to (treats, praise, toys?), and how did you make it work?
Are they difficult to train in your opinion?
Anything on kai training you can tell me, I will appreciate very much!
Thank you in advance
I would like to know, how your kai(s) has been to train?
What did he/she respond to (treats, praise, toys?), and how did you make it work?
Are they difficult to train in your opinion?
Anything on kai training you can tell me, I will appreciate very much!
Thank you in advance
Comments
He's mastered staying calm at the playground, which in my opinion, is really hard for an active dog. We walk to the playground and the dogs have to stay calm while kids run around screaming and be polite if a child approaches him. It's not a skill any dog is born with. Rakka needs a lot of reminders.
Now, Sosuke is the only kai I've ever met (crazy, right?) so he's the only one I can speak for.
He does get distracted at puppy classes. That's why I take him 2x a week instead of once a week so that he gets used to seeing all the other puppies around. He reminds me a lot of Mika around that age, wanting to play with the other puppies more than wanting to "work". He will work with me for a bit during the beginning of class, but if one puppy looks at him and barks he loses his concentration. This is something I'm working hard on. He can work infront of Mika at home with no problems because he's used to her and she's usually calm. However, the other puppies also are excited and want to play, thus making it harder on Kyuubi and harder on me to keep his focus and attention.
We take about 3 breaks during our 1 hour class where I will walk him over to the water bowl and let him drink. Or just let him sniff around a bit, then we go back to our station and "work" some more. There is puppy socialization time, which is what he likes the best and probably why he thinks each time he comes to class it's playtime and not "work" and "train" time. :P
He is getting very good with his impulse control though with meal times. I will put his bowl down in front of him and he can't eat it til I say he can. Before I put the bowl down though he usually talks back to me LOL! More like saying "omg hurry up! it's food! OMGZ foods! YAY! Foodz!!!! NOW GIMME GIMME GIMME! OMG HURRY!" type of bark. But he waits patiently while I put the bowl down and stares at it then at me, waiting for me to say "OKIE! GO EAT!"
I do notice that Kyuubi does get frustrated just as Mika does when training sometimes. He will let out a frustrated bark that he isn't doing what I ask of him correctly to get the treat. He does catch on very quickly, but he just wants food all the time lol. It doesn't help that I taught him to bark on command so sometimes he will go through his cycle of tricks/commands and "speak" is one of them, so he barks lol!
Just be diligent! They will catch on! Oh and if you are not the only person training with him, be on the same page about what the hand signals and words you use are. It can get a bit confusing when people are doing different hand signals or words when wanting the pup to do something.
Sometimes I want to label them as a bit stubborn, although not as stubborn as some of the other breeds.
But I am not sure it is being stubborn as much as being smart... if there is nothing in it for them what is the point in doing it?
Their memory is what amazes me. I can switch the dogs to a new crate and they remember the very next time where there new crate or kennel is whether it is a few minutes or 2 days later. And beleive me I am always switching them around, sometimes I forget. They also seem to try to anticipate what you are going to ask them to do and start doing it before you tell them.This can actually get annoying
She learns new behaviors very quickly and remembers them, is very food motivated, pretty praise motivated, and not at all toy motivated.
She is distracted easily although it is usually pretty easy to get her attention back. She gets very excited around dogs and new people and has pretty terrible self control in these situations. We are working on that.
The thing that I have found most frustrating is that during group class she got bored very easily. Kaiya would almost always be the first dog to catch on and once she does something 3 or 4 times, she is ready to go on to something new. Unfortunately, most dogs are not this way and I think we were in class with some humans who didn't do any work outside of the classroom making it difficult for those of us who did to move on . I think for round 2 we are going to do private classes.
I think Marsha is right on saying the biggest issue is that Kai are smart. They need to know that you have a good reason (like cheese or hot dog or something else yummy) for asking them to do something.
I dont have any experience with any of the other NK breeds.
Another thing about different cues is that Mika (I know she's not a kai) she will go to a sit, then down, but if we want her to sit again, we can't just say "sit". We have to say "Mika, sit". Then she will go into a sit from a down position. It's kind of silly she won't do it if we just say "sit" when she is in a down.
Thanks for your post. Yeah maybe she's getting a bit adolescent?? But either way, kai really sound like they'd fit me really well.
I know of the problem with dogs being too smart. My friend's KBD has figured out the routine when she was trained. My friend made the mistake of repeating the exercises in the same order too many times. Sit, down, roll, paw, the other paw and speak. In no time the KBD would just do it all (though perfectly) very quickly and sit impatiently waiting for the treat!
@kaikenone
Okay I might be weird but I like the idea, that if I train my dog, others will not be able to boss her/him around ;P
@hondru
OMG Heidi, I think I might've killed her, or at least shoved HER off the couch! If Tojo was allowed, she had no right to decide whether he has to get off. Or that's how I'd feel about it.