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My dog is usually well-behaved on her leash. She walks nicely, with no pulling until she sees or smells something she wants to pursue. Lately, I've been working with her to improve her very poor attention skills.
We started by walking around the yard, I'd say her name, and then mark & reward when she looked at me. We've been slowly increasing distractions - I started calling her when she didn't appear to be interested in anything, moved to calling her at the first sign of distraction, and now we're doing the same thing on our walks.
If we continue working together, will we get to a point where I can expect her to respond to me even if she's seemingly engrossed in following a scent or stalking a bunny? Or is that expecting too much?
We started by walking around the yard, I'd say her name, and then mark & reward when she looked at me. We've been slowly increasing distractions - I started calling her when she didn't appear to be interested in anything, moved to calling her at the first sign of distraction, and now we're doing the same thing on our walks.
If we continue working together, will we get to a point where I can expect her to respond to me even if she's seemingly engrossed in following a scent or stalking a bunny? Or is that expecting too much?