[Settican]

My German Shepherd, Badgar, has wonderful focus on most obedience exercises, heelwork onlead/offlead, distance control, stays and recalls.
But our problem comes in with the retrieve - or any other exercise where he has to move out and away from me. He will go out beautifully, but about 50% of the time once he gets to the retrieve article he stops and has a good look around at what else is going on with the other dogs at training, back in the days when I did this off lead he would take off after other dogs, being dog aggressive (towards large breed males) that is a problem and something I want to prevent. Now we work only on the long lead when other dogs are around

I have been using some of the exercises from the Control Unleashed book, and his focus is better than what it was, he's not so reactive towards male dogs either. But I'm not sure what to do in those moments where he loses focus on what he should be doing.

Any ideas or tips will be greatly appreciated

 

[TooneyDogs]

That's one exercise where the flexi is a great tool whether other dogs are around or not. Just a tug/gentle reminder of what they should be doing is often enough. Once he has the article, the flexi can ensure a quick return. Two flexis on the dog with two handlers...one to the front/side...can more accurately guide the dog on the article work...especially for glove work.
Side note: I'm starting to see this 'double handling/training' with two flexis among the top handlers in obedience more and more.

 

[Settican]

I have a flexi around here somewhere that I can try work with. Once he actually has the article he returns quickly, it's just getting him to pick it up when he's in one of his "must see what's going on over there" moods.