Oscar is training ME!

[Wayne361]

Hello, this problem has me a bit stumped on what to do. Lately Oscar (Senegal) is getting hard headed. He will step-up no problem when he wants to (obviously)....which is most of the time. Lately he will sometimes ignore the "step-up" command. He will step up everytime food is offered as a reward....this entails the problem. I dont want to enforce that he only steps-up when he knows food is being offered or else I fear he will hold out until food or treat is offered. I have recently made a big fuss everytime he does step up willingly...i.e. head scratches, and positive vocal re-enforcement. This has had limited success and just looking for some advice. FYI Oscar is about 8 1/2 years old and has been with me since Dec 11.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Michael]

Ha! Don't let them train you. You have to be bigger than that. The BIGGEST problem is that you want HIM to step up more than he wants to. Turn it around on him. Make him be dying for the opportunity to step up. That's how it works with mine. I don't use treats for step up ever. I always train step up as part of the chain toward opportunities to earn good stuff. Thus it makes step up virtually automatic.

Check this out for more explanation of that.

[Wayne361]

Thanks for your reply. Things are progressing nicely.

Wayne