Even though Loki was no longer a puppy when we rescued him I had to start from scratch and train him as I would train a puppy because he did not know anything. Key to successful training was a combination of what Carol described (must be fun), food reward and a patience (read 2 hours of work per day). Steve believe it or not you did follow the food based reward when you put the food down for not jumping - that is how positive reinforcement works - good behaviour gets rewarded and you simply did not put the food down when your dog jumped (you did not reward jumping). I did the same thing with Loki - if he moved from the down-stay I would make him wait for his dinner a bit longer and my older dog would get the food first. This did two things for him - thought him patience (which he did not have at all in the beginning) and his down-stay was perfect within a week. I still make him wait at the door when we are leaving the house - walking through that door is very exciting for him because he likes his walks so much. After 2 years he can now sits by the door automatically and waits for my other dog to go through, then me and they he goes. Yes, it really took two years for him to get hold of his self-control. If he bolted through the door before he was released, we would all go in the house and we would sit and wait for a few minutes and try again - thus my comment about the time and patience. I never used food in this situation - going through that door was a reward in itself.
Loki also learned from watching other dogs - this approach (having him in a class and watching other dogs not reach) is still key to his dog-to-dog aggression rehab. When he is in a class with other dogs he does not react and he does his exercises because he can see the other dogs are doing them too. When his does well I can see in his body language how proud he is of himself.
Key to Loki's appreciation for treats is that if he does not do something I know he knows how to do, I wait - sometimes a minute or longer. He eventually obeys the command (yes he remembers what I asked even a minute later - I guess this is why we say the RRs are stubborn). BUT when he waits that long - I say "good, nice try" and I do not reward. Then I ask him to do the same command again - and most of the time he responds right away. I reward that. This gives him contrast when it comes to the timing of his response.
Yelling and frustration do not work - he just shuts down. I have not raised my voice in 1.5 years now - it just does not work. Change of the tone however does, as Carol said, first "ask" then "tell" him to do it.
How do I make it fun - we go for walks every day. First we just walk for about 20 min at a very fast pace so he can get rid of some of the pant-up energy. Then I stop and ask him to do 2-3 sit-stays and down-stays. Then I tell him "all done" and we run really fast for a couple of minutes ( I cannot keep up with him for more than that :-)). Then we walk again for about 10 min and we repeat the exercises. So the whole "exercise set" is no longer than 2-3 min per set and we do it 4-5 time during our walk. If he shows interest in a stick on the ground while he is working, I use that as a reward and to play some tug for a minute or two. Our walks are about an hour - twice a day so that spreads the exercises nicely and it gives him time to have fun and work at the same time.
If there is a squirrel in sight and it is safe (we are far away from any road on our walks) - I ask him to sit and then I release him and he can go and bark up the tree where the squirrel is. This is by far the best reward for him and also the best fun I could imagine. You should see his automatic sits when he sees a squirrel :-) So you do not need food to be the only reward. Find something you puppy really likes and make it a reward for the good response to the asked behaviour and stick with a simple "nice try" for anything but the good response.
I HAD to work with Loki myself - delegating training to a trainer did not work at all - he responded to the trainer but not me; and the behaviors he learned did not last. The fact that I work with him allows us to build a bond and mutually respect and trust. It took almost 2 years for Loki to trust me (please do not forget he is a rescue). In the last 6 months I have noticed that he looks to me for direction and for instructions and to me that is the sign of trust. I will contrast that with the walks my husband has with him - they are not the same. Do not get me wrong, Loki will obey the command - but the body language is different and the speed and consistency of his respond is variable (his recall is 100% consistent with me - but he choses what he wants to do if my husband calls him). Even my older dog Darko (the mastiff) does not listen well to my husband. For example, if I tell Darko to do a "down" command and my husband gives him the "break" (release) command Darko does not move until I say "break". Quite funny - but not to my husband :-) I told you this just to illustrate that it is very important that you work and train you puppy - not someone else.
I hope our experiences help a bit. Betsa
