# My Puppy's selective hearing



## dylan.hedden (Dec 1, 2009)

Hi all,
I have a 14 week old Mini Aussi who has a bad case of selective hearing. I have been working on this through positive reinforcement (calling and treating him each time he comes). If he knows there is a treat involved he will usually snap to. But otherwise he will look another direction and pretend like he can't hear me (or so it seems). Even if I have a treat, he does not always realize it and still will not come. My question is, how should I react to him when he ignores me? What I have been doing is I stop calling (don't want to re-enforce his not coming to my call) and wait a few moments and then call again. If I really need him inside, I go and get him in a manner where its not me chasing him (herd him into a corner and pick him up) so that he does not think its a game. 
Am I doing this right? By stopping my calling am I re-enforcing his behavior? What should I do to get him to be better at this?
Thanks.


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## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

Keep him on a leash so you can reel him in when he doesn't come. Start practicing in easier locations, then try the yard.


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## Jeff K9Korral (Dec 1, 2009)

Are you using a friendly, cheerful voice when you call for the dog?

If so, then keep doing what you are doing in your dog training. Add more affection to the dog when the dog does come on your command. It will remind the dog that it is a happy thing to do and it will encourage your dog to do it more often.


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## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

Try using a whistle. Novel, high pitched sounds seem to get a pup's attention. Start closer and work up to distance. Also use the most inviting body language when calling the pup to you. Get down on one knee--or even sit on the floor/ground, and open your arms and/or pat the ground with your palms.


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## Westhighlander (Sep 28, 2007)

Do you train before he eats? It's best to train with a hungry dog - they tend to be much more attentive. You can feed him his entire meal during recall training. What happens if he doesn't come? - he doesn't eat. He'll learn soon enough that coming to you is better than starving. After you have that routine down you can slowly wean him off the treats/meal.


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

I've tried to post here on this thread a couple of times and keep getting bumped, weird. 

Trying again!

First off, at 14 weeks (and for much of your pup's adolescence) competing distractions when outside do appear to be "selective hearing". This is normal and where it is necessary to bump up the training sessions a bit and use REALLY good rewards. His attention span is about two seconds long...you have to build a reinforcement history so that the behaviour you want (recall) is automatic.

First off I would recommend you start playing the "name game". Pretty simple really. Take ten or so teensy weensy bits of a favourite treat. Have him sit or stand near you and simply say his name, treat, say his name, treat. Do the whole bunch and do the sequence a couple of times a day for a couple of days or so to get started. What you want to do is have your puppy's head turn like a whip when you say his name. This is key to him learning to attend to your cues when under distraction. 

Then work on getting him to come to you in the house, use the name, encourage him to you but don't use the recall word until he is ON HIS WAY, when he gets to you, take several teensy weensy yummies and feed him several, slowly and praise him at the same time. Once you have a reliable response in the house and in different areas of the house, put him on a long line and take it outside. Do the same exercise. The long line is to simply prevent having to play the chase game, if he doesn't respond to his name you can either go get him and lead him to where you called from (using his name, not the cue) and treating him in position (like he came to you) or you can use the lead to gently encourage his movement towards you (only using COME if he's on his way). Don't put too much pressure on the lead as not only will the lead become part of the cue, but you will likely cause him to resist the tug.

Once you have a pretty reliable response on the leash, you can try off the leash. Call his name. When he looks at you, say good boy and when he comes towards you use the cue word and be sure to make it worth his while...

All this work and practice (for YOU. LOL.) not using the cue unless you are SURE he is going to respond, only using the cue ONCE, always rewarding the come and being sure to never use your recall cue to bring him in for unpleasant things (nail trims for example) will help set up a fabulous recall for in the future.


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## emily445455 (Apr 8, 2008)

dylan.hedden said:


> Hi all,
> I have a 14 week old Mini Aussi who has a bad case of selective hearing. I have been working on this through positive reinforcement (calling and treating him each time he comes). If he knows there is a treat involved he will usually snap to. But otherwise he will look another direction and pretend like he can't hear me (or so it seems). Even if I have a treat, he does not always realize it and still will not come. My question is, how should I react to him when he ignores me? What I have been doing is I stop calling (don't want to re-enforce his not coming to my call) and wait a few moments and then call again. If I really need him inside, I go and get him in a manner where its not me chasing him (herd him into a corner and pick him up) so that he does not think its a game.
> Am I doing this right? By stopping my calling am I re-enforcing his behavior? What should I do to get him to be better at this?
> Thanks.


I give my dogs a treat every single time I call them in from outside. I get the treat first, then call them in and pop it in their mouths right when they walk in the door. Hubby doesn't treat every time, guess who they come to when they are called. 

Sometimes only one will come in. Which is annoying.... Most times for mine it works to go "Good girl, ______ (to whichever one came in, really loudly so the other can hear), okay bye, _______ (to whichever one didn't come in)" then close the door. Most times it works, sometimes it doesn't. Good luck


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