If your Fairy Godmother could grant you one dog training wish, what would it be?
A reliable recall perhaps, stop pulling on the lead, a solid sit/stay, stop chewing the Postman or barking? All these would be good, but I think I would opt for something else.
I would ask my Fairy Godmother to get Fido to focus on me!
Because if Fido focuses on me, he is listening to me. If Fido is listening, I can teach him. Whereas if Fido ignores me or is distracted or just doesn’t want to look at me, he’s never going to learn from me.
There are many ways to get Fido to focus on you, including using treats for training & making your training sessions short, unpredictable and full of fun. But one of the best ways is for you not to talk to Fido during training apart from using words of praise, correction or words he knows. Anything else and you just become white noise and Fido quickly switches off to your voice.
One of the quickest ways to teach Fido that you are not worth focussing on is to allow him to run free off lead too early in the big outdoors where he learns to find his own rewards that Mother Nature offers. Allowing Fido to run free before we have cemented in a reliable sit, stay, heel work and recall is the single biggest killer of focus and obedience.
So, my advice to you is to work silently on Fido’s focus so that he sees you as the source of all that is fun and interesting. The rest will follow.
As for waiting for Fairy Godmothers, I think I’ve got more chance of buying a winning lottery ticket.