Spook is 6 almost 7 months old. We've been on formal obedience for a month and we're following Lardy's program. It just seems his desire is day to day now. One day he'll give his undivided attention, run hard, make every mark. Another day he'll fart around, run 50%, drop the bumper 10 feet from me on the return, and not really pay attention to the marks so much. That's just the field work portion. The last two days of field work have been horrible. Before that he might have a bad day once every other week if that. Then yesterday in obedience he was timid to sit, timid to come, timid to do anything i said really. Since we're on formal obedience I gave no praise for the poor responses, and forced(not necessarily physical just moving him into the position of the command in a not so patient fashion) every command I gave he didn't comply with. Is it time for a break for the dog, am I looking too far into things? How does everyone deal with their frustration so the dog doesn't see it and it doesn't affect the training?
I think your dog is telling you that he does see your frustration! And it is affecting the training. How do you hide it? Well, you can't hide it so don't train when you are frustrated. I learned that I can eliminate my frustration by realizing that a sustained poor response be the dog meant that
I missed something. The worse the response by the dog the bigger the screw up on my part. Hard to be upset with the dog when it is my error as a trainer.
Your pup is still a pup and you should keep obedience fun, interesting, and upbeat. Lots of treats, lots of praise, and the dog will be looking for training time. My 7 month old pup follows me around the yard when I am picking up dog poop - she is hoping we will do some obedience work. She sometimes tries to heel as I walk. Think about getting a dvd on training obedience. They have some great exercises, tips, and motivation to get the dog eager to do obedience.
In the field, back up and make the marks shorter, easier, and add birds where possible. Add lots of praise for every job well done - even if it is half of the mark he did a week ago. He can't remember how hard the mark was last week or compare it to the one he just did.
This is an easy fix - but it is about fixing your approach not the dog.