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Why is it difficult to monitor your dogs when you walk? What else are you doing that keeps you from paying attention to what your dogs are doing? That is half your problem right there. When you are walking the dogs you should be walking the dogs, nothing else. How can you expect her to be more focused on you when you aren't paying attention to her?
Teach your dog a "go sniff" command that releases them from the loose-leash walk position by your side and lets them know it is ok to go sniff something up to the limit of the leash (and what is safe). Otherwise, they should be with you in a nice loose leash walking position. Don't give her the opportunity to go off on her own and dig or eat things. If she looks bored, give her a job, ask her to do a sit, down, spins, or hand touches.
If you are on your cell phone or chatting while walking your dog, I guarantee that you are missing countless cues that your dog is giving you. Your pup is constantly looking to you for information and feedback; similarly, your responsibility is to catch those cues and give her feedback. E.g. your pup glancing up at you during a walk is a perfect opportunity to reinforce behavior, request a different behavior, or refine an existing behavior. If you are missing those opportunities when she looks to you for feedback then you are missing prime training and relationship building opportunities.
You also need to make walks fun for your dogs and also challenge them a bit. When I walk my dogs we are practicing rally maneuvers, long downs, focus, and reinforcing existing behaviors in different environments with different distractions. A walk is never just a walk- it is fun quality time with your dog, a great way to get feedback from your pup and to provide reinforcement, and a way to provide mental stimulation via training opportunities that are only limited by your imagination.
Focus will come naturally as you work on the above. However, if you want to work on focus, take her to a quiet area of the park and hang out with her. Any time she glances or looks at you, toss her a treat. You will have her focus in no time at all. BUT you have to reward that focus by honoring the work she is doing, which means paying attention to your dog, walking the dogs separately, getting off the cell phone or whatever is distracting you from working with your dog, and tuning in to what she is telling you.
There are a lot of things I have to do when I walk my dogs. I have to look around to see if there are any cars or people and whether there are dead animals/poop/glass/food on the ground. My puppy is very reactive and will chase birds and cars that she sees. I have to make sure that I have a firm grasp on the leash and say "leave it" when I see those things and on the rare occasions she leaves it, then I do praise her but there are birds everywhere and leaves blowing in the wind.
I do not chat or talk on my phone as I already have enough things to do on walks.
Not every walk can be a training session. Most of the times when we go out, I only take them out for potty and walks are once in the morning and once at night. I am still working on walks with my puppy but I do need an immediate solution.
She does focus on me much more than other puppies as I believe it's the characteristic of her breed. But she is very quick and gets distracted easily. She is still scared of people and other dogs and there are so many things new to her to be distracted by.
There are a lot of things I have to do when I walk my dogs. I have to look around to see if there are any cars or people and whether there are dead animals/poop/glass/food on the ground. My puppy is very reactive and will chase birds and cars that she sees. I have to make sure that I have a firm grasp on the leash and say "leave it" when I see those things and on the rare occasions she leaves it, then I do praise her but there are birds everywhere and leaves blowing in the wind.
I do not chat or talk on my phone as I already have enough things to do on walks.
Not every walk can be a training session. Most of the times when we go out, I only take them out for potty and walks are once in the morning and once at night. I am still working on walks with my puppy but I do need an immediate solution.
She does focus on me much more than other puppies as I believe it's the characteristic of her breed. But she is very quick and gets distracted easily. She is still scared of people and other dogs and there are so many things new to her to be distracted by.
Whether you realize it or not- every walk IS a training session. Every interaction you have with your dog teaches them something.
"Leave it" isn't enough (and may not even be appropriate) when working with a reactive dog. Depending on your tone of voice, timing, and context, a leave it may be making your dog more reactive. Furthermore, your dog is probably picking up on your anxiety about the cars and people which will make her more reactive.
Leslie McDevitt's Look at That exercise is geared toward working with reactive and/or fearful dogs; it is counter-intuitive but it works, and it will also help you manage your anxiety about her reactivity:
Something is missing- if your dog is paying attention to you, and you are focused on your dog, then dead birds, poop, etc shouldn't be a concern. I get about the broken glass, but that shouldn't occupy all your attention. You need to get your attention back on your dog and your dog needs to learn to focus on you. You both have the same issue::: too much focus on the outside world and not enough focus on each other.
Whether you realize it or not- every walk IS a training session. Every interaction you have with your dog teaches them something.
"Leave it" isn't enough (and may not even be appropriate) when working with a reactive dog. Depending on your tone of voice, timing, and context, a leave it may be making your dog more reactive. Furthermore, your dog is probably picking up on your anxiety about the cars and people which will make her more reactive.
Leslie McDevitt's Look at That exercise is geared toward working with reactive and/or fearful dogs; it is counter-intuitive but it works, and it will also help you manage your anxiety about her reactivity:
Something is missing- if your dog is paying attention to you, and you are focused on your dog, then dead birds, poop, etc shouldn't be a concern. I get about the broken glass, but that shouldn't occupy all your attention. You need to get your attention back on your dog and your dog needs to learn to focus on you. You both have the same issue::: too much focus on the outside world and not enough focus on each other.
I second all that twelve writes and recommends in her two posts.
LAT (Look At That) training worked wonders for my over-the-top reactive Aussie rescue.
OP...what twelve is trying to say is that even though you don't consider your walks a training session, your puppy does. Your brain thinks "I am gonna train my pup for 5 minutes" or "I am gonna take my dogs for a walk" and you consider those two separate activities. But your pup's brain thinks "My mom lets me do this so it's OK" or "My mom rewards me for this so it's good" or "I like sniffing or barking or lunging or eating stuff off the ground and every time we walk I get to do that...cool!" constantly 24/7. Your pup is learning something every single moment she is awake...that's just how dogs are.
Your puppy cannot turn off her learning switch. But you can understand that she can't and change your approach accordingly.
When you have a dog that is of low to average intelligence, energy and drive it's not as much of an issue. But when you have a herding breed...most individuals of which are of comparatively high intelligence, energy and drive...you naturally have a much more labor intensive road ahead of you.
I always say it is much easier to own a less intelligent dog. But you have your adorable smarty pants and thus have now embarked on the huge learning curve that is the herding breed world.
There are a lot of things I have to do when I walk my dogs. I have to look around to see if there are any cars or people and whether there are dead animals/poop/glass/food on the ground. My puppy is very reactive and will chase birds and cars that she sees. I have to make sure that I have a firm grasp on the leash and say "leave it" when I see those things and on the rare occasions she leaves it, then I do praise her but there are birds everywhere and leaves blowing in the wind.
I do not chat or talk on my phone as I already have enough things to do on walks.
Not every walk can be a training session. Most of the times when we go out, I only take them out for potty and walks are once in the morning and once at night. I am still working on walks with my puppy but I do need an immediate solution.
She does focus on me much more than other puppies as I believe it's the characteristic of her breed. But she is very quick and gets distracted easily. She is still scared of people and other dogs and there are so many things new to her to be distracted by.
Your pup needs LAT. It's the easiest way to help both her and you with the above.
#1 - put me in the "Too CUTE!" category! Beautiful dog!
#2 - put me in the positive training category, with some minor modifications. Although I find the "I'm the leader / alpha / whatever" type of thought emotionally appealing, and seemingly logical, it has never gotten me the training results that positive methods get me. i do use negative feedback sometimes, but not often. Sometimes you just have to. But with a puppy, understanding a few basics can get you MUCH better results quickly!
#3 - Did I say cute?
Now, down to business. I like the thinking in jumpindogs and twelvepaws most recent posts in this thread.
Yup - you have some sort of collie or maybe GSD mix there! High energy! AND you have that sweet old pup too! And I'll bet she is a real love! But they have massively different energy levels. And your pup NEEDS to burn off that energy, whereas the old dog, sweet tho she is, can probably just amble along and be A-ok! Right? Maybe you can walk them together, but you need, I think, to also take the pup out alone.
My solution to this for my dogs is to take my bicycle out and give the dogs a run. But this can be hazardous for YOU if you aren't a good cyclist, and even if you are, if you make mistakes. You have to pay attention to the dog, and not get in a situation where the dog jerks the handlebars or crosses up the front wheel by darting one way or another. I'm lucky that I have a great and quiet location for this right across the street. I don't think you do.
So, another thought is for you to find a better walking park that is close enough for you to still manage the daily routine of getting your dogs there and having time for a life.
Or, here is another thought - for agility lessons I take my dogs to areas that have picnic tables and benches. Your pup is quite young, but very soon she will be able to jump on to the benches. While keeping her on a leash, you can get her to burn off energy going up and over and under and over and around and through - while your sweet old pup can sit there and just laugh at that pup doing all that running! I also use stone walls for "up on" and "walk on" exercise.
Now, here is a concept to keep in mind. Every moment of a dog's life is like a dance. The dog is at the dance, and she has dancing partners available all around. So she is going to pick the partner that looks like the most fun! When she pays attention to something besides you on a walk, she has seen a more interesting dancing partner. You have to get her interest back by becoming more interesting. This is also called her "focus". Does she want to go greet other dogs? Chase kids? Chase birds? Learn how to change her focus to you by good timing and using training treats. What you get by instinct is {OH! Look! Bird ---> Chase! Fun!}. You change this to {OH! Look! Bird ---> My Human! Treat! Fun!}. This may take very small attention steps to make the conversion - or it may happen quickly. Obviously, using the dance analogy, your treat has to trump the bird chase. This may take using a high value treat and sticking it right in front of their nose to get started. Often, achieving a change in focus like this is where most people find negative methods easier than the positive reinforcement. The level of response change that needs to be rewarded can be very small - and this can take time. This is why trainers often recommend setting up the dog for the situation to happen - when you can control it. Not just waiting until it happens in real life. This is where you might find some success with "teaching the dog who the leader is", but you may also find that this results in cowing the dog. Eventually, you may overcome the negative, but undoing something is harder than doing it.
The most successful training methods are when every learning moment for the dog is a "win". Pretty hard to make EVERYTHING a win - but it is a good rule of thumb to try for.
Here is another method I've found successful with my two herding / high energy dogs. They love to run through the woods. So we spend some time doing basic training, and then they get to run through the woods as a reward. For just a little while! If I let them go too far or too long, they start to abuse the priviledge, and assume they can make the decision about when to take off and go. For you, you could translate this to a sniffing session in the park. Your young pup works for a bit, then gets a sniffy session as a reward.
I think it is likely you are going to have a problem getting your young pup to calmly walk alongside you. Not just now, but perhaps ever. I've known collie types who will, but I think it more common that it will present them with a large difficulty. If they can burn off energy for a mile, then they will find it easier to just go with the flow. Age, also, will slow them down - but you've got another 4-5 years possibly before you get "calm". Although, some dogs do achieve this at a young age - 1-3 yrs of age. So much depends on the dog's personality and drive.
So, me? I would say use the muzzle if you must, but if you can find a way to utilize that drive, you and the pup will both be happier.
BTW, I used to have an old dog and a young dog I took out with my bicycle. The old dog had problems with the distance, but loved to run, so I got a bicycle cart, and old dog rode when she got tired. That worked for years. Today I have two dogs of the same age and energy level - so I don't need the cart.
Whether you realize it or not- every walk IS a training session. Every interaction you have with your dog teaches them something.
"Leave it" isn't enough (and may not even be appropriate) when working with a reactive dog. Depending on your tone of voice, timing, and context, a leave it may be making your dog more reactive. Furthermore, your dog is probably picking up on your anxiety about the cars and people which will make her more reactive.
Leslie McDevitt's Look at That exercise is geared toward working with reactive and/or fearful dogs; it is counter-intuitive but it works, and it will also help you manage your anxiety about her reactivity:
Something is missing- if your dog is paying attention to you, and you are focused on your dog, then dead birds, poop, etc shouldn't be a concern. I get about the broken glass, but that shouldn't occupy all your attention. You need to get your attention back on your dog and your dog needs to learn to focus on you. You both have the same issue::: too much focus on the outside world and not enough focus on each other.
Thank you for the video. I will definitely do that training.
I forgot to add that she is focus on me INDOORS. When she is outside off leash and she sees a bird, she immediately takes off but if I say "come" she will come back but I can't stop her from chasing the bird in the first place. I need to work on "come" with her more often because she totally ignored me today while chasing a leaf which was not like her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumpindogs
I second all that twelve writes and recommends in her two posts.
LAT (Look At That) training worked wonders for my over-the-top reactive Aussie rescue.
OP...what twelve is trying to say is that even though you don't consider your walks a training session, your puppy does. Your brain thinks "I am gonna train my pup for 5 minutes" or "I am gonna take my dogs for a walk" and you consider those two separate activities. But your pup's brain thinks "My mom lets me do this so it's OK" or "My mom rewards me for this so it's good" or "I like sniffing or barking or lunging or eating stuff off the ground and every time we walk I get to do that...cool!" constantly 24/7. Your pup is learning something every single moment she is awake...that's just how dogs are.
Your puppy cannot turn off her learning switch. But you can understand that she can't and change your approach accordingly.
When you have a dog that is of low to average intelligence, energy and drive it's not as much of an issue. But when you have a herding breed...most individuals of which are of comparatively high intelligence, energy and drive...you naturally have a much more labor intensive road ahead of you.
I always say it is much easier to own a less intelligent dog. But you have your adorable smarty pants and thus have now embarked on the huge learning curve that is the herding breed world.
That totally makes sense. I did think of those things separately and did not see how it would influence the pup. My dog is super smart too and training her was so easy. Even at 12, I taught her a trick in 10 minutes. However, my dog never had the energy and drive that my puppy has even when my dog was a puppy. It was an utter shock dealing with this type of dog and I am still adjusting so thank you for these informative posts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiero2
#1 - put me in the "Too CUTE!" category! Beautiful dog!
#2 - put me in the positive training category, with some minor modifications. Although I find the "I'm the leader / alpha / whatever" type of thought emotionally appealing, and seemingly logical, it has never gotten me the training results that positive methods get me. i do use negative feedback sometimes, but not often. Sometimes you just have to. But with a puppy, understanding a few basics can get you MUCH better results quickly!
#3 - Did I say cute?
Now, down to business. I like the thinking in jumpindogs and twelvepaws most recent posts in this thread.
Yup - you have some sort of collie or maybe GSD mix there! High energy! AND you have that sweet old pup too! And I'll bet she is a real love! But they have massively different energy levels. And your pup NEEDS to burn off that energy, whereas the old dog, sweet tho she is, can probably just amble along and be A-ok! Right? Maybe you can walk them together, but you need, I think, to also take the pup out alone.
My solution to this for my dogs is to take my bicycle out and give the dogs a run. But this can be hazardous for YOU if you aren't a good cyclist, and even if you are, if you make mistakes. You have to pay attention to the dog, and not get in a situation where the dog jerks the handlebars or crosses up the front wheel by darting one way or another. I'm lucky that I have a great and quiet location for this right across the street. I don't think you do.
So, another thought is for you to find a better walking park that is close enough for you to still manage the daily routine of getting your dogs there and having time for a life.
Or, here is another thought - for agility lessons I take my dogs to areas that have picnic tables and benches. Your pup is quite young, but very soon she will be able to jump on to the benches. While keeping her on a leash, you can get her to burn off energy going up and over and under and over and around and through - while your sweet old pup can sit there and just laugh at that pup doing all that running! I also use stone walls for "up on" and "walk on" exercise.
Now, here is a concept to keep in mind. Every moment of a dog's life is like a dance. The dog is at the dance, and she has dancing partners available all around. So she is going to pick the partner that looks like the most fun! When she pays attention to something besides you on a walk, she has seen a more interesting dancing partner. You have to get her interest back by becoming more interesting. This is also called her "focus". Does she want to go greet other dogs? Chase kids? Chase birds? Learn how to change her focus to you by good timing and using training treats. What you get by instinct is {OH! Look! Bird ---> Chase! Fun!}. You change this to {OH! Look! Bird ---> My Human! Treat! Fun!}. This may take very small attention steps to make the conversion - or it may happen quickly. Obviously, using the dance analogy, your treat has to trump the bird chase. This may take using a high value treat and sticking it right in front of their nose to get started. Often, achieving a change in focus like this is where most people find negative methods easier than the positive reinforcement. The level of response change that needs to be rewarded can be very small - and this can take time. This is why trainers often recommend setting up the dog for the situation to happen - when you can control it. Not just waiting until it happens in real life. This is where you might find some success with "teaching the dog who the leader is", but you may also find that this results in cowing the dog. Eventually, you may overcome the negative, but undoing something is harder than doing it.
The most successful training methods are when every learning moment for the dog is a "win". Pretty hard to make EVERYTHING a win - but it is a good rule of thumb to try for.
Here is another method I've found successful with my two herding / high energy dogs. They love to run through the woods. So we spend some time doing basic training, and then they get to run through the woods as a reward. For just a little while! If I let them go too far or too long, they start to abuse the priviledge, and assume they can make the decision about when to take off and go. For you, you could translate this to a sniffing session in the park. Your young pup works for a bit, then gets a sniffy session as a reward.
I think it is likely you are going to have a problem getting your young pup to calmly walk alongside you. Not just now, but perhaps ever. I've known collie types who will, but I think it more common that it will present them with a large difficulty. If they can burn off energy for a mile, then they will find it easier to just go with the flow. Age, also, will slow them down - but you've got another 4-5 years possibly before you get "calm". Although, some dogs do achieve this at a young age - 1-3 yrs of age. So much depends on the dog's personality and drive.
So, me? I would say use the muzzle if you must, but if you can find a way to utilize that drive, you and the pup will both be happier.
BTW, I used to have an old dog and a young dog I took out with my bicycle. The old dog had problems with the distance, but loved to run, so I got a bicycle cart, and old dog rode when she got tired. That worked for years. Today I have two dogs of the same age and energy level - so I don't need the cart.
Thank you for your post. My puppy was so cute when I first got her but she's getting so big. She is still cute but I think she will go through the "puppy uglies" stage soon which I googled and found out that Aussies go through that stage. It's completely amusing finding out new and interesting things about a new breed that I never dealt with before until now.
Right now, the puppy and dog do the same activities but the puppy does it more intensely. For example, they both go to my parents' house and stay in their backyard but my puppy digs while my dog just lays on the ground enjoying the breeze. It was really hard in the beginning to tire the puppy out but now it has been fairly easy. I suspect that the puppy will need more and different activities to do when she gets older and that jumping on the bench seems like a fun activity to do since the puppy already loves to jump everywhere.
I suck at sports and I live in an apartment so no bicycling for me. I did buy an expensive stroller without the bike trailer option for my dog but it ended up being too short and it was much higher than expected due to the wheels so it was a no go for us. It would be nice to find a way for my dog to go on longer walks but she still gets the car rides.
So, I am a little unclear about what I am suppose to do on the walks. Is the puppy suppose to be looking at me the whole time when she walks? How can I teach her the sniff command? I do say commands when she goes potty but she still hasn't gotten it yet. When I can catch her, I do make her look at me when there are cars/birds/people/dogs and I praise her. Am I suppose to do it each time? Because if I do, we will never get anywhere. We are going to be stopping like every minute. Is this what I am suppose to do?
Sticking a treat in her face might be easier than calling her because I know that it will definitely work. So, do I just put a treat in her face when there is a car/bird/person/dog coming up? Then I give her the treat. Is this method time sensitive? Do I make sure she sees the distracting thing first and then stick a treat in her face?
Is the puppy doing this because she needs more exercise? Because she is tired out once the day is over and sleep through the night.
Having an old dog and young pup is so challenging but my dog has become more energetic even though she is not too fond of the new addition. My dog also had a temporary separation anxiety after we moved and now both the pup and dog can stay home together in separate rooms by themselves without fuss which I am so happy about. Today, I got another little win as they are both sleeping near each other which has never happened before.
So, I am a little unclear about what I am suppose to do on the walks. Is the puppy suppose to be looking at me the whole time when she walks? How can I teach her the sniff command?
No, your pup doesn't need to look at you the entire walk, but she should be in a nice loose leash walking position and she should always be responsive if you ask her to do something. A walk isn't just a walk- you need to reinforce with your dog that YOU are the most interesting thing going on- more interesting than birds, leaves, cars, other people- the way you do this is to work with your dog while you walk. Walk briskly for 50-100' until you are close to a street lamp or fire hydrant or another sniffable item, then ask your dog to sit, reward, ask her to down/drop, then say "go sniff" (= reward) and walk her up to the fire hydrant and ignore her while she gets a good sniff, then get her attention and continue the walk. Rinse and repeat, doing variations on what you ask her- do speed changes, ask for long down, do hand touches, then again walk her to the fire hydrant and say "go sniff" and ignore her for a minute while she gets her sniff (= reward), then continue walk. If you keep changing things up on the walk, varying cues, speed, changing directions, playing tug with her, then you will be keeping her attention on you because she will be interested and engaged and participating in the walk with you > instead of "just walking from point A to B". See the difference? She will get that "go sniff" means a release, and the cue gives you control of where she sniffs so you can scope out a good safe area/item for her to sniff. She will know that YOU are engaged with her so will be checking in with you with little glances- you absolutely MUST catch and reward these looks with awesome treats and a go sniff if appropriate.
Sticking a treat in her face might be easier than calling her because I know that it will definitely work. So, do I just put a treat in her face when there is a car/bird/person/dog coming up? Then I give her the treat. Is this method time sensitive? Do I make sure she sees the distracting thing first and then stick a treat in her face?
No, you never want to "stick a treat in her face". 1) You need to build a history of reinforcement/reward for good behavior first in the safety of your house, then in the yard, then in the street in front of your house, then in the local park, etc. Always use the highest value treat/reward possible. 2) You absolutely MUST control the environment so that your dog isn't challenged beyond her threshold/reactive level, and only progress when she is comfortable at the current level. This may mean walking during early morning or late evening hours when it is quieter and fewer people and dogs are out. 3) You absolutely MUST watch her and praise praise praise when she is being calm and checking in. 4) You absolutely MUST stay calm yourself- keep your body language quiet and loose, no tension- part of the issue is that when you see another dog/person/whatever you tighten up and your dog senses this and it can trigger/worsen her reaction. This is where the LAT game becomes so critical- it teaches you and your dog another way of working with challenging situations (whatever they are). 5) Related to #4 is that you MUST keep the leash loose- any tension on the leash is a trigger for any dog to react by pulling and as well, a tight leash telegraphs your tension right down the leach.6) Remember- anything your dog likes = a reward- it can be high value treats, a sniff, a game of tug, a belly rub, etc. 7) Use your calm voice to give your dog feedback- either to interrupt/re-direct behavior or to praise.
All of the above suggestions are predicated on you watching and engaging with your dog on your walks, constantly reinforcing/rewarding good behavior in all kinds of environments with both rewards and voice to praise/redirect.
Last edited by twelvepaw; 03-30-2016 at 10:30 AM..
You have gotten incredibly good advice. The only thing I would add is this: be aware of the food as a reward vs bribe. It's very easy to confuse the two especially when your dog anticipates the food, as in it's in your hand.
I have 2 dogs, one has been with me for 2.5 years and is about 7 yrs old. The other is somewhere around 14 yrs old and only came here 1.5 years ago. From day 1, I taught certain behaviors by waiting for it to occur and rewarding. Wait for the behavior a 2nd time and reward. By the 3rd time, it's a learned behavior. I don't command, I wait. Each complex behavior is generally a step built upon a previous behavior. Now, both dogs are taking cues from events around them and giving me the appropriate behavior. For example. Bedtime. When I turn off the TV and/or computers, both dogs race to their beds. When I finish closing up, turning off lights, I grab a treat and they get it on my way to change. That's reward.
Bribe is to say sit while holding a biscuit in my hand.
You can bribe with other than food, such as a favorite toy or affection, so monitor YOUR behavior for reward vs bribe. When training going out the door calmly, leash doesn't get put on until there is sitting. When the butt comes off the floor, stop. Opening the door for a walk, sitting is expected. If the butt leaves the floor before I release them (OK is the release word), the door closes. Pulling on the leash - I stop and walk backwards with my arm holding the leash still at my side. All of this is done without command or me speaking to them AT ALL. Walking a dog - or puppy - should not have your arm being yanked, hook your thumb in your pocket and keep it there until you release the dog from walk to roam/play/sniff. Both my dogs are scent hound breeds and allowing them space and time to sniff/find/get are important play activities - following work sessions such as pottying (on command for the younger dog).
I give few commands while training. The younger dog is now my service dog. I trained her using positive behavior modification techniques. She walks by my side throughout stores, sits next to me in restaurants (even up to 3 hours). I still have to remind her occasionally about "look at me" to regain her focus.
The concept of continuous training mentioned above is important - to not only keep your dogs' skills current but to remind you to adhere to them. Having a service dog, it is imperative that her behavior is up to standard at all times. And mine as well. Additionally, I only began training her 2 years ago, as a 5 yr old dog, so I am constantly teaching her new skills. She enjoys learning as much as she does working and just recently "got it" about alerting me to the sounds of sirens.
Sticking a treat in her face might be easier than calling her because I know that it will definitely work. So, do I just put a treat in her face when there is a car/bird/person/dog coming up? Then I give her the treat. Is this method time sensitive? Do I make sure she sees the distracting thing first and then stick a treat in her face?
No, you never want to "stick a treat in her face". 1) . . .
Uh, dear twelvepaw, that technique is straight out of Ian Dunbar's books. Nomnom, the point is you use that if you need it. Your treat or your dog's interest in you needs to trump the distraction. I've used the "stick the treat in their face" to get their focus when they do not realize I'm sitting there with something high-value as a reward. I will also get instant feedback on the value of the treat! And it's not something you should need to do frequently.
For better understanding of using a reward to change the dog's focus to you when they are doing something undesirable: I am pretty sure I got this from Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed". Ian Dunbar has some books out there - always highly recommended. Jean Donaldson has "Culture Clash". And Suzanne Clothier's books. Try and get them from your library, because you will get a better understanding of the why's to all the advice here. I got some gold nuggets from each of those authors, and a couple of others, and I only bought two of the books that I could not get through my library. "Control Unleashed" in particular will give you some good standard goals to work towards. But I got some of those from the other authors, also. So, they are all good.
The pup likes to chase the birds, so get a long lead - or just tie a rope on your leash and give the dog 20 feet or so to go chase a bird as a reward. My dogs go after squirrels. So I let them - AFTER I get them in a down/stay, I release them with a "Go". That way the chase becomes something of a reward. It helps. It may not completely solve the issue, but it can help. I personally don't like to use "ok" as a command, because I use "ok" too often in casual speech, and the dogs get a command I did not mean to give! Use whatever words you think will work for you.
I don't know if I mentioned this, but "sit" can be a better solution to stopping a dog in mid-chase of something interesting. "Come" has grey areas, but "sit" is black and white - either the dog is sitting, or not. I found that worked better for my hound a few years back, when he wanted to chase the deer across the field. You want to work up to where the dog can break off mid-chase when you tell them to. That is perfection, of course, so something close may be what you get. My two current are English Shepherds - very similar to Aus in behavior and needs. For some reason, they quickly got the concept of "stop" - even when they don't want to "come". They will stop in mid-chase. They would not "sit", nor "come", but they will "stop" - and they actually come to a halt. If I give them a small space of time, as I get closer, I can then get a down. In their case, this may be because I got them as adults, and they had some bad training when young. But it also has something to do with their personalities and intelligence.
Figuring out a way to let the pup really burn off energy will be a help to you. I don't know how you will do that, but it will help. Fetch, flyball, frisbee can be great - the dog gets to run while you stand still!
Teaching sniffing / smell games: I started giving mine the idea of "find" by just throwing some kibble into the grass in the backyard. Graduated to hiding a high value reward somewhere else in the yard or house (out of starting sight. If they see it, they aren't using their nose). You can google for more stuff.
One of the reasons we walk our dogs is to give the dog some "dog" time. They all love smelling - going for a walk to them is like going to a movie for us! So you want the dog to be a dog, and have some pure dog time on the walk. You want enough compliance so that the dog is well-mannered, and does not disturb other people, or hurt itself, those kinds of things. You don't need the dogs constant attention, but you need enough of the dog's awareness so that you can do your job of keeping the dog safe and out of trouble.
At this point, I think you've gotten so much advice here, it is probably too much to take it all in! So relax, focus on your dogs, and having fun with them. Don't worry, just have fun, and work things out in time.
Uh, dear twelvepaw, that technique is straight out of Ian Dunbar's books. Nomnom, the point is you use that if you need it. Your treat or your dog's interest in you needs to trump the distraction. I've used the "stick the treat in their face" to get their focus when they do not realize I'm sitting there with something high-value as a reward. I will also get instant feedback on the value of the treat! And it's not something you should need to do frequently.
I stand by what I said. The OP wasn't describing an emergency or crisis situation, but rather was asking questions about how to improve focus and how to teach a "go sniff" cue while walking their dog. Which I answered.
Waving a treat in front of a dog doesn't teach them anything, and if you need to do that in order to get your dog's attention you may want to re-think your training plan (especially if you are sitting right next to them and can't get their attention....).
In order to effectively desensitize and/or counter-condition a reactive dog the owner needs to carefully manage the dog's environment and make a training plan that consistently keeps the dog under threshold while training is in progress. If in spite of carefully managing the environment the owner finds themselves in a situation where the dog is non-responsive or shut-down as a result of being over threshold, then 1) the handler/owner needs to get their head in the game and/or revise their training plan; and 2) there are several other techniques that will be more effective than waving a treat in the dog's face.
One of the tests to see if a dog is able to learn is to ask for the dog's attention or offer a treat; if they won't take the treat or respond to their owner's voice, they are either over-stimulated /over threshold or shut down; in either case, food won't get them out of that state. Ideally, these situations will never happen because the owner will be aware of their surroundings and will be able to act to proactively preempt their dog going over threshold.
Waving food in a dog's face may get their attention, but it is bad training practice because it is a bribe = look what you will get if you do "x". It may get their attention if they aren't over threshold, but then if they aren't over threshold or shut down, then the owner should be able to get their dog's attention in multiple other ways that don't include a bribe. (If not, then they need to back up the training to work on focus, impulse control, and engagement exercises). Part of a well-thought out training plan is to think ahead to the challenges that might arise in order to be prepared.
Clearly in a true emergency situation, the owner needs to do whatever they need to in order to ensure their and their dog's safety, but that wasn't the situation that the OP described.
You are certainly welcome to disagree.
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But you have your adorable smarty pants and thus have now embarked on the huge learning curve that is the herding breed world. 
