Dog training best practices

[Poconnor]

Many good points were brought up in the recent K9/handler thread. How about people that are trainers and or handlers chime in with their experience? I am currently trading a 6 month old cavaoodle. She is a 20 lb sweetheart and super smart. She has sit, paw, down, roll over pretty good. I am working on drop it, leave it and touch (come) .
This morning she got hold of a dirty sock and really did not want to give it up. She growled when I took it from her and then she attacked me and bit my hand. She knew she fucked up and went straight to her pen. I use a slip collar for walking her but I don’t use it for training. She is so small a slip or pinch collar seems like over kill.
I reviewed my touchy feely dog training revolution book but when the author recommends taking the dog to a vet to make sure the dog isn’t mentally ill? Any suggestions ?
I know that plenty of dogs have been ruined by abuse, neglect and lack of socialization. I had a coworker that adopted a K9 washout Rottweiler from a prison. The dog would attack almost any adult male he saw; supposedly a handler abused the dog. My buddy kept him for years but was never able fix the dog. every time I came over he put the dog in the basement.

[LittleLebowski]

Coyotesfan97

[JohnO]

You mentioned Pinch Collars and slip collars (AKA chokers)

My Female German Shepherd Dog came to me at 8 weeks wearing a pinch collar and still wears the exact same collar today at 4 years old with additional links added. Herm Sprenger is the only brand of pinch I trust. The pinch is safer than a slip/choker as it applies uniform pressure around the dog's neck. A high drive dog will to a certain degree self regulate their pulling into a pinch collar.

I made a terrible mistake taking both of my GSDs out on flat collars. It was also compounded by my stupidity of putting their leashes on my wrist and wearing winter gloves. I made it part way down my driveway and the dogs spotted a neighbor walking his GSD. Long story short - I got pulled off my feet and dragged 100+ feet across my lawn. 190 Lbs. & 8 legs v. 190 Lbs. & 2 legs isn't a good match up. They won I lost!

I doubt you need to get your dog a Psych evaluation. Just continue to work with her on a regular basis and be consistent. Issue commands ONCE and only Once. Dogs are no different than little kids you see where the parent is begging their kid repeatedly to comply and the kid keeps ignoring them.

My dogs have been to everything and everywhere I could take them. Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply and more. They have been to concerts in a park, polo matches, carnivals, on busy city streets and to the range. There really isn't anything that spooks them. I also made it a point to have everyone in the house purposely add food from their hand to the dog's bowls while the dogs eat.

Check out Michael Ellis on the Web. I have a couple of his videos and really like his methods. A good trainer is also recommended. I work with a local guy who was a former Air Force dog trainer/handler.

[Poconnor]

Thanks. Because she is not a hard dog I’m doing this soft. No pinch or choke collar training. After a time out in the pen she has been great. Better behaved than normal. She knows she messed up. I will have to double down on drop it, leave it and no commands. The grandkids are too little for a bad behavior from the dog. It’s funny how much overlap there is training dogs and raising small kids. But we all need love, boundaries and to be taught right from wrong at a young age. I hope the incoming administration does not decide to sterilize all the Americans they don’t agree with. That was a bad joke but forced sterilization has happened in India and China. It’s probably still happening in China. My wife is right. I go off on any tangent. Oh look- a squirrel

[Duelist]

A pinch collar is perfectly appropriate for training and walking the dog. Once they are adapted to it, they get excited when you get it out because they know they get to go have fun with you.

I raised my last dog from puppyhood. She was a soft dog and worked really well with gentle corrections for most things. She wore a slip(choke) chain collar for every walk she went on, and was (usually) responsive to corrections.

I wish I had used a pinch collar with her, though. Knowing what I know now, I feel that they are much more effective as well as being safer for the dog.

I now have her younger sister, who is a larger and somewhat harder dog - hard as in stubborn and physical, but not really hard like a working shepherd line. I don’t know whether her previous owner ever walked her on a leash. She did not know about leashes and did not appreciate being leashed when we first got her. She was a breeding dog, and a professional bird dog. She was shock collar trained, both for the field and electronic invisible fence.

I have to exercise her on a leash, though, so she had to learn to walk with a collar. The slip collar was nothing to her - she would tug, pull, and tow the person walking her. The pinch collar ended that within two training periods. She adapted to putting it on very quickly, and loves to go walking with me.

Even with little dogs, I would use the pinch collar in the appropriate size. It helps them to be better behaved, and makes it safer for them to be walked. A small dog that lunges against its leash can be hit by a car on the side of the road, or even surprise the owner and get the leash loose from them, with all the potential problems that can come with that.

[DDTSGM]

Yep, my GSD's go crazy when they see me getting the pinch collars and short leashes out. I have them sit and wait their turn, they are quivering with excitement.

My male GSD is extremely prey-driven, if he sees a cat while I'm taking him out to the backyard he goes crazy and won't obey. Generally, I just take him back into the house and kennel him - he probably doesn't know why he's being kenneled, but I still do it anyways.

Yesterday he slipped the collar and chased a cat up a tree. He would not recall and decided to chase scent around the area. This has happened before and I need to fix it. Any suggestions?

ETA: I generally just get in my truck and drive to where ever he is and open the back door, he comes and hops in because he thinks he's going for a ride. So I generally go around a couple blocks before heading home. my dilemma is that I feel (and have read) that corrections need to be immediate. I don't want to correct him after he has just come running to the truck, or when he finally recalls. The only time I clap is when I want him to come, I clap and say 'here' if he doesn't recall I wait before I try again, because I don't want him to think he can ignore me.

So, I'm at a loss for this problem.

[Duelist]

Yep, my GSD's go crazy when they see me getting the pinch collars and short leashes out. I have them sit and wait their turn, they are quivering with excitement.

My male GSD is extremely prey-driven, if he sees a cat while I'm taking him out to the backyard he goes crazy and won't obey. Generally, I just take him back into the house and kennel him - he probably doesn't know why he's being kenneled, but I still do it anyways.

Yesterday he slipped the collar and chased a cat up a tree. He would not recall and decided to chase scent around the area. This has happened before and I need to fix it. Any suggestions?

If I were training a bird dog that wouldn’t recall off trash (non-target species), I would jump on a shock collar.

In this case, you don’t want him killing cats, or hunting anything really, and you want to correct him for recall refusal, so that just makes me think a shock collar is your best answer.

Without a shock collar, a long line might be a good choice, or even in combination with the shock collar. This is a soft rope of about 30 feet length. Just buy it at a hardware store, put a quality swivel dog clip on it, and add it to his walking gear with the rope coiled up in your hand.

This gives you a lot more room to work with when he takes off, as well as something besides him to grab when he won’t recall. You can attach it to his regular collar, or even just make a loop in the dog-end of it around his neck. I use two - one is ten feet, the other is 30. When I have a puppy I want to learn to play and explore at a distance, I use the 30 foot rope to give them more freedom, but with the safety of being able to grab it and contain them if they decide they aren’t going to recall until they want to. The ten is for letting them drag it in the field. Both are kind of a check cord.

[DDTSGM]

If I were training a bird dog that wouldn’t recall off trash (non-target species), I would jump on a shock collar.

Yeah, that is what I've been thinking, problem is that's money I want to spend on something else. :rolleyes:

It's funny, we took an hour walk this morning, and as usual he behaved perfectly, stayed right by me, sat whenever I stopped, etc. And he ignored - didn't pull me off course - all other animals. But if he gets loose outside, katy bar the doors. I'm worried it will happen at night when I cant see where he goes.

Oh, well, I have Cabella's bucks, any suggestions as to brand?

[JM Campbell]

#justintime (https://pistol-forum.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=justintime)

justintime

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Duelist]

Yeah, that is what I've been thinking, problem is that's money I want to spend on something else. :rolleyes:

It's funny, we took an hour walk this morning, and as usual he behaved perfectly, stayed right by me, sat whenever I stopped, etc. And he ignored - didn't pull me off course - all other animals. But if he gets loose outside, katy bar the doors. I'm worried it will happen at night when I cant see where he goes.

Oh, well, I have Cabella's bucks, any suggestions as to brand?

This one: https://www.lcsupply.com/products/dogtra-arc-handsfree-ecollar-system

Dogtra and Garmin make good ones.

[Dog Guy]

First off, don't let "Dog Guy" fool you into thinking I'm a trainer. I spent a lot of years as a SAR dog handler and I was very good at that, but I've never had the expertise to train someone else's dog. I've just picked up some useful tools along the way.

On prong or slip collars: there's a misconception that these are hard corrective tools or only suitable for hard dogs with problems. We rarely needed to use them with our GSDs, but have needed them with all three of our Labradors. The GSDs figured out on-lead corrections and behaviors pretty quickly. Our three Labradors have been more knuckleheads. They'll happily lean hard into a flat collar and haul away. Labs are also prone to throat irritation from exactly this behavior so the slip or prong allows a correction that's less likely to harm the dog. The end result is a walk where both the handler and the dog are happy and relaxed, and the dog doesn't end up being treated for an inflamed trachea.

Regarding timing of reward or correction: Check out "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor. There is much more to training than timing and reward but I found a lot of good tidbits in her book.

[willie]

Many good points were brought up in the recent K9/handler thread. How about people that are trainers and or handlers chime in with their experience? I am currently trading a 6 month old cavaoodle. She is a 20 lb sweetheart and super smart. She has sit, paw, down, roll over pretty good. I am working on drop it, leave it and touch (come) .
This morning she got hold of a dirty sock and really did not want to give it up. She growled when I took it from her and then she attacked me and bit my hand. She knew she fucked up and went straight to her pen. I use a slip collar for walking her but I don’t use it for training. She is so small a slip or pinch collar seems like over kill.
I reviewed my touchy feely dog training revolution book but when the author recommends taking the dog to a vet to make sure the dog isn’t mentally ill? Any suggestions ?
I know that plenty of dogs have been ruined by abuse, neglect and lack of socialization. I had a coworker that adopted a K9 washout Rottweiler from a prison. The dog would attack almost any adult male he saw; supposedly a handler abused the dog. My buddy kept him for years but was never able fix the dog. every time I came over he put the dog in the basement.

I was always too lenient with pups and toddlers. Because I made mistakes and recognized some, I want to point out that your pup, despite being sweet, knows that she bit you and got away with it. You may have arrived at the wrong conclusion when you gave her credit for knowing that she messed up. She may repeat the behavior. I think she will if provoked.

[SJC3081]

Best practice, you should have slapped the dog firmly across the face immediately. Firm enough to cause pain but not to injure the dog. That would make the dog understand you are the Alpha. Once you establish your the Alpha in shouldn’t happen again.

[Dog Guy]

I started with SAR dogs in the late 80s, and the alpha rollover was quite popular at that time. One of the astute trainers that we had a seminar from pointed out that the "show them who's alpha" techniques worked most of the time for most of the dogs because few of the dogs actually considered themselves to be the alpha. When a poorly prepared handler tried such a technique with a dog that actually thought Fido was the alpha, bad things were likely to happen. Just be heads up if you go that route.

[Coyotesfan97]

Yeah, that is what I've been thinking, problem is that's money I want to spend on something else. :rolleyes:

It's funny, we took an hour walk this morning, and as usual he behaved perfectly, stayed right by me, sat whenever I stopped, etc. And he ignored - didn't pull me off course - all other animals. But if he gets loose outside, katy bar the doors. I'm worried it will happen at night when I cant see where he goes.

Oh, well, I have Cabella's bucks, any suggestions as to brand?

I always used Dogtra on my working dogs. If you going the e-collar route I’d suggest finding a trainer to teach you and your dog. It’s not something you should just put on him and start using.

I like www.gun dog supply.com for dog equipment and supplies. Here’s a link to an ecollar buying guide.

https://www.gundogsupply.com/dog-training-collars-buyers-guide.html?megamenumenu

[Coyotesfan97]

Like Dog Guy I was never a trainer but I spent 16 years following a dog around. If you’re around K9 that long you know the stuff but you really aren’t the trainer.

I think for smaller dogs you can get away with a flat collar but even with small dogs it’s easier to control them with a chain collar. With bigger dogs you need a chain or pinch collar for the control. You get a better correction with the right collar. A flat collar is just a tug on their neck. I like fur savers which are a big link chain collar. Corrections don’t have to be harsh they just need to be enough to get the dog’s attention. You probably need to go to www.rayallen.com or an equivalent police K9 site to find them.

65761
Fursaver

[Coyotesfan97]

The thing about corrections and dogs is first the dog has to know what it is your telling him to do. So just as an example if he doesn’t know heel then telling him heel and correcting him is pointless. Once the dog knows the heel command and you’re walking when he surges ahead of you. You give the heel command and see if he obeys or not. Either way you’re going to mark it. If he does it a treat or a “good dog” in a happy voice works. If he disobeys you mark it too in a harsh sharp command. NO works but I use Pfui (phooey) from years of working Dutch dogs. Then you correct whether is a leash or e-collar. But it has to done fairly quickly. In this example it can be done right away.

Command mark or Command mark correct.

If you’ve seen videos of trainers using a clicker the click marks the right behavior.

[Crawls]

... She is so small a slip or pinch collar seems like over kill....

First, thank you for recognizing that even small dogs need training and proper socialization. I think most of the obnoxious, mean and ill-tempered dogs I've come across walking my dogs over the years have been small tiny dogs. My guess is that their owners see them as non threatening due to the dog's size and therefore, skip the socialization and training.
I'd agree with what was posted earlier about choker and pinch collars. They're perfectly fine on small dogs too. The size of the self-correction the dog gets from the pinch or choker is proportional to size of the dog and the force it can create. Smaller dog = smaller force. You have to be careful though that the size of the corrections you put into the collar are proportional as well, but you do the same with a flat collar anyway.

The positive dog trainer in me says: One of the ways I've learned to get dogs to trust me taking things from them is to start out by giving them something more enticing in return. If the dog doesn't want to give up a sock, start out by trading that sock for a piece of hot dog or some sort of treat. (Key here is to make sure the reward is for giving up the object not for guarding the object - the timing is important.) If it is an object that is ok for the dog to have like a chew toy or ball, give it back to him and keep repeating the trade off as he warms up to the concept of you taking something from him. If it's a sock or something the dog shouldn't have, try making the trade, but instead of giving the sock back, give him a chew toy or something appropriate for him to have. Eventually phase out the treat and just make the trade for the chew toy.

The Koehler dog trainer in me would suggest a quick emotionless alpha roll at any outward sign of aggression like biting. Pretty easy on a dog the size of your pup. It may be overkill; depends on the dog; YMMV.

[Wingate's Hairbrush]

In for the learning, but I'll share this:

1) After seeing first-hand a beloved dog struggle from Laryngeal Paralysis -- understanding that it's idiopathic and causes, to include neck-trauma, are theorized but as yet unconfirmed -- I'll never put anything but a plain collar around a dog of mine's neck again, and no leash will ever be attached to it. Never. And neither will anyone else handling my dog. Done with neck pressure for control; harnesses only now.

2) A food motivated dog makes training a lot easier.

[Bratch]

I grew up around animals, my dad trained race horses, my mom trained barrel horses. We always had dogs around. As an adult I had a Border Collie and Malinois that listened but weren’t formally trained.

With our GSD adoption I went to a formal dog trainer for the first time. We did 6 sessions with her for about 15-20 hours. The only reason we stopped was it was an hour each way and the dog refused to perform at her place. He loved the techniques but something about the building didn’t mesh. My background is very limited compared to many but here is what we’ve learned.

Some of the things we picked up from her that have helped:

1. Clickers. I saw them mentioned up thread. He gets excited during training and will cycle through positions if he doesn’t get an immediate response. Once we click he freezes where ever he is, even if he is half up and down.

2. Consistency. We are training twice a day (noon/evening) for about 10-15 minutes. This also goes for words used in commands.

3. Food training. We showed up with training treats and were quickly told to use his regular food. We have since hand fed him all of his food in his 2 training sessions.

4. Bowl training. We worked an upside down bowl as his spot for the first few months. If he got confused during training he’d reset to his bowl and start over.

5. Non verbal. This is the one I have the most trouble with, when at a stop the dog sits in heel. Stepping with the right leg signals to dog to follow with you, stepping with the left signals them to stay. This one hasn’t had a big impact on our training but was interesting as someone who hasn’t been around a lot of seriously trained dogs.

We’re still dealing with some personality quirks and attitude but the difference in 6 months of training has been wonderful.

[UNM1136]

I will never train another dog without a prong collar and an E-collar. My 19 pound pound puppy got a prong collar and my vet thanked me for loving my dog enough to treat her like a dog and keep her under control.

I highly recommend Michael Ellis videos, available through leerburg. The Leash Pressure video is particularly useful. Our Schutzhund/ring sport club training director and State Canine Master Instructor/SME recommends the videos highly.

The leash pressure video, when used in conjunction with "the power of training your dogs with food" and "the power of playing tug with your dog" teaches your dog that the leash/slip collar/prong collar are not just for corrections, but can be used to let the dog know that you are trying to communicate with it. The e-collar videos are also pretty good.

Ellis is like a 90-95% positive trainer, with corrections for willful disobedience.

pat

[Borderland]

I've always used a shock collar to reinforce after we get associated with voice and whistle commands. That is, the dog knows what the voice and whistle command means and was trained without it. There are many ways to do that. I used to wear a whistle anytime the dog was with me, which was most of the time on my property, hunting, or hiking. Leashes are great but working dogs need the ability to do the things they are bred to do off leash and they need to be trained to your commands without exception. Voice commands are OK until your dog gets out of range of your voice which hunting and herding dogs frequently do. Anytime my dog was off leash she had her shock collar on. Once a dog gets used to being corrected a few times with the collar it generally isn't needed to reinforce whistle or voice commands.

One of the very first things I learned from professional trainers is that there is absolutely no point in correcting a dog for any behavior that the dog doesn't associate with as incorrect. This may take some time to instill in the dog by voice communication. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that dogs want to do what you want them to do. They just need to know what that is and some need longer than others to figure it out.

There's always going to be the test of wills with pups as they grow older. They will always learn who's in charge if you take the time to train them. In my opinion there is no such thing as a bad dog, just owners who shouldn't have dogs.

[Bergeron]

I'm just here to be another voice of support in training for small dogs.

I had a daschund/collie mutt (lost her in the break-up) as puppy with a past girlfriend. We did biweekly training classes, starting as soon as possible. I think that dog's personality wasn't ever going to be neurotic, but it it was nice to be able to go and do things with her, and take her places, and have people over and have her be well-behaved. We didn't try anything like competitive obedience, I just wanted a well-adjusted pet, and it was a combination of verbal and non-verbal commands rewarded with hot food-based treats. When we started, we had the typical sort of bagged dog treats, but were advised to get the "higher value" hot dog/cheese/chicken, which did make a difference.

[Borderland]

Yeah, that is what I've been thinking, problem is that's money I want to spend on something else. :rolleyes:

It's funny, we took an hour walk this morning, and as usual he behaved perfectly, stayed right by me, sat whenever I stopped, etc. And he ignored - didn't pull me off course - all other animals. But if he gets loose outside, katy bar the doors. I'm worried it will happen at night when I cant see where he goes.

Oh, well, I have Cabella's bucks, any suggestions as to brand?

My hunting buddies and I used Tri-tronics to train and hunt but I think they're Garmin now. So if they still make the same quality collars that would be my recommendation.

E-collars have a recall tone that isn't a corrective setting (no shock, just tone). Once the dog gets trained to the recall tone that's their command to come in. Like all other commands, they should know what they're supposed to do. Positive reinforcement, however you want to do that, will insure that very little correction will be needed when a command is disobeyed. The good e-collars have a range far beyond what most people will ever need. That's one thing to look at when buying an e-collar.

E-collars aren't a magic training wand though. The same amount of time has to be devoted to training. For me they just extended the range of my control when I hunted. Most people can have well trained dogs without them. Working dogs can sometimes be very determined and strong willed. Some are not easily trained. All I've ever trained was hunting dogs so my experience is limited there.

[Borderland]

I started with SAR dogs in the late 80s, and the alpha rollover was quite popular at that time. One of the astute trainers that we had a seminar from pointed out that the "show them who's alpha" techniques worked most of the time for most of the dogs because few of the dogs actually considered themselves to be the alpha. When a poorly prepared handler tried such a technique with a dog that actually thought Fido was the alpha, bad things were likely to happen. Just be heads up if you go that route.

I have an Alpha bitch. They take training to a whole new level. It's more of a mutual endeavor where everyone has to agree on the agenda. The movie Cool Hand Luke comes to mind. :D

[UNM1136]

One of my texts on the subject (it does not endorse alpha rolling) mentions how poorly the whole alpha argument relates to reality. We are not competing for food, or breeding rights, or anything else that causes dogs to rank up in a pack environment in nature. Working with a human is has no parallel in nature, and thus cannot be instictive. The author makes the case that the handler needs to be something beyond the alpha. He is big on the relationship between the dog and the handler, and the dog learning that he needs to do what he is told to be rewarded, or refuse to do what he is told and be corrected. Instead for years I have thought of "ranky" dogs as spoiled, hard willed delinquents that are looking for any way to have their way in a relationship. They push boundries, looking for what behaviors will get them what they want. They also have limited means of influencing the world around them. When they snap at you and you yank your hand back, they are figuring out how to make you move, to respond to them. I have known ranky dogs before, but no longer try to classify them as "alpha" or "beta", and instead approach them as individuals of varying degrees of hardness.

Like Dog Guy mentioned, trying to prove you are the alpha kinda puts you on their level, and a motivated dog can eat your lunch. Putting the dog up, or a lightning bolt type correction (figuratively, a correction that successfully interrupts the behavior) can be far more effective than trying to compete for the "top dog" position.

Dogs repeat behaviors that get them success.

Just some thoughts before bed.

pat

Edited to add: http://siriusdog.com/social-behavior-dog-schutzhund-pack/

Same author, almost word for word from his book.

[757_Magnum]

I'm a recent convert to using a prong collar, and I now suggest them to anyone who's responsible and serious about raising a dog well. A friend of mine who had a very well trained Cane Corso suggested prong collars a while back, but I thought they were cruel and declined at the time. I think they're like AR-15s. They seem scary and unnecessary to the misinformed and uninitiated, and any misuse by a bad owner is all too easy to be portrayed as an evil object. My female Doberman is relatively well behaved, but she pulls on our walks or when she's super excited like at a brewery. I used to have her on a leather Martingale style due to her thick neck and skinny head. She would respond when I stopped walking when she pulled, but I needed to correct her every minute or so. Between that and the fact that she would sometimes pull so hard that she would often choke herself, I started researching prong collars on several Doberman forums. I learned that many users either overcorrect, leave it on the dog 24/7, and/or they don't size it correctly. I was still a bit hesitant and didn't want to be cruel to my baby girl, so when the Herm Sprenger collar came in, I put it on myself and gave the leash a good tug ;). Seriously, though... I felt the squeeze and the prongs, but no pain. The key is wearing it correctly, snug and high on the neck just under the head, and using just a firm snapping motion with just your wrist. I also chose the smaller prongs that provide more feedback to the dog with less corrective force. Most owners that I've seen use huge prongs, leave them loose on the dog's lower neck, and yank the shit out of them. Now she barely pulls, and she can barely contain her excitement when she hears the clink of the collar. I also highly suggest an attachment that allows a secondary backup collar to be attached in case the collar releases. This was learned the hard way when mine popped loose at a highway rest area and she happily played keep away with cars zooming by.

TL;DR (I'm not an expert, but this is from my research and what worked for me)
- only buy a Herm Sprenger
- get a backup collar attachment
- worn snug high up on the neck just behind the ears, shouldn't be sliding down during walks
- small corrective snaps with just the wrist, not your whole arm/body
- only for training and/or taking the dog out, not for 24/7 wear
- smaller link sizes provide more corrective feedback with less force

[60Driver]

I will second the importance of back up collar with a prong!

Definitely not an expert working dogs or with working dogs. Only amateur trained my last two labs to JH and am learning new lessons with our current Vizsla.

Odin our mark 1 mod 1 Vizsla out of Field Trial lines but a "Soft" dog for his lines according to his breeder has not once, or twice, but three times popped his correctly adjusted sprenger prong. Vizslas are not big but they are solid muscle and have HIGH drive when on a scent. Crying wife chasing one of the fastest breeds on planet is not something I recommend.

I had no idea that Vizslas had multistage afterburners but they can BOOGIE. And then look sheepish and lovey when they realize that they blew into the next county. Great breed and we love him but Labs are WAY easier to train ;)

If you use a prong, get a back collar up and use it!!!

[Borderland]

I will second the importance of back up collar with a prong!

Definitely not an expert working dogs or with working dogs. Only amateur trained my last two labs to JH and am learning new lessons with our current Vizsla.

Odin our mark 1 mod 1 Vizsla out of Field Trial lines but a "Soft" dog for his lines according to his breeder has not once, or twice, but three times popped his correctly adjusted sprenger prong. Vizslas are not big but they are solid muscle and have HIGH drive when on a scent. Crying wife chasing one of the fastest breeds on planet is not something I recommend.

I had no idea that Vizslas had multistage afterburners but they can BOOGIE. And then look sheepish and lovey when they realize that they blew into the next county. Great breed and we love him but Labs are WAY easier to train ;)

If you use a prong, get a back collar up and use it!!!

A friend has a Vizsla. She's is in her 70's and I often wondered why she would buy a hunting breed as she doesn't hunt. I've seen Vizslas in hunt tests and they're rockets. She makes sure her dog gets plenty of exercise which in turn gives her plenty of exercise. Lots of working dogs get into homes where their owners don't exercise them. Breed popularity has doomed many good breeds in the US like the Cocker Spaniel. You can still find hunting lines of Cockers and Springers in the UK but they aren't cheap and breeders won't sell to just anyone. I had to fill out an app to buy my WPG and only after a phone interview did I get put on a wait list. I had to hunt test the dog for natural ability at 18 months as part of the purchase contract.