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Thread: Dog training best practices

  1. #1
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    Dog training best practices

    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.

  2. #2
    #RESIST

  3. #3
    Site Supporter JohnO's Avatar
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    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.
    Last edited by JohnO; 01-05-2021 at 10:43 AM.

  4. #4
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    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

  5. #5
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    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.
    Last edited by Duelist; 01-05-2021 at 11:55 AM.

  6. #6
    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.
    Last edited by DDTSGM; 01-05-2021 at 12:04 PM.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Lehr View Post
    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.
    Last edited by Duelist; 01-05-2021 at 12:17 PM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Duelist View Post
    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.

    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?

  9. #9
    Site Supporter JM Campbell's Avatar
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    Dog training best practices

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    Last edited by JM Campbell; 01-05-2021 at 12:30 PM.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Lehr View Post
    Yeah, that is what I've been thinking, problem is that's money I want to spend on something else.

    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/do...ecollar-system

    Dogtra and Garmin make good ones.

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