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Caya, Leerburg's bookkeeper & administrative assistant, with her dog Trixie.

AKC Training the Stand For for Judges Approach
- Session 2 -

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Have a Question on Dog Training?

Have you checked the Leerburg Discussion Board? It is one of the most active dog web boards on the internet. The Leerburg Web Board has over 13,275 Members with over 165 forums and 212,000 posts in its archives. The web board also has an excellent search engine that only searches the web board's 212,000 posts.

This Week's Featured
Question & Answers

Our newsletter will always contain several featured customer Q&As from that week.
Have a question for Ed & Cindy? Try the Leerburg Search Engine. This search engine was written specifically for Leerburg by our in house IT manager. Our search engine is specific to Leerburg and only searches leerburg.com and the Leerburg web forum.
If you can't find the answer to your question by using our search engine, you can email Cindy here at Leerburg at cindyr@leerburg.com If you have your spam filter on, make sure you set it to receive our replies!!!

Question: I have a new dog that is showing aggression to the other male dogs on our ranch, the vet said if I had him neutered he would no longer want to herd our livestock. I also can’t put him in a kennel because he’s a Border Collie. Can I fix this with an electric collar?

Dear Cindy

You had helped me a lot with the videos you recommended to me with my Belgian malinois puppy. But now I have another dog problem, I rescued a male border collie, he is awesome!! he was already trained to herding cows, so he is really a lot of help at the ranch, but he is showing  aggression to other 2 male dogs, both are neutered already, I took this one to the vet office today for castration and he told  me he will lost his herding ability or interest, so I didn´t. What do you think? Does the electronic collar could help me with this problem? he is very fast, so I just can´t be there when he is attacking the other dogs, and he was showing aggression to me if I try to do something about this. I can´t put him on a kennel, he is a BC !!!and he is very sweet with people and with the other dogs. I am desperate.

What should I do???

Any suggestions about material and videos??

Thank you so much for your ALWAYS wise advice,
Gloria

Answer:

Neutering has no bearing on aggression or working ability, (assuming this dog is already mature) neutering won’t solve the aggression problem, but it also won’t change his desire to herd.  Completely WRONG information.

If you spend some time reading this section on dog fights, you’ll see that your problems are very common. I’ve received 6 or 7 emails just today from dog owners with very similar problems.

Why can’t you put him in a kennel? I don’t understand what being a border collie has to do with this. He is a dog, a dog that needs some leadership and rules. Breed and how nice he is with people doesn’t change the fact that he is showing inappropriate aggression to the other dogs.

Start with our groundwork program.

Pack Structure for the Family Pet

Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs

The electric collar does have a place in this training but not until you’ve established leadership and rules.  We have an excellent video on how to use the collar, Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner.

We also have a number of free ebooks that may interest you. 

I hope this helps.

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on Stupid Vets and Q&A on Electric Collars.

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Question: My friend’s dog will eat all types of rubbish when he’s not supervised but he tried to eat my dog’s feces as she was relieving herself.  Have you ever heard of this?

Hi There,

I thoroughly enjoy your newsletter and read your question and answer section with great interest. 

Something I have never seen before happened while I friend and I were out walking our dogs. She has two greyhounds males (neutered) and a spayed Labrador female. I have two Dobermans a male (entire) and a female (spayed). We have been walking together for a long time and the dogs all get along.  One of her Greyhounds has a tendency to eat rubbish if we are not keeping a strict eye on him, but as my female Doberman was relieving herself he was trying to eat it before it even hit the ground!! We were quite horrified and I wondered if it was a deficiency in his diet. Have you ever seen dogs do this before?

Helen

Answer:

This is not uncommon. It’s call copraphagia. It can have many causes, including diet, medical or enzyme issue or can be a habit.

I’d also direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website.  It will find posts, articles and Q & A’s that deal with your search terms.

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on Health.

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Question: I’m trying to teach my puppy the place command and he’s avoiding the “place” What can I do?

Hi Ed and Cindy,

I will keep this brief as I know you are inundated daily. I have three of your DVDs (have watched 1.5 so far, as my pup keeps me very occupied and TV time is zero nowadays).

I am trying to teach my 4 month old mal the place command.  Well, I am trying to start that training. We have used "yes" as his marker and he knows "yes" is a good thing. I put his kennel blanket on the living room floor to start the training, but he avoids it at all costs. I've tried a different blanket as well, and used his kennel one because he lies on it and is comfortable with it in his kennel, but to avail. I know i should not "bribe" him to get on it or touch it, but he just walks around it or sits and stares at me (he knows i have treats and is highly food driven). 

I have tried putting it in a doorway and walking through the door so when he follows me I can mark it and reward him, but he does not seem to get the connection, and just sits near me once he reaches me (even after getting food from the blanket, following the "yes" and reward drop).

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!
Donna 

Answer:

I don’t think you are breaking the exercise down into pieces he can understand. You need to reward even a glance at the blanket and then think about placement of reward. The reward should only be placed on the blanket and then as he connects the dots in training you up your criteria and ask for more than just a glance.

I’d read this article on marker training and I highly recommend these 2 videos.

The Power of Training Dogs with Markers

The Power of Training Dogs with Food

The Marker DVD covers all the theory and how to break down an exercise and reward the slightest try, even if to us it doesn’t feel like much of a try.  Also, instead of looking at the dog try looking at where you want him to go.

PS which videos do you have? I checked the database and the videos I show you having are Drive & Focus and Basic Obedience. Neither of those would cover the concepts of marker training in any kind of detail at all. 

I’d also direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website. It will find posts, articles and Q & A’s that deal with your search terms.

I hope this helps.

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on Feeding a Raw Diet.

*If you have a training question – write Cindy here at Leerburg at cindyr@leerburg.com

*If you have your spam filter on, make sure you set it to receive our replies!!!

*Our newsletter is a big success and we would like to send out a huge THANKS to our wonderful customers! Since beginning this newsletter our volume of email has greatly increased and you may have a longer than usual wait for a reply to your question.  We will answer; it just may take us a bit longer than you are accustomed to. In order to speed up this process, please condense your questions to a paragraph or two. This will make it MUCH easier for us to answer in a timely fashion. Your questions are important to us and we always appreciate receiving them.  If you have a medical issue or emergency, please consult with a health care professional right away. We can’t diagnose or treat sick dogs via email. Also, try using the search function on our site - it now searches the site AND the web board. Thank you. Ed & Cindy

Testimonials

I just wanted to thank you for the information about aggressive dogs you have shared on your website. I've only read the first few paragraphs, and already it's helped tremendously. I have an older hound (he seems to be a foxhound) who has trouble with dog aggression. It is making it very unpleasant to take him for a walk. 

He is doing better containing himself when we pass dogs who are aggressive and/or barking in their own yard. He seems to respond to "good boy" when we pass, as he contains himself.  But he still has trouble with leashed dogs we pass on our walks, even friendly or disinterested dogs. I had been trying Casaer Milan's "calm assertive energy" idea, and it hasn't worked. I kept thinking, it must be something I am doing wrong or he would stop. I am calm and assertive with him. Your article was a big help. I got Beau when he was about a year old.  He was very very timid. I noticed his ears were badly scarred with what look like bite or puncture marks, and he has a scar on his face. He may have been attacked by another dog when he was a young dog - that would explain his aggression. 

He is a good dog.  He has turned out to be a great watchdog and he's great with my daughter. He loves his companion, a lab/whippet mix female, and he's good with our house cats(although he will kill feral cats). He has very expressive eyes, and he loves his family. Now I have someplace to start as I work with him.

Thank you!
Suzanne

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ANNOUNCING
The Michael Ellis School for Dog Training

NOW OPEN!

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http://michaelellisschool.com

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