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Ashley, Leerburg's Office Assistant, with her dog Ruby.

Common Mistakes Trainers Make in
Marker Training Part 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’ve been trying to clear up my rescue dog’s allergies.  I feed a raw diet and give a couple of well known supplements but she’s still got issues, am I missing something?

Hello,

I have a 4 year GSD. Female spayed. I feed her raw. In fact, I  have fed raw for over 10 years. I have had this girl for 1 ½ years and  have not vaccinated her-I titer-in spite of my vet’s objections.

She came to me with several issues. Most I have cleared up. One I have only partially cleared. The tips of her ears get little bump like things that can be pulled right off hair and all. Its right down to the raw flesh. So she ends up with ragged looking ears. I have tried many remedies-but nothing seems to help. In addition, to her raw food she also gets fish oil, ****mix and ****** Plus daily.

Can you think of something? She no longer tests positive for yeast or fungus. She was full of it when I rescue/bought her.

No mites. She does have allergies and I have relented to allergy shots-but I don’t know if they help her.

Anyway, I am reading like mad and will be ordering a few items next week. I wish I would have found you earlier. The breeder I am working with listed you on her resource site.

(******name brand of supplement removed)

Answer:

I’d cut out the extra supplements, the only supplement I’d give a dog like this is salmon oil and vitamin e.  Make sure you are using salmon body oil and not cod liver oil.

****mix is full of ingredients that are known to cause issues with dogs, alfalfa, flaxseed, brewers yeast…. I’d get her off that right away.  Same story with ******.  I have never been a fan of multi ingredient supplements like these products, they are full of stuff that can cause sensitivities.  Raw food and a few single ingredient supplements usually work best.  If she is still having issues after a month or two being off of those 2 supplements, then I’d look into our Chinese Herbs (formulated by a holistic vet). 

Learn to use the search function (located in the left hand corner of every page on our website) Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.

You may also want to evaluate the diet you have your dog on, certain protein sources can actually cause her inflammation to be worse. 

Cindy

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

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Question: Do you use a shake can for training (a coke can with pennies in it)?  Also, how do you teach the retrieve?

Cindy,  

Here is my question. I know a lot of trainers use a coke can with pennies in it, to control their dogs in certain situations. I am new at training but i have a reservation about using this method. It seems to me it is a fear technique, and could break down trust in your relationship with your dog.

Some people would say it is no different than a collar correction, where the owner makes the dog uncomfortable or causes pain but to me there is a difference. I have a question about the retrieve also, do you use a ear pull in training the retrieve or is your retrieve totally motivational? 

Thanks a lot, 
Roz

Answer:

I’ve never used a shake can.   Since the invention of the ecollar I don’t see the need for it. If I need to reach my dog from a distance I’ll use the ecollar, not a shake can.

I use marker training for the retrieve. 

The Power of Training Dogs with Markers

We will also be producing a DVD on the retrieve with Michael Ellis in the future. I do not use a force or correction based retrieve.

If you check out the streaming video section of our website you’ll see me using markers and free shaping to get one of my dogs to pick up a retrieve object.

Cindy

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

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Question: When will our dog be able to be unsupervised with our cats and what videos do you recommend that explain how to introduce a baby to our dog?  I’m due to have our first child in a couple of weeks.

Hello,

I have a 70-75 pound Alaskan Malamute that is 2 years old and have 2 cats that lived in the house prior to my dog living here.  Ever since she (my dog) was a puppy, I followed your techniques with training her to get along with the cats.  At this time, she is wonderful with the cats!  She seems to even be protective over them and does NOT chase them, in fact she will quickly look the other way if she accidentally catches a glance of my 15 year old cat (my 15 year old cat is the boss of all the animals).  There has been no fighting and truly peace between the cats and dog; the cats fight with each other, but never with the dog. 

I still keep the dog separated from the cats when my husband and I are not around (we use a tall baby gate with a lockable cat door in it).  My question, is there ever a time in our dog's life where we can leave them in the same common area?  I know that every dog/cat situation is different, but I am being super cautious and other than at night they do not wonder together without our supervision.  She is trained to stay in our kitchen and only leaves the kitchen when we give her the command, so at night the cats sleep with us and the dog sleeps in the kitchen (I'm amazed that we were actually able to train her to stay in the kitchen, as she's my first dog).  She'll even be within feet of the cats when they eat and does NOT go near their food.  If anything, I actually have the opposite problem where my one cat will eat my dog's food and my dog will openly share with him with no ill feelings!  However, I quickly scold the cat for doing that and remove him from the dog's food area as this is a bad habit that my cat has.

Thank you for all of the advice and training techniques with the cats, it really worked!  Overall, our dog is very easy going and really accepts our cats as part of her pack.  I was very strict with my training, so I believe that things paid off!  Now, if I can only get my dog to protect me!  It just does not seem to be in our dog's nature to want to do anything other than lick strangers!

Also, we are expecting our first child in a couple of weeks and was wondering if you have any DVD's or places within your website with advice for a new baby?  She loves babies and kids, but I wanted to work with her in the correct manner.  Perhaps I was looking in the wrong place or missed it on the website, but I couldn't find a DVD with baby specific baby information in it.

Regards,
Terri

Answer:

I can’t tell you if and when your dog is trustworthy around cats.  That is something that you will need to determine.  It sounds like you’ve done a good job training your dog, but without seeing your dog and cats interact with my own eyes, I would not want to offer an opinion about that.  

If you are having success with things as they are so I would not rock the boat especially with a baby coming.  Dogs need predictable structure; I wouldn’t be loosening things up at this point.  You’ve heard the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

If you want a protection dog, I think you may have the wrong breed.  Malamutes were not bred to be protective, they were bred to be rather independent and to pull.

We have a section on our website about dogs and babies; use the search function (located in the left hand corner of every page on our website) Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.

I hope this helps.  

Cindy

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

*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 was very impressed with the Training Dogs with Markers video and cant wait to get my hands on the Training Dogs with Food video. The results I've achieved so far with my 7 month old GSD Jack have been impressive and I cant wait to incorporate Michael's methods in my training.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

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I really appreciate the great customer service, your quick responses to questions, etc. You guys are wonderful, and I will refer you to all of my dog-loving friends!

Thank you so much, I do hope the Jafco Muzzle fits Hallie.

Thank you,
Mary Ann

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ANNOUNCING
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NOW OPEN!

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http://michaelellisschool.com

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