My dog is doing well in obedience but 99% of the time, the dog will respond well to the correction but the other 1% of the time, it goes crazy. What can I do?

Dear Ed,

First thing I wanted to say is thank you for an excellent training aid. I recently purchased the Basic Obedience training video and found it to be an inspiration. Already my dog is doing the sit - stay (with level 6 distractions) on a thirty foot line after about a week of training.

I have one question. Normally when I issue a correction, the dog responds in the normal manner - I correct and then order the sit - stay command and 99% of the time there is no problem. The other 1% of the time, as I approach him to issue a correction he goes crazy - he begins jumping around and tugging at the leash and trying to escape - this is before a correction is given. This only lasts for 15 seconds or so.

Is it possible that I am correcting the dog too severely? I have listened to what you say in the video about not charging at the dog when he moves and I never do this. I approach calmly but occasionally he still goes crazy like this.

I use a prong collar for the training due to the lack of response when I used the choke collar - I couldn't get the reaction you got in the video with the choke but am able to do so with the prong.

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Sam
Ireland