May 20, 2011
I have a 15 month old dominant dog and I’m running into some problems with her misbehaving and breaking her stays. Correcting her makes her worse. Do you have any advice?
Full Question:
I have bought a lot of your DVDs and soon will be buying (dealing with dominant and aggresive dogs and e-collor training and michael ellis playing tug with your dog). Ed's DVDs have been a big help. I had a question regarding corrections on a dominant dog and if you have time to answer I would appreciate it.I have a dominant 15 month female GSD who I have been useing mostly positive training methods such as marker training. I have been slowly adding distractions and corrections to her training for a while now. When my dog misbehaves or breaks a down stay a prong collor correction either has no effect or increases her negative behavior. I remember a michael Ellis clip in an old newsletter you sent talking about how all positive trained pups who finally get a good correction are thrown out of sorts. Does Michael Ellis have a DVD on his proofing phase for someone like me to view? I'm really unsure of how to proceed in my training wether to go back to all positive or increase my discipline or just back off distractions for awhile.
Is an e-collor a better more clear correction then typical collor correction?
Thank you for your products that have helped me with a dog that otherwise would have been too much too handle.
Cindy's Answer:
I think I’d work more on adding rewards for staying, and using duration markers like good (as seen in the food DVD) sometimes adding corrections for not staying makes the dog more anxious about staying and then they break the stay and it begins a vicious cycle. I probably would use a very low level remote stimulation if I did have to use a correction for this. It’s also necessary to mark whatever you are doing first, with NO, in the case of a correction.
When you add high distractions stay closer to the dog and make sure you are telling her good, and go back and reinforce her position with food. This is how I trained my dog for a down and he’s becoming quite reliable. He’s the first dog I’ve ever taught to stay this way, I used to employ more corrections and my dogs in the past would always be somewhat worried when I returned to them because they remember that sometimes they get a physical correction in that situation. I’m sure that’s why your dog shows more negative behavior sometimes in conjunction with corrections. Don’t be afraid to pay her with food A LOT for doing the right thing, it’s much better for the dog’s confidence and understanding to do it more slowly and with more positive reinforcement than to get in too big of a hurry. Never be afraid to go back to more basic training steps when you get into a problem. I do it all the time.
When you add high distractions stay closer to the dog and make sure you are telling her good, and go back and reinforce her position with food. This is how I trained my dog for a down and he’s becoming quite reliable. He’s the first dog I’ve ever taught to stay this way, I used to employ more corrections and my dogs in the past would always be somewhat worried when I returned to them because they remember that sometimes they get a physical correction in that situation. I’m sure that’s why your dog shows more negative behavior sometimes in conjunction with corrections. Don’t be afraid to pay her with food A LOT for doing the right thing, it’s much better for the dog’s confidence and understanding to do it more slowly and with more positive reinforcement than to get in too big of a hurry. Never be afraid to go back to more basic training steps when you get into a problem. I do it all the time.
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