April 03, 2014
My dog barks at other dogs when on leash probably because he was attacked a couple of times by off leash dogs. Can you point me to a DVD or an article that will help?
Full Question:
Hi,I have a six year old intact male GSD. He is an excellent dog in all respects. He is well trained, respectful of us in our home, sweet tempered, and responds well to voice commands and corrections. We have one problem which is my fault, and I am wondering if there is a way to solve it. He barks at other dogs when he is on leash. He is not aggressive with other dogs when he gets to know them properly and has readily accepted other dogs in the house when we have had visitors. The problem on the leash is because I was not able to do as you suggest and "protect him from loose dogs" when I walked him as a young dog, and he has been attacked a couple of times by off leash dogs. It is clear when we walk by other dogs that he is telling them in no uncertain terms not to come too close. I have corrected him numerous times with a prong collar and a remote collar, but it doesn't work. What do you suggest. Can you point me to a DVD or an article that will help?
Ed's Answer:
It sounds like you have been reading our web site because you mention the fact that you should have dealt with the off-leash dogs.
All I can do is tell you what we would do.
1-Unless visitors to our home had dogs that we are 110% sure were safe with our dogs, we would never let our dogs interact with visitors dogs. That would just never happen. I have that in the same category of playing with hand grenades.
2-Most dog owners misunderstand the purpose of a correction. They think a correction is to punish bad behavior. When in fact the purpose of a correction should be to change inappropriate behavior. A subtle but important distinction. But one that applies to you.
A correction to some dogs may only be withholding a reward, while a correction to another dog may be just giving a verbal warning. But then there will be other dogs who need very, very strong leash or remote collar corrections. In the end, a strong remote collar correction on a dog that only needed a verbal correction would be unfair to the dog and probably hurt the bond with the owner.
Determining the level of correction comes under the category of "THE ART OF DOG TRAINING." You have not figured that part out yet. Your prong collar or remote collar corrections have not been hard enough because they have not changed the dog's behavior.
I wrote an article titled The Theory of Corrections in Dog Training. I recommend that you read it. It is in our list of training articles on our web site.
We have several DVDs that we produced on how to use a remote collar. I would recommend the two I did with Michael Ellis.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
All I can do is tell you what we would do.
1-Unless visitors to our home had dogs that we are 110% sure were safe with our dogs, we would never let our dogs interact with visitors dogs. That would just never happen. I have that in the same category of playing with hand grenades.
2-Most dog owners misunderstand the purpose of a correction. They think a correction is to punish bad behavior. When in fact the purpose of a correction should be to change inappropriate behavior. A subtle but important distinction. But one that applies to you.
A correction to some dogs may only be withholding a reward, while a correction to another dog may be just giving a verbal warning. But then there will be other dogs who need very, very strong leash or remote collar corrections. In the end, a strong remote collar correction on a dog that only needed a verbal correction would be unfair to the dog and probably hurt the bond with the owner.
Determining the level of correction comes under the category of "THE ART OF DOG TRAINING." You have not figured that part out yet. Your prong collar or remote collar corrections have not been hard enough because they have not changed the dog's behavior.
I wrote an article titled The Theory of Corrections in Dog Training. I recommend that you read it. It is in our list of training articles on our web site.
We have several DVDs that we produced on how to use a remote collar. I would recommend the two I did with Michael Ellis.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
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