I'm having problems with my dog and using the electric collar to help control and he has even bit me. What am I doing wrong and what DVD's do you suggest to help with this?

Question

Hi Ed:

    I have a 20 month old german shepherd.  I emailed you about a year ago when we bought a Dogtra electric collar from your site, which we've been very happy with.  Anyway, last week he was laying on the floor and I told him to get up so we could take him outside to pee before we put him in the crate for the night. Kazan ignored my command so I went to reach down to lead him by the collar, which I've done several times before and without contest from Kazan, but this time he bit me. He didn't break my skin but he bit me hard enough that my hand still hurt the next day.  I have never hit my dog to warrant a reaction like this where he would feel the need to defend himself and bite me.  I will save you the time in telling me that this was my handling error because I agree.

    Kazan does have a dominant personality and tries to challenge us regularly.  He will try to resist obeying commands that he knows, nudges us to get attention, does not like to be handled in any way by the vet or us to do simple things like trim his nails.  The collar has helped in terms of him not challenging commands like sit and down.  We also try very hard to be consistent with his training by following basic rules such as not letting him on the furniture, making sure we walk through doorways before him first, etc... With that being said I'm sure there are things we are doing that contributes to his behavior. I was going to order your dvd on dominant dogs but I didn't know if I should also order the dvd on basic obedience too.  Should the two dvd's go hand in hand together? 

    I admit that at first when he bit me I questioned getting rid of him but I do realize that as his owner I'm most likely doing things that are contributing to his behavior. 

    The only other thing I struggle with is that as I said above...we really like the electric collar but I'm having a really hard time lately using it to control his behavior when guests come over or when he hears the mailman.  Yesterday the mailman came to the door and when Kazan heard him the hair on his back stood straight up and he continued to bark. Even though I brought him to the spot on the floor that he's supposed to stay down on he jumped up and started running around. I corrected him and he was not responding so I turned it up a couple notches and corrected him again and again told him down. He would not lay down.  I notice that sometimes when he gets worked up like that...that he gets more upset when we use a higher correction yet if I use a low correction he doesn't seem to learn not to repeat the behavior in the future. Have you experienced this and what have you done to correct it?

    I do value your opinion and know that you can be blunt with your answers so I hope I'm not annoying you. I'm am really trying to do what's right for my own safety as well as others.

    Thank you.
Gina

Accepted Answer

Gina,

Several things here.

First I don’t think it was a handling error yesterday when the dog bit you. A dog should not bite their owner for this.

I do believe you need to rethink the way you have been living with this dog and how you approach these other problems (IE the mailman and visitors).

Your problem stems from a lack of pack structure. THIS DOG LACKS IT !!! If he had correct pack structure he would not bite you. So get my DVD on Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet – and get him started in this program. YOU NEED THIS WORK.

I also think you need the work in DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS.

I just checked and you have the remote collar DVD. Please revisit this. If your obedience foundation is correct (and I am not sure that it is – I know you don’t have my Basic Dog Obedience DVD. You should know that when the dog knows what you want but ignores you – then its time to bump up the correction from his normal non-distraction level (every dog is different but lets say your dog is normally a level 4 correction) to a level 8 or 9 out of 10.

In remote collar language – if your normal level is 40 and he ignores you at the door then turn it to 100 to 120 – not 60. If you only bump it a little he will learn to fight through the stimulation.

With this said – if there is the slightest risk of him biting you – you need to teach him to wear a muzzle. Train it with marker training (DVD 302) Make the muzzle going on fun. Then when that’s done and he is used to having it on for an hour or two at a time – set him up. Have it on and have someone come to the door and act like the mailman – at first they don’t come in. When he ignores you – 120 correction.

If this were my dog he would be trained to go to his crate on command – not a rug. This dog needs a dog crate so you have control when people come or you are going to have an accident.

I am not trying to peddle DVDs here but you need better training. You can solve these problems and solve them safely with education and rethinking what your doing. Always error on the side of safety and as I say in the Dominant dog dvd “pick your fights and don’t pick a fight you could lose.” Your mistake was you picked a fight that you lost.

Also NEVER GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR WITH THIS DOG AGAIN.