April 28, 2011
I have a 7 month old female GSD which I am trying to train by your excellent videos. I'm having jumping, biting and handler problems. Do you have any suggestions?
Full Question:
Dear CindyI have a 7 month old female GSD which I am trying to train by your excellent videos. Most of the problems I am having with her (biting, jumping) are handler problems. I can still hold her, but soon she will be stronger than I am!
I have free range chickens, and since this dog was first acquired at 6 wks, she has been fascinated with the chickens... not to watch, but to CHASE! I keep a 20 ft leash on her, but at times she gets away from me. Recently she chased a chicken to ground, and by the time I caught up with her she was just standing over it, holding it down with her chin... not open mouth! As soon as I rescued that one, she pulled out of her collar and took after the rooster, chasing him out into the deep weeds. Again, she just held him trapped there, not trying to bite him. (so why does she keep biting ME?!!) I am grateful she did not try to kill them. Is there any way that I can stop her from the thrill of the chase? I am afraid the chickens will die of fright!
When I want to take her out to exercise and have free play time, this becomes a problem, because the chickens are always somewhere in sight. When we play retrieving the ball, she ignores them, but if she gets bored, she starts eyeing them with malicious intent!
Do you have any suggestions?
Gratefully,
Mary
Cindy's Answer:
We have free range guinea fowl, horses and 6 cats here, and all of our dogs have to learn to ignore them at a young age. I have found the longer I wait to teach them that these critters are off limits the longer it takes to make them reliable on ignoring them.
The electric collar is the best way to work on this, I actually don’t know of any other way that works as easily and is so clear to the dog. You don’t need to use it at a high level in order for it to be effective. I start my pups at about 4 months old with the collar, since we have 40 acres and all the “fun” animals running all over it becomes necessary for the dogs to learn that they are off limits.
I use the collar to teach a “come” command AWAY from big distractions and once the dog completely understands the collar (and not before) then I introduce things like cats, chickens, etc…. the dog is always on a long line at first so you can help guide them to the right position.
We produced a training DVD in the fall of 2005 titled ELECTRIC COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER. In this DVD Ed teaches people how to handle the foundation training and then how to use the collar.
Many trainers, especially hunting dog trainers and even some professional dog trainers use “escape training” when they train with remote collars. This is where they stimulate the dog, give it a command and then teach the dog how to turn the stimulation OFF by doing what’s told.
I don’t agree with “escape training.” I don’t think its fair to the dog. He is being stimulated before he is even asked to do something. In my opinion this is ass end backward.
Rather I believe in using the collar to reinforce a voice correction. In other words, I always tell my dog “NO” before I correct him. I give him the opportunity to change his behavior. My goal is to always teach my dog to follow my voice command.
If you read the article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING you will understand how to approach corrections. In the DVD Ed simply applies that philosophy to remote collar training.
The article explains how to determine the level of correction to use on each dog. This varies according to the temperament and drive of the dog along with the level of distraction it’s currently facing at that moment in time.
This DVD shows how to determine what level of stimulation to use on your dog. That’s important.
In this DVD we never used a level higher than a medium and most of the time it was on the low settings for every dog we trained.
We use a Dogtra 280 on our personal dogs, I recommend staying with DOGTRA and TRI-TRONICS. Other companies sell cheaper collars but in the remote collar business you get what you pay for.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
The electric collar is the best way to work on this, I actually don’t know of any other way that works as easily and is so clear to the dog. You don’t need to use it at a high level in order for it to be effective. I start my pups at about 4 months old with the collar, since we have 40 acres and all the “fun” animals running all over it becomes necessary for the dogs to learn that they are off limits.
I use the collar to teach a “come” command AWAY from big distractions and once the dog completely understands the collar (and not before) then I introduce things like cats, chickens, etc…. the dog is always on a long line at first so you can help guide them to the right position.
We produced a training DVD in the fall of 2005 titled ELECTRIC COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER. In this DVD Ed teaches people how to handle the foundation training and then how to use the collar.
Many trainers, especially hunting dog trainers and even some professional dog trainers use “escape training” when they train with remote collars. This is where they stimulate the dog, give it a command and then teach the dog how to turn the stimulation OFF by doing what’s told.
I don’t agree with “escape training.” I don’t think its fair to the dog. He is being stimulated before he is even asked to do something. In my opinion this is ass end backward.
Rather I believe in using the collar to reinforce a voice correction. In other words, I always tell my dog “NO” before I correct him. I give him the opportunity to change his behavior. My goal is to always teach my dog to follow my voice command.
If you read the article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING you will understand how to approach corrections. In the DVD Ed simply applies that philosophy to remote collar training.
The article explains how to determine the level of correction to use on each dog. This varies according to the temperament and drive of the dog along with the level of distraction it’s currently facing at that moment in time.
This DVD shows how to determine what level of stimulation to use on your dog. That’s important.
In this DVD we never used a level higher than a medium and most of the time it was on the low settings for every dog we trained.
We use a Dogtra 280 on our personal dogs, I recommend staying with DOGTRA and TRI-TRONICS. Other companies sell cheaper collars but in the remote collar business you get what you pay for.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
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