Wanted to post a small success for myself.

Background: My wife and I went away on a trip and left her sister in charge of our dog. Before we left we had her feed him, walk him and put him in his crate (we say Kennel toss some food in and he goes in). Unfortunately she is not a dog person and does not have a strong personality. We were always around when she was learning how to walk him, feed him and get him kenneled so the dog minded...the second we are gone the dog went from near textbook heeling to dragging her around on a walk, won't obey a single command (that he will do instantly for my wife and I, thanks Ed - we also fixed some other issues I posted about earlier) and won't go in his crate.

We had left her with some pretty high reward snacks (beef tendons) for the dog to chew/eat at night. She used them to get him in his crate, as well as hot dogs which are also pretty high reward. I also think that she pushed him in if he was stretching to get the food.

So we get home and now it is hard to get him in his crate with a single piece of kibble when it used to be easy...

What to do?

Solution:
Well I thought about it. We feed him in his crate and do so by commnanding down, putting food in the crate, counting to 5-10 and then saying "ok". He gets up and chows down.

So...I thought maybe I'll use a little "reverse psychology" on the dog. When it came time to put him in the crate I first experimented by tossing in some kibble...wasn't interested. I grabbed the kibble (Innova for those curious) and command down and reward him for the down. Then I tossed kibble in the crate and command down. He is focused on that kibble in the crate since he knows it is his reward. he starts to get up and I say no and he drops back down. Now he is super focused, all he wants is the kibble but knows that he can't have it until I say "ok". Say "ok" and he gets up and shoots into the crate.

Basically I made the dog WANT to be in the crate by making it something he wasn't allowed to do without permission.

Wanted to share.

Chris,
Well congrats bud, I know you have been wotking hard with this guy adn it sounds like it is paying off. We always want to be where we are not susposed to be... LOL
Keep up teh good work

Thanks Jay!

My wife and I will be taking her sister out to dinner tonight based on her experiences last weekend. At least he was just a jerk to her and she didn't have the personality to take charge and it wasn't that she had a bunch of puncture wounds in her arm.

It made me happy that we had adopted him. Few would have put in the time for him. He is very well behaved now, I actually had two people with out of control dogs comment on him sitting calmly as I let them go by (one was a daschund and the other an extremely dog aggressive sled dog of some sort wearing a halty and the halty had been undone over the muzzle so it was just used as a crappy leash. I thought the dog walker was going to get bitten).

Chris,
Yes it is very rewarding to have folks comment on your dog when you have been working so hard with them. My wife and I were at a boarding place last night and they had a Massif there, the dog was so darn big and the place went on to tell my wife and I that the owners were boarding the dog since they could not control it, once the wife had her baby. The poor dog was only about 14 months old and you could tell that it had 0 training and that it was not worked with, just kind of thrown into the back yard. You would not happen to be in the market for a Bull Massif... LOL The dog has become aggressive toward the husband after the wife had her baby and now they want to get rid of the dog instaed of training and putting in the time to correct the problems. I told my wife on the way home that I would be willing to bring the dog into our home and help correct the issues if the owner were willing to follow up on things after wards. My wife told me that there was no way she was going to let me deal with this dog. She said that I had more than enough to do with our Max and that she did not feel comfortable with a dog that large running around our place. So needless to say I kind of dropped that.
Why do folks get these large powerful breeds and assume that the back yard is all the exercise and training that they need?

There is nothing so strong as gentleness, there is nothing as gentle as real strength.

Example:
Powerful dog with your hand in his mouth, you knowing that at any time he can bite your hand off and all he does is gentley hold your hand within his mouth.