I have a puppy who is good as gold when she's on her prong collar, but won't listen for anything while she's off it. Is this just part of her "puppyness" or am I missing something?

You have to condition the puppy to wearing the prong. You'll need to have a few collars to accomplish this.

For example, have your dog wear both the prong and a regular dog collar (any collar, doesn't matter). Then, a few hours later, take the prong collar off, and leave the regular collar on. After another couple of hours later, put the prong collar on, and take the regular collar off.

You can put them on at the same time if you'd like. Switch the collars around for about 2 weeks. After a while, your dog will begin to ignore the collar that it is wearing, thus eliminating the problem about minding only when a prong or e-collar is on.

After the 2 week collar conditioning phase, have your pup wear the prong collar 30min before you walk/train, and leave it on for another 30min after your done with your pup.

Keep us updated.

How old is the puppy? Why is a puppy on a prong?

We decided to go with a prong after we took Reagan to a trainer who was a real you-know-what.

Long story but here it goes:

The first night when she ran off, he let her get to the end of the lead and jerked her back---as in "hey I'm flying backwards tumbling through the air" jerked back.

A couple weeks later, after Reagan still wasn't watching us while walking or sitting (after giving praise on the side of her face or whatever) and the trainer's wife said something like "You gotta make her wake up and take attention and just cranked the snot out of Reagan. She screamed and things---this didn't correct any of her behaviour. Later that night they wanted to put her on a prong because she wasn't minding to any sort of pop on the training collar. She fought it, and the trainer (seriously) picked her off the ground by the leash, set her down and grabbed her ears and pulled her head back, then squeezed her muzzles so tight---she couldn't breathe well, being all worked up and trying to full breathe through her nose.

So anyway I really wanted to run up to the dude, knock him down, grab him by the back of his neck and slap the piss out of him from under the chin like he did to Reagan for mouthing at him.

This is a long story, but really after reading the differences between prong and std training collar, I can't imagine the damage that has already been done to Reagan's neck. This, coupled with the fact that we've seen some great results from very mild use of the prong, and studies have shown it to cause less long term damage is why we're using it.

1. I assume you mean a choker by a training collar. Don't use this.

2. Your puppy is what, 5 months old now if I remember correctly? You do not need to be putting this type of pressure on a puppy!!

3. Tell your trainer to go F himself because all he's doing is ruining your dog.

Puppies don't understand what they are being corrected for. You need to put down a solid teaching foundation before any corrections should occur. Use food, use toys, use whatever your puppy enjoys to motivationally teach a behavior. Then when the puppy is SOLID and absolutely understands 100% what the commands mean, you can then correct. I personally don't like prongs on a puppy less than 10 months old.

Puppies are never going to be perfect, I tell people all the time that I don't even like doing ANY obedience with puppies because they are going to make lots of mistakes. The key is simply do not let your puppy make mistakes. If you find that your puppy runs away from you when off leash, then don't let the puppy off leash. If your puppy loves food and comes running when theres a hint of food, then always have food when you tell your dog "come". Its simple, and you do not need to crank on a puppy.

Some people like doing obedience young, I'm fine with this, but keep it motivational, there is no need to correct the puppy because they don't have a clue whats going on. At 5 months old puppies are still trying to figure out and explore the world, they don't understand why you're getting angry with them, all you do is hurt your relationship.

Simply put: don't expect too much from your puppy. Guide them, don't force them.

Ditto, and especially number 3.

Here's some material:

http://www.leerburg.com/302.htm

http://www.leerburg.com/puppytraining.htm

I'd work on reestablishing my bond with the pup, and doing 100% motivational basic obedience. It's fun to teach basic ob -- not torture.

You will be happy when you change the way you're dealing with the pup. I promise!

At what age did you get the puppy? Make sure when you walk with your puppy make it fun for your puppy to be around, give it a treat for walking next to you. i keep treats when I walk with my Puppy. I speed up the walk and also slow down to keep her on her toes. Keep it fun it makes things easy. good luck

You can't go wrong with Mike Schoonbrood's advice. He has a wonderful feel for puppies and what makes them tick. (As well as for adult dogs!)

Love your advice, Mike, as always.

If you like to read, I would highly recommend this book:

http://www.leerburg.com/928.htm

It is purely positive, motivational training (plus a lot of good common sense, which we all seem to lose when dealing with puppy problems).

 Quote: Jan Williamson

If you like to read, I would highly recommend this book:

http://www.leerburg.com/928.htm

It is purely positive, motivational training (plus a lot of good common sense, which we all seem to lose when dealing with puppy problems).

Yes, ever since Old Earth Dog Bob recommended it to me, I've been passing on the recommendation.