Hi everyone, I have a question regarding what kind of corrections I should use with my 6 month old GSD.

It seems that grabbing his scruff and shaking it like I did when he was younger is no longer effective. Now he just gets really grumpy. If I shake him real hard, he just bites.

I have a prong that I normally use when doing obedience and walking, but for around the house when he's just wearing his regular collar I'm not sure what to do for a correction. Any suggestions on either what I am doing wrong or what I need to do right?

-bry-

so is the dog deaf??? that's the only reason i could think of for not using verbal commands. good grief! use your voice instead of your hands. appeal to the dog's intelligence. at six months they are capable of a pretty good vocabulary.

It sounds like you need to stop correcting your dog and start teaching your dog. Corrections are meant to tell a dog that understands what is expected of it but chooses not to do it that it's doing wrong. If you find yourself needing to keep correcting your dog, then it means that you're not getting through to your dog and you're better off backing down and taking a fresh look at the situation.

1. What do you correct your dog for and what do you expect him to know by now? If he knew it, he'd be doing it. Re-teach him from scratch.

2. When you consider what you expect your dog to know, are you making congruent demands and are they the same things that the rest of your family are also asking of your dog? If it's being bombarded with contrary demands, you'll get a confused and unhappy dog.

3. If your dog is getting corrected as a result of not being supervised? Control his environment (for example by putting him in a crate when you can't look after him) and avoid needless trouble. There's a fantastic article on Leerburg.com on gaining control of your dog without needless conflict -- can't remember what it's called off hand.

4. Scruffing is a really poor way to correct anything other than a small puppy (and even there, it needs using very sparingly). Have your dog wear a corrective collar around the house with a very short leash attached to it so you can correct him. Also, work on having verbal corrections as well as physical ones just as you have verbal praise as well as food rewards.

5. Look for opportunities to praise your dog for doing the right thing, most especially when he's doing it of his own accord.


Dei.

Originally posted by Bryan Youde:
Hi everyone, I have a question regarding what kind of corrections I should use with my 6 month old GSD.
-bry- NONE! No corrections, ZERO!

Orv, for a housepet that just isn't practical.


Someone already said it, put a correction collar on the dog.

Pets???? What's that?

Perhaps I should elaborate on the context behind the correction.

He was given a correction for jumping a barrier and going too near our parrot cage, and even though the parrot seems to like my dog (and my dog just ignores the bird), that bird can easily chomp my dogs tail or nose if it gets too close. He knows that he is not supposed to be near it, let alone try to jump over something to go there. He is never allowed out of his crate unsupervised so he is always being watched.

He was corrected because I thought negative reinforcement was the appropriate response for his behavior. He was scruffed because all he had on was his normal collar. I don't keep any kind of correction collar on him in the house because I like to use positive reinforcement as much as I can. However, I do understand that corrections are necessary for proper training, I just try to use corrections only when doing training/proofing for the commands he understands.

I guess putting a corretion collar on him in the house is the way to go? What kind should I use for a 6 month old? This would be for when he is in the house and supervised.

I am very much a beginner when it comes to serious training, and I really want to learn to do things right. While I grew up around dogs all my life, this is the first one that I own that is 100 percent my responsibility.

-bry-