Hi everyone..
I have a 10 month old pitbull.
He understands and knows all his verbal obedience commands.
He will listin to my verbal commands but he has very high prey drive. If he sees a cat,squirrel, or another dog he gets so focused on it and will not care what I am saying. I have tried using a prong collar and giving him a very hard correction but he just looks at me for a millisecond and then goes back to focusing on the other animal. Sometimes he does not even give me that much if I give him a little lighter correction.

A trainer told me that he does not realize that I gave him a correction.. If I yank the prong really hard and get no respond what else can I do... I know I fit the prong correctly on top of the neck, snug behind the ears. Any help???

P.S - I am training him in Schutzhund.. Dont know if it makes a big difference in my problem.

 Quote: Jabran Sadiq

Hi everyone..
I have a 10 month old pitbull.
He understands and knows all his verbal obedience commands.
He will listin to my verbal commands but he has very high prey drive. If he sees a cat,squirrel, or another dog he gets so focused on it and will not care what I am saying. I have tried using a prong collar and giving him a very hard correction but he just looks at me for a millisecond and then goes back to focusing on the other animal. Sometimes he does not even give me that much if I give him a little lighter correction.

A trainer told me that he does not realize that I gave him a correction.. If I yank the prong really hard and get no respond what else can I do... I know I fit the prong correctly on top of the neck, snug behind the ears. Any help???

P.S - I am training him in Schutzhund.. Dont know if it makes a big difference in my problem.

Jabran, You mention that your dog knows the commands, if this is the case he just doesn`t care that your giving him a command. You definately need to fix this. The general rule about corrections is that if your dog repeats the behavior then you haven`t given a hard enough correction.

If you have the right size prong, have it fitted properly, and give the right level of correction the dog should stop with the chasing. I would search for a qualified trainer to make sure your giving corrections properly. If that still doesn`t work i would move to an e-collar.

This could surely be a problem in schutzhund, you must have total control of your dog during a trial. You need to make sure the correction is right, then start training under distracttions.

Lee

 Quote:

A trainer told me that he does not realize that I gave him a correction.. If I yank the prong really hard and get no respond what else can I do... I know I fit the prong correctly on top of the neck, snug behind the ears. Any help??

I believe the trainer. When they're focused they block everything else out. When Kota is allowed to chase wildlife (I know I know ) He turns off his ears. The trick is to get them before they get into that "zone" Cesar Millan calls it "Level 10". Correct him when he glances at them for too long, say 5+ seconds before he gets into level 3. If it only takes him 1 second to fixate correct the stare as soon as you see it happen.

 Quote:

I have tried using a prong collar and giving him a very hard correction but he just looks at me for a millisecond and then goes back to focusing on the other animal.

sounds like a respect problem. He doesn't take you seriously so a correction means nothing. Try Ed's Pack Structure DVD.

hi i have a trainer and after everything else was tried with a 8 month old gsd he showed me what an electronic collar can do and what a difference. The dog simply learns that certain behaviors are uncomfortable. Also if properly used there is less chance of damage to a dog as with prong collar. I may have misunderstood you but the prong collar isn't yanked as in dragging the dog but slack is given then a quick jerk without actually dragging the dog at all.
My dog simply has tremendous drive and needs to have a job and I'm working on that but too use an electronic collar properly you should have a trainer explain how to use it properly because if used wrong it will really mess with the dogs head and then you will need a trainer to come in and undo the damage you've done.

 Quote: Lee Waldron

 Quote: Jabran Sadiq

Hi everyone..
I have a 10 month old pitbull.
He understands and knows all his verbal obedience commands.
He will listin to my verbal commands but he has very high prey drive. If he sees a cat,squirrel, or another dog he gets so focused on it and will not care what I am saying. I have tried using a prong collar and giving him a very hard correction but he just looks at me for a millisecond and then goes back to focusing on the other animal. Sometimes he does not even give me that much if I give him a little lighter correction.

A trainer told me that he does not realize that I gave him a correction.. If I yank the prong really hard and get no respond what else can I do... I know I fit the prong correctly on top of the neck, snug behind the ears. Any help???

P.S - I am training him in Schutzhund.. Dont know if it makes a big difference in my problem.

Jabran, You mention that your dog knows the commands, if this is the case he just doesn`t care that your giving him a command. You definately need to fix this. The general rule about corrections is that if your dog repeats the behavior then you haven`t given a hard enough correction.

If you have the right size prong, have it fitted properly, and give the right level of correction the dog should stop with the chasing. I would search for a qualified trainer to make sure your giving corrections properly. If that still doesn`t work i would move to an e-collar.

This could surely be a problem in schutzhund, you must have total control of your dog during a trial. You need to make sure the correction is right, then start training under distracttions.

Lee

Great post Lee. I agree 100%

 Quote: Jabran Sadiq

Hi everyone..
I have a 10 month old pitbull.
He understands and knows all his verbal obedience commands.
He will listin to my verbal commands but he has very high prey drive. If he sees a cat,squirrel, or another dog he gets so focused on it and will not care what I am saying. I have tried using a prong collar and giving him a very hard correction but he just looks at me for a millisecond and then goes back to focusing on the other animal

Jabran,

In my opinion you're doing better than you think You have a 10 month old prey driven pitbull who is giving you a millisecond of attention following a correction....this you can work with.

What do you do in that millisecond? My advice; praise and about face so he can't refocus on the animal. I believe your pup is well versed in his obedience commands but is not proofed to distractions. You might consider taking a step back to reinforce his obedience. As much as that might feel like you are going backwards his foundation in obedience can never be too strong. One more thing.....WELCOME to Dog Adolescence oh the joy!!

Thanks alot everyone, I will definetly try what all of you have said here. I think I will start by getting the Pack Structure DVD because I think respect is the problem here. He is a very dominate and hard dog. And I will try to better my corrections with the prong and if it does not work I will step it up to an
E-collar. I think I also might get the basic OB DVD just to see the chapter on corrections in it. Thanks Again.

Hi Jabran,

Having lived in midtown Manhattan with an adolescent dog I definitely identify with your problem. I am wondering if your dog understands what he is being corrected for. If he does not understand, he may not respond in the way you want him to.

What I suggest, and have done myself even with my 11 month old right now, is the moment the pup is alerted to another dog or whatever, follow these steps:

1. Give him a verbal warning
2. Take a few steps back so that his back is toward the oncoming dog, squirrel, etc.
3. Give him an obedience command
4. Treat
5. The moment the oncoming dog passes, walk straight ahead

Point number 5 is a huge timing issue as I want to start walking before the pup gets a chance to have the urge to chase/lunge at the dog that is walking away.

Also, if in step 1 he does not heed your warning, then I would give a correction and continue right into the rest of the steps. In my opinion, this teaches the dog what the correction means (he did not heed your warning by looking right at you) and ensures that he does not go into burzurk-mode and get that satisfaction.

I know in any metro-city it is not always so easy (especially to back up), but if you walk closer to the buildings it may help. The buildings themselves will also help in making sure your dog turns right around and walk straight toward you rather than swinging around to keep his eyes on the oncoming dog.

Also, if you live on the UWS or UES where there are a lot of brownstones, take advantage of the steps. Walk a few steps up (backwards) and it will force your pup to focus on going up stairs rather than the other dog.

S

Jabran my American bulldog also has a very high prey drive. Bulldogs can really sink into a zone where nothing else exist, you, a passing car, self injury, etc. I think in this instance the corrections are just making the situation worse. You are making an already tense dog even more tense with the prong collar.

How is his food drive? If in that moment you could distract him with food, this might be the way to go instead of the harsh corrections. I'm not saying give him the food when he's like that, but to lure him away with it. Go into a training session with him right there on the spot. Heel, sit, down, look at me, etc, and reward. You have to act like nothing is going on, otherwise you will support it and make it worse.

Remember he's still a young dog, still learning and you don't want to ruin your relationship with too harsh corrections or his drive for that matter. A dog like that has to be worked and you really have to work on your relationship with him.

Is he kennel trained? If not I would start that immediately. You are going to have to make him work for everything good in his life. It's all got to come from you, this is the only way this kind of dog will respect you. You are going to have to control every part of this dog's life before he hurts himself or someone else's pet.

I would suggest these DVDs from Leerburg:


http://leerburg.com/308.htm


http://leerburg.com/301.htm


http://leerburg.com/101e.htm


http://leerburg.com/310.htm

The Drive and Focus dvd is very good at helping you establish better control of your dog when he is in drive (FOCUS). I see "preparing your dog for the helper" as a part2 to drive and focus.

Hope this was helpful...

Jabran, my GSD is the same way. He is dog aggressive and I have to catch him prior to going into drive or the prong collar is useless.

On walks he wears a prong and an e-collar. If I catch him soon enough I can control him with leash pops. But if I don't I have to crank up the power on the e-collar and stim him.

There is a brown lab that lives in a house with a fenced yard on our walking route. If I see the dog as we approach the house I can start talking to Hans and giving him leash pops and keep him under control. But if the lab comes running around the corner and charges her fence with no warning Hans goes immediately to what someone referred to earlier as "level 10" and I have to use the e-collar.