A friend of mine has a 130-lb. (neutered) male Tibetan Mastiff, 13 months old.

She is having some serious obedience issues with this dog. To begin with, he does not want to heel on-lead and tends to pull her down the street (she does not outweigh the dog by much).

Normally I would suggest that she use a prong collar--and she has tried this. The problem here is that the dog has so much fur and skin on his neck that even a stiff correction on the prong tends to only bring his drive level up. My friend is not weak and she is not at all adverse to delivering strong corrections; this really seems to be an anatomical "drawback" with the breed (a very well-protected neck).

We have been discussing the e-collar. The problem here is that neither of us really know how to use one. My questions for the board:

1) Is the e-collar probably the way to go here?

2) ... and if so, any techniques anyone (especially you e-collar gurus <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) care to recommend? The first object of the game is to get the dog heeling on lead. Then I guess we will worry about the more advanced stuff like being 100% on off-lead recalls....

Thanks in advance.

Pete Felknor

Anyone want to hit this one out of the park? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

C'mon folks. Any of you ecollar gurus wanna give Pete a hand with this one?

In my opinion the e-collar should be combined with a leash / prong. Someone else can help with the e-collar and deliver the stimulation as the handlers says "heel."

It would be preferable if the dog thinks that the e-collar stimulation is coming from the voice of the handler.

I have alittle experience with Mastiffs. I have had much more success useing food training than compulsion. The dogs that I have dealt with have been giant marshmallows that shutdown easily when firmly corrected a few times. Then they go throught the commands like they're on deathrow waiting to be executed.
I'm not against compulsion but I would strongly consider treat motivation and withholding of treats to get giant breeds to cooperate. When dogs get to be 130lbs. and up, I would at least keep treats as a back up in case they plant thier ass somewhere and decide that they just are not going to move until they're damn ready. The shock collar may be very helpful. I have not worked with one. I would be interested to here about how well it works with a dog like the one mentioned. Of course you'd have to shave it's neck and put some conductive jelly on it first. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Hey, that's one contribution to the thread...

Pete your getting ahead of youself. First step is not to let the dog pull on the leash. Forget about healing until the dog can walk without dragging your friend. When the dog gets to the end of the leash the stimulation is given and when he slacks off it is discontinued. Doesn't take long for the dog to learn. I wish somone would make a video or good book on e-collars. So many unanswered questions we all have.

Thanks for the responses, they are appreciated... Milt I misspoke when I said "heeling"--all this lady would like to do right now is get the dog to walk with her without forging way ahead and dragging her. She's not looking for any kind of competition picture.

I'm not sure treats are going to work with this dog, but I'll mention the idea...

Pete Felknor

I used to see a little German lady train a huge long haired GSD in CDX and UD at the club I used to go to. This dog was unneutered, had a thick neck covered in hair and he outweighed this lady by at least 20lbs. She used a micro-mini prong. She had to special order it. There were I think about 80 links in this prong. They were tiny little things but they did the trick. I have never seen one anywhere else.

Has anyone else seen one?

The smallest prong collar I have ever seen and used are made by a Company called Sylia's Tack Box. thier card reads micro prong collar spaecializing in small dog equipment. you can reach them at 309-797-6607 ans ask for thier catalog. Now just as a note these are for small dogs only!!!!!!!!!! I would never use them on a large or medium dog. I ordered 10 of them for a few litters of mini pins who I thought might need them once they came to train with me. And sure enough they all did. KOJAK

i would first think that this lady who cannot contain her dog, not walk in public places. :rolleyes:

if this is a protection breed she could run into some serious issues.