We have been making great progress with Jethro on all fronts. He is a wonderful dog and adjusting to his maturing body, and life with us.

There is one training challenge that continues to perplex us and it starts with formulating an appropriate training goal. I think one of the problems has been our own ambivalence as to what we want to control. A perfect example of the problem is Jethro is sleeping on his daybed in the living room, I am working nearby, skipper is asleep on his bed. All of a sudden Jethro lifts his head and starts to bark. He is barking at something outside. Sometimes if I say, “okay” (as in, you are done) he looks at me and lowers his head to go back to sleep. Other times he is up, barking, and trying to charge the windows or the door. What I wish I could do is give him a signal that says, “Thank you for your attention. Everything is okay. You can stop now. As you were.” And he would stop and go back to sleep.

I think, for him to be able to understand this, he would need to know the difference between being on guard duty and off guard duty. At present, his guard duty mode is instinctive and triggered by sounds outside. We don't want to punish him for his instinct. We want to teach him to control his instinct and understand what it means to have it on or off.

I have three Leerburg videos: establishing pack structure with the family pet #308, dealing with dominant and aggressive dogs #301, and basic dog obedience #302. I have started with number 308.

At present he spends most of his time at home in his crate where he settles down and sleeps. He gets 3 - 4 45 min. risk walks every day and we practice nothing in life is free at all times.

Is it simply a matter of bomb proofing his sit and down? But he will keep barking even as he sits and goes into is down.

I would like to hear the answers to this as well =) but I just had to post and tell you how handsome Jethro is!! What breed is he? Oh and where did you get that black prong type collar?

You want what I have, I think. The dogs to bark until you have investigated and said "OK, I got it," and the dogs stop. This was a loooong process, but with progress all along the way, and only a few slip-ups now. (I think it's harder with multiple dogs seeing a bark-fest opportunity.)

IMHO, this is a process that requires you to investigate every single time and to use a very calm release after you investigate.

I didn't look up many threads; I'm kind of rushed, so I used "lawn guys*" for my search term and got these:

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=259030&page=0#Post259030

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=306640

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=167&Number=267352&Searchpage=1&Main=25541&Words=desensitize&topic=0&Search=true

* For us, “Thank you for your attention. Everything is okay. You can stop now. As you were.” is "It's OK. Lawn guys."



eta
I would start my work on this immediately, because right now what the dog is experiencing is that his " barking, and trying to charge the windows or the door" is successful. The person goes away. You want your input here, and IMHO you want to tell the dog that you are the decider of whether there is a threat. OTOH, you want the warning bark, so you really must commit to checking every single time, to attending to that bark and then giving further instruction.

JMO and just one person's m.o.

PS I often reward everyone after these successful one-bark warnings. but you can also easily make the rewards less frequent until they are once in a while, then just saying "Good Jethro!" and maybe a rub.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (01/09/2011 01:54 PM)
Edit reason: eta

Thank you Connie! This makes perfect sense. I will read those threads and figure out what the release should be. This is going to be a very handy signal. "Leave It" doesn't seem to suffice.

Oh, 100% right; this is completely different from "leave it." Whole different category when you're saying, in essence, You did good and now I will take over.

At least IMHO.

I use the phrase "it's all good" and calmly will check things out for the dog, relieving them of their "duty". It IS harder with multiple dogs, especially when one is a barker like my Kira.

 Quote: Kristi Molina

Oh and where did you get that black prong type collar?

I know the answer to this one, even though I'm not Jenny. It's called a StarMark training collar. Similar to a prong, just plastic.

Here is a link.

http://www.amazon.com/StarMark-Training-Collar-Large-Blue/dp/B000A6BD5K/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Edited by Kelly Byrd (01/09/2011 05:09 PM)
Edit reason: spelling :)

Thanks Kelly! =)

Np!

Yes, that is a Starmark Collar and it is my favourite. I have used a prong, I also have the dominant dog collar from Leerburg. I find the Starmark is a nice combination for going on a walk and ending up at the field for some play time.

The prong collar was making a mess of Jethro's neck ruff, and no matter how I tried to fit it, it always slid down and ended up around his lower neck. Then it was a bear to wrestle back up behind his ears. I have the same problem with the Dominant Dog collar, even though it is nice and snug up behind his ears, it slides down and I end up correcting him with a choke collar. The Starmark slides down too, but it is easy to shift back up when we stop at a corner. The Starmark is nice because it applies pressure evenly around the neck.

With Jethro the worst case scenario is a berserko reaction to something... a certain dog, usually, or coyote... and I have to use everything I have to shift him off balance sideways and get him moving. My biggest fear is injuring his neck during one of these maneuvers. The Starmark seems to spread the force out as well as can be expected in that situation.