I am not sure which forum to post. If this does not get traffic I'll try other places.

My dog does not have much of a prey drive. Neither is she a GSD or any other SD. That's fortunate, since I was not buying a shepherd. It would have been quite a shock if she grew into one. Anyhow she was corrected a couple of time rather strongly for not doing a good Heel. Now everytime she hears Heel (or actually even gets to the place we train at) the tails get tucked, the head goes down and the dog gets VERY careful and deliberate (and slow) about what she does. She seems afraid. That's my interpretation. But that's the way she looks.
My trainer says that he'd like to correct her more so she stops slacking off and figures out what the required attitude to a good Heel is. I am afraid this will totally put the dog off any training in heeling. What do ya think.
I want to go on and train her in protection eventually. She's not a competition material (her whole breed is not about sport).

Alex, forgive me and my feeble mind. What breed of dog, and it's age. What are your goals for the K-9??

I wouldn't use more compulsion to get the results your trainer wants to obtain. This could go completly the other way, and your training couls very well regress.

Some dogs are hard, some soft, use only the level of correction needed to get dog to obey with enthusium. Make her training fun. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

What type of training has been used so far??

First of all if you correct your dog during heeling by yanking the lead with your arm your dog is going to see that and blame you for the correction and not really want to be near that arm which happens to be connected to you wich puts her out of heeling position. You got to hold the lead against your body and correct her wrong position with fast, sudden body movement in the opposite direction and lots of praise for being in the right place.You want the dog to key on your body not watching your arm thinking about you correcting her.You have got to be more exciting than every thing else going on.Speeding up ,slowing down ,right turns ,left turns, lots of praise,use your body and your footwork for corrections not your arm. You have to be the best place to be.

Alex,

First off, find a decent trainer.

How long have you been working on the heel for? If you just started it, you shouldn't be giving any corrections.

Is only the "heel" that she responds like this to? Has she been corrected during any other command? If so, how did she react?

Start completely over again with heeling and find a new command word for "heel".

If you don't feel good doing what your trainer tells you to, find a new trainer - ASAP.

This dog sounds like you shouldnt do much of anything with it. A dog acting like that on one correction doesnt sound like much of a dog. Maybe a pet at most....a pet doesnt have to heel.....the only other time I saw that RXN is in german show line shepherds.
Your post makes no sense in the begining and I have no idea what you are talking about.
If you really need advice the only thing I can suggest is trying food or something....no prey is bad.....you can't teach anything from the begining out of compulsion...at best you will have $hitty results.
Pat

Alex,

What breed are you working? If it what I think it is I wouldn't use heavy compulsion. Also what age is the dog? If you are working a BRT P.M. me and I may have some suggestions.

I would go to some really good treats.. like roast beef or pork .. something special. You want to reward the behaviours that you like.. even if your dog isn't a prey monster.. you can get really nice obedience with food.. (if they like food! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) I would also consider a different trainer. There is a time and place for corrections.. but you need a foundation first.

I do think pets need to learn heel position.. sure makes it easier to take them for walks and enjoy them.

Jody

The dog has learned an association between both the location where the unpleasantness occurred and the command that preceeded the pain (good old Pavlov strikes again!). Counterconditioning is the order of the day for this kind of thing. I'd probably tackle it one step at a time - first get rid of the bad association with the location, cuz that will be fairly easy. Engage in behaviors that the dog likes when you go there - not formal obedience, just play, or food treats, or rough housing, whatever YOUR DOG thinks is pleasant. If that's rolling over and getting your belly rubbed, that's fine. If that's getting lots of prime rib and you can afford it, great. It shouldn't take long before he learns a new association that this place always seems to bring great and wonderful things and is a good place to be.

On the second one, the fear of the heeling, I would also recommend changing your command word, so that you're not fighting that negative association. New word, no bad feelings. However it's not that simple, cuz the behavior/position will bring back bad feelings. So start out luring with treats and "accidentally" end up walking with the dog on your left side, still treating as you go. Bingo, you're halfway there and the dog is having a great time. After the dog starts learning walking on the left is VERY rewarding, and starts offering it on his own, start pairing it with your new word for heel.

Just to solicit more responses.
The dog heels. She just does not do "shoulder-to-knee chin-up" type of heel. The corrections were via E-collar. When she got a couple of medium ones she decided it was time to pack the bags. When she left the heeling position altogether she got fried. She came back after that. The dog is pretty soft when not excited. Just don't let her think about other dogs she can chew on. Once she got excited about that, she used to be difficult to stop. Hard corrections by prong got her under control. Now when she goes for another dog, I say Down, she's down. I would not bank on it, but it's 10 times better than it used to be.
I am more likely to find a decent size diamond than another instructor I'd like. It costs me $13 in tolls just to get to him. So I don't want to change. He had a formerly cowardly pissy dog just pass BH and the dog bites like it means it.
Absence of prey drive is hardly the end of the world. Many breeds bite quite happily in defense. Getting excited over a ball on a rope is just stupid and a waste of energy from their point of view. Give'em a leg of a man, then they'll think about getting excited.
I doubt there's any living representative of this breed that passed SchHII. I heard some do OK in IPO. I will not say what the breed is, after I read the Dobermann related discussion a while back.

Originally posted by Alex Artemenko:
The corrections were via E-collar. When she got a couple of medium ones she decided it was time to pack the bags. When she left the heeling position altogether she got fried. Your idea or your trainer's? If the trainer's, I'm getting less impressed all the time! Dobies are some of the nicest obedience dogs around; if he can't figure out how to make a dobe look like a million bucks heeling, he's not worth your $13 in tolls.