Hello all! It's been a while since I (or my wife, Paige) have posted but we read just about everyday. Our Blu is now 19-20 weeks old and he is doing great with alot of commands. He knows sit, down, down-stay (for 30sec - 1 min), over and shake and he is getting better with drop. He still has aggressive tendencies but we are working on it. Per one of Ed's articles we have gone back to the basics (ie...having him on a leash at ALL times and when he gets out of control he goes in the crate). We started letting him off leash in the house (bad idea!) but realized how wrong that was when he showed signs of aggression and it was obvious he did not respect us.

Anyway...sorry to bore you with all that. LOL

I have a question about attaching a collar or leash. We recently bought a "No-Bark" collar by Innoteck. Anytime I go to attach a leash to his collar he tries to mouth me. Anytime we take off his collar, he tries to mouth us. Is there a secret to making this easier? I want to use the No-Bark collar but this means I will need to remove his regular collar and put it on when needed. Right now, that would be a problem because of his "mouthiness".

Any suggestions?

When I introduced the same type collar to my dog, I let her sniff it, gave her a treat, and told her what a good girl she is. Putting it on her wasn't a big deal after that. A distraction of any kind would probably help.

I did find that using a treat when doing it made it easier but not everytime. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Ignore the mouthiness in which he'll figure out that it didn't keep the collar from being applied (extinction), or redirect him to something that is appropriate to bite. The later might take two people, one to activate the toy, and the other to tend to the collar/leash. I've been successful with redirection.

However, he's still a baby. I wouldn't expect him to be anything other than mouthy.

Is this a working dog, or pet?

Christian

Innotek recommends a dog be at least 6 months old before using it's collars.

Have you tried teaching the dog to bark on command? Once you can put the behavior on cue, many times the behavior will extinguish when not cued. The pup get's to learn a new, fun command.

Christian

He is a pet.

I used the No Bark collar the other night and he barked once, whined and then didn't bark again. It seemed to work.

The reason I went ahead and used it was I read on one of Ed's articles that he recommends using the No Bark collar and he was recommending it for a pup that was only 4 months old (another time the pup was 5 months old).

I have only used it once thus far. We don't need it alot because he only barks when he DOES NOT want to go in his crate (usually when his drive is up and we have to give him a time out).

I haven't tried the bark on command. My wife was doing it one day and I told her it probably wasn't a good idea because it taught the dog to bark. Stupid me, I didn't think about it being a GOOD THING! DOH!