Quote:bill koehler crank and yank professional

He is my hero, don't put yank and crank behind his name dangit!!!

When you reach down to correct, she snarls. So, try this, reach like you are going to correct, preferably before she breaks, and then stick food in her mouth as she starts to be stinky. I think this ought to throw her off, and help out some.

The only thing I have seen work to get a dog breathing thru the nose is to have them carry something while out for a walk or jog. I have used this once, and it worked pretty good, definately not the expert, it just worked for me. All the rest of the dogs I have had didn't have that problem.

haha...i've actually read mr. koehler's text and there are some good techniques in there...and to be honest, I've been pretty much using a lot of them on walks...if she is off looking into the sky, i will do a turn and she will automatically get punished for not paying attention to me, however...this really has seemed to make her more jittery than truly wanting to be by my side on a walk. i guess there must be a good balance in there somewhere...just need to find it.

i do that with her ball on a string...if she drops it, i chase her around so she can't stop to let it go (she's scared that i'll steal it of course), so she's running, but also not dropping the ball...her grip gets sloppy but she will hold onto it...i tried just running, but after she tires (isn't too far into the run), she will just drop it and keep going...so this seems to work better for me...but maybe i just havent found the right item yet??? thanks again for all of your advice!

have a good night!

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basically...ive decided to really build her confidence and our bond together as much as I possibly can and in any way possible. if it means just going in the backyard on a long line and flat collar and calling her name...praising (marker) everytime she looks at me and comes, then that's what I'll do. Jeff may be correct...although she does very well most every time with basic commands, she may need more work on this and it could be an excellent way to build this bond back up.

I think I would also take a break. AND I know that one thing I have learned in training my dogs, is if something isn't working, continuing doing the SAME method for a few months usually does NOT help things. Either my dog understands, and gets what we are doing fairly quickly, or I need to try something else. I'm all about the prong collar, but not for everything. One thing I DO want is a dog that is thinking and CHOOSING to (and not just because I can 'make' her, but because she really WANTS to) listen to me and figure out what is what. Rather than continuing to 'set them up to fail' so I can keep whamming them harder and harder with the prong.

Could you just do tracking for awhile? I know that is supposed to have our dogs learn to think and focus and CALM DOWN a bit, while working with us. And maybe do some fun training for a few months to just bond with your dog and get the fun of LEARNING AND LISTENING to you back, rather than training so full of your dog being wrong and having to be corrected for this.

Do you have seminars and clinics and other trainers fly over to Hawaii that you can take advantage of? I know I like the information by Jan Fennell in The Dog Listener, and Calming Signals by Turiid Rugaas, but that is more about watching your dog and learning behaviors rather than just 'obedience' so may not be up your alley.

have you heard of interval training? it was developed originally for race horses as a way to extend their breathing and endurance. it also works well to condition dogs and increase their breathing and endurance. it consists of trotting the dog to warm up, then stimulating a 100 yard dash, then return to jogging. jog - dash - jog - dash. some people use heart monitors to establish normal rhythms, some just watch the dog's breathing. the idea is to note the breathing at rest, then use the intervals to bring up the respiration rate, and then finish with jogging to restore natural rate. the interval between the dash and the jog is what increases the animal's ability to exert and still breathe. it is a very good way to get a dog into good working shape. for your dog at 18 months, you should be able to start with an interval of two to five minutes and gradually increase to fifteen to twenty minutes. do this two to three times a week and increase to four or five times a week as the dog's breathing improves.

thank you all for your input. over the past couple of weeks....my relationship with my dog has completely changed. it definitely was the fact that she was not seeing me as the true pack leader...and now that she is...everything has changed. she does not challenge my commands...yes, she will still squirm a bit sometimes when she downs instead of staying straight...but her demeanor with me is a complete 180...I've been working with a woman in our club, who has titled several dogs to SchH III (on her own) and in a matter of a couple of weeks....we have gone to very worried about our future with our dog to entering in the club's BH trial this saturday...and we definitely are ready! she had the foundation, but just lacked the respect for me. Believe it or not, it was a matter of hanging this dog for a limited time to let her know to NEVER put her mouth on me again...it took one time and she has not tried it since, with me or my wife. we are able to roll her over on her back and she will stay there until i release her....we do this several times a day and praise her immensley for everything she does right...but also correct for all she disobeys. I know folks say doing an alpha roll is dangerous business and isn't really the way to do things, but you know what, it worked for my dog and I and it alone was not a solution, but it played a part in the equation. So I am not always the biggest fan of "textbook" training...if it works for us and we are getting good results in a manner that is beneficial for both the dog and handler, then i'm all for it. different strokes for different folks, right.

anyway...wish me luck on the BH...thanks again for all of your input.

Scott