Angela, you wrote:

 Quote:

I followed Ed's advice from the website and just follow him all around until I finally catch him. Then I put his leash on his prong collar and give him a level 10 correction (until he cries/whines for mercy and lays down). Usually I then take the dogs straight home. The result of this is that it is getting very difficult to catch him after he barks like this.

By the time you catch your dog, it's too late for a correction, especially a level 10! He probably doesn't have a clue what you're correcting him for and it's not FAIR to him. If you can't correct immediately by having a lead on him, then you're too late. No wonder he's hard to catch when he gets corrected for "God knows what". IMO, you need to stop doing that today! If you don't have him on lead so you can correct right away, or at least have an E-collar on him, you'll have to accept that he will bark. You can't have it both ways. With no way to correct immediately, you're putting yourself in a situation where you have no control. So actually until you can get an E-collar, you have to choose, control on lead or no control off lead.

Thank you Sandy, you have given me some concrete options. I will definitely stop correcting him if I don't catch him right away. However, do you think I should still just put the leash on and walk him straight home?

I see you are right about my choice of control or no control. I guess those are the options I saw before and thought there would be some way to control the dog and train him while off-lead but without an e-collar there isn't.

Am I right?

Thanks for your reply.

Angela

I totally agree with Al !!! Get a decent e-collar & have done with this problem <:-O

Hi Angela. I surely understand not being able yet to get an E-collar, they are a bit pricey.

Another option then: first I would not walk him home after a barking incident. See it as an opportunity to teach him not to do it. First, have his prong collar on with a lead on him. Go to the park you mentioned just specifically to walk him around on lead NEAR the fence. Hopefully you'll get enough dogs walking around outside the fence to practice this. When he first focuses on another dog and gets tense and/or barks (and hopefully he will even on lead IF he's near the fence when dogs walk by), correct him with the prong. I wouldn't start with a level 10 correction however, see if he'll stop focusing/barking with a lower correction, work your way up until he does stop focusing/barking.

Do this training exercise - no play - specifically and intentionally. Do it several times a week, whenever you can. You probably will have to take him alone, without your other dog, otherwise he will just want to play. So the idea I'm trying to convey, sorry if I'm not clear, is that you want to expose him to what he's having a problem with so that you can correct him.

When he stops focusing/barking after a correction, walk him calmly along the fence again until another dog shows up, then repeat. When he restrains himself on his own with no correction a few times, then "proof" him by taking your other dog along next time. Take him off lead and see what he does. If he reverts back to barking, then you know the training isn't done. Calmly put him back on lead for the rest of the time there, then take him out alone next time and keep training.

I am curious about what *your* reaction is to his fits? Are you yelling and having a fit too? I made that mistake when my dog was experiencing some aggression, yes, to other certain dogs on the other side of the fence. So I changed up the routine. Firm "NO" and a prong correction. However, the prong it seemed in that situation, catapulted my dog into a higher intensity drive. SO.

What worked for me, don't know if this is motivational, distraction, what the specific training method is, but when I see even a spark of him going at the fence aggressively, I say "get your ball" and it is an instant full eyes on me, obedient and wanting to play ball MORE than he wants to get that other dog. ? Is your dog ball driven?

You've admitted yourself this dog is not trained. Reason being, you have not trained him. IMO, an ecollar is an excellent solution, I looked into it myself--TIMING is everything from what I understand. I refrained on ecollar for the time being, finding other ways to train until my timing is impeccable. Thankfully, it's a win win. The ball thing is working well and my timing is mucho improving.

Hi Michele, the fenced area I take the dogs to is actually a baseball diamond. So it's a fairly good size. Generally, the dogs will romp and chase each other while I walk around the perimiter doing laps. There is a paved walking path that goes through the park and passes along one side of the ball diamond. THis is where the cyclists and dog walkers walk. I walk my dogs at night, 9 or 10 PM, so there will be less distractions, but there is ALWAYS someone walking by. For some strange reason, most of the time, someone will go by when I am at the extreme other end of the diamond. The dogs will be playing, then all of a sudden pop up and start running purposefully, 100 miles an hour, toward where the person is walking so they can bark and run up and down along the fence. Of course it takes me a while to get there.

My female is easy to call off as you describe. She is very toy driven and very responsive to me. She barks but will stop and come over to me when I call her. However, the male dog, is a hunting breed and herding dog developed specifically to work independently of the handler and it shows. When he is focussed on something he is TOTALLY DEAF to anything I say. I have tried pleasantly calling him to me (I have a pocketfull of treats and he knows it), luring him away, yelling, growling "NO", "LEAVE IT", and he just ignores me. Currently I just run along behind him and try to shoo him from the general area, as he now plays keep away, this is the easiest right now.

The problem is he is a big dog with a loud bark and he scares the people walking. So I just try and get him as far away from the poor walkers as possible.

Sandy:

I really appreciate your suggestion. Oddly enough, during the summer when children's teams would come and use the ball diamonds and the soccer parks, I would take him out every day on his leash and walk near the playing children to help socialise him (he's a foster with a neglect history, who is up for adoption). I would bring him near activity to show him it was non threatening and he should sit quietly. The odd thing is it didn't occur to me to do it as you describe for this particular problem. It seems so common sense!

I am going to do as you describe, starting today. I will see if I can't find some other way for him to get his exercise while he is being trained.

Another question. When a dog does walk by, should I ask him to "sit" or "down" and focus on me, or should I just continue walking and ignore the other dog, and give a correction if he misbehaves?

 Quote: angela burrell

Sandy:
Another question. When a dog does walk by, should I ask him to "sit" or "down" and focus on me, or should I just continue walking and ignore the other dog, and give a correction if he misbehaves?

My thinking is that you want the dog to get to the point where he ignores the other dogs, whether in your yard or at the baseball field. And you want him to ignore them whether you're there (in your yard) or not. A sit or down requires that you be there and if you start with that, he may only ignore the dogs if you're there to give him a command. So I personally would just continue walking and ignore the other dogs. I would give the correction while walking. The less attention you pay to the distraction, the better. He'll begin to take his cue from you. If you do a sit or down, you're giving the distraction of the dogs too much attention and he'll pick up on that even if he obeys the commands. Pretend you're walking by a tree so you don't get nervous in anyway -- think "no biggie, it's a tree"

Hi I just wanted to update everyone on this.

I have been working with Rusty on our nightly "walks" in the ball diamond at the park. He wears his prong collar and a 35-foot lead. (He is too leash wise for a shorter leash).

I have seen a great improvement in his behaviour. He will still run and bark, but once I have the leash he will stop when I tell him, and even follow me when I walk away. If I am too far away, though, he will still ignore me, but at least I feel like I have things a bit more under control.

The only problem is that as he has improved, my female has gotten worse - now SHE's the problem.

Well, I'm going to suggest that, with my male at this point, we are probably as good as we're going to get without an e-collar. This dog is pretty leash wise (my fault), but at least things are getting better.

thanks for the help & support