Thanks all you guys for such excellent advice , I benefit a lot from your kind advice. Over the past two days, I have made him put his head down and rolled his hips to one side when I say relax. He is such a sweet heart and he has learnt. It is not an ego thing. I know that what ever Kaiser does is just a reflection of what I have taught him. I feel bad because I did not teach it properly. Guess it is an ego thing after all .... didnot realize it till I typed out that sentence.

But anyway , I am over it now and there is a trial coming up in 3 months. I am going to enter in the same class he got 3rd and try to do better.

I put him on a down and gently put his head down till it touched the ground and rolled his hips and kept saying "Good relax" "Good boy"... The moment he tried to raise his head, I said , "NO..RELAX" , "NO.. BAD BOY" etc. He caught on quickly and today I had him on a long down with head down and hips rolled for 10 minutes while I was training the muzzle hold on helga just inches away from him.


Next step is to make him hold it for 15 minutes before I start adding too much distance. Once I achieve good distance in my house I must reduce the distance and add distractions.


I dont use the ecollar in training, I use it just to make sure he does not take off to fight/chase other animals.He did it once in his life and got corrected. He does not do that anymore, but I have it on anyway , just in case.

I think the HIP ROLL is the most important thing you guys have pointed out. Also the fact that I need to build up my confidence more than Kaisers long down Such a good point . I will work on that. I have and always used positive methods UNLESS he is being an ass by growling/pulling aggressively on the leash. All formal obedience is only positive, with verbal corrections. He is so sensitive, if I call him a BAD BOY, he will get so upset. I have to make him do a sit or a down,so that I can call him a good boy again.

Today I had him on a long down and kept feeding him kibble with his head still on the ground. He was drooling all over the floor. So cute... I will post a video soon.

Here is our long down. You can see that he has no problem complying with the long down.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USc9zHQpOcE

He is doing great!
Ram, how many dogs are you training? I didn't remember Helga, and was that another Indian hound that I saw relaxing (on a leash)?

Sit means sit

Down means down

If I tell my dog to sit / down, they have to do it and not to break it until the release / next given command.

Use long leash (50 feet?) and prong collar (correction collar)

If the dog try to break the down, correct them

add more time, distance, and distractions.

Daniel.......Kaiser is a really soft dog... don't think that method would be a good idea with him.
Ram does not even nick hm with the E-Collar.

Ram...nice work!!!!
Helga is looking great!
I second Betty's question, how many dogs do you have/work with now?

Won't it be fun next show when kaiser has his head down like all the police dogs.....and you did it with markers and praise...not compulsion???!?!!?

I will file the hip roll for use with the Service dogs.....Thanks Bob!!

I have 3 , Helga, Kaiser and Bommi. The other dog Kari(Indian dog) will leave me in a month or so. I am training (socializing and teaching just good manners not obedience) him till I can give him back to my friend.

Having said that I thought he was going to leave me 2 months back. Then the monsoon came , the floods, we could not train. and Honestly , every time I think of having to give him back, I pick him up and put him on my lap and cuddle. I have grown attached to him.



I do use compulsion, but 99% of the time, it is NO or BAD BOY or BAD RELAX or some thing like that . If I scold him too much he will get a bit anxious to make up with me. He will wait for some command that he can do perfectly and once I release him , he will come and lick my hand etc, just make sure that he has a good relationship with me (this what I am guessing) .

In Sanskrit there is a very famous proverb. "Sama, Dhana, Bedha, Dhand , Chatura" Which means "Try with peaceful word, if that does not work, try with giving gifts, If that does not work, try trickery, if that fails , use violence at last".

So yes, I will use the prong collar approach, but only if the others fail.