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Unfortunately some pet owners find it more amusing to chase their dog around with something "the big dog" is scared of, than they are interested in getting the dog to accept and neutralize to the object in question.

Who's that aimed at? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
By the way I got 'jumped and humped' earlier but he was more shocked than I was with my reaction <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

haha, definately not aimed at you, I don't know if your dog's scared of pumpkins, but it irritates me when I see my friends torment a dog by doing stuff they know scares her just to watch her freak out n run, then they get upset because their poor girl is scared to go out with the construction crew around the house... the poor girls confidence is shot because everytime she's ever been scared of anything, she's been given further reason to fear it instead of conquering the evil yellow ball or conquering the evil halloween pumpkin. If I did that my dog would be scared of bronze elephant lawn ornaments, the big inflatable snowmen people put out at christmas, storm drains, trash cans and oddly shaped trees that my neighbors planted that look like 10 armed people in the dark. He still thinks I'm mad at him when I slap my hand on a pack of soda's, but if someone else does it he doesn't care - handler sensitivity I guess.

At the moment Logan's scared of the wind!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
It's been really windy here the last few days and if he goes outside to do his business you can bet your life that a freak gust appears and he jumps a few feet off the ground and then comes flying in - poor thing! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Completely going off topic, he's doing really well with the basic OB commands and if your friends or the 2 Ryan used to have are anything like Logan he takes 'forever' to 'down'.
Not to mind, but to actually get down LOL - Anyway a couple of times now when we've been doing the commands and I've said 'down', he looks at me as though to say 'Do I have to, coz I don't really want to?
Is it time to start correcting him or encourage him to ('try' <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and do it quicker for a reward?

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haha, definately not aimed at you, I don't know if your dog's scared of pumpkins, but it irritates me when I see my friends torment a dog by doing stuff they know scares her just to watch her freak out n run

That irritates me on many levels. The last thing you want with a 150 pound dog is unpredictability. A dog with numerous irrational fears is a hazard IMO. My male wasn't afraid of anything... he was as confident as any Police dog I've ever seen, but a bit clumsy and absolutely shocked to find out that other dogs bite back the one time he got lose and ran off a stray.

My friends dane is scared of the wind too. They've been working on down for a long time (so im told), but she's still slow to do it, if you want her to down give her a jerk on the prong n she acts like you're gonna kill her, then she sits, leans against your leg like "oh my god!!! the world is gonna end! the world is gonna end! i just know it! the world is gonna end!" then you repeat "down" n she downs faster than my own dog does... so yeah, i think that correction was a lil too hard. I think the reason they use level 7 on her e-collar is because she doesn't seem to "understand" what the e-collar means... they've only ever used it to teach the recall n "she doesn't listen to less than 7", well... I tried the e-collar on her one time, n at lower levels she definately feels it but shes more startled than anything, she doesn't know what she's supposed to do, she doesn't understand it as being a correction, so instead when the level is set to maximum she freaks out and runs to her handler thinking someone "out there" is gonna kill her.

Great Danes are a very amusing breed of dog, and require a special touch to their training if you get one of those super soft ones. If I spent a few months handling her I'm pretty confident that I could address these fear issues she has and get her to be pretty obedient, but I could be wrong, maybe some of those danes are just not able to do the kind of obedience I expect from a dog (and believe me, I don't expect perfect obedience, I just expect a dog to try to listen within the first 3 times of saying it and understand what i'm asking of it, without having to make the dog think I'm gonna kill them before I gave more than a soft tug on the prong).

If I reach over to her prong collar by hand to pull her into a down position, instead of downing, she tries to bite my hand, fortunately she doesn't bite very hard so I just let her chew my hand till she downs.

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he takes 'forever' to 'down'.
Not to mind, but to actually get down LOL - Anyway a couple of times now when we've been doing the commands and I've said 'down', he looks at me as though to say 'Do I have to, coz I don't really want to?

I remember that. And to be honest, I'm not really sure what the right answer is. Ideally, the down command should be obeyed instantly for safety reasons... For example, dog gets out the front door, sees cat, takes off towards the street, you notice, yell "DOWN" and the dog avoids being run over by a car.

However, with Great Danes, it's a little different. Any undue stress on their joints/bones will come back to haunt you so I wouldn't push it. They are one of the breeds that comes to mind when I think about the damage of selective breeding for appearance as opposed to health or working ability. Their size is appealing to me because I've always loved big dogs, but the breeding of "giant dogs" for asthetic appeal has done major damage to the health of the breed. Their joints and bones just don't hold up as well as "medium" sized dogs do. Knowing what I know now, I would work hard on a "stay" command so that I can stop the dog dead in his tracks but leave the choice to "sit" or "down" up to the dog. And then, work the sit/down commands more as motivational "tricks" as opposed to essential (life saving) commands. Just my 2 cents.

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That irritates me on many levels.

No kidding, but I've stopped saying anything about it, because nobody listens to me anyway, they jump when the vet or the breeder says jump, but my 85% well trained relatively fearless dog doesn't speak for itself apparently. But "german shepherds are a super smart breed, great danes are a little slow". Knowing my luck my friends will read this post and take it all the wrong way, but I thought I already made it pretty clear that it irritates me when people intentionally freak out a dog. I've also said numerous times that they should put the prong collar on both rings and not just the single ring, but they seem to forget that too. Not that it matters much, they just tug at the dog n let the dog self correct most of the time anyway. I'm over the "give everyone advise" thing, even when it's asked for (which is rare) it's never taken by people I know personally because they don't care enough.

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They've been working on down for a long time (so im told), but she's still slow to do it, if you want her to down give her a jerk on the prong n she acts like you're gonna kill her, then she sits, leans against your leg like "oh my god!!! the world is gonna end! the world is gonna end! i just know it! the world is gonna end!" then you repeat "down" n she downs faster than my own dog does...

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahh!!!!!

I'll try it with this Triple Crown collar I've got and while I raved about them for my 2 terriers on walks (including now unwarranted aggression) When I walked him on his, he didn't seem to notice it. But he does walk kinda close to me anyway (probably so I'll protect him from the wind LOL). So I may have to buy a prong afterall and 'stuff' the do-gooders over here.

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They've been working on down for a long time (so im told), but she's still slow to do it, if you want her to down give her a jerk on the prong n she acts like you're gonna kill her, then she sits, leans against your leg like "oh my god!!! the world is gonna end! the world is gonna end! i just know it! the world is gonna end!" then you repeat "down" n she downs faster than my own dog does...

That's still crackin' me up <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Ryan,
Thanks for that, will start the 'stay' command and not worry too much about speed on the others. Like you say 'in a life or death' situation whatever works is best!

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So I may have to buy a prong afterall and 'stuff' the do-gooders over here.

The thought that a prong collar may not be a very humane training tool has crossed my mind, I mean, look at it, it looks like a torture device. But the thing that keeps me using it is simply this:

When my dog is intent on disobeying me, n his nose is stuck so deep in the urine covered grass that he's visibly salivating, and I give him the HARDEST correction that I can possibly give, and he STILL IGNORES ME AND DOES IT AGAIN 2 MINUTES LATER! Then you can't convince me that it's super painful n damaging to a dog n gonna rip their head off, because if it was really that bad, my dog would be the best trained dog in the city by now. Now perhaps if you have a chihuahua, giving a correction that hard might break the dog, n knowing those PETA folks, those are probably the only size dogs they ever deal with which is why they are so anti-prong. I mean, if your chihuahua isn't house trained, whats the worst thats gonna happen? A pea sized stain on the carpet? Get yellow carpets! Hold the dog out the window n squeeze! How hard can it be? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> :P <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'd be interested to see how the triple crown works on your great dane, I actually never saw one in stores until the other day when I accidentally wandered into the PETA-friendly aisle at PetSmart last week, it was right next to the citranella collars and the halty's <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

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When my dog is intent on disobeying me, n his nose is stuck so deep in the urine covered grass that he's visibly salivating, and I give him the HARDEST correction that I can possibly give, and he STILL IGNORES ME AND DOES IT AGAIN 2 MINUTES LATER! Then you can't convince me that it's super painful n damaging to a dog n gonna rip their head off, because if it was really that bad, my dog would be the best trained dog in the city by now. Now perhaps if you have a chihuahua, giving a correction that hard might break the dog, n knowing those PETA folks, those are probably the only size dogs they ever deal with which is why they are so anti-prong. I mean, if your chihuahua isn't house trained, whats the worst thats gonna happen? A pea sized stain on the carpet? Get yellow carpets! Hold the dog out the window n squeeze! How hard can it be? :P

Say it how it is Mike, don't mince your words now <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
There's also a member on here that's gonna have you for the Chih. remark!!!

Were the TC collars really in the nicey nicey section?
Well I took my male terrier out and he started his lunging , growling crap and I gave say a level 5ish correction and he jumped back and looked at me and stopped dead in his tracks. And I'm thinking 'yeah that told you' For the first time in his life, he knew I was having none of it. I was pretty impressed.