Hi guys, tell me if what I'm doing is OK...I've been walking my 14 week old GSD for about 3 weeks now on a flexi lead. At first, she was just wowed about everything that she was experiencing on our quiet semi-rural street. She was a bit scared and unsure of herself and would sit down on the ground and not want to go anywhere. I would ask her to come, walking backwards and she would come to me and I treat her. I think I was walking backwards quite a bit at first.

Now, she is pretty confident in herself (any probably me) that she is enjoying her walks. She does really well on the way away from the house and I let her do what she wants as far as the lead will allow. I'm training her as we walk having her sit every now and then and having her down every now and then. She is really starting to enjoy it.

On the way back to the house however, she wants to rush ahead of me and I'm not correcting her when she does this...but what I do is when she reaches the end of the lead, I stop. She turns around and looks at me then she walks back to me. This wasn't automatic though...at first when she would reach the end of her lead and I'm stopped, I would tell her to come, she would and then I would treat her. So, apparently she has learned that when she reaches the end of the lead and I stop she needs to come back to me. I think this is pretty good. Do you?

My (really My G.F.'s) Pup is about 6 months old now and she has an energy that I have really never seen in a puppy, but she used to do the same thing, and still has the short attention span.

I started to use a prong collar at about 3 1/2 maybe four months old to get her used to it (not as a correction).

For the last month or so we have used it when walking. I'll say after the first day or so she learned not to run away and pull on the lead.

I also try to put it on her randomly and do some positive (food & Praise) stuff with her while wearing it so she doesn't think that it is only used in walking and to associate fun and games with the prong collar.

I'm a newbie here and to dog training in general, but you'll get more information here than you can possibly ingest??

I have the Obedience, and Puppy 8 weeks to 6 months (think that is what is called) videos and they are really good?? Lots of basic stuff that you would never think of doing it by yourself. Well worth the $80 or so


Good luck

adam

 Quote: Cindy Easton Rhodes

I guarantee you no dog I spend the time to work in protection is going to shut down because of the collar I use LOL. I don't waste time with a dog I worry about shutting down in bitework.

Unfortunately as a decoy I don't get to make that choice You work what people bring ya, I see dogs all the time who out when their owners walk up behind them and touch the line with the prong on it or who keep looking behind them instead of at me when they are being agitated on a prong. I want a prong to become drive, I want the dog to get irritated by it not submit to it. But not the point

I understand what you're saying Cindy and I think it's not much more than a miscommunication. Someone mentioned popping the flat collar as a correction for pulling, perhaps they misunderstood the Leerburg instruction or perhaps they didn't explain themselves entirely on this thread. If I can misinterpret it then who knows if someone else does and starts using the flat collar as a correction tool for compulsion-heeling?

The worst mistake I made with one of my own dogs was to force the issue with leash manners and pulling. He was stubborn, and he still is and always will be, but he would rather choke himself to death than not pull on the leash when he was 4 months old. We ended up hating eachother because some idiot put it into my head that a 4 month old german shepherd is smart enough to heel properly with compulsion. Between 7 and 12 months old I didn't do ANYTHING with him other than play and rebuild our bond. I didn't control him with a crate, I got mad at him for chewing up hundreds of dollars of stuff, I got mad at him for taking off down the street and playing keep away with his ball on my neighbors lawn, basically I got mad at him for all the stupid pet mistakes everyone always makes. The key factor behind it ALL was simply that I expected too much from a puppy because someone put it into my head that he should be doing all these things just fine at that age. If I could do him all over again I would have left him alone for the first year of his life and not done a damn thing with him other than play, and use a crate and a leash to control his destructive and annoying puppy behaviors. He is a completely different dog since I adjusted my expectations and my handling with him and I really like him now simply because I took a different approach, I am more patient, and I accept his limitations. I accept that he is slow to respond to commands, I have a choice, either I can compulsion the hell out of him every day and maybe get him to listen a little better for a week, or I can just accept that he listens when I need him to, he doesn't need competition obedience around the house

Since then I've seen probably 100+ different dogs of all kinds of breeds, I've handled and watched all kinds of dogs of all kinds of temprements from complete newbie inexperienced pet owner with a rottie who'll try and kill anyone that looks at him to bearded collies that simply need a firmer hand but is the perfect pet with a little better handling. The biggest pet peeve I have is seeing dogs who are screwed up simply because someone wasn't patient with them as a puppy, and it is 99% of the time because they expected too much from the dog at a young age. Anytime I see anything where people are seemingly trying to rush their dog trying to create the worlds perfect pet at 4 months old it annoys me. But I find that most people were like me, led to believe by someone that their dog should be doing all these wonderful things at the worlds youngest age. You see it in Schutzhund too, people trying to get their dogs perfect for the BH by the minimum-entry age, and I just can't help but wonder what their rush is? The dog will still be a dog in 2 years, so why not show the dog when he is 2 or 3? Or in the case of a pet, why not enjoy the playful puppy stuff while its still there, because all that will be gone in a year and you will never see it again.

But as a trainer I know it is important to match the dog to the owner, and if the owner and a dog are not the right match, the best you can do is to shape the dog to what will match the owner best, and sometimes that doesn't mesh with the way I would choose to handle a dog because I like my dogs confident and cocky

What I interpret when you talk about bonding with your puppy is that you practically become his buddy, his partner in crime so to speak, by letting him do whatever he wants, and the only form of discipline you provide is putting him in the crate. I think puppies need discipline, and it doesn’t start when he’s 7-8 months old. Some things are just out of bounds for him, and he has to understand this. I feel that a puppy needs this more than a buddy who lets him get away with murder.

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Puppies are only a pain in the ass if you let them be. You can control a pup and solve all these problems with simply being calm, tell the dog "no" in a normal slightly firm voice, then show them what you want them to do.

Easier said than done. Some dogs are going to go right back at it. Take the sofa incident. Your solution to this would be to crate him or the suggestion above. When will you teach him that he can’t chew on the sofa, when he’s 6 months, “7 or 8”, one year?

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For most pet people, OK, no big deal, correct the pup, it doesn't matter because you're not trying to create confidence in the pup. Personally, pet or working, I want a confident tough dog that has a strong trusting relationship with me, that doesn't cower when I slam a door or pick up a newspaper or yell at them.

I don’t see how a little discipline can cause a dog to loose confidence. In fact, I think he needs it! You build his confidence by taking him places, exercising him, socializing him, feeding him a good diet, praising him (even after you ‘correct’ him). I don’t see how spending 20 hours a day in a crate can build a dogs confidence, nor your relationship with him.

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Excellent now he learns that he only has to listen when you yell at him and to associate loud noises with something negative. Keep doing that, in 6 months he will walk away from you when you reach for a newspaper.

He'll listen to me because I taught him his name with positive reinforcement using a marker & treats. He'll learn not to chew on the sofa because he knows if he does he'll get his butt spanked. My dog actually comes running towards me whenever I grab a newspaper because he thinks it's feeding time.

Glad your dog is doing great Richard, do what works for you.

My advice is there for those who wish to learn, for the rest, enjoy your dogs I'll go walk thru the ruins of my dog-run home now with its hideous chewed up sofas

"n if he walks while staring up at you for food (good food focus/drive) then you can use that to your advantage to teach him to heel and reward for walking next to you while staring at the food, even if its for just 1 or 2 steps."

Konichiwa will look at food as long as it's nose level. Even when I slowly raise it to my face to try and teach the watch command, as soon as it gets to where he has to move his neck he wooks around. haha. It's almost as if he doesnt want to have to look at my face.

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Konichiwa will look at food as long as it's nose level. Even when I slowly raise it to my face to try and teach the watch command, as soon as it gets to where he has to move his neck he wooks around. haha. It's almost as if he doesnt want to have to look at my face.

I taught my very young pup to "watch me" using this game: http://www.leespets.com/TheEyeContactGame.html

It works

As a returning novice to the art of dog loving and training the family pet, I must comment on the whole pulling puppy thing.

When you have a PET PUP, it must learn manners, or no one will ever want to see that pup out of its crate.

Our pup is now about 40 lbs @ 22 weeks of age and is very strong. He started walking with me with a very loose leash, so I have no complaints about that. As he has gotten older, he pulls a bit more out of enthusiasm and excitement, and I REDIRECT by changing direction on him. Most of the time he is not being bad, he is just excited and that is okay.

He has lots of energy and loves to run, so when my son goes out for his daily jog/run around the block, he takes the pup with him. Usually the pup paces himself with my son, which I am thankful, otherwise he could probably drag my son down the street.

If he didn't walk/jog/run nicely with us, do you think I would want to or be able to walk him or allow him to go run/jog/walk with my son?

Side Note: I live in the city. My door yard is gravel, soil & clay. My streets and sidewalks are paved and there is lots of traffic. If he is going for a walk it is on pavement not grass and darting in front of a vehicle is a valid concern.

It is okay to comment that a dog shouldn't go on an extended walk on a hard surface, but to say things like I only let my dog walk on grass ... well not all of us are so lucky to give that dog the life of Riley and only allow him to be on grass.

I want to hear everyone's opinions and concerns about different issues because that is how we learn as a community and educate ourselves and become better at what we love to do. But I think we need to temper our comments about the IDEAL versus different Realities.

Also, I didn't realize there were so many differences in raising a WORKING PUP versus a PET PUP. Perhaps we need to start putting that information in our Postings, so we know where people are coming from.

Cheers!

louanne, you live in maine and you don't have grass to walk your dog on???

just very surprised. yes, i've spent a lot of time in maine.

i lived with a dog in manhattan for nearly 11 years and we spent a lot of time in central park, carl schurz park, riverside park, etc. no parks where you live?

on another subject, you could be doing permanent structural damage to your pup by allowing him to jog at his age. wait until his growth plates have closed, around 1-2 years, depending on his breed. until then, let him burn off his energy by playing at will, not following someone on a jog. he won't stop even if it doesn't feel so good.