Michael,

Oh my god. I clicked on your link and your little Jack and he is SO DAMN CUTE!!!! I got my little Jack as a rescue...at 4.5 months I was her THIRD home...she was a handful when I first got her
- like a tasmanian devil.

I call her my little psychopath:-) She has come a looooong way from when I first got her. She has her CGC certificate, but I don't think she'll ever pass for a therapy dog...I could be wrong, but we are still working on it.

 Quote: francis daigle

 Quote: randy allen

Getting enough input Francis? LOL

I can hardly keep up.

But keeping up you are and you and Diablo are doing GREAT! I too may be posts behind; but I know the walks seem to be a point of difficulty. In this "New Day" it is not a mistake to retreat. If you sense his nervousnes growing; high tail it outta there before he reacts.

I don't mean you need to make a fool of yourself but if you do; it's for a good cause How does his prey drive relate to you? Will he chase if you run? This would be one of those instances you can use his drives in your favor.

Example: He notices an object in the distance; BEFORE he zones in, shuffle your feet and run backwards a few steps put some oomph in it. Good work if it distracts him, even better if he follows you! Make sure the leash is loose, you don't want to yank him. You can hold some leash wrapped around your hand during the walk which you give up in these instances. Reward for his attention to you or his running to you. Then walk the other way, away from the object of his focus. Tiny steps towards what you want for him. What this will do is break the cycle of how your walks currently play out. It also makes you a little more interesting and way down the road maybe months and months later; you become his focus because you always get him out of situations that unsettle him and is there any greater reward than getting to chase when you are a prey driven JRT?

If this works for you, you do eventually fade the running and can replace with either just the foot shuffle or his name but you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

BTW, my daughter who has the Border Terriers has also had JRTs.

I expected more from your child rearing skills

 Quote: Sheila Buckley

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

BTW, my daughter who has the Border Terriers has also had JRTs.

I expected more from your child rearing skills ...

Go figure....

Not only that, but I just love the psycho lil bassids.

Luckily, I don't have to stay there.

 Quote: Gloria Hong

Michael, Oh my god. I clicked on your link and your little Jack and he is SO DAMN CUTE!!!!

Francis, you should look at Michael's link, too, because it's a true JRT burning off JRT-energy.

Wow this thread is going a long way.

Gloria, while I'm somewhat of a "couch potatoe", I'm working on that too. I'm about to take Diablo to a bike ride after I'm done writing this. Above everything, I'm a pansy when it comes to rain/snow. But I'll try to put more discipline on that side.

I have to go slowly with Diablo. While his breed require a tons of exercise, he's also not as in good shape as if he'd been running a marathon every day.

His cushions are weak, I need to put him some "shoes" when we go for a bike run, because he'll get hurt from running on hard surface.

And also, I tried the pool because I read in one of Frawley's articles that swimming is the best exercice for dogs because it make all their muscles work without hitting their hips. Also figured it would be amazing considering I wouldn't need to put him shoes for this. The fact that he despised the pool is a downer, but I won't push him for now.

Sheila, this is an interesting idea. But couldn't he interpret this "game" as fleeing/avoidance ? I don't want to add to his anxiety.

One more thing I should mention, now that I think about it. If Diablo is running (when I'm on a bike, or on rollerblades), he's much less enclined to acting stupid when we meet a distraction since he needs to focus on keeping up and not sumbling. If anything, I could probably only take him to fast paced runs rather than "boring" walks. We'd both get exercise, and he wouldn't have time to mind about distractions. Beautiful

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Francis, you should look at Michael's link, too, because it's a true JRT burning off JRT-energy.

Heh I already did. Indeed reminds me of my own critter. Too bad he doesn't like the pool tho.

Terriers! Gotta love em cause it's illegal to shoot them!

Force training a terrier will get you a couple of things. A dog with flat obedience. a dog that has lost it's drive or a dog that tries to eat the turd on the other end of the leash.

After 30 yrs with a half dozen different terrier breeds the one thing I've learned is be patient and HAVE FUN!

Most don't take the motivational training to the extent that I do but terriers are the dogs that got me looking at this method. If a terrier is having fun, the world is yours.

It sounds like your trying to hard to train the dog instead of enjoying it.
Dump the trainer! No point in beating around that bush.

Staart from scratch and teach this dog that your not going to require precision obedience every time you put a leash on him. A 20 min walk should have no more then 3-4' 15-20 second obedience workouts. Your boring the daylights out of the dog and his response to corrections tells me that he's not really understanding what you want. To much correction will over ride any effort on the dogs part to want to learn.

Of course the dog is going to be more interested in the dog outside the window then it is with the food you offer. That's WAY over the top distraction for a dog that really hasn't properly learned the behaviour you want from it without distraction.

Go back to ground zero and let this dog know that obedience can be fun.

An obedient dog is more about being a good leader then it is about overpowering the dog with correction.

Try and find a motivational trainer. If that doesn't work for you then find a happy medium. Either way, the dog needs to have fun in training.

 Quote: francis daigle

Sheila, this is an interesting idea. But couldn't he interpret this "game" as fleeing/avoidance ? I don't want to add to his anxiety.

The point is to play the game before the anxiety sets in and avoid putting him in the situation where he feels anxious. As it stands now Diablo does not have any options on the walk. He doesn't understand what you want; he becomes tense when confronted with something he feels needs watching; he acts out to relieve the tension and boom he is corrected. He is not offered an opportunity to investigate and become comfortable or to avoid it and get his bearings. He has no interest in his favorite toy at this point because he has already reached the point of no return. You have lost him and he gets corrected for it. IMO the next walk just builds on that anxiety and so on and so on.

Think of it this way; wolf pups don't go on the hunt or would they be allowed to continue down the path toward a mother bear and her cubs. Leaders protect those in their care. I know you see the things he is afraid of as non threatening and maybe even foolish and you don't want to feed into to it. That is good and you will get passed this but all in good time. Build your bond with him make the training FUN FUN FUN which is why I suggested RUN RUN RUN. This is not about fleeing or avoidance but about building trust to eventually be able to work on getting over these stumbling blocks

 Quote: Bob Scott

Terriers! Gotta love em cause it's illegal to shoot them!

LOL! It wouldn't help anyway. I've heard it said that if the bomb drops and the world comes to an end, the cockroaches won't be alone......the terriers will be right there with them!