Sharon Blakeney-McDonald
Forum Replies Created
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Thank you both for your input. It is good to know the pup will associate her behaviour of being remove from the pack as the punishment and not the crate. I have put into practise the phrase 2 “leave it” command using her leash with a gentle pop and redirecting her back to me with a “Come” command to a kong toy with food. It works beautifully and as I’m already doing phrase 1 seem to be the best way to proceed with her. What I’ve realising is if I’m going to use the “no” to stop behaviours I don’t want – then use it with the command schedule that gives her alternative behaviour for her to do. Good advice…. much appreciated.
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It had cross my mind that the pup could have a bad association to her crate if I use it in this manner. Usually I wouldn’t intervene but Sooty would just keep at it no matter what Ara did… standing up, ignoring, avoiding, etc… everything but have a nip at her to stop it as my male dog did. I will give it another go to see if it will play out where Ara will eventually reach that stage where she will decide to use a little bit more force with maybe a nip.
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Thank you Kelly… very good advice. Unfortunately this pup Sooty is very persisted and Ara my elderly dog is so patient and tolerant that its me who is being driven crazy by the behaviour. I wish Ara would just tell her off with a nip but instead Ara looks at me to help her out. (Unlike my other dog who did and Sooty doesn’t annoy). I’ve been intervening with holding Sooty collar and telling her “no” then rewarding her for the good behaviour of sitting with praise/love but then she straight back at it again. I was thinking of using her crate by putting her in it for short period of times every time she does it til she learns enough is enough. Sooty as started to be afraid of other strange dogs (fear period stage) and I’ve been thinking she may need to be enrol in puppy manners/obedience classes that may also help her with socialisation. The pup was brought for my elderly mother by my brother to be her companion – the pup though is more than what our mother is capable of handling. I’m hoping to encourage mum to come along and join in at the classes with her puppy and to have some fun. I know the puppy is just really happy to see us when we come for visits as I do spend time playing tug games and doing marker training phrase 1 with her.
What are your thoughts on the idea of putting her away in the crate? I’ve use a method similar with one of my dogs that would bark at strangers/dogs whenever he was taken out of the car. Every time he did it I would say “no” and put him straight back into the car for short period of time til he learn if he wanted to stay out of the car then he needed to stop behaving in the manner he was.
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Ah, yes… thanks Judy. I do keep the remote collar on Tazer for all off leash outings as I like knowing I have that 100% back up to be able to correct him for disobeying. I have use the booster on my collar but that’s because he had gone into drive and there was no way his working low level stim would have got his focus back on to me to follow my commands. I will be using the escalating corrections too at Tazer next lesson with Nuno for his aggression at strangers as at the moment he is overriding his working level of the remote to re-focus back onto barking at them while doing the heeling command… even with the “Leave it” he does do the command but then he goes straight back to focusing on the strangers to bark at them. I will try the sequences of the commands first before adjusting the level of the remote collar higher… last training session we did it trying treats and flat collar corrections but he keep breaking the command and I was just continuing repeating myself. We are going to use the e-collar for this training as its less emotional for me then the prong collar. Thank you for your helpful advice here.
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What type of remote do you have and what is the stim level you are using? It does sound like you need to use a more higher level than what you are using now. Zena may be feeling the stim but it may not be high enough for her to be bother by it… when the level is right the dog will take notice of it. I wonder if we can catch Mike to see what his thoughts are on it or maybe Judy could check with him to see.
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I must say I didn’t feel confident when I first started to use the remote collar… I found it helpful to have a session with a dog trainer. Even so I still had a few problems relating to me not fitting the collar properly. Are you having any problems with fitting the remote? I found from not fitting it properly that the probes were not contacting my dog skin and it was affecting him from feeling the stim level of the remote. My GSD has a lot of fur around his neck so the long probes work better on him than the short probes. I also move the collar up and down so the probes part the hair and make better contact. The next problem I had then was making sure the strap was tight enough (without choking him) for the collar to be fitting snugly. The more I fitted the collar the better I became at finding the contact and tension where I now no longer have the problem of my dog not feeling the stim of the remote. Is it possible that this may be the problem instead of Zena having a high tolerance to the remote collar?
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Another suggestion is you could teach Zena the “leave it” command. I’ve been teaching this command to Tazer for showing aggression towards strangers but I’ve also use it for other things I didn’t want him to engage in. There a video in phrase 1 showing you how to teach the command. Once Tazer learn what the command meant I move to phrase 2 using corrections and adding distractions, then phrase 3 using the remote.
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It sound like you may need to keep working on the command heel. I would check through all the videos again in phrase 2 to just to make sure you didn’t miss any steps to the training. What I do with distractions I make sure the dog knows the command first then start adding the distractions into the training. Start with low distractions first and when the dog obey your commands under low distractions I would move onto higher distractions. I think the reason why Zena is ignoring you is the distractions have become a more higher value to her then obeying your commands. I think also she is not receiving an high enough correction on the remote that is motivate enough for her to obey your command over the distraction. I’m in a similar situation where once my dog Tazer is off leash and a high distractions is around if I don’t catch him before he goes into drive then the only way I can get him back under control would be to use the remote collar to break he’s focus back onto me and my commands. This can only be achieve if I have the level high enough that will break his focus off the distraction. (I have a booster level that double the stim level on my remote for those emergencies situations.) I do understand your fear of not wanting to hurt your dog by using a level to high that could… if you follow Mike system this shouldn’t happen. I’m going to start the phrase 3 training again with my dog even though he as been train previously for obedience on the remote collar. I’ve been watching Mikes phrase 3 vids and believe if I follow he system and do every step he does I won’t have any further issues of my dogs breaking commands again. I hope what I said here will be of some help for you.
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Caroline I was wondering if you read the post on “Protection/intimidating barking on command” in the forum under <span class=”bbp-breadcrumb-current”>Personal Protection and Guard Dog Training? Mike explains how the barking on command is taught there, though it seems like Quma knows the command but doesn’t want to make the sound. This is how I taught Tazer to speak on command but Tazer is a suspicious dog and as reactive aggression. It seem I have the opposite problem with him to what you have with Quma… Tazer doesn’t want to stop barking. lol.</span>
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Wow, you are so lucky to have such supported locals to be able to help you to build Quma confidence. She is an awesome dog to be able to do such a great job of being a certified drug dog. Both of you are an valuable asset in todays society. I did read your post of Quma “high prey/low defence drive” as I have similar issues with Tazer and was wondering how you would go about training her in protection work. Mike response to your post made me realise maybe Tazer should have been train in defence first instead of the prey drive they try to do with him. Tazer also needs confident building and we decided by desensitise him to people/decoys would help him to feel less stress in his life. Your plan of being on the ball sounds like a good way to go with Quma training. Thank you for your positive comment of my handling skills. I have a excellent dog trainer now who’s methods are compatible with Mikes training system and I am making great progress with both my dogs now.
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My GSD Tazer wasn’t socialise properly neither because when I brought him 9 years ago as a 8 week old pup I was unaware of how I should have been raising him. I also have the problem where Tazer doesn’t like to be petted by strangers and he becomes defence with them by barking and snapping. I have use a vest with the saying “Do not pat – dog in training” but I have found when he wears his muzzle that definitely works at stopping people from doing so. Tazer as always been wary of strangers and I’ve only now came across a dog trainer/decoy that knows how to help me to control him. We are first going to work on desensitizing him to people before any further protection work is done with him.
I have heard of a method where food or a ball is withheld from a dog where it barks out of anticipation of receiving that can be successful to teach the dog a bark command.
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Do you mind if I ask what training you are doing to develop your dog defence/protection work… are you working with a decoy? How I encourage one of my dogs to bark was finding something he like to bark at when I didn’t have the assistance from a decoy. My dog would bark at birds that flew on our property or strangers passing our property. I would wait til I could set the situation up to happen and then capture his behaviour of barking by adding the command “speak” and telling him what a good boy he was. To him barking is reinforcing as he likes to guard and chase things away.
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Thanks Mike – seem like a few things are taken into consideration when it comes to training for the dog to stay with handler when off leash. Your answer as help me to set the goal to what may be best for myself and the dogs I will be doing this training with.
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I just thought of another idea – is it possible to provide a non-fixed escape-proof enclosure for the dogs to use when being outside instead of using fencing? I have heard with the spiral tie out long line it is best to only use for short period while supervising as a dog may still become entangled with other objects.
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My sister had a similar problem with her dog where they were living on a large property and their solution was a electric fence that work well with their dog. Would the female take care of business if your not on the end of the leash? If the area is small can you use long lines to attach the dogs to while outside may be a option you could try… a spiral tie-out with a long line stops the dog from becoming tangle in the long line.
