Dog Owner Chat v2

[Saracirce]

Creed is adorable Jazi, congrats! I know how much you love Dobies ^^

-excusemenothavingadoghah- Anyways, I walked my friend's dog last night, with several other friends. What I've noticed is that she pulls, A LOT. Like to the point where I have to run to catch up with her. Her family uses a prong collar to control her, but even that she pulls a ton, it's worse when she doesn't have that collar on. I want to give her some advice about controlling her pulling without using those prong collars. I've heard halters work, but I'd like to get your guy's opinion. She's a 60-70 lb(don't know her exact weight) silver lab. Thank you!

Yep, head halters work though remember that they're a training aid, not a permanent solution. If she's strong enough/heavy enough that they can't control her when she pulls, I would advise the head halter. Though make sure the dog doesn't get a lot of slack on the lead. They can seriously injure themselves if the suddenly lunge then hit the end of the lead with a jerk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueE1S1k74Ao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFgtqgiAKoQ

Kikopup has a bunch of other videos all on loose leash walking. Just search "Kikopup no pulling"

Hello, I have posted here a while back and I have a question to ask.

I own a 150ish pound presa canario dog, and I am started to get into running and walking. So I have gotten interested in taking my dog down the road. But I would like to be able to go to Parks or down a dyke for a afternoon. So that means I would have to transport the dog around. The only problem is he fact my boy is scared of cars, and I am not even sure why because he loved them as a puppy.

But I drive a Mazda 3 and I would be giving my dog all the back seat and the trunk space so he would have one large flat surface. So there is room for there. My older dog which I used to own was just a little smaller and fit fine so space isn't a issue. But what are some things I can do with my dog for him to finally get into my car..and just a warning, treats and dog food as rewards do not work, he will not them em.

Lovely thing about marker training is that you can use just about anything as a reward. Toys, sounds, smells... Heck, I've used running as a reward. It just takes some creative thinking sometimes. Find what motivates your dog and try to figure out how you can utilize it.

Start off by clicking and rewarding for just going near the car while the door is open. Don't try to make him get any closer then what he's comfortable with. As he gets the idea, you can up the requirement so he has to get closer to the car to get his reward. If I were using treats, I would then start tossing the treat onto the car seat and gradually tossing it farther across the car so he, eventually, has to get in. Then jackpot reward. After that, depending on how comfortable he is, work on him being comfortable with the door closed then with the car on and then finally short rides. Then you can gradually extend the rides. I would even go so far as to give the dog a special chew that he only ever gets when he's going for a ride.

Whatever you do, don't try to force him into the car.

[FlynnEugene]

Creed is adorable Jazi, congrats! I know how much you love Dobies ^^

-excusemenothavingadoghah- Anyways, I walked my friend's dog last night, with several other friends. What I've noticed is that she pulls, A LOT. Like to the point where I have to run to catch up with her. Her family uses a prong collar to control her, but even that she pulls a ton, it's worse when she doesn't have that collar on. I want to give her some advice about controlling her pulling without using those prong collars. I've heard halters work, but I'd like to get your guy's opinion. She's a 60-70 lb(don't know her exact weight) silver lab. Thank you!

I'm not sure if this is an option for them but I bought the don sullivan kit ( if you don't want to buy the whole kit you can just buy the collar separately). Basically it is sorta like a prong collar but it works differently. Basically his collar works like a mom dog correcting their puppies, and it isn't sharp. It's plastic and it works REALLY well. I have a boxer lab cross who is super high energy, used to pull ALL the time and literally after one use of that she never pulled again. I can actually walk her off leash now. So, maybe if you get the collar for the dog it may help. Just a suggestion

[Jazi]

It's still a prong collar. Prong collars are not sharp, either.

In addition, I've never really understood the logic. "Mother's bite" that they're referring to is on the back of the neck, but the collar's meant to be used with the spikes to dig in to the front?

[Cardinal]

Wait, let me get this straight.. You used a prong on a fearful dog/on a puppy? Welp, theres your shyness issue. LOL. Prong have the wonderful way or creating fear in dog with (and without) weak nerves/soft dogs. Prongs, or chokes, or whatever special 'training' collar work by causing pain to the dog which in turn they can turn outwards and decide since they just saw a mailman at the exact time they got pinched.. that mailman must be responsible and therefore scary. Or bikes. Or crowds.. Or really just anything that happens to be in their line of sight when it happens. Some breeds are intelligent enough to know that YOU caused them pain and come back up the leash at you, which is always fun.

Please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this is the fearful boxer you have.


Anyways, nearly all dogs can be taught that pulling is not an acceptable behavior with positive methods such as becoming a tree, turning the opposite direction, marking for position, teaching heel work, etc.. Theres loads of different ways without causing discomfort.

[Bluebird22]

Sad dog is sad

She has a mosquito bite and since I put a baking soda paste on it I won't let her itch. I really need to get out to the vet to grab her heartworm meds and flea and tick prevention.

Also, we are starting agility training on Wednesday! I missed the first class because I was sick, but apparently the trainer is really good and there is only one dog in the class who is slightly DA, but I've heard the trainer is very good at letting that dog participate, but still keeping the other dogs safe.

[Dakonic]

It's still a prong collar. Prong collars are not sharp, either.

In addition, I've never really understood the logic. "Mother's bite" that they're referring to is on the back of the neck, but the collar's meant to be used with the spikes to dig in to the front?

Yup!

And a couple things. Dogs don't correct each other like that, and I don't think I've ever seen a mother correct in that fashion. Maaaybe on rare occasion but usually just a bark or air snap is used.

If it's referring to animals carrying their young than it's silly. Carrying their young has nothing to do with yanking on their neck for corrections. Prongs are painful. No matter how you sugarcoat it. It's why they work, and a good trainer (prong user or not) will tell you that. A good trainer is honest about what they use and why it works. I personally have never had to resort to a prong, and likely never will. (Not counting when I was ignorant and used one regularly)



Now. For fear aggression. I used a prong on my boy Dakota a long time ago, he was fearful as a puppy and became fear reactive/aggressive as he got older. I thought a prong would be the solution. Boy oh boy was I wrong, it just turned his reactivity into aggression by putting him further on edge. He even became dog aggressive with it on. I couldn't take him into places like Petco because he wouldn't get 20 feet from another person without freaking out. He was scared, he thought people wanted to hurt him, and I was just adding pain to the equation.

3 years ago I stopped using prongs and started working with different trainers. Haven't turned back since, I started pairing good things (Food) with things that were scary or bad (people, dogs, new places, etc) and most people don't even believe he used to be like that. He's a fully function service dog now and has met tons of people, dogs and done great. He full asleep on stage with me during my highschool graduation and at a ball game last week if that gives you an idea of how relaxed he is now.

[FlynnEugene]

It looks like a prong collar, but it isn't one. It is actually so gentle you can put it on your arm, yank as hard as you can and it really doesn't hurt ( I did it to myself) Whereas prong collars are meant to hurt to correct the dog. I did my research before getting that collar, I hate prong collars and don't trust them. I did the same thing with a prong collar and put it on my arm and pulled and it gave me a giant bruise. If you order his video's and watch it Don Sullivan Explains more into detail. And actually a mother dog does grab the back of the neck ( the scruff) to correct her pups depending on what the pup does. Of course they do other things as well such as snap and bark and what not. And on the collar it isn't spikes, that drawing made it looks like spikes but there not. The spikes don't actually dig into the dogs skin like a prong collar would. It pulls the skin up in a way. If it hurts your dog then you are doing it wrong/ pulling WAY too hard. All I am saying is it works really well! Izzy doesn't use a leash anymore, comes when called and is probably the best trained dog I have ever had. I can take her to the store with me, tell her to lay down and stay outside. I go inside, shop and come back out and she is still there. She is only 11 months old, so I mean it works really well Clicker training works well, but due to the treats your dog won't always be reliable because if it doesn't get a treat it won't see the point in coming. This just helps them respect you more and stuff. I personally only suggest using this on dogs who are more difficult to train and don't take clicker training well. My other two dogs are just treat trained and are fine, but Izzy was a bit more difficult. It's all actually really interesting, like his theory and stuff and I would love to talk about it more!
Like I said, it's different than a prong collar, and only people who buy his video's will understand because they are not on youtube and he explains into detail how he designed them and stuff. I don't think he would hurt his dogs or sell a product that hurts other peoples dogs, so yeah

[Sasko]

I don't really post,

Do you own a dog?:
Yes, I own two dogs right now, a 2yr old APBT and a 1yr oldStaffy/Shar-pei/APBT

Favorite dog breed?:
I love too many breeds but a small list of my top ones APBT, ACD, Beauceron (Would love to own one, one day) American Staffy, Sussex Spaniel and the list keeps growing

Tell us about your dog(s), if you have any!:
Right now I just do little training with them, my APBT knows Sit, Wait, Lay down, Roll Over, Shake and Hi-5 and to come back when called, My mutty mutt has been a lot harder to train, she knows sit but I'v still got to work on it with her, same with lie down, she dose shake and hi-5s fine though.
Both are loaded with energy, both get 1hours walks everyday, plus sometimes a trip to the dog park, and they come with me about everywhere I go seeing I hate leaving them be themselves anywhere.

I'm also looking at a course for next year, which I will be allowed one of my dogs, as its a k-9 course.

Pictures of your dog(s):

I would post, but my photos are too big, I'm not sure if Chicken smoothie allows DA links, so I wont post unless I know you can.

[Keriae]

Ugh, went onto one of the buying and selling pages on FB this morning. It was an all animal one and omg, so many BYBs!
There were loads of crosses and loads of apparently "purebred" dogs yet only one seemed to have papers
and there was this dalmation breeder omg
the pick of the litter was awful
I hate to have known what the others looked like

[Dappled Sapphire]

Ugh, went onto one of the buying and selling pages on FB this morning. It was an all animal one and omg, so many BYBs!
There were loads of crosses and loads of apparently "purebred" dogs yet only one seemed to have papers
and there was this dalmation breeder omg
the pick of the litter was awful
I hate to have known what the others looked like

Ugh I hate those pages
So many people trying to make money off their BYB crossbreeds
And half of them don't even have their first vaccinations or microchipping which is required here before a cat or dog can be sold