An Ah-hah moment

[barry581]

I will preface this post by say I am no expert on training dogs. Not by a long shot. While I have learned a lot over the past 4 years, I'm still on a very steep learning curve, and I am working very hard to give Brooks the start that I was unable to give Sophie and Bruce. Brooks is greatly benefiting from what they taught me.

We took Sophie and Brooks to Lowes this afternoon, I needed to pick up a couple items, and it's a good place to socialize. I started doing leash walks with Brooks about two weeks ago, and go figure, he pulled. So today I broke out the small/puppy prong collar I got when Sophie was a baby. Initially I put the leash on Brooks flat collar. Of course, he was pulling and charging all over the place. After a couple minutes I switched the leash to the prong collar. I let him loose, and he hit the end. "Oh crap what's this!" I stood there. He did it again. I stood there. He did it again, only much slower and much more aware. We started walking and for the next 20 minutes on so, he would get close to the end, and stop and wait, then keep going. By the time we left he was happily walking on a loose leash about 95% of the time.

So here is my ah-hah moment. It's a whole lot easier to teach them what's expected, than it is to fix problems that occur when you don't. It's so simple it makes my brain hurt.

[Meeps83]

I know this time around we are going to focus a lot more on loose leash walking and not jumping. I have a feeling there will be many ah-hah moments coming up!

[Jerry]

Yeap just put Max on the prong. We trained him on a harness and all we did was make him a great puller, dang.

[Labradorks]

Loose leash walking was one of the best things I ever taught my dogs. I do not use training collars, but they learn from day one that pulling on a leash results in...nothing. So, regardless of where we are, what kind of collars they are wearing, etc. they just know that pulling doesn't work. Once you reward them with it, or allow them to self-reward, that is when you have issues. My friend let her Lab pull for too long and he still pulls in a prong. He knows that he can get what/where he wants by pulling. Period. It's an awful habit!

[windycanyon]

Good on ya Barry!!! Some people listen, others... well, they bitch about sore shoulders. LOL.

[Blackboy98]

Good for you Barry. I loved using the prong when I first got Gabe as he was a terrible puller with his high prey instinct going after squirrels on walks. The prong worked within two days and we were back on the flat collar.

Brooks is very smart (and cute and sweet and....etc) so I think he will be a quick learned.

[MightyThor]

Our next puppy will be benefiting from that Ah Ha moment, thanks for sharing!

Confession time - Thor is TERRIBLE on a leash. He pulls like crazy and won't listen the moment the leash goes on. It is his worse habit and I've not been able to break him of it.

And I know the reason why. As a hiker and outdoor person, one of my biggest pet peeves on the trail is poorly behaved off-leash dogs. I was determined that I would have a perfect off-leash trail dog and we worked like crazy on his voice control from day 1. And it worked! He's an angel and attentive listener off-leash. I never have to say a command twice. Even when encountering his favorite thing in the world - other dogs - he won't approach them until I say it's okay.

But that was all at the expense of neglecting leash training. I never realized how hard it would be go to back and train on-leash. I will never make that mistake again. Luckily we now live in a place where there are an abundance of off-leash dog friendly trails, so I don't have to put him on leash too often.

[Abulafia]

I totally second the prong collar advice. Our trainer put one on Hoku when she was 4 - 5 months old, and the change was immediate. Hoku was already pretty well trained then, but as a Lab, the pulling thing was there, and of course they are so strong, they sort of don't care about the pulling. They may choke themselves a bit, but it won't stop them. The prong collar doesn't hurt them at all, but is a good reminder that "Oh right, I don't pull."

As a result, Hoku's a great loose leash walker, and it's a pleasure (also makes her welcome all over the place, which is great). I'm not sure if you can do prong training later on, but I'd imagine so. I'll do it w/ every dog.

[sparky]

Good news!
Our trainer suggested the prong collar when Mocha was 4 months old. DW had red marks on her hands from the pulling. After 15 minutes we saw a HUGE improvement. Latte will have her own pink prong (if we can find one)

[Labradorks]

If the dog wasn't trained do what you have to do to stay safe and keep your dog safe. Prongs can be a good management tool. I don't personally have anything against them, when used properly, but, I think it's kinda backwards to say that next puppy, instead of training them, you'll just put a prong on them right away.

For those of you that show or plan to show in any AKC events, how will you do that? If you plan to take your puppies and dogs to shows for acclimation (not to trial) matches (depending on your area/club they may not allow prongs) how will you do that? Also, I don't know of any good trainers, pet or obedience, who would allow a prong in puppy-k or in basic obedience or competition obedience. Even among the local traditional trainers, it would not fly, and there are some pretty harsh trainers around here! How will that be managed? I'm actually really curious!