Everyone walks with their dog out in front of them, not marching by their side in a perfect heel..
The leash is still the most important tool. And an ecollar is great but won't make bad training better. It's a wonderful tool, a game changer for many dogs and their families, even if you never plan to have your dog off leash.
No, I won't use a PetSafe e-collar. Ecollar Technologies or Dogtra only. Ecollar Tech preferred.
The dog is only as good as the handler, so you need a trainer that knows what they're doing to teach you. Hours of education for the human.
No it doesn't take a month to get your dog to stop pulling on the leash. And if you're dealing with mild to moderate leash reactivity, that doesn't take months to get under control either. 2-3 sessions at minimum. 6 ideal. Because like I said, it's more the just training the dog, its hours of education for the human and helping them with the mechanical aspect of dog training which takes practice.
Tucker loves training. I love to incorporate play in training sessions. Tucker loves to play tug. I'll spend 5 min or so doing a combo of Place, down, recall and drop it, with Tug and treats as a reward, and then ending the session with a little walk. He's a very happy dog.
Is heel critical? I honestly don't even teach heel. I have 2 rules for leash walking- 1.) I don't want you pulling on the leash, 2.) I don't want you barking at stuff. That's it.
2nd session with Hendrix we checked in on how the first week went, owners said he is way more manageable and don't have that anxiety going on walks anymore because of his lunging at cars which was just super dangerous in general but especially on such a busy and windy road. We need to work on his excitedness on-leash around other dogs and we need to work on his interest in bicyclists. We introduced the commands "drop it" and "leave it" today, and we also went on a short trail walk to do some long line recall. He's doing really well overall. Next session at Rocky Woods to work with him around more distractions
1st of 6 sessions with Hendrix, an 11mo German Shepherd, and his family. Today, e-collar training is combined with positive reinforcement to create beautiful harmony. We spent almost 2 hours this morning going over step by step how to condition to the e-collar / how to teach him this very foreign stimulus that can be quite confusing, and how to implement this one tool to an overall training program. The biggest areas of focus for Hendrix are 1.) stop pulling on the leash, 2.) stop pulling towards & lunging and barking at cars/people/dogs, 3.) get him reliably coming back to his owners off leash so he can have the freedom to run and explore in the woods. It IS possible to make tremendous progress in the 1st session and that's exactly what we did.
Luna would lunge and bark at cars passing by. This is called leash reactivity. She's part Border Collie, so there's also that factor. Is it acceptable, is it not acceptable.. you have options when you have a behavior like this. You can move to the country and shield her from cars (avoid the behavior), you can just let her do it (ignore the behavior), you can redirect her attention with food or toys (only works if the dog has food or toy drive that is greater than the desire to lunge at the cars), or you can correct the behavior (just teach your dog "no"). I'm one of the biggest animal lovers you will ever meet and I recognize that suppression is not ideal, and you want to say yes more than you say no, but we have to keep our dog's safe, so I believe that correcting this behavior is the right thing to do, and giving your dog other outlets such as training them to be off-leash reliable and taking them on trail walks so they can run and explore safe, happy and free, is the ultimate freedom and reward, and using play in your training (tug, flirt pole.. and training a solid "out" or "drop it").. Not everyone lives on a farm, has sheep and has a dog that possesses the drive to do herding. Herding is an intense and inherently dangerous sport, it's more than just seeing if your dog chases sheep. It's about the person learning to handle their dog and work as a team. You and your dog are partners and herding is really an art. When we have dogs that possess drives and they go unfulfilled, that frustration can result in behavior like lunging and barking at cars or joggers or people riding bikes. Behavior is complex and I'm the kind of trainer that takes a holistic approach to understanding and addressing it and that includes food because food impacts everything- physical, mental, energetic, and emotional. But a simple fix for this behavior of lunging at cars, I prefer to just interrupt the behavior with more intensity than the dog is providing. A "hey, knock it off" and a quick
I'm going to start sharing some older content of when I had Allie, the dog who made me a trainer, my journey with her and as a dog trainer. Allie was leash reactive but also could get aggressive with other dogs. She had separation anxiety, too. Had a hard time being crated and in the beginning, was destructive when left alone in the house. Having a very challenging dog for a first dog taught me a lot. I wanted her to get past all of her issues so that I could take her everywhere and so that she could also help other dogs with issues, and that's exactly what ended up happening. This clip is from our hike up Franconia Ridge in the white mountains. It was an 8 hour round trip hike. Allie was off leash the entire hike. Anytime we saw another person (with or without a dog), I would call her back to me, leash her, and either step to the side or heel past them, then back to off leash. Allie got to enjoy the ultimate off leash life because of the commitment I made to her training and rehabilitation.
Had a nice session at Wheelock soccer fields this morning with labs Tilly and Aurora. They both have their e-collars on (Mini Educator 2 dog system by E-collar Tech- the only e-collar I use and recommend). They were trained to have off-leash reliable recall so today was a check in on their progress. Their mom was successful in calling both dogs back to her when they wanted to go say hi to other dogs. Both dogs also listen to her when she changes direction / turns around. Sounds simple but I do see many owners pleading with their dog to come back to them or to turn around, repeating the command over and over, finally going to get the dog and the dog plays keep away. If your dog is off leash, they should have reliable recall at a minimum. We also worked on the "leave it" command walking by a soccer ball on-leash because they are so nuts about soccer balls, they will take their owner down.
Alfie is severely leash reactive / very explosive on leash and we are using a Pet Corrector to stop his unwanted behavior of losing his 💩 when he sees another dog. Implementing corrections and positive reinforcement. Alfie is learning how to avoid corrections in this small clip and is in the process of resocializing. I believe the majority of reactive dogs are extremely social. They might not have social skills at this point which is why this factor is so important. Because ultimately most of them just want to get to the dog, they just want to socialize. But if you just cut them loose and let them react and go and be crazy, it can actually turn into aggression. It can turn into fights because they're so jacked up. You've got to chill them out and calm them down before you give them access to socialization.
Off-leash reliable obedience- down/stay at a distance and recall. Ecollar is on Tucker but only used for corrections at this stage, at the lowest level needed
