"Agility" wrote in message
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Paul E. Schoen wrote:
Tonight I took Muttley to his first night of obedience training. I had
thought he would do better, but the prospect of 20 or so dogs and
people,
and an array of irresistable smells, made him hard to control. After
struggling for a while with his "choker" chain collar, we tried a
"pinch"
collar. He seemed to respond better with that, but still he was easily
distracted. I'm sure the prongs did not really hurt him, and probably
would
do less damage than a tightly pulled choke collar, which often caused
him
to gasp as he struggled against it.

It's the first night of class and 20 dogs is a big class! He isn't
going to be perfectly well behaved the first night, if he was you
wouldn't need to be there. Instead of struggling with him, work with
him, not against him. In my classes the first thing we do with dogs is
the name game. You say your dogs name (once) and get him to look at you
(without corrections), jump up and down, clap your hands, squeak a toy
and the instance he looks at you say yes and toss him a treat. Doesn't
take more then a minute or so for most dogs to be staring at you.

That seems like a good idea. He certainly responds to his name here at home
and in other less distracting situations. He also knows and usually
responds to the commands "sit" and "heel". However, at the obedience class,
he needed to be physically restrained so he would not disturb the other
dogs and people. Maybe a period of socialization at the beginning might be
helpful, to allow the dogs to meet each other and get used to their scents.
It is also difficult when the class is outdoors at the SPCA where there are
lots of other scents to investigate. I think it will be better with a
properly sized pinch prong collar. My first try with it here at home seemed
to work well, and he did not pull nearly as hard, so there should be less
chance of damage, and he may be motivated to pay more attention to me.

It's really his choice, after all, to struggle uncomfortably or allow me
to
follow him (mostly) where he wants to go on a loose leash. I would not
want
to cause him any extreme pain or damage, but he has a very tough
muscular
neck and a very willful disposition, and he needs to know when he needs
to
obey my commands, for his own good. It is not too much unlike Army and
Marines boot camp, which can seem very harsh (and sometimes does exceed
reasonable limits), but the end result is (usually) a well trained and
effective member of a team with extraordinary capability.

Yes, he does need to learn to obey your commands, but he has to learn
them first and he's not going to be proficient at them at the first
class. Don't expect miracles here. Make it rewarding to go with you, to
follow you, to be with you, to pay attention to you and he will start
paying attention to you.

He seems to enjoy being with me and going for walks or rides, but in
general he is rather aloof and independent. He likes to be petted and
enjoys some roughhouse play, but usually he is content to just relax when
he is indoors or sitting by my side outdoors. When he goes for a walk, he
is intent on following his nose, and is rather indifferent to me petting
him or talking to him. Riding in the car he is happy to sit in the
passenger seat and poke his nose out the window, and sometimes he just
curls up there or on the floor. When I go to bed, he likes to snuggle next
to me for a while, but then prefers to sleep on his dog bed, either
upstairs near me, or downstairs. If I sleep too long, he will jump into bed
and let me know he needs to go out or needs food.

I find it hard to be harsh with Muttley. When he is not distracted, he
seems to listen well to even soft spoken commands (at times almost
suggestions). Perhaps he does not fear me as he would someone who was a
very strong disciplinarian, but in a way I also admire his strong spirit
of
independence, hopefully also coupled with respect and affection for me.

He shouldn't have to fear you, but respect you. And that will come with
time and more training. Working with distractions is hard, but it's
something you have work through. And simply correcting him over and
over again in the beginning stages of classes isn't going to help much.
Be a leader, not a dictator. Teach the dog, don't just correct the dog
and get frustrated because in the face of 20 dogs he is having trouble.
Upping the corrections in these early stages, imo, isn't really helping
much.

Lauralyn

I try to be reasonable in my corrections, but I have also heard that it is
important to make sure the dog does as instructed, with a single command,
and promptly. When he is constantly struggling to go every which way, about
all I can do is pull tightly on his choker collar held closely, and then he
is just struggling to breathe. Sharp tugs did not seem to work. The new
large prong collar really seems to be effective, and I hope to work with
him in the next couple of days before his next class. It was frustrating to
need every bit of my strength to restrain him, but I had no choice. Now I
have seen some real improvement, with more responsive control, and he
hardly seemed to pull at all. I think he knows that this collar will be
uncomfortable if he resists too much, or perhaps it is just that it is a
new sensation. Eventually I hope he will be easier to control without need
for such appliances.

Thanks for your helpful input.

Paul