Collar - Page 3

The whole situation of what went down with that trainer is not what that situation should have looked like.  The dog did do some vocalizations and he was way to far away to get back to her to reward it....and then to suggest the prong....  Wow.  The whole experience was not worth the hundreds of dollars I spent for the seminar.  I was disappointed in what was suggested with the prong to seeing some of the other peoples dog flat out shut down.  I could ramble on, but I see no point.  C'est la vie.     

Lexa, to answer your question she is a ~7 mo. GSD.  I was holding her on about 3ft of the 18ft of line I had.  She was not really able to spin and be to wild...she flips herself if I am not careful.  I held her for at least 20 or so mintutes.  You can also injure a dog with a prong.  I have seen that as well.   

You can injure a dog with any collar.

These are all tools in the toolbox, pick and choose what you feel works best for you but there is no harm in understanding the theory behind each and every tool.

Hedi, your puppy is 7 months old.  What stage is she at in bitework development?  Has she done the ragging and gripwork yet?  It should be all prey work at the moment.  I do not understand why the need for the prong as suggested by your top-notch helper?

You need to give more details preferably a video to highlight your issues better.  Some dogs are very vocal in the beginning, some aren't even in prey mode.  Barking in the early stages can be developed with play but can be exhaustive to the individual dogs in the beginning until they become more confident.

Not a big fan of getting the dog to bark for everything. Did it with one dog to get it to bark for it's food, toy, etc. Most annoying dog ever. Spent the rest of it's life telling it to shut up. The prong is an easy concept. The dog cannot sit there for the 20 minutes pulling. The dog cantains itself and because it cannot pull and go after the helper, the dog builds frustration and usually will bark. If the dog is winded and choked out from the flat, you have a problem. It is up to you to decide whether the dog is ready for that or if you need to go to a harness. Not bagging on anyone, but a decent helper should have had this dog barking before the seminar. That shouldn't have been your focus at a seminar. Not saying it is the helper's fault. Nobody on here knows the real background story. For all I know, you have only done one session at your club, you never show up to training, your club doesn't have a full time helper, etc.

Don...that is a reasonable explanation of the theory of the application with the prong in a protection session.  I am satisifed with that, not saying I will run out and do that, but I see what you are getting at.  I am pretty hardcore about training and do drive about 3 hours there and 3 hours back which equates to going on the weekends and during the week when I can.  So, I am a weekend warrior of sorts.  If I have a day off during the week, I am gone.  I would be elated to train formally 3x a week like I did back in Germany.  Just not feasible at this time and very frustrating, I bark all the time about it.  If I were to be able to train more (with the club), life would rock!  I had to chuckle when I read the part about only training with the club once or not showing up, that is not me.  I know we will get there, I just have to be patient and focused on what I can work...beyond part C.  It is too bad that there are not more clubs sprinkled around the country.  I like your posts, I am glad you responded.          

Poseidon-Oh...this person is not my top notch helper...lol.  Her bite development is fine...she bites full and hard very confident she makes eye contact with the helper.  We are gripping and targeting at the moment.  She will bark at some point....at least by SCHI right....  Shoot...back in the day they told you to not do much with your dog until they are 1.  Now look....some people gear up their pups with every tool out there (prongs, e-collars, and then a harness as well).   

 

Hedi, I don't understand what your issue as with barking with your dog. First you say you took your dog to a seminar held by a top notch person and the helper suggested the prong to get the dog barking but then you said your dog was not rewarded sooner as the helper was too far away.

The senerio is impossible for me to picture what is the actual problem.

Oh well, Don made a good explanation why the prong can be advantage here for the bark but at 7 months, I can't imagine what the big deal is for barking at the helper.  Maybe take a few steps back from the beginning,  JMO.

I know what she's saying. They had another team out there for her pup to feed off of, but the distance between the two was too great for the helper to reward the puppy when he reacted.

Don - you're too good

I was by blind 1 and the other team was by blind 5.

You may as well have been by your car! Ineffective!