Leash Problems

Thanks so much for a your advice. My dog would kill me on roller blades, I cannot roller blade anyways. That sounds extremely dangerous.

We went to the pet store today and tried on a prong collar, and a harness with a thick 'y' front. We purchased the harness, its alot better than the previous ones we have tried. I also shortened her leash to more like a tab. She is just SOOOO friendly. Its almost obnoxious. I figure instead of trying to get her to stop pulling, I will get her to ignore other dogs and people unless THEY want to say hello.

She has not had any obedience training at all, we haven't needed it, and we also cannot afford it.

The only issue we have with her left to work on is her excitement. She pulls, and jumps on people. We have tried EVERYTHING. Well maybe not everything cause nothing has worked yet, theres gotta be something out there that works on this little monster!

I have been thinking alot about the prong collar myself. I looked on ebay and contacted the seller who is also a trainer I guess and this is his reply:


Hello

Nice to meet you and thank you for the opportunity to answer your question. And thank you for the interest in our product.

Let me first start by telling you that we have trained dogs for many years and that is still our main source of income. We have worked with many, especially, the working breads. I don't know if you have had a chance to see us on the web or on facebook but we have a lot of videos on each.

Any piece of equipment that you decide to use is just there to aid in the modification process. Without the proper foundation laid and the correct maintenance conducted (consistency) the dog will never LEARN how to walk properly. I say that to say this:

The collar is a great tool and if used properly can really aid in the behavior modification process. It will result in a quick patch but don't relay totally on the collar to do all the work.

Your trainer will help you with that. The collar will give you the ease of immediate correction but I always look for the "want" of the dog to walk properly. Meaning, I never want to force the dog to walk properly but for the dog to learn how and then for the dog to WANT to do it. So, the collar would be a great tool and will assist you in your training but I would be wrong to say that it is the fix all for you. Just like the leader is tool, so is the collar. People are often misled to believe that these devices are fix-alls. They make them out to be magic powder that will immediately fix your problems but you will always need the proper foundation and then consistency if you ever want it to be relatively permanent or learned behavior. I will let you make your own decision on whether this collar is right for you or not. But if I had to guess, Your trainer would recommend that you use one.

So...I'm thinking to contact my trainer first. Is there a trainer around that you could even phone for more help and tips? I'm thinking I might have to use this collar just to get into the class without her going crazy, and standing like a tree.....well let's just say the tree falls over

One plus of obedience classes is the socialization. You and your dog learn to work around other dogs. You see the same dogs every week and don't get to play with them. And you learn to sit/down/stay/heel/come. Maybe you can find some other people with obnoxiously lovey dogs and train together? Meet at a large field, work far away at first and after meeting the day's goal having a meeting up play time?

I wouldn't be safe on roller blades either. I was fine on a bike until the two squirrels on one block incident. Stopped biking for a couple years after that one. Wasn't me so much as the dog nearly going into the wheel. Scared me silly, she was just fine. I do think it would be really good for her if you could figure out a way for her to get to use all that great energy and strength. I would love a dog scooter if I had a dog that needed to pull. A brake, low center of gravity and don't want to go too fast for the dog.

Andrea Arden has one book that really got to me. Training Your Dog the Lazy Way. I had a dog that screamed when he thought a walk was coming up. In one session he figured out that no longer worked. He screamed, the door shut. He shut up, the door opened. See if you can read this, there might be one of those special tidbits in there that work for you. None of this works fast and we have to be more persistant than the dog. Dogs are really persistant.

We go for walks as well as socialize where ever we can that allows dogs. As well as arrange play dates with friends with pits, (they always seem to get along better when its pits playing with pits) and take her to dog parks etc. But shes just too friendly.

The reason I feel obedience class in not really for us is because she already does sit/stay/heel/come/lie down/crawl/roll over/smiles/begs/dances/runs circles/weaves in and out of my legs/balances treats on her nose etc. And does it around other dogs, but as soon as she has completed the demand, she is right back to being jumpy, pulling, etc.

I'm going to try taking her to a bunch of peoples houses, with or without dogs, and having people come over to our place, and every time she reacts to excitedly...she will be walked to another room or the door will be closed in her face.

And for walks, maybe every time she sees a dog or person, and reacts by pulling/jumping etc, we will turn around and walk the other way until she can remain calm.

What do you think?