I love that look on his face "oh YEAH parks are the BEST!" Does he freak out when the chain collar comes out? Buck knows what that means all too well.
No he doesn't freak out at all. That's his full time collar and I use a small one so he doesn't even know it's there. It's not designed to be painful. It's just designed to control pulling. I just have to deal with all the nasty looks from the bleeding hearts with small shitty dogs who bark all day and are no fun. They all look at me like I'm some sort of animal abuser. Whatever. My dog plays fetch with a ball all day and their dog just sucks.
No need to justify it to me, I have a similar collar for Buck too. Hardly have to use it anymore. It's not his 24/7 collar though and he only wears it when we go outside, so if he hears it he comes running for it.
I have the prong collar for my husky/lab cross. It is her full time collar. It doesn't hurt her at all. She needs it to control her pulling .
Mine is just a chain but it is persuasive. My 5' 0" mom flat out refused to use it with him when she first wanted to take Buck for a walk and he was very close to literally pulling her across the yard before she let go. When I first got him he did nothing but pull me, now one year later he hardly does and for the most part a verbal "eh!" is enough to remind him who is walking who.
When I get home from work, my dog is just so excited to go out, he is hard to control. And the front door to my new place basically opens out onto the street. So I'm making him learn to sit and stay before I put his leash on. No way I am going to let any of these crazy Houston asshole drivers kill my dog.
If your dog is a puller, the Gentle Leader is a great deterrent. I have a Martha Stewart one for Duke and it even keeps him from going after the cat. Prong collars and metal collars did nothing to stop him - this thing changes his mind fast.
We've used the gentle leader before too, it works 100% of the time. Maybe my standards are high, but I want my dog to walk beside me perfectly with zero pull on the leash. He is actually really good on the leash and doesn't pull much, but I have a bad lower back and want to be able to go on an hour walk without that constant gentle pressure. Gentle leader is amazing and works as a solid training tool.
I am very strict with Buck and his behavior and obedience on walks, to me it's a matter of safety. I think I'll give the Gentle Leader a try for the sake of my girlfriend.
For sure. You may have your girlfriend take a class with him. If he pulls on her, it's because he thinks he is allowed...he considers himself above her in the pack.
Do people really get caught in this dominance issue with their dog? I don't understand it, I don't think dogs are in some competition with people in the group for dominance. I feel like that fraud that is Casear Millan has misled so many people. Why does a dog pull? Its not because he's trying to be dominant over you, its simply because he's excited. Millan has affectively been discredited, his whole idea of being dominant over a dog just makes the poor thing afraid of you. This is in no way a shot at anyone here, all the dog owners here are great. I just don't like the approach. Here's an article about why this idea is ineffective. http://www.petsadviser.com/news/cesar-millan-critics/2/
My dog is very submissive and obedient. Certain behaviors that people label dominance issues are bullshit. My dog pulls because he loves being outside and wants to smell everything and chase squirrels. Ie: sometimes my dog is sorta retarded.
I can't tell if you're trolling...but... I've never read any of his stuff, so I can't speak to that. I do know, in my experience with dogs through the years, that dogs behave the way they're allowed to behave. If they think they're above someone in the hierarchy they tend to act out more. Even excited, my super crazy stupid out of his mind excited Boxer doesn't yank and pull on me...because he isn't allowed. He doesn't roll on me, he doesn't bark at me, he doesn't yank at me. He doesn't even try. I only have to look at him and he ceases. The woman who had him before was run all over by him. He'd bop her with his nose, bark at her, make demands until she gave him what he wanted...and she did because he wouldn't stop. He jumped on her and other people, and generally was a giant pain in the ass. She was a very passive personality, and he knew it. Dogs are pack animals and generally follow the alpha in their pack. Edit: I should say - it took a little while for him to reach that point. We had a lot of work to do when I got him a year ago, hence the gentle leader. And I still use it in public when we go to Home Depot or the park or something like that because just in case something happens, I want immediate control. That something usually happens in the form of a random male walking up to me (he doesn't like that) or a cat showing up. He doesn't handle cats well at all.
I'm not arguing against the idea that a dog needs leadership, they do. Dogs obviously need boundaries, but they don't need a trainer who has this competitive mindset that they are trying to impose themselves on top of the pecking order with animalistic behaviors. What I'm arguing against is that there is this battle between a dog and family members for leadership. I'm also arguing against this idea that you need to make the dog completely submissive to you. Yes, the dog should respect and follow you, but it shouldn't be afraid of you.
I don't think any one trainer could be 100% right with every dog, but I believe dominance can manifest itself in ways. If you aren't assertive with Buck he will flat-out ignore you, but be firm and show with body language that you are the boss and he listens and obeys. There's a big difference between fear and respect. With Buck and I this means I do not raise my voice with him, and I do not strike him, nothing like that. Rather I require that he is sitting down politely before he gets his food and waits for my command, or he is sitting down calmly before he can go outside and waits on my command to go out the door, or doesn't retrieve a bird dummy 'til I say so. I establish my dominance over him through daily routines like that and our hunting training. This very closely mirrors Buck and how he behaves with me vs. my mom or sisters. They are soft with him, ask him to do things vs. tell him, aren't strict with commands, and they don't understand how he can act like they don't exist or misbehaves. He would do the same with my girlfriend but since she has spent a lot of one-on-one time with him and is a lot more assertive now he behaves so much better with her. Some people think I take his obedience too seriously but they aren't hunting with him or live on my busy street. He needs to obey me so he doesn't do things like take off onto other property, bother other hunting parties, or tangle with a skunk or porcupine- scenarios where he could get in really deep shit. Buck can be very stubborn and impulsive (i.e. he's a bird dog, he wants to take off after every duck he sees) so it can be a challenge.
Oh no. If a dog fears its owner, the owner is doing it wrong and doesn't need a fucking dog. ExH2 was of the mind that the only way a dog was 'trained' was if it was completely submissive and afraid. Fuck that noise.
Here's an interesting article. I know everyone here wants to be a good dog owner and wants a good dog, so I think maybe its worth a glance. http://avsabonline.org/blog/view/do...ful-construct-or-bad-habit-bradshaw-blackwell
There was a pack hierarchy with my parents' former dog. It was dad, myself, mom, and then the dog. If all four of us were in the room and my mom told him to do something, he had to look a dad first to get his approval, and if dad wasn't there he had to check with me. If he got scolded, he would always go over to someone higher in the pack, thinking that they might "save" him. He pulled on his leash no matter who was on the other end of it. We spent some time training him not to pull and it got better, but he always had a tendency to do it. Some dogs are just pullers.