A cat chasing Labrador puppy
Comments (0)This is a question from a reader of my website:
Question: I have a Labrador puppy who is 14 weeks old. We have a couple of cats that are not in the least aggressive. The dog insists on chasing and mauling the cats. We have tried everything to get her to stop. The cats will not fight back. How do we get her to stop?
Answer: Regardless of the puppy or the behavior problems that may be present I always recommend that a puppy as young as yours is always under supervised control. What I mean by that is that if you can’t be there the dog stays in a crate.
If you are home, however, I recommend you keep your puppy on a leash at all times. This accomplishes several things:
1- It allows you to see every behavior. Your job is to mold your puppy’s behavior. If you want to mold it, you have to see it. You can see everything if the dog is right next to you on leash. 99% of ‘bad’ puppy behavior is because it was simply allowed to happen. If your dog is on a leash you are in control of what happens.
2- Keeping a puppy on a leash establishes the proper rhythm and tone of the home. A dog can’t run around like a mad man if he is on leash. A dog that is conditioned to being calm in the home pays dividends for years. Too many dogs never learn how to just ‘be’. A puppy on a leash learns this skill from a young age.
3- Most importantly for you the leash method allows you to correct bad behaviors when they come up. When your puppy goes to terrorize the cats use the leash to give a correction as you tell your dog ‘no’ and then redirect him toward something constructive (a sit or down command, a toy, etc). Through repetition your puppy will come to learn that chasing the cats never gets him what he wants.
Good luck with your puppy.
The proper way to use a bark collar
Comments (0)Do you have a dog with an excessive barking problem? Is your dog waking up the neighbors and yourself and generally being a nuisance? There are several ways to address an excessive barking problem.
Address the source of the problem
Often a dog is excessively barking due to a lack of structure, training, and mental stimulation. Make sure your dog is getting good training, good walks, and isn’t left to himself in the backyard for 23 hours a day.
For outside dogs it may be very beneficial to bring them in the house or use a crate when it comes time for bed.
Use an electric bark collar properly
A bark collar, used properly, is a great tool for curbing excessive barking. Most people think that this is a collar that does all the training for you. Not true. You have to use it properly in order to have success. Here are several key points to have success with a bark collar.
1- Condition your dog to the collar. Most people get the collar out of the box, turn it on, and start using it right away. This is a mistake. Your dog is not dumb. He realizes, “Hey, every time they put that collar on me I can’t bark. I’ll just wait until the collar comes off.” It is important that your dog does not understand what the collar is for. Take a week or two before you start using the collar and have your dog wear the collar. Don’t turn it on, just have your dog wear it. Don’t say anything when you put it on, don’t say anything when you take it off. You want your dog to have a neutral association toward the collar.
2- Adjust the level of stimulation. It is important that you have a bark collar where YOU are in control of the level of correction. There are many collars that have only a few levels, all of them high. What happens is that the dog gets too overwhelmed too quickly. By starting on a high level your dog is not in a great position to learn. It is kind of like throwing your dog in the deep end of the pool. Some will learn to swim right away, others will struggle. It is best to start out on low levels and gradually increase the level as the dog understands what the correction means. You shouldn’t have to get too high on the levels if you gradually increase the levels over the course of a week or two.
3- Get a quality collar. Most pet store brand collars are junk. They get set off at the wrong times (like when a car drives by, when a neighbor dog barks, etc.), run out of batteries very quickly, and fall apart after a short time. Usually the difference between a lousy collar and a great one is about $20. Spend the extra $20 and get a great unit.
Click here for discount Dogtra electric bark collars.
Are dog training electric collars torture devices or humane tools?
Comments (0)In my dog training business, CommuniCanine Inc., I meet all sorts of people. Although I meet dog owners from a wide variety of backgrounds there is one underlying factor that unites them all. They all love their dogs and wish to do what is best for them.
As such I am often asked about my stance on dog training electric collars, sometimes called e-collars or remote trainers. Some of my clients are for them, some are indifferent, and others are vehemently against them. I wanted to use this blog post to touch on the truth behind e-collars.
In order to train a dog you need to use proper corrections
There is much debate on the use of corrections for dog training. Some dog trainers are a little nuts and recommend that the firmest you should ever correct a dog is by telling him ‘no’ (pretty silly when you consider dogs don’t understand any word unless you associate an action with it).
Whenever asked about my philosophy on corrections I always reply that my stance is to be ‘firm but fair’. What I mean by that is that I like to use a lot of motivation to get my dog to obey. When it comes to my methods to discourage disobedience, however, I use corrections that are just firm enough to act as a deterrent for misbehavior. Anything firmer than that is not fair and can be classified as abusive. Anything less than that and you wont be able to effectively change behavior for the better.
The same philosophy is used to change human behavior. If the only consequence for you being rude in social settings is a $.05 fine, your behavior is likely to never change. If the consequence, however, is that you no longer get invites to parties and people don’t return your calls, your behavior just may change. That is what I mean by firm but fair, you have to find a level of correction that is just enough, but nothing more.
The use of an electric collar may be the most humane way to give corrections
So I have already established that proper corrections and proper motivation are a necessary tool for molding dog behavior. So what is the most humane way to administer a correction?
Notice in the above heading that I said that using a remote collar may be the most humane way to give a correction. The reason I say that is that in the wrong hands an e-collar is the most in-humane way to train a dog. In the wrong hands this collar is used at high levels and is not used as a tool for teaching, but rather a tool to punish indiscriminately.
In the right hands, however, an electric training collar is the most humane way to give a correction. If used properly the e-collar is used for teaching purposes. I advocate only using this collar on low levels. You would be shocked (pun intended) to know how low the level of stimulation actually is on an e-collar. I always have my clients feel the collar before using it. Most of my clients can’t even feel the collar on the levels I use and their dogs can only barely feel it. In this way the collar acts as a tool for teaching behavior rather than just for punishing.
In order to train like this, however, most people need the aid of a professional trainer that has experience using the collar on low levels. Seek out a good, qualified trainer and you will find that your ability to train humanely and at high levels has no limit.
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