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Post by Dom on Feb 16, 2007 14:49:07 GMT -5
I have a few of Frawley's videos. I don't have that one. I would have laughed too. He is so serious during the training videos. I just can't picture him OOooo and Aaaa over a puppy going potty. Hey! Don't knock it till ya try it! If it works, it works.
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Post by bobbenson on Feb 17, 2007 20:46:24 GMT -5
Ok, the ongoing puppy walking saga: For non training walks, I have a choke chain with a 15' or so rope attached to it. A couple of problems. One, he likes to play tug of war with the leash/rope - not an unusual game for boxers. If he is wound up, we may go on a potty walk and he just wants to play. He is asking to go out, but I am not sure if he just wants to go out to play or if its a potty walk (other than the timing). I have made mistakes both in not thinking that he needed to go out when he asked to go out and had an accident in the house; as well as having him ask to go out, only to find he just wanted to play. For the latter I stay out there until he does something if possible. There has been a time or two where he just plain didn't need to do anything.
Second thing: I want him to be able to sniff around on the potty walk, but he will start to go into planter areas or other areas that I don't want him. I say no (I know it was suggested to use another word - but it just seems to be the first thing off my tongue. I'm trying to work on another word.). He will also go to the full extension of the rope I have tied to the collar. Either early in this thread or somewhere else I was told that you shouldn't allow the leash on a potty walk to get taught. That isn't necessarily that easy.
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Post by Dom on Feb 19, 2007 9:04:38 GMT -5
Having a strict potty and feeding schedule always helped us. Some dogs give signs and other don't. Sadie always needed to urinate every 2 hours as a puppy. As for doing #2, her times where 7am, 1pm, and 5pm. You could set your clock by her. We would take her out 10 minutes before her time. She also had tell tell signs when she needed to go out. Elsie doesn't give a warning. We just had to set a schedule for her and it worked out. Both dogs have had one accident each in the house since we got them. Both times it was my fault. I was busy and thought I had enough time to bring the groceries in even after I knew I was 15 minutes late for their potty break. I was wrong. You may want to switch to a shorter leash for better control. The way we taught Sadie not to keep a tight leash was just before the leash went tight we say "EH EH" (warning) then turn and walk in the other direction. If she continued to pull in the same direction, and ignored the warning, she ended up correcting herself. We spent close to 30 minutes walking back and forth in a 12 foot area before she understood. She would go right, "EH", we go left, correction. She would go in our direction then back to a tight leash, "EH", and we would turn in the opposite direction again. Eventually she would keep an eye on us and avoid the warning or if she got the warning she would stop and come closer to us. I have never had a dog play tug with their leash. I have seen somewhere that people solved it by getting a chain leash because most dogs don't like chewing on metal. I don't like chain leashes. I don't think there is anything wrong with them. I just don't like the noise they make. I would probably curl their lips under their teeth so they would be biting themselves then release the leash on their own. A shorter leash makes this easier. Again, I haven't had that problem before. Someone else may know of something that works better. We used a martingale on Sadie when she was a puppy. Elsie works better on a prong collar. Every dog is different. Elsie and Sadie are Ying and Yang as far as their personalities, learning capabilities, and training went. I wouldn't try to walk Elsie on anything but a 6 foot leash. It has been trial and error for us.
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Post by bobbenson on Feb 19, 2007 13:44:00 GMT -5
Ok, I'll go back to the shorter leash for now for the potty walks. I'll also try the circling thing to avoid a taught leash in the same area, although I'm not using the heel command during these potty walks.
As to the prong collar, I'm not using one at least for now. The reason being is the choke chain is working reasonably well. If there are correction issues down the road that I have a problem with I can upgrade, if you will, to the prong collar. I still am having a problem with tugging on the leash (mild pulling and getting in front of me) during heel walks. I say heel and frequently he slows down and gets next to me, but only for a few seconds. I try the circling thing to combat this as well as having him sit, stepping several feet in front of him; If he moves I have him sit again and move several feet in front of him. When he stays sitting for a couple of seconds I say heel and start walking. He will heel but usually will revert to walking in front of me. This situation worsens when we are returning home. I wonder if I should try a pronged collar for these walks, or simply continue with the choke chain. He is getting the idea, he just forgets quickly. He doesn't drag me, but he will keep the leash taught if I don't stop that situation.
Thanks to everybody.
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Post by Dom on Feb 19, 2007 15:02:04 GMT -5
Another thing you might try is to never move forward (or the direction they are pulling) if your pup gets the leash tight. It can be a pain and time consuming in the beginning. We didn't make it out of our front yard on Sadie's first walk. Either move in the opposite direction or stand still. A dog will pull more if they see pulling = progress in the direction they are telling you to go. You moving the direction they want is their reward. It is pretty common for a dog's pace to speed up when they are coming to familiar territory like your house or your car. We would change the pace of the walk on the way back home. Sometimes fast, sometimes slower, sometimes both. Other times we would walk past our house instead of going in. She stopped trying to pull as much when she didn't know if we were going straight inside. Taking different routes for a walk changes their behavior too. Even if you just switch up sides of the street you are walking on. Sorry I can't be of more help. I can only tell what has helped for us. There are many on this board that have trained more dogs than us. Maybe they will chime in with a different technique that will work better for you and your pup.
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Post by bobbenson on Feb 27, 2007 22:42:19 GMT -5
Back on heeling. I just reread all of the responses in this thread and I don't know if there is to much more to add, but here is where I am.
1. I try to take the dog to a dog park 3 times a week. He does well with the other dogs and gets some good exercise.
2. Heeling - if we are walking and I say sit, he sits and allows me to continue walking. I started doing this, because at first, if I said sit, he would only sit if I stopped. He now sits pretty much instantly and I can continue walking. I usually treat him for this still. It does tell me he is listening during a heel walk.
The problem with pulling continues. When he gets ahead of me I say heel. He immediately looks at me. If he looks and comes to my side I usually treat him. It was suggested above that I use some other word for this such as close. I have only been using heel (or sit when I want him to sit). Within seconds of looking at me when I say heel, he immediately goes back to pulling on the leash. I end up saying heel every 5 seconds at which time he will look at me and slow down, then return to pulling on the leash. It's also worth noting, if he is tired, such as when he just woke up, he heels perfectly. BTW he turns 6 months old tomorrow.
I'm getting frustrated, but I suspect I'm actually doing ok. I wonder if I shouldn't work on shorter distances (not necessarily time) and really work at not allowing him to get ahead of me.
Anybody have any more suggestions, or should I just keep on, keep'n on?
Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.
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