Bob's Dog Blog

I wanted to take a moment to comment on responsible dog ownership. Although this subject can take many forms, today’s topic is dog containment. Since I mostly write about working dogs, please take this into consideration when reading the article.

Having recently moved to a new area, my first major action was to scope out my property and determine what had to be done to make it safe for dogs and humans. This is a rural area, but near a couple of upscale subdivisions.  Young children play nearby, so safety is a big issue.

The first observation made after two days was that nobody, I  mean nobody, has put up a barrier of any kind to contain their dogs. No fences, not even kennels, yet dogs all around. In the first week at my new place, no less than three dogs owned by neighbors had wandered onto my property. I started looking and found people do not even use leashes to control their dogs. Dogs, as large as Danes, walking around the streets, loose as can be.

As I began the task of building an enclosed, fenced in area for my dogs, I began to realize why there were no other fences or barriers for dogs in the area: it actually costs some money and involves hard work to get something like this done! (Note: If you feel it’s too much work to keep your dog and others safe, then owning a dog may not be a good choice for you)

Just to expound a bit, the property liability laws are pretty clear in most states in the US.  If someone comes onto your property and is injured, you, the owner, are still liable, whether the person is invited or not (I’m not talking about criminal trespass here..). That alone makes it very clear to me why it is vital for one to safely contain their dogs on a permanent basis. Other situations, such as dogs breeding bitches that are in heat down the block, annoying your neighbors due to your dog crapping on their lawn, dog fights, are among a long list of reasons for containment.

Okay, so here is the rest of my lecture on responsible dog ownership: If you own a dog, one of the first things you need to do is construct a safe barrier for your pet to be in, whether it is a secure back yard, a paddock, an enclosed kennel or a completely fenced in property. I am not advocating tying out a dog all day, by the way. That is just ridiculous, lazy and potentially harmful to the dog.

To those of you who insist that kenneling or crating a dog is ‘cruel’, just imagine what it would be like for your dog to get hit by a passing car or the lawsuit you’d have on your hands when the dog bites your neighbor’s child. By the way, good obedience training and socialization also helps immeasurably in controlling a dog’s actions, but that is another topic altogether.

To those of you who have already done the above, congratulations! You are true friends to your dogs and your neighbors.

To the remaining dog owners who are continually bailing your dogs out of the pound or getting threatened by a neighbor for your dog’s misbehavior, please  consider implementing responsible containment for your pet.

It seems that everybody is a dog trainer. I just came back from socializing my dog and a guy came up to me, proceeded to tell me all about how I should train my dog. Some of it was okay, but most of it was nonsense. I didn’t tell him anything about myself or what I do with dogs. I allowed the guy to pet my dog and while she was in a sit, let him stand next to her. It was invaluable socialization. The rest of the conversation was pretty unproductive.

This is not the first time an incident like this has occurred for me. It’s as routine as the number of times I have taken a dog off the premises for socialization/fun time.

Again, I have nothing against people talking with me about my dog, but what I do find amusing is the pedantic nature of the conversation. “You need to………….”. “Your dog is…………”. And so on. Like I said, everyone is a dog whisperer or a show judge.  The false information, idiotic conclusions and faulty advice that I have been given over the years could fill a small book. Yes, it used to bother me to no end. And yes, I’ve gotten my own self confidence up enough that this stuff doesn’t ruin my day, but it took a while and quite a bit of handler training to have enough knowledge to get past these little encounters.

So, the problem isn’t so much the stuff that comes out of these ‘expert’s’ mouths. It’s whether or not you can take all of it with the objectivity that it deserves. In other words, take what people say and decide for yourself whether it merits further handling or inspection. Don’t reject it out of hand, but don’t sit there and develop issues for yourself and your dog because so and so said something you didn’t like about your obedience.

This is most insidious with dog trainers and more specifically people pretending to train dogs. I worked with someone recently who had been told all sorts of things about her dogs, all from experienced trainers. Some of the statements were true, but because the people who gave her the advice or critiques had some kind of authority on the subject, she decided to become neurotic on the subject of training her dogs. This got directly in the way of her learning how to correctly train her dog, because she was more concerned about what people thought than just getting down to the task of getting the dog to sit. Now, granted, a person like this is always concerned about what other people think, so there’s a bigger issue than dogs here. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that you are the only one, as the handler, who can either observe your dog’s faults objectively or wait for some ‘expert’ to tell you something that you don’t want to hear.

It’s up to you. I personally prefer to take matters into my own hands and work to develop an objective, honest viewpoint about each dog I am handling, with the end in mind of correcting as many faults as possible within a reasonable time period. I am more than willing to listen to what someone has to say, but I try to simply and only take what I need out of the conversation or incident and leave the rest behind.

After all, not everyone can own Rin-Tin-Tin, can we?

I just wanted to do a quick post on dog training and specifically, how handlers behave when they are working their dogs with a trainer (or without one).

Over the years I have personally been subjected to some of the craziest techniques and attempted transferences of weird behavior, compliments of the local dog ‘trainers’ and obedience ‘gurus’. Well, I have to tell you, there were some things wrong with the way these ‘teachers’ imparted knowledge and technique regarding training people how to train their dogs.

First of all, the basic element which I believe reverses any good things these trainers are doing is that they are not allowing the handler to comfortably work with his dog.  Breaking this down, this problem arises when the handler/dog team are not allowed to get comfortable before beginning a lesson. Omitting this step results in missed commands, lack of observation and a host of other problems that will arise from the fact that the handler is not ready to do the work with his dog. It adds insult to injury when the trainer asks for his money at the end of a horrible lesson.

The second half of the problem is caused when the trainer constantly interrupts the handler while doing the lesson. All this does is make the handler and dog exasperated and prevents the handler from actually figuring out how to do the exercise. I once had to spend two weeks straightening out this very thing with a handler who had been in some class where the trainer was constantly correcting her with no chance for her to figure out the actual exercise for herself. (The opposite happens as well, where the trainer completely ignores the handler to the point where neither they nor the dog have a clue)

What is happening here is that the trainer has never allowed the handler to take the time to actually work out how to COMFORTABLY BE THERE WITH THE DOG while training their dog. In order to train a dog, the handler must be comfortable and at ease with what he or she is doing. This does not require constant badgering, corrections, interruptions, comments, invalidations or whatever other techniques the trainer uses with his students.

The correct method is to first get the handler and dog comfortable,  patiently show the handler the exercise and then HAVE THE HANDLER WORK OUT HOW TO DO THE EXERCISE, REGARDLESS OF HOW LONG IT TAKES.  Occasionally fix the positioning of the dog or timing of the command/correction/reward. That’s it. Just give the handler the damn exercise and let them have at it. The handler and dog team will figure it out, believe me. If not, the handler will give up and never touch a dog again for the rest of his or her life. In which case it was never meant to be.

Either way, you have thus allowed the handler to retain enough of his own personality and comfort to get the exercise completed with his own dog. There are so many combinations of personalities between both humans and dogs that its just best to give them the room to work things out together without the constant interruption and evaluation of some trainer who may be good with dogs but has no understanding of people.

I mean, that’s where all the fun is with dog training, isn’t it?

This post is for those of you who are actually concerned that your Rottweiler must weigh 140-180 pounds, so it can protect you and your personal property. I have stated in earlier posts that the Rottweiler is a medium to large breed and that there are size restrictions written into the breed standard and that these demands regarding size are unrealistic and unnecessary.

That doesn’t stop people calling me to ask ridiculous questions about the weight of parents, eventual weight of the pup along with the ‘fact’ that their last Rottweiler weighed 180 pounds, and so on. (As a side note, people generally are unable to guess the weights of things. I have a male who most people insist weighs 130 pounds who is actually around 98 pounds.)

If you want a Rottie to protect you, then get a Rottie who has good nerves, loads of drive and then train him or her slowly and correctly to do the work.   Size matters not at all.

To illustrate this, I have a link here of a video from France’s RAID anti-terrorist K-9 unit, showing their Belgian Malinois dogs doing various containment and take down drills.

These dogs weigh around fifty to sixty pounds each, tops. Enjoy the video and support the Rottweiler breed standard!

Everything you do with your pup or adult dog is essentially training. It might not fit into the category of formal obedience work, but it is training nonetheless.  For example, when you come with your dog to the front door after a walk, does it sit and wait for you to open the door, or does it scratch the door and whine to be let in? Both of these actions are trained behaviors.  The difference is that the dog in a sit position was trained by you and the dog jumping up and down and ruining your front door was trained by itself.

This is why I frown upon leaving a young pup alone with an older dog to ‘keep each other company’.  If the older dog has some poor habits, you can be sure that within a few days, the pup will have learned them. Dogs learn by watching and then become conditioned through repetition, even if self taught. If you let a dog act like a dope every day, pretty soon, you have a problem on your hands that appears impossible to handle.

Forget about all of this ‘dog whispering’ garbage.  Dogs learn to do bad things by doing bad things, over and over. It’s not more complicated than that, I assure you. So, conversely, if you want to undo bad behavior in a dog, you need to recondition the dog, repetitively, daily, until the dog behaves differently. I emphasize the word ‘you’, because you are the only individual who can change the dog’s actions, behavior, habits, etc.

I have reconditioned four and five year old dogs, as well as puppies. Age is not as important as the handler’s willingness to repeat the exercise as often as needed to get the desired result. That means every day, four or five times a day, and so on. You can incorporate obedience and conditioning into daily routines. For example, training the ‘sit’ command can be done when  coming to the door (both inside and out), feeding , entering and exiting the crate, car and so on. After two weeks of this, the dog will get the idea that it has to sit before getting the reward (whatever your reward is for that dog).

Do not expect a dog to change because you yell at it or tell it ‘no’ a million times. That is not dog training. That is you being trained by your dog to react to its behavior.

Actual dog training is for real life situations and is done in real life.

Think about it.

Dog training is for everyone. It is for every dog and every household.  It is the key missing ingredient in any issue a person may have with his dog, regardless of breed type.

Obedience is not native to a canine mind. The issue here is one of the nature of a dog. Dog’s are inclined to do what they want, when they want. Without structure, a dog is lost. Man has spent thousands of years domesticating this animal and that bond is the key to obedience training.  The history of the canine is filled with examples of how man has trained his dog to do work and be a part of man’s life. Hunting, protection, transportation and even companionship all involve training the dog to suit both the handler and his environment.

As I said earlier, obedience is not natural for a dog. Leaving obedience up to the dog is a grave error and will simply ruin the dog. Dogs must have this area of their lives addressed before they can become valuable to their handlers. Some dogs learn faster than others. Some like obedience training better than others. That is the responsibility of the handler, using motivation methods to get the dog wanting to learn new things, and so on. It is also the handler’s job to correct the dog after it has learned what is expected of it.  Teaching and then correcting the dog  is 100% the handler’s job.

Omitting patience and repetition invites failure in training. By patience I mean taking a good, hard, realistic look at your dog and decide what you need or want to train it to do. Then, with that in mind work on it as long as it takes to accomplish that goal. That doesn’t mean fooling around with the ‘sit’ command  for a day or two, then giving up.  By repetition, I mean doing the exercises as many times as is needed to get that goal accomplished. I train my pups to sit and ‘watch’ every time they come to the door of my house. After a month, they’ve done that command fifty or sixty times, just at the door. They do it before being given food. That’s another sixty reps. It adds up.

Do you want to know why the majority of dogs used by police, military and other service organizations are imported from Europe? Because the culture of dog training in Europe includes an understanding of patience and repetition. There are probably very few ‘Dog Whisperers’ over there, mostly ‘Dog Handlers’ (yea, I know it’s a generalized statement, but you get the point).

Decide what you want to train the dog to do, then begin the exercises. Watch the progress and adjust the exercise accordingly. Keep doing it, daily, weekly as many times as you have to, in order to obtain the result. Maybe a thousand repetitions are needed, maybe more. Also, don’t expect things to look great when you first start a specific obedience exercise. It will be sloppy, awkward and uncomfortable. The dog may react or protest. The worst thing you could do at that point is to stop because ‘my dog doesn’t like what we’re doing’. The solution to that is to continue the procedure until it smooths out and the dog has gotten the point and understands what you mean.

Be willing, be patient and get results on your dog!

Here is some information that I feel is vital to the correct development of your working dog. It is often missed, ignored and otherwise relegated to the zone of  ‘that stuff is for other people’s dogs’, which is inaccurate to say the least.

So, when should the red light go off regarding formal obedience training?  When your dog is old enough to know the value of reward and motivation for executing a command, has developed some focus and when it is beginning to test the boundaries of its relationship with the owner. This comes into play around six to eight months old, can happen earlier or later, but it will happen.

Here we have the dog, who, when asked to sit (off leash), will sit some of the time; who will engage in destructive chewing or barking; who will challenge the handler or people in the environment; doesn’t come when called. The list goes on.

Here is the rule: A dog will not learn actual compliance to a command while off the leash/correction collar. True compliance to a given command will only be effective once the dog realizes it cannot disobey the command, ever.

The solution is to either enroll in a puppy obedience class or teach yourself how to train your dog. That means every day, for its lesson, it is on a leash, with a correction collar (usually a prong). That doesn’t mean endlessly telling the dog ‘No’, louder and louder in a vain attempt to control the animal with your voice. This is a useless exercise. There has to be a an actual physical correction in conjunction with the command (Sit, Stay, Come, etc) for the command to have an impact on the dog.  This doesn’t mean, of course, that you should over-correct or be a sadist with your animal.  This is not punishment. It is training. If you cannot differentiate between the two, get a lizard for a pet.

A few minutes a day, with a day or two off per week,  should start conditioning a dog towards good obedience.

As a note on this, there are some people who feel it is cruel to correct a dog with a collar. They feel, instead, that you can use reason and human communication alone to get a dog to obey. There are all sorts of silly dog training ‘techniques’ out there that purport to solve the ‘problem’ of training a dog in obedience by not training the dog in obedience. Good luck with that, especially with a working breed.

If you think this doesn’t apply to your dog, or that your dog is a natural Rin-Tin-Tin, then by all means disregard the above rule. However, I am willing to wager you that at some point your dog will choose to disobey your command and that will be the end of that experiment. A dog will get away with as much as it can get away with, in the obedience department. It is a fact that obedience is not native to a dog’s behavior, so one probably should also conclude that the human handler must  create an environment where obedience is part of the dog’s life.

If you wait for the dog to make decisions on its behavior, you are asking for trouble.

Good luck and Good obedience training.

In working with dogs, puppies and handlers over the years, I have found a common issue in training.  This has to do with one’s lack of observation of what the animal is doing.

A dog is always doing something, both in life and in training situations. This is true before a command, during the command, after the command, during the reward or release and so on. If you are ignoring what the dog is doing, you will make the gigantic error of assuming what the dog is thinking, which is quite a leap for a human to make, even with other humans, much less with dogs.

If you do not watch your dog you may be missing one key habit or movement that he or she is doing that will tell you what to correct or condition your dog to do, or not do.  Too many handlers just go through the motions and expect those motions to pay off with the dog. These handlers are not having fun because THEY ARE NOT BEING INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS OF DOG TRAINING.  Instead, they are just casual spectators, waiting for the dog to do the  right thing.  This laziness is why the ‘method’ dog trainers make so much money and deliver such a poor result – they know you don’t want to watch your dog, so they develop bogus ‘methods’ to make you into a robotic dog ‘trainer’.

You should try this for a few minutes every day: sit or stand near your dog and just watch. See what it is doing, how it relates to its environment, how it relates to people, whatever you want to know about your dog.

I guess it’s ironic that we demand that our dog watch us when we don’t do the same with them.

Bob

I have emphasized the importance of socialization and obedience training more than once, both on this blog and in conversation with owners, but the subjects are so vital that both bear continuous repetition.  I think that life has a way of distracting us and pulling us off of vital actions that need to be done in everything we do, including our pets. So, a little reminder now and then is a good thing.

With that being said, I wanted to post two personal anecdotes that show what can happen with working dogs when an owner/handler does not do the right thing re: obedience/socialization.

The first incident occurred at my vet’s office, around a month ago. I had taken in one of my females for a check up. While waiting in the room for my vet, I heard barking out in the waiting area and someone yelling ‘Knock it off!” to one of the dogs. I walked out into the hallway and saw a man and woman, each with a German Shepherd dog, on leash. I knew the man, knew he was involved in Schutzhund training with his dogs and  that he was more concerned with how nasty his dogs were during Schutzhund training than how well he could control them. This is perhaps a variation on the ‘size fetish’ and an accurate index of the character of this guy. Now, telling a dog to ‘knock it off’ is not very effective, especially if not accompanied by a collar correction. It is just someone who wants to draw attention to the fact that he has a ‘badass’ dog, nothing more. I wasn’t able to see what happened as far as correcting their dogs went, but the fact that these animals were acting sharp like this in a vet’s office is a huge red flag. Well, I finished my appointment and heeled my dog out of the room into the hallway and out to the reception area, where one of these Shepherds sat, with the female handler. I walked my dog in front of them (not towards, but across = prey, not defense) and the Shepherd lunged at both myself and my dog, growling and barking aggressively. The handler did nothing to correct the dog, except passively allowing the dog to correct itself when it reached the end of the lead and going into a sit. Who the hell trained this person as a handler? Not a very good trainer. That spoke volumes as to who trained the dog, as well.  Again, the dog had no manners, was sharp and went after another dog and handler, WHO WERE NOT THREATENING THE DOG OR HIS OWNER.  This, in the Schutzhund sport, is something that should have been addressed in basic obedience. It’s called a temperament test, and if something like this happens, the dog is disqualified from that trial. More simply put, it is the basic criteria for a pass on the Canine Good Citizen test, open to all breeds regardless of training level. Yet, these two people think it’s somehow appropriate for their dogs to act this way. No, no, no. I don’t care if you own a fully trained patrol dog. If you have that dog in a sit, he stays in a sit and does not do anything but sit. This is behavior ALLOWED BY THE HANDLER AND REINFORCED WITH BAD TRAINING AND POOR OR NO SOCIALIZATION. Needless to say, I reported both of them to my vet and told the woman that she should learn how to correct her dog. She had nothing to say, and rightly so.

Here is the second example, again. a true story. the other day, I was out in a small downtown area near home, socializing one of my young females. This included heeling in the little park and then heeling up and down the sidewalks, passing people and other dogs, allowing people to pet her and so on. The usual stuff. At one point in her heeling, I approached what appeared to be a man with his service dog. It was probably a seeing eye dog -  the animal wore a nylon harness with the emblem of some service dog organization, so it was either seeing eye or  therapy, etc. As you probably know, these dogs are highly trained to go into stores, airports, etc. to assist their owners in getting around. So, I am heeling my female in front of this man and his dog (again a GSD – I have no problem with Sheps, by the way. I own two myself. I do have a problem with untrained Sheps). Again, not towards, but across, in a non threatening way. The dog lunges for me and my female, growling and barking.  Fortunately, this was a small dog and the man was able to pull it back and grabbing it’s entire body close to his, told it ‘no’. With all due respect to disabled people, hugging a dog while telling it ‘no’ is the most useless form of correction possible. What did he correct in this dog? Nothing. More importantly, this is a SERVICE DOG. They are not supposed to have head issues. How does this guy expect to walk into a crowd of people or an airport with a dog like this?  The real fault actually lies with the person who allegedly trained this dog. I’ve seen man eating patrol dogs act more responsibly. I wanted to talk to the man and help him report this to the organization that sold him the animal, but, I had no choice but to heel my dog away, across the street, rather than risk another confrontation with a sharp dog and a disabled handler.

Both of these incidents show the shameful lack of understanding that certain people have with regards to working dogs and their relationships with people, other dogs and the environment in general. The incidents above are the result of LEARNED BEHAVIOR on the part of each dog, allowed or encouraged by the trainer, handler and owner. It has nothing to do with the breed type, sex of the dog or anything else. Maybe, just maybe, that Shepherd shouldn’t have been selected to do service work, but responsibility still falls to the trainer of the dog to select the right dog for the job. You don’t use a nervy dog for work like that, ever.

Again, this is why everyone who owns a working lines dog, or any dog for that matter, to properly socialize and obedience train their animals so that they are well behaved and trustworthy out in the world.

This doesn’t mean that your dog can’t protect you. But, that entails lots of training, which always starts with socialization and obedience!

Bob

I thought I’d share some things I’ve learned over the past few years, while training 3 month old, 4 month old, etc. puppies.

You see, I’ve tried to train eight week old pups. Not very much there to work with. I’ve tried working with ten week olds. Better, but still not enough attention and focus to do basic work. So, I’ve been just letting these pups grow a bit, gain some muscle tone through exercise and learn basic things, like how to climb up steps and walk through a doorway.

However, starting at around 14 weeks, for some reason, I started to see that the pups really come alive and begin to recognize that there is something more than eating, sleeping and random play. This is, truly, the time when the pup’s awareness of its surroundings becomes focused enough that the handler can create a proper bond between person and dog. This is when obedience training will sink in, when the connection between a light correction, a command and a reward will all begin to make some sense to the pup.

For example, today I took out a pup, at 15 weeks, who has had nothing more than some basic leash work and basic socialization. I put her on a big slip lead, brought along some of her kibble and began to coax her to come to me, rewarding all the time with the food. I did the same with the ‘sit’ command. After no more than five minutes or so, the pup was responding, doing the basics of a recall and a sit. Granted it was sloppy and sometimes hesitant, but she always did the command and got her reward. This is the beginning of actual obedience training and the pup will NEVER forget the five minutes I spent with her, as it was fun and gave her a reason to comply.

So, here is my first suggestion about puppy training:

Do not become frustrated if your pup does not respond to obedience training prior to 12-16 weeks of age. Be patient, continue to socialize and crate train and the pup will wake up and start working with you at some point between 12-16 weeks of age.

Here is my second rule, just to set the record straight:

Any attempt to do obedience training on a pup WITHOUT a leash is a waste of time. The bond between human and dog must have the leash to become totally real to the animal. This is so the pup recognizes that the correction has something to do with the human and that the correction will consistently occur when the dog disobeys. Very light coaxing and correction can be done on a four month old, with a fat, english style slip lead. To give a pup corrections with verbal only will not condition the dog to obey under ALL CONDITIONS, as, depending on the individual dog, disobedience may be the path more traveled than obedience.

I would hate to be the owner of a dog, who, after being ‘trained’ without a lead and collar, decided to run across the street or continue chewing on the furniture, or worse, at age one or two.

I sincerely hope this helps.

Bob