The Silver Bullet

The prong collar is a subject of great controversy. There are untold amounts of "positive training" methods most of which require a "lure and reward" based philosophy. This particular method involves luring a dog with a food reward. We know all dogs love food. This bribery of sorts works during the initial training phase of some behaviors. However training based solely on food as a training tool works better for the owner than it does for the dog. It does make the owner, who loves his/her "baby", feel good about the training because it involves no force. A dog will follow his nose, with a smelly treat in front of it, just about anywhere. Food motivators work, in the beginning phases of training. This is a good thing. This is how I teach a new a behavior with a "green" dog with little or no training. I use each feeding time as a training session. This way I'm using what I would already be giving the dog.  Only in my house, everyone must work for food.

First and foremost is to teach the dog how to take the treat. Licking, pawing, jumping will not bring the food. As soon as the dog backs away from the treat, he gets it. He learns quickly that a calm state gets him what he wants. To lure the dog to sitting position, place the food in your hand and pass the treat to the dog's nose and then lift it above his head. As the nose goes up, the bottom goes down. Anyone can teach a dog to sit. Teaching the dog to stay until released is horse of a different color. I won't even go into teaching down. That's not what this blog is about.

So we've lured the dog to sit. Now what? The dog must, of course, stay until released by the handler, not of the dog's own accord but within a second of achieving the sit. Great! Now we're working on stay for one second, then two seconds and progressively longer over a period of short and sweet training sessions. The dog gets it pretty quickly, "My human passes a treat, palm facing upward, by my nose and over my head. I sit, I get the treat as long as I'm not licking or demanding it". What could be more fun to a dog? He's done something to get something. Nothing in Life is Free. That's why we humans have domesticated the dog. We need a helper and dogs are more than willing employees. Not to mention, they are cute and furry and they love us unconditionally as we do them. Dogs need jobs and we need to give them jobs.

The dog now knows sit. We know he knows it because he sits even when we don't ask him to. In the dog's mind, "Hey, maybe if I present a sit, my human will give me one of those yummy things I get when I do this sit thing." We know the dog knows because we've had many previous successful sits without coercion. Always working with the dog on a leash and flat collar. We've even varied the food reward limiting the treat for sit to every few times instead of every time and the dog is performing sits beautifully even with just an ear scratch. The dog even knows that the reward will not come with sloppy sits off to one side of the rump.

Now this is where the "Silver Bullet" comes in. We all know the only thing that can kill a Werewolf is a silver bullet. The only thing that can reinforce a command which has already been taught and successfully achieved with many repetitions is the use of a tool the dog can understand. In dog training, the silver bullet is the prong collar. It works because you use what the dog understands in dog language. Since humans cannot correct the way a dog would correct another dog, we must speak "dog-lish". Using the prong collar is using dog language. Ever notice two dogs playing with a toy? The more dominant of the two will correct the lower dog with a quick snap at the neck. Ever notice puppies playing? They will correct each other as the mother has done to the puppies with a snappy head jerk toward the neck. Rarely actually making more than a second of brief contact with the dog being corrected. And rarely escalating to more than the head motion toward the culprit. Look Mom, no pain, no violence just results.

All of the above makes good sense but here is where the hard part comes in. People don't want to make the necessary correction. They either don't know how, or when or how hard to make the correction. They are afraid they'll hurt the dog they love and adore like a child. They would rather nag, yell, plead and bribe the dog. Or my favorite excuse is "He knows it but  he just won't listen". A dog can hear the fridge door open from across the house and you think he can't hear you standing right next to him? This is really sad. All it takes are a few well timed corrections and the dog knows it. You can move on to bigger and better things.

People have come around a lot about the prong collar from 20 years ago. But we aren't there yet because people are unsure and unskilled at proper technique. There aren't a lot of classes that teach prong collar training to people so they can train their own dogs, at least where I live. Most classes are directed at the owner and their wallet rather than training of the dog/owner relationship. It's much easier to get people to sign up for classes when you're selling "All Positive" training methods. As with the Germans, in the day of Adolf Hitler, who trained their German Shepherd Dogs using choke chains. Hitler was evil so must be the training methods used on the dogs.

Convincing the owner is probably the most difficult part of being a dog trainer. Training the dog is the easiest part. People look down on you when using a prong collar on a dog. It's like they think you're some kind of monster torturing your dog for sick pleasure. At night when my dogs are not wearing their prong collars and tab leashes, I shove bamboo shoots under their toenails to torture them even more (just kidding). However, these same people are always so amazed at how well behaved even the most adolescent dog can be. Even with no prong collar or leash the dogs are more well behaved than the most treat rewarded dogs. There are even countries in the world that don't even allow people to use a prong collar by law.

A good thing to note is if we didn't have Silver Bullets imagine how many Werewolves would be running the planet. Well, pretty much they are running the planet. Generally speaking, dogs are misbehaved all in the name of "He's just a dog. Let him be dog." Dogs need jobs. If we humans don't give them jobs, they'll find "jobs" we don't like. For instance jumping, digging, barking, running between your legs, pulling on the leash, chewing up the house. The list of "dirty jobs" is endless. That's why dogs aren't allowed anywhere but the dog park or the local pet store where they want your wallet and don't mind if the dogs makes a mess in the store or the occasional dog fight (with dogs on leashes) which may break out. That's why when you pass a person on the street, even if your dog is in a perfect heel on leash that person will almost always move out of your direct path in fear of what the dog may do. Or worse, owners with their dogs on prong collars huffing, puffing, chuffing, spitting and dragging the owners into the Vet's office, pet store or down the street. This really ticks me off! I must restrain myself to not grab the leash from the owner to remove this dog from his miserable plite.

I don't advocate using the prong collar on every dog. I do not use a prong collar on my small chihuahuas. They don't need that strong of a correction. They respond to a small "pinky correction" on a flat collar. The correction must fit the dog and it's temperament. Some dogs do not require a big time correction. Some dogs you have to crank on the leash with your foot to get them to respond to commands you know they already know. Sort of like teenage kids. Some are easy. Some are bugar bears. So many dogs so little time!

If I were to have this conversation with my good friend from Chicago, an Area Trainer over seeing many stores for a nationwide pet store chain, she and I would just about come to "fist-a-cuffs" over this issue. She's a firm and staunch "Positive Training" only methods believer. She attends numerous "Positive Only" seminars with truly innovative techniques some of which do make sense. I love her to death but on the topic of prong collars, we adamantly disagree. That's putting it mildly on her part. We remain friends and do not discuss this subject. I use the prong collar because it works, when used correctly and consistently and in pretty short order. I do not feel that it delivers "pain" as the positive trainers all seem to convey. I've actually put the collar around my own neck to see what it feels like. It feels like pressure, that's about it. I've worn shoes that were much more uncomfortable. I know I'm using the tool/collar properly because after giving a light correction (even off the prong and on a flat collar) the dog will "lick his lips and swallow". The dog is saying, "Yep. Okay, gotcha. I accept and understand". Its a knee jerk reaction for dogs. When a correction is made or even a head scratch of praise is given, the dog will almost every time, lick and swallow. The dog is saying "I get it" in dog-lish.

The human/dog relationship is about communicating the leader ship role. A dog, being a dog, needs a leader. A leader does not dole out treats to the subordinate members of the pack from a treat pouch. However, I do advocate using treats as a reward in certain instances. The lack of information regarding the prong collar and it's use is a only part the mis notion of this training device. In hopes of educating as many people as possible the following is a website with some great information regarding prong collars. If I tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on maybe we can change the world. In the meantime, I'll keep just one "silver bullet" in my pocket. I may need it the next time we have a full moon!

Http://www.cobankopegi.com/prong.html

Found: Small Dog, Brown Brindle, Mixed Breed, Female, Please call 555-0228

As I attempted to walk my 2 little fawn colored chihuahuas last night in between rain squalls left over from Tropical Storm Fay. I happened upon a dog with no leash. The dog appeared to be lost. At that moment it began to lightly drizzle. The small brown dog trotted over to a man walking across the street from me and my dogs. My first thought was, "Well, maybe this is the dog's owner". I asked the man if the dog belonged him. He said "No." But the dog was coming closer to him. I asked him if he would help me with this lost dog. I asked him if he could put the dog on a leash so I could take it home and try to find the owners in the morning. I asked if he lived around here. He said, "No, I'm just passin' through". It seemed odd to be just passing through. It had rained and poured at least 25 separate times yesterday due to the storm, Fay. He was more than willing to help me. I didn't have an extra leash in my pocket as I usually always do, just in case. Murphy's Law had kicked in. I have come across more than just a few dogs just wandering with no leash or tags.

My female chiweewee, Honey, is a little pocket dog of 2.9 pounds but not surprisingly she's got spunk. My male, Harley is aptly named. His bark is sooooo loud and annoyingly piercing. These little ones won't bark at seeing another dog or person but if the other dog is off leash and comes too close, it's going to be a bark-fest. As sprinkles turned to rain, I took the leash off Honey and put her in my arms. I tossed the leash towards the stranger. I went to the house on the corner across the street from where the dog and man were. I told him not to come any closer with the lost dog in order keep my dogs from spooking the lost dog. He got the lost dog leashed. Score! I knocked on the door of the house thinking maybe these people are the owners of the dog. No one answered the door. I had seen a guy with a dog that looked similar to this dog near this house before. It was at night and it was far away enough that I never really got a good look at the dog. But I could see this particular dog owner didn't have a leash on the dog. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I steer clear of any unleashed dog while on walks. You just never know. Our neighborhood is 2 blocks away from a busy 6 lane road near the mall. It's a place where I've known at least two people who have lost dogs to the bustling traffic. If you've ever seen a dog get hit by a car, it's the most horrific thing to witness. So I explained to the man I'm going to save this dog from certain death if he would help me. I told him I need to take this dog to my home and would he follow me about 10 houses down the street to my house. It was pouring down rain. I walked as fast I could. I looked back and saw the man was still following with the lost dog he'd leashed up. Good. He was helping me save this dog.

The rain was really coming down hard. I thought to myself, "What I nice man to follow a complete stranger, in the pouring rain, to help a dog." Also in my mind, I was thinking about a homeless guy I saw a couple of days ago who was sleeping, in the middle of the day, in a doorway on the side a big fabric store building. No shirt, no shoes, curled up on the cement pad at the threshold at a utility door of the store. I had gone into the store and told a clerk there was a homeless man sleeping on the side of their store. Later on that same day, the man was gone. As I jogged back to my house I began to think, "This man following me is probably also a homeless guy." His dis helved clothes, longish unkempt hair and he had a can of beer in his back pocket. Homelessness is not an uncommon occurrence in our fair city. Saint Petersburg, Florida is actually on the top ten list of best cities to live in if you're homeless. Sad but true. It's a nice place to live, warm year round, not too much hassling from the cops, word has apparently gotten around. At this point I was thinking, "This homeless guy is following me to my house. This can't be good". But I also thought, "This man, a perfect stranger, is helping a dog, he can't be all bad." The man waited outside my home while got my little dogs crated. I fired up my boxer Panzer commanding him to bark. I wanted this guy to know that I've got a lot bigger dogs than 2 chihuahuas totalling less than 10 pounds put together protecting my turf. I thought about giving him some money. Then I thought, "What if I give him money and he tells his buddies and then they come around trying to get more". I guess I'm a bit paranoid but I live alone with my 18 year old son who's hardly ever home. Panzer's young and alarm trained but not protection trained. I lost my protection trained boxer Jett to cancer a unexpectedly. And frankly I don't own a gun that's for another blog I suppose. But the man was so polite. He didn't even come to the porch to get out of the rain with the lost dog. Maybe because Panzer was barking, the man just stood in the driveway in the pouring rain. I thanked him profusely. I told him that he must have a big heart to do such a nice thing for a dog. He said, "No problem. I've lost a couple of dogs in traffic before." I thanked him again. As he walked into the rainy night I could see the shiny can sticking out of his back pocket. I felt bad for him. But, sometimes people choose a lifestyle and some people are thrown into it. I hoped to myself, if Karma really exists then this man will hopefully find a home or whatever it is that makes him happy. If it wasn't for him this dog would have surely been killed.

I took the leashed lost dog into the house and dried the dog off. At this point I had no idea if this soft little brown brindle pointy eared dog was male or female. Gender is an important thing to know in any dog interaction. The dog had no tags on a new looking but ill fitted martingale collar. The owners cared enough about "it" to buy the dog a new collar. That was a good sign. I discovered "it" was female and checked for fleas, ticks or injuries. Nothing there to worry about thank goodness. I gave her a little chew bone in the crate and put the baby gate up so my dogs wouldn't get near enough to her previously empty crate to scare her. She'd already been through enough. The last thing she needed was to have Panzer who's 3 times her size wiggling and shaking boxer spit in her general direction. Once a dog has a bad or even less than good experience it takes a lot longer to rehabilitate it than it does to get it right on the first push. Plus I didn't know this dog from Adam. She looked like a Pit bull mix, Heinz 57 type of dog. Dogs of the Pit bull breed are 75% of the dogs dropped off to me for training and problem solving. Usually, these owners are on their last leg. Any big time signs of aggression in dogs and it's one strike and you're out. Bite one person and it's game over. It's worse with Pits because the of bad reputation that preceeds them. I once knew a guy who had a boxer, mastiff, pit "newly developed" breed according to this "I'm going to invent a new super breed" idiot backyard breeder. He had super breed dog 2 years. He kept it outside with little or no training. The dog "Bruiser" bit him one day and owner/idiot took him out to the woods and shot his own dog because he bit him. How uneccesarily tragic is that?!!!

It was getting late and I had to get 4 dogs out to potty in between rains. My dog's are wussy when it comes to peeing in the pouring rain. I should work on that. I got everyone out and back in. All they wanted to do is greet the new dog. When I get a new dog in for training, it's always a gradual process introducing each one separately to make sure they aren't going to kill each other first before I allow free interactions. It takes at least a couple of days. I got the lost dog outside. I called her Rain for obvious reasons. She peed. Good Girl! She wouldn't take a treat from me. She was too nervous. No big deal. We went back into the house. I pet her in the kitchen for a bit and crated her with a big towel to lay on and give her a little snack of horse hoof with some wet dog food smeared on it to make friends.

The next morning I began the introduction process thinking, "Who knows how long it will take to find her owners". I fed everyone, in their respective crates, of course. Then I took Rain outside to take a picture of her so I could make signs to hang around the neighborhood. I went to make copies of the picture and signs, buy some document protectors and head to Home Depot to buy a staple gun. My original one is buried somewhere in my garage. I didn't have time to find it. When I do finally clean out the garage, I'll find 2 or more staple guns. I'm bad about that stuff. I drove around looking for power poles made of wood not concrete around the mall and our neighborhood. I had 10 signs with photos to staple to the wood poles. I saw 3 homeless guys sitting under a tree near the first pole. I gotta tell ya, I live in a really good neighborhood of families on a quiet street. If you're a homeless person you don't hang out on poor side of town to panhandle. One of the 3 guys sitting under the tree said to me, "Hey there. You gotta husband?" I pretended not to hear and stapled up my photo of Rain and the sign. What crossed my mind then is that I should be seeing "Lost Dog" signs on these telephone poles that I'm posting "Found Dog" signs on. If I had lost one of my dogs I'd be driving around calling every where, hanging up signs, knocking on doors and be totally freaking out. The last sign I hung up near the house that I thought could be the owners of Rain. I saw a man and woman talking in the driveway. I got out of the truck to show them the picture. I said, "Is this your dog?" They both looked at the photo. I said, "I found her last night in the pouring rain. Are you missing a dog?" They said, "Is that Cocoa?" They didn't seem to recognize her in the photo. I said, "Well did you loose a dog last night?" They finally agreed it was Cocoa. He said they had been walking her and she just ran off. I said, "You've got to have her on a leash. You cannot expect a dog to be off leash trained unless she has had formal training. Even if she is trained you need to have her on a leash." He said, "I need to take her back to the SPCA." I ignored the comment. He came up the street to my house to pick her up. I introduced him to a long line. "I said you need to get a long line for your dog. What if I hadn't found her? She could have been killed." The man said, "I need to take her back to the SPCA where she came from". I said, "No! Don't do that. She's a really sweet dog! She doesn't jump or lick or bark. She's a good dog. Go get a long line at the PetStore so you can let her do her business. She's a good girl. She just needs a leash."  With  mixed feelings I realized the dog owner of Rain/Cocoa is a common occurence. Some people believe dogs should "know" how to be dogs. Conversely people need to be "good humans" and train their dogs. Dogs don't come leash or off leash trained. Practice, practice, practice and still more practice is the only way the dog/owner relationship can work. It's not an automatic thing.

RANT: This makes me so mad. This type of person thinks dogs are disposable. Why on earth do people let their dogs off leash. This also happens at the dog park where I go to proof my dogs sometimes. There's a man there who lets his dog climb trees to chase the squirrels when he leaves the dog park fenced in area. THIS MAKES ME SO MAD! There are leash laws for reasons people. I've never lived in a city where so many dogs are off leash. I love where I live but people are so slack about it. It makes me boil! USE LEASHES PEOPLE, PLEEEEEEEEEZ!

  I train other people's dogs in my home with an emphasis on problem solving as well as obedience. I believe the two go hand in hand. You can't jump on your owner in the car if you're in a sit or down stay. As promised, Kiddo the Black Lab/Bloodhound mix 4 month old puppy got his first training ride to the PetStore. So with two leashes and two collars, one flat collar and one micro-prong collar we head to the truck. I say "Hup Up" which is my command for get up in the truck. Of course Kiddo is still too small to jump up into the truck seat. But I'm get him used to hearing the words and pick him up and put him on the passenger's seat. Expecting the worse I hitch up the leash on the flat collar to the handle bar located at eye level in vehicles next to the windshield. I toss the other leash across to the driver's seat and go around and get in. I also brought his "place bed" a white Sherpa-like dog bed called "Quiet time". I use  it to teach the "place" command. He's familiar with this bed and it's meaning to "go to your place, lay down and stay there". We pull out of the driveway and he's as calm as can be. Remember, this dog has a very soft personality needing minimal correction. I expected this puppy to be as bad as my boxer Panzer who was a real bugar bear to train. The owner had expressed that she was having problems getting Kiddo to behave in the car. So flashbacks of my Boxer Panzer jumping on my lap, growling, nipping being a general nuisance during the ride. How happily surprised I was to see Kiddo just sitting on the dog bed on the seat like a puppy angel. As we are driving he just lays down like he's ready for a nap. Lucky me! During the ride I enjoy scratching him behind the ears and patting him and saying what wonderful boy he is.

  We arrive at the PetStore. We get out. First thing we see is a bunch of birds eating bird seed under a tree in the parking lot. Kiddo tries to pull toward them, small pop correction. He sits. Instead of going directly into the store we work some sits and downs walking around the parking lot a bit. Being a busy Saturday there are loads of distractions. This is what I'm here for and I hit the jackpot. I see the tell tail (pun) dogs on prong collars pulling their owners into the store. We arrive at the front door. Kiddo auto-sits and people can't resist a cute puppy so they ask to pet him. I say "Yes, but if he gets up, licks you or paws you, you have to stop". Kiddo breaks the stay, by doing all the above. I correct him on the prong/leash, small pop. Saying, "Ahh! No. Sit. No licking." The one lady says, "Awe no puppy kisses?" I say "Do you know what he was licking just before he licked you? You wouldn't let a person just come up and lick you. Would you?" She laughs and says, "Oh yeah. That's just gross." I'm always surprised at what people will let a dog do that they would never consider letting a person do.

   Moving on into the store there's a man sitting in a chair holding the leash of a bouncy barking standard poodle on a Gentle Leader head collar. This is a collar the owner's feel is more able to control the dog based on the theory that if you have control of the head you have control of the dog. It may work for horses but it does not for dogs. Kiddo being such a sweet dog is just soaking up this action like a sponge. We encounter at least 4 or 5 families all with one thing in common. They don't mind dog's licking them. So Kiddo and I get a lot of practice needless to say.

  All in all Kiddo did a great job. Better than I ever hoped for. Kudos' to Kiddo! Great job little guy! You're a pleasure to train.

  Coming soon. Kiddo's first trip to the dog park. This is a perfect opportunity to start working him outside the house using the long line. We go tomorrow if it's not still raining from Tropical Storm Fay passing by, again and again and again. I think it's rained over 20 different times today in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Only 4 months left to go until Hurricane season is over.

 Thanks for reading and Happy Training!

This is my first time ever blogging. I have a dog training business that I run from my home. I have a decent size house, nice shady backyard, pool, etc. It's a great job to supplement my other job running a small high end landscaping company. I began the dog training business with the mind set my body wasn't going to last forever doing landscaping. And well, frankly it's hot in Florida pretty much all year round. I plan to just write about what ever training issue I'm currently working on.

I have a black labrador puppy in training for 2 weeks. This dog has to be crossed with a bloodhound. This puppy is 4 months old and aptly named "Kiddo". Kiddo is a very sweet dog. Great Lab. temprament. His major malfunction is a puppy related issue.  Everything his nose touches goes in his mouth. I feel he has to have Bloodhound in him because his hind quarters aren't "lab" shaped  and kind of droop down like a bloodhound. His ears are oversized for a lab. I'm training this rescue dog "on leash". The owner scraped all her pennies and dimes together just to get the dog to learn the basic commands. Smart owner. One less dog that will have to be re-homed.

I began working the commands on a flat collar. When I knew he knew the commands I switched to the prong collar for corrections. He's such a soft dog. I hook the leash to the swivel and the safety ring to soften the corrections. He still needs minimal correction. However, I was constantly having to correct him as his nose is always touching the ground in true bloodhound style. If something touches his nose, it goes right into his mouth. So, I decided to use the e-collar. I got him used to wearing it. The really odd thing is his correction level on the e-collar is a 4. He's on a SitMeansSit e-collar I got from their website. The correction levels go from 1-8. I was so surprised that this soft dog needed such a high level of correction. Whereas my 2 year old Boxer (who was a pill to train) is only a level 1 correction. I realize that the lab is a puppy and puppies are like 2  year olds. Everything goes in the mouth. So far, the "Leave It" command coming along nicely after just 2 days. I even have him sleeping on a bed in his crate now whereas before he would shred anything made of cloth.

I suppose one of the best things about dog training is I get to have a new puppy for a couple of weeks then send it home. Good luck training everyone.  

Stay tuned for Kiddo's first car ride in training.

Howdy, everybody!