Black Bronson

The original use was for tracking. The use of a 10m line for Koehler-style training carries an unacceptable risk of injury. No. The assumption would be that she would learn not to go into full defence drive around other dogs through this correction, which is unlikely. Given that she is physically restrained by the leash (she does not need to learn this through strong corrections), the only benefit you might hope for is that if she did learn not to aggress towards other dogs that this might generalise to off-leash conditions. The probability of this is almost nil. If I thought there would be merit in using corrections to address this issue I would use an e-collar where equipment is more easily removed as a discriminating stimulus. I should stress that she does have an outstanding recall. I have called her away when she has been well over threshold in the past without the use of corrections. I also recall her off live prey. It is a matter of probabilities. I respect your theory Aidan, but I am interested to know why you feel such a correction is unlikely to produce a result when you haven't tried it to confirm your assumption???.

It's a fine line between teaching a distraction exercise to correct a behaviour and counter conditioning to create a behaviour when faced with a particular trigger. One recently I recall where a handler trained a beautiful competition heel past another dog with his very dog aggressive dog and worked perfectly. However, without commanding a heal and distracting the dogs attention away from the other dog, the dog would still lunge and misbehave left to it's own devices. The handler did very well to be able to gain the dogs attention in the presence of another dog, but that was only part of the correction process completed. Ultimately we needed to be able to just walk casually past another dog without commands and distractions and for the dog to remain in a neutral state.

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2...gaggression.htm Desensitising the dog through positive reinforcement, by setting it up for success and gradually working on the behavior, is a much safer solution. A lot of people using punishers with aggression do it completely wrong where it's not uncommon for the dog to come back up the leash at the handler when in that state of mind. The dog's lost control, the handler's lost control and the situation can easily turn into something far worse and very quickly. You need also I think, to get a feel for the dog and see what it's reactions are, what it's foundation training is and what triggers the behaviour before you can work out which way to approach it. Advising a massive leash correction may not be the right conditions for that particular dog. There is I agree, a better saftey margin in positive reinforcement dealing with aggression, however it may not always corrrect the behaviour and serve to suppress the behaviour which just depends on the dog.

Oh yes, handler tension which is understandable with a lunging dog to think "oh hell, here comes a dog" in anticipation what your dog is going to do can make the dog worse as he/she picks up on the handler anxiety. I have seen dogs perfect with hubby or vice versa, and with the OH, the dog's a lunging nucklehead and wants to bite everyone When the handler is calm and providing leadership with focus exersices it definitely improves the overall situation for sure. I like this method when starting off with a green dog of little training and does work well.

I think that's the big question though really, isn't it? Is it "better" to treat this as a pure obedience exercise, with other people simply as just another distraction, and correct the dog for not performing, and hope the dog starts to feel more comfortable in the situation after his behaviour is under control? Or is it "better" to use something like food to change the dog's expectations and emotions about the situation to start with (classical conditioning), and hope that since he feels differently about the situation, he won't feel the need to lunge anymore? I think both ideas have merits and drawbacks, and have used both in the past. Yes, I do think both ideas have merit and often depends on the individual dog. I am more thinking from an aggressive lunging stand point which happens often with working breeds that are on the sharp side in temperament. I try to guide dogs of this type to understand a clear message that they are not to react off their own judgement and instill calmness in the situation. I try to suppress the trigger response that activates the lunging as although distraction away from the trigger does help improve the behaviour, the trigger is still there were I have been caught before off guard before with a dog intermittantly lunging out of the blue when I have trained in avoidance routines. Of course it depends on the nature of the dog, but I am confident with a nasty lunger that a head on approach has given me the best results.

Love your puppy pics Laeral. I pick up our pure black GSD puppy next week There he is at 6 weeks, ears up already

Hi Aidan, Long line training was a concept launched by William Koehler in the late 50's and was used to set dogs up for failure in distraction to self correct reaching the end of the line primarily. The original use of the long line was not for a security back up but a training tool unless their is another purpose that I am unfamiliar with??? Out of interest, have you tried exceeding your dog's threshold with the long line to self correct in pursuit of another dog with a suspect recall???.

IMHO, Koehler's leash foundation training and conditioning is still one of the best methods available and commonly used today by many trainers worldwide in some way.

I always train on the basis that a dog works for it's handler and build a relationship with the dog with clear definitions of what is right and wrong. In the process of training a dog which applies to an endless amount of distractions is a "leave it" command which means ignor and move on. When leash training a dog, I find that teaching a "leave it" command applies so easily as there is always some distraction that will set the dog off pulling in some direction or lagging behind with many valid opportunities to use the command and for the dog to learn and understand what is required of him/her. I don't believe that distracting the dog away from self rewards like lunging at passers by teaches the dog how to deal with that situation reliably or provides the handler with proper control. I like the dog to gradually face the situation head on and learn what I need him/her to do in the circumstanes and reward the appropriate behaviour and punish the wrong behaviour. I like the dog to learn that both good and bad can happen and that I am responsible as the handler to guide the dog to make the correct behavioural choices and to learn that trusting my commands always results in the best outcome.