Steve K9Pro

Sure you can Tapua!

K9: Thanks Wobbly, glad Jarrah is going so well. It is true that when a dog wants to do something, they do it well, so if we can make our goals align with theirs it all goes well!

Ideally the flirt pole is great for establishing drive, then you take it to using a tug and you can then reinforce behaviours etc. this is then training in drive which is a whole concept. If you play with the flirt pole then your dog can channel or let's call it "spend" it's prey drive that way. You will get a more settled dog as you will be balancing out drive.

Flirt Pole

It really depends what you want to achieve, the flirt pole can be used as simply as spinning around, this is great fun and great physical and mental exercise for your dog. It can be a lot more than that as well, it can be used to develop drive in your dog which can be a powerful motivator. If you want to take to that level, one common mistake people use is to move and spin to get their dog into drive. The dog ends up chasing a flying and bouncing object. That can make things tricky later on, a really great way to use the flirt pole is to allow the flirt to fall on the ground and remain still. Encourage your dog to get it and when your dog moves toward the flirt, then jerk it away. What you will be doing is teaching your dog to generate a reaction in the prey rather than the prey generating a reaction in your dog. This has huge benefits over a dog that is reacting to movement (for obvious reasons). Try always play on level soft surfaces such as grass or sand, concrete, pavers, tiles etc are all dangerous. You also should run this in repetitions rather than constant chasing. So a game may have 5 or so 30 second repetitions and always finish before your dog is fatigued and you will get a stronger game each time you play!

I have used remote collars to train many deaf and blind dogs. Many remote collars have vibration or pager mode but commonly they have no way of adjusting the intensity if the vibration. This in turn frightens many dogs and renders the vibration mode useless to train a "signal" as it generates avoidance. When we use a modern remote collar we have levels so low, we can teach the dog to look at us when it receives the "signal". The signal is the remote collar stimulation set at the level the dog can just perceive. There is no pain, fear or avoidance generated at this low level. When a deaf dog receives this signal I want the dog to look at me and I can then give hand signals for the rest of the training. Blind dogs I use it to teach a stop, this allows me to stop them bumping into things they can't see. We also have a unit now that has adjustable vibration and no e stim for those who prefer it. There is no need to feel that this needs to be an aversive method, instead it's effective and reliable.

It's not a specific day each week if you don't want it to be, we have a lot of flexibility in the program as Boystown are very pro active in helping their kids, they bend over backwards and do a great job. We have a young German Shepherd in the program so too young isn't a problem, unlike other therapy programs we wont just be reading, there will be kids reading training sheets to handlers, outside play etc, it is very flexible.

Juice maximum is once per week from about 4 pm for 30 - 40 minutes. We provide crates, harnesses etc and why would they be scared? :) not al all you would be perfect for this!

K9: Hi Jo, sorry just got your PM. Some dogs (& this can be more prevalent in certain breeds) are avoidant of eye contact, they can see it as either challenging you or you challenging them. My TOT program can certainly help with this, if your pup is getting to excited for the food and bouncing at the end of the leash, remember that if you don't tackle this now, a grown RR will not be nice to walk on the leash if he doesn't learn early to respect the leash and not just become opposing to leash tension. Perhaps fit a harness to him and have a helper hold and calm him when the food comes out, keep in mind that this will be teaching self control, and what you have reported is that your dog cannot self control. The TOT will give you a plan to teach this each time you feed your dog that will help with the eye contact, self control and relationship. If you don't think it is for you, you could also go to a hand feed regime, so choose what you would be feeding for the day in the morning and separate that into 3 - 5 bags, then you will have those opportunities to play with your dog and pay for interaction with food. I wrote a program a few years ago called the Behavioural Interrupter, it is a free down load on our site. It is here...

K9: so it seems that you do use jackpots quite often then, good recalls, damn goods jobs and new things, so I am lost at why you said "Jackpots don't have much empirical support. I don't really use them much, so don't ask me." K9: I have trouble keeping up with your posts to be honest, in one post you say you are more interested in doing more reps, the next you say you don't over practice things. I wonder if you actually know what you do lol No. S: Are you sure lol, my mistake then, I thought in the 9 - 5 thread you wrote they took a lot of exercise to keep balanced. I wont add any more, you seem to change the playing field as you go :)

K9: I didn't say people don't need a recall, I was merely pointing out above you say you cant get your dogs to leave you then you went on about a reward system that you only use for the recall. K9: I think they will have as much value as you condition them too. K9: Having a party with my dogs isn't a problem for me, I actually enjoy rewarding them at that level. K9: perhaps you have trouble getting your dogs to respond to jackpots because you run so many reps there is no drive left for the exercise, only for the constant reinforcement. K9: Just on another topic, do you find that the "problem" of your dogs not wanting to leave you as they expect to hear a cue all the time produces dogs with no off switch, dogs that need constant attention and to be walked and exercised excessively to quench their desire for reward? I find that if you don't teach a dog when to predict engagement, ie after a cue, then any time they desire reward they will try and engage with you and this can be a lot with some dogs.

K9: I have to ask Corvus, why do you need a recall when your dogs won't leave you? Why reserve "reward experiences" for a recall you don't need? If you want surprise and contrast should the experience then be placed randomly?

K9: Megan is talking about the Behavioural Interrupter, which you have, sent it to you on the 24/5.

Hmm, if you don't have a view of my you seemed to come up with prong collar and e collar reference fast. No PM could have been talking about anyone, after the edit lol. Glad trainers in wa working for you, pop some video up, live to see. Hope you enjoy the ebook :)

K9: No problem, no hard feelings here. K9: I don't think it is too much different here or anywhere, but in the end I think tool and method preference gets over taken by results when peoples backs are against the wall with a difficult dog. Very often I give people a number of other things to try before recommend a bark collar, but some people are incapable of those things, some don't have the time and some aren't given the time by neighbors / council etc. so measures that bring some relief fast are needed rather than saying "I cant help." It is funny that you mention prongs and e collars (shock collar is a term that is inaccurate), as I don't use any of these tools in my "training", sure they may be part of some of the behavior work, but that is more dependent on the client, their needs, abilities, time frames and level of motivation they have left, rather than the dog. But at least I am open and honest, there are no secret tools hidden here, all are shown and explained with professionalism and I chose to recommend them where I feel they may be the best solution at that time on that dog with that person. I don't know who Poppy's mum is, I am hopeless with DOL names lol, as you see I use my company name, but I don't think I have said to a single client ever, "you have no choice this is the only way", regarding anything, never mind a bark collar. If I knew who you were PM I could look up the file, but I would never discuss your case publicly, it is against our business practice to disclose client details. K9: No tool is neutral really, if it were it would never be used, they all have to be chosen with some motivation. I didn't laugh, that was Huski, but she does work for us and is very passionate about her work, she see's the dogs I train for competition, working careers and rehab cases and knows how much I focus on the dogs and clients needs, probably the reason for the sarcasm. It seems though that you have a clouded view of what I do, I invite you to take a look at an eBook I wrote a little while ago, it is available on our website free. This will give you more insight to my thoughts on "training". It is only short and the reviews were getting back say it is a good but short read, let me know your thoughts. It is here. Hope you enjoy it :)