Training a deaf dog Part 2

Having taught Simba the necessary commands to get him to “hear” us it was time to start training.

Simba is a powerful dog and he was dragging his owner all over the place. Even in a hearing dog this is common.

One of the reason a dog will drag someone on a line is that the dog thinks the line is a reason to play tug of war. Tug of war is more than just a game to a dog; it is actually a dominance test. If you ever watch two dogs tugging on a toy, the dog that gets the item the most often is the dominant dog.

So if you take your dog for a walk, and you let it drag you all over the place, then you are telling the dog it is higher in the pack than you. And a dog that is higher in the pack than you is not going to obey very well.

In Manners in Minutes training we use a training device called a Q bone. Invented by Pat Muller, this allows us to “nip” the dog without causing pain. And since nip is one of the three ways dogs correct each other, the dog is born knowing that a nip means NO.

In addition, a Q-bone on the dog’s collar acts as a stone in its shoe. The dog will tend not to let the device become a stone in their shoe and stops pulling on the line.

We placed a Q bone on Simba’s collar and started walking him on a twenty foot line.

We always start with a long line since to a dog, the farther away I am when I nip you, the more powerful a pack leader I am.

I gave Simba the sign for walking on a twenty foot line and off we went. As soon as he started walking with me, I gave him the “good” sign.

Simba walked ahead to check something to smell and in doing so, lost sight of me. Any dog, hearing or not, should always pay attention to you when hold the line, so I turned around and went another way. When I got to the end of the twenty foot line my momentum gave him a nip on his neck. He immediately turned to come with me and again I gave him the “good” sign.

Now it was time for Simba to learn that life has limits, so I started walking him towards his owner. Now since he likes her more than me he started going to her.

I stopped, and when Simba reached the end of the line, he nipped himself. He turned immediately and ran back to me. Again he was rewarded with praise via the “good” sign.

Pretty soon, no matter where I turned, Simba made sure the line was slack and was staying within twenty feet of me.

We then switched to a six foot line and again, Simba learned that when he was on a short line he could be six feet in front of me, beside me or behind me. But the line had to be slack at all times.

Now it was time for Simba to learn the rules also applied to Mom. And within a couple of minutes he was walking with her without pulling.

Simba was sent home for a week of practice. And his owner called me a day later to let me know that with each walk Simba was better on a line.

And I started planning his next set of commands.

To be continued….

Read More..

Death by phone call

I have been struggling with whether or not to write this particular blog. By nature I like give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their decisions, believing that most people are basically decent. Yet my street time as a cop has shown me that poor judgment can show its ugly head in many situations.

I read a column by a trainer recently. The trainer was contacted by phone. Someone had gotten a dog off one of the internet boards. The dog had started to show some alarmingly aggressive behavior. Apparently based on a phone description of the behavior and the trainer’s “knowledge” of the breed’s behavior, the trainer advised the owner to put the dog down.

The point of the article appears to have been to be very careful when getting a dog from this kind of a source. That is a valid and useful point. People are not always honest about why they want to place a dog.

What was so aggravating to me was that, unless this columnist is a poor writer, that trainer never saw the dog.

That just mystifies me. It is not that hard to get a pretty good idea of what you are going to be dealing with when someone calls. And some behaviors are so mild, that you can help them with just a few simple suggestions. You should be able to give the owner some good general advice on what they are dealing with in any conversation. But you should make it clear that until you see the dog, you cannot say for sure what the problems are.

But the trainer should insist of seeing the dog, especially if they think the problems are dangerous. To diagnose a dog as un-trainable over the phone is an extreme act of arrogance. Or it is the mark of someone who should rethink how they train.

Maybe someday I’ll find out it was just poor writing skills. But I kind of doubt it.



I wrote the paragraphs above two weeks ago but decided not to put it on the blog. Then the columnist wrote another column. The columnist got several e mails taking him to task on this. The writer made a point of how he had won over the worst critic.

When I was a field training officer I taught my young cops always try to get the suspect’s story. There were occasions when I had a solid case against a suspect. I had enough to do a warrant and make a good arrest. They seemed like slam dunk cases. But every now and then, when I got the suspect’s side of the story, the case fell apart. Either the crime hadnt occured or the supposed suspect was actually the victim.

It didn’t happen often, but it did happen.

They day will come when I have to advise someone to put down a dog. The dog will be so badly traumatized that it cannot be saved.

But I guarantee I will have seen the dog in person.

Doug

Read More..