In article >,
Dave Smith > wrote:

> I find the positive reward tone to be just as effective as the negative
> shock. He gets a "beep" reward for turning in the right direction and
> more for moving in the right direction, and then the real treat when he
> comes back to me.

Have you tried a Clicker?

>
> > Rewards are given with obedience to voice commands and hand signals.
>
> Dogs are not capable of speech, so voice commands generally don't mean a
> whole hell of a lot. Like most animals, they respond better to had
> signals.

Yes. Which is why I frequently use them in combination. ;-)
Dogs are big on body language.

>
>
> > I've never tried the spiked collar. Have you tried a head collar? That
> > worked well for stopping the border collie from lunging on leash.
> > They are considered to be a very humane training tool. Jewely hates it
> > but it works. I've recommended head collars to more than one person and
> > they've been happy with how well they work. Nylon is also stronger than
> > metal. <g>
>
>
> I tried a Haltie on him but he would have nothing to do with it. He got
> out of of within minutes every time I tried it. The spiked collar works
> well. They are actually better than yanking on a choke chain, which can
> cause neck problems. The spikes don't stick out when the collar is
> loose. They are set on an angle so that they change to a sharper angle
> when the pull on the collar, but they only go to about 40 degrees,
> enough to make it uncomfortable but certainly not sticking into their
> necks.

Yes, I am familiar with how they work. Just had not tried one as the
Haltie worked. I'm sorry it did not work for you! Different dogs,
different tools. Examining how they work, I never have considered them
to be cruel and likely better than choke collars.

>
> >> Yesterday I was watching some YouTube videos on Malinois and there was
> >> one where the dog popped a choke chain. The comment made by the owner
> >> was the same as mine when Sonny broke his.... Wow, he didn't even flinch.
> >
> > They are small but powerful dogs. ;-) Watching Odin, the local patrol
> > mailinois work, can be almost frightening!
>
> This guy amazes me. His strength speed and agility is amazing. We have
> had some interesting encounters with geese. A few weeks ago my brother
> was over and we took the dog for a walk. There were some geese walking
> by the neighbour's pond and the neighbours don't want them around. I
> let Sonny go to chase the geese away. The sort of took off and half
> swam, half flew to the far side of the pond. I guess it never occurred
> to them that he would run around the pond and beat them to the far side,
> from which he jumped close to 12 feet and almost landed on one.

<lol> Bet that was fun for him!
>
> A few days after that I had him in the nursery behind us. The fields had
> been muddy so he had been staying out of them, sticking to the grassy
> areas where he wouldn't sink in the mud. There were a few dozen geese
> in the nursery. He headed off to the easy, away from the nursery and
> the geese. The geese got pretty cocky, walking in his general direction,
> waving wings and honking at him. Then they turned their scorn on me and
> poor old Luc. While they were threatening us and celebrating their
> thinking that they had scared Sonny off, they didn't notice him circle
> around behind them, where the ground was firmer. He came racing up
> behind them and they only noticed him at the last moment. When the first
> gaggle took off he just kept right on running toward the next group, who
> didn't even know what was happening. And when that group took off, he
> just kept running toward the third group. He came darned close to
> catching one.

Too bad he missed. Wild goose for dinner!
>
> The funny thing about the geese is that they always seem surprised to
> realize how fast he is bearing down on them.

They are amazingly fast from what I have seen.
I really do hope he works out for you. :-)

Have you tried the "roll him over on his back and grab a handful of
throat fur" yet? That's a very dominating move and worked fantastically
for the Belgian Shepherd/Catahoula I had many moons ago. And it does not
hurt them.

I used it in combination with the "stay" command I was trying to teach
her. The dominance worked like a charm.

Speak "wolf" to them. <g>
--
Peace! Om

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