# Collar correction training?



## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

HOw did you find the trainer? Was it a referral? If a prong collar is fitted correctly on a dog it can be a very effective tool for training. I am sorry to hear that your previous training class experience has been negative, I can't imagine anyone I know saying that to a student about their dog. Goldens are puppies longer than most breeds and it sounds like you recognize that he has trouble with self control and is higher energy. 

What kind of exercise and training schedule do you have him on? How much crate time does he get? How much aerobic exercise does he get on a daily basis? (not leash walking)

I am glad to hear you've worked through his resource guarding, I suspect you can work through the other issues as well but it's going to take more time and patience and there won't be a quick fix. In the meantime, keep a leash on your puppy when you have visitors come to the door or crate him, the last thing you want is your grandmother being injured.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

You don't have an untrainable dog, you just had the misfortune to meet terrible instructors.

At 1 year old he is still very much a puppy, and he sounds like a lot of 1 year old foster puppies I've had that had "puppy brain". Some just take longer for them to click in gear and start focusing. A trainer with a little more direct approach can be a good thing, especially if they follow through with not pushing you to use tools you are not comfortable with. Sometimes food/treat training over stimulates them. You just have to find what works for your dog.

One tip for the jumping on people. When you know someone is coming over put a leash on him and step on it, short enough that he can't jump up. Ask your guest to walk into the house but ignore the dog, no talking to him, no petting him. When you feel he is calmer and can sit for attention then he can be petted. This is something you will want to set up practice for, and not wait until an actual guest comes in to work on it.

I hope the new trainer is helpful. Some maturity and more training, and he bet he will turn a corner soon.


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## Golden_mama66 (Jan 20, 2018)

nolefan said:


> HOw did you find the trainer? Was it a referral? If a prong collar is fitted correctly on a dog it can be a very effective tool for training. I am sorry to hear that your previous training class experience has been negative, I can't imagine anyone I know saying that to a student about their dog. Goldens are puppies longer than most breeds and it sounds like you recognize that he has trouble with self control and is higher energy.
> 
> What kind of exercise and training schedule do you have him on? How much crate time does he get? How much aerobic exercise does he get on a daily basis? (not leash walking)
> 
> I am glad to hear you've worked through his resource guarding, I suspect you can work through the other issues as well but it's going to take more time and patience and there won't be a quick fix. In the meantime, keep a leash on your puppy when you have visitors come to the door or crate him, the last thing you want is your grandmother being injured.


Hi Nolefan, thank you for your response. I found the trainer through a friend of mine - he had really good reviews and seems to have a no-nonsense approach. I am an absolute softy when it comes to animals but have lucked out with more laid back dogs where training was really only needed on walks and could easily get away with teaching basic commands. I feel a bit out of my element with Max.

I will say, outside of leash walking he doesn't get a ton of aerobic exercise. I live in a busy area with a small-ish backyard. He will do zoomies in the yard or I'll run around with him when I can. I don't like dog parks so take him seldomly. He does get about 1-2 hours a day of leash walking, depending on the weather. And, if he wants to run while we are leash walking, we run! Otherwise it really just includes walks plus indoor play. I have a toddler so I spent as much time with Max as I can but sometimes chasing him around outside isn't an option.

He does not get any crate time. The crate was taken away when he was about 8 months. No matter how much of a positive environment we tried to make for him, he despised his crate. No amount of cozy blankets, peanut butter kongs, etc...or quiet time with bones (supervised) would calm him. We did try very hard to use the crate but eventually, it resulted in me getting very upset, frustrated and beside myself because there was nothing I could use to lure him in the crate. I understand the usefulness of one to help calm him down and give him some quiet time. But it seemed no matter what we tried (even with in-home visits from a trainer) nothing seemed to work. On a positive note, he is fantastic in the house. He does not/has not ripped up anything. He sleeps on his doggy bed and that seems to be his area for quiet time and bone chewing.

I like the suggestion of keeping him on a leash when others come in. The hard part is that his jumping can be so random. One minute he's calm and lying down and the next he's treating my mom's arm like its a chew toy. Or, as in the case of my grandmother jumping up. Sometimes I wonder if its a cry for attention or boredom. But I try really hard to play with him, snuggle when I can. We have special morning snuggles just the two of us and in the evenings when my toddler has gone to bed. I am honestly not sure where to find more time for him. I do try to take him to my parents on weekends. They have a big backyard so he runs and I'll throw the ball or he'll find huge sticks to play with. It frees up some extra time for me to play with him while my parents watch their grandchild. In the summer its much easier. We go to the beach for swims much more regularly and he loves the water.

And yes we are still diligently working away with the resource guarding. That has been hard because he actually bit me a couple of months ago. Not to say this is ever okay but he gave me plenty of warning. It was over a chunk of plastic and I panicked that he was going to swallow it. I normally exchange with a high value treat which works wonderfully. It is something we'll need to work on for a long time because we have a toddler. Luckily he didn't break the skin. I saw him stiffen, the low growl, followed by another low growl, followed by a big growl, then the bite. This might sound very strange, but can a dog feel badly for doing that? Ever since that happened its almost like he stopped resource guarding entirely and seems things freely. I don't know if it was my reaction but things improved drastically since then. 

We are really hoping working with the trainer will help this time around. He tends to work with rescue dogs, dogs that are more dominant perhaps like dobermans, german sherperds, etc. He also does a lot of work with shelter dogs that are at risk of being euthanized. Thank you for your encouraging note about the prong collars. The trainer does ask that we do not use the collar until he has fitted it correctly for us and has shown us how to properly use it. We had an initial session without Max and he showed us on his arm the different between when the prong collar is on correctly and the holes it can create in the skin when put on incorrectly. 

Keeping our fingers crossed. Right now I feel like a bit of a failure to my fur baby. I feel like perhaps I have been the problem all along. I lost my last dog suddenly at 8 and I made a pact with myself to spoil Max rotten because we never know how long we'll have them. But I feel like maybe I overlooked a few things or did things incorrectly when it came to him. So here we are, trying again.


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## Golden_mama66 (Jan 20, 2018)

mylissyk said:


> You don't have an untrainable dog, you just had the misfortune to meet terrible instructors.
> 
> At 1 year old he is still very much a puppy, and he sounds like a lot of 1 year old foster puppies I've had that had "puppy brain". Some just take longer for them to click in gear and start focusing. A trainer with a little more direct approach can be a good thing, especially if they follow through with not pushing you to use tools you are not comfortable with. Sometimes food/treat training over stimulates them. You just have to find what works for your dog.
> 
> ...


Thank you as well for your reply. The leash suggestion for preventing him from jumping on people is really helpful.

He is people and play motivated. He just gets so excited when he sees another human being. In some ways I guess its nice to think that he loves humans. Maybe one of the few things I feel like I've done right. But his reactions are just so off putting to others. I feel exhausted by the time I get a house guest over to a chair. Most of the time he isn't calm or satisfied until he's got their sleeve in his mouth or is on top of them on the couch. I really want to take care of this so that my child can have friends over when he's older. 

Thank you for the encouraging note about him still being a puppy. I think the trainer will be good for me since I am such a softy that it will force me to be more assertive with Max. My husband is the opposite and has zero patience and yells at him quite often out of frustration with the jumping. I don't really think either approach helps Max. There have certainly been trying moments.

As for our previous training experiences, I think the trainers were just overwhelmed by Max. He obviously needed more help than the other dogs that were there. He fell behind a lot. We tried a few in-home sessions but the trainer didn't do any training. He gave us some tips but only showed us instead of watching us and our interactions with Max. He had good reviews and was a very nice man but I don't think what he offered was right for Max.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Golden_mama66 said:


> Thank you as well for your reply. The leash suggestion for preventing him from jumping on people is really helpful.
> 
> He is people and play motivated. He just gets so excited when he sees another human being. In some ways I guess its nice to think that he loves humans. Maybe one of the few things I feel like I've done right. But his reactions are just so off putting to others. I feel exhausted by the time I get a house guest over to a chair. Most of the time he isn't calm or satisfied until he's got their sleeve in his mouth or is on top of them on the couch. I really want to take care of this so that my child can have friends over when he's older.
> 
> ...


He needs an alternate behavior to do that is counter to jumping on people. Stepping on the leash is a good start, but you can also teach him a "place" or "settle" command. This would be where you put a dog bed or rug in a place away from the door and teach him to "settle" on the bed, and stay there until you tell him he can get up. Once he learns that command you can practice having someone come to the door and ask him to go "settle" on the bed before you open the door. 

It would really help if you can get a friend or neighbor to help you practice.

You can also teach him to go pick up a toy when someone comes in so he has something in his mouth and can't grab clothing. My dog does the mouthing thing too, grabs sleeves or even hands when someone comes in, I always hand him a toy to hold instead.

You can look up training videos for things like this on Youtube. Kiko Pup videos are really good.


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