Jeff Gellman's Real World Dog Training: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Real World Training means REAL Safety

Today I brought 13 dog to do some off leash recall, we did both open field work as well as did some in the woods trail work, both have different issues that need to be considered especially having just one handler with 13 dogs.

With open field work dogs spread out over about 2 acres and I can see all of the dogs even when they are spread out over the field. I have no problem with a dog being 50-100yds away since I can see them.

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When we enter the woods along trails the dogs can go into the woods and it is much harder to keep track of all 13, so all dogs have to stay in front of me and no farther than 20 yds away. So much more control is needed, also there is high level distractions such as deer, coyote and rabitts. Most of these dogs are all high prey drive dogs that would chase down and kill these animals. so I cannot have even 1 of the dogs come off have being focused on me and the task at hand.

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the above photos are in the woods, notice how the dogs are more in a single file formation, it is important that I keep them much closer, not as much running around free as they are going from point A to point B.

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When I get the pack to respond like in the above clip, this is when I know that our training is working and I can trust the pack, I also have dogs that make sure the new members will listen to recall and they will go and get the dogs that are a little slow.

Clover loves working the dogs, the dog she is working with has just come in, she is working Teddy with the Place command, you can see a dog that is not familiar with the command. Notice how she says the word one time and does not say STAY.

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Children are Pack Leaders

I am always surprised when folks insist on using food, love hugs and kisses to rehab dogs with behavioral issues. Most likely the dogs that are being worked with have gotten plenty of the above in abundance. What they have not gotten was structure, exercise and any corrections. I deal with every single behavior out there both good and bad and I am one of the few people that will and is capable of dealing with aggression issues. I am not talking about barking or nipping, I am talking about behavior that 99% of dog trainers and behaviorists would tell you to kill your dog. I am taling about 100% of shelters would kill the dog instantly.

What I do is set up a new baseline for the dog, we start out with exercise and exercise, boundaries and rules, then work on default commands that dogs can do instead of the bad behavior, this helps teach coping skills for dogs and what they can do when they are stressed or feel like growling, biting, lunging.

Then one of the most important thing we do is CORRECT bad behavior, we do NOT punish dogs. If you growl at me, I will correct you, if you snap at me I will correct you, if you try to bite me, I will correct you. How hard do I correct you, well I will let you the dog determine that, what does it take to stop the behavior that would get you killed if another trainer, behaviorist or vet had a say in this.

What am I able to do with this is put dogs together that are dog aggressive, we put dogs with humans that are aggressive towards humans, we put dogs with children that are aggressive towards children.

We don't do this by redirecting the behavior or removing dogs from the distraction. We don't put the dog away either, both of these things are always recommended by Positive Trainers and then if that does not work then they recommend you kill the dog. I truly don't understand how this is Positive at all. Killing dogs is one of the worst things imaginable to me. Our country does this to the tune of 5 million times a year.

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All of these dogs are able to be controlled by my 2 young children, yes controlled, yes dominance. This is not a bad word, call it leadership. I call it a lifelong skill that keeps children safe and dogs alive. These are skills that keep dogs in families instead of turned into shelters where they will most likely will be killed.

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Clover and Romy are extremely helpful when it comes to training dogs. The black dog Jake is with us since he has been biting the kids in his family. The grey dog has some very serious issues with humans and dogs. He is in week one of a 6 week board and train. Then there is Domino who is with us for some basic training and weight loss.

Clover and Romy are responsible for so many dogs being trained to behave around children. The have helped work with these dogs over and over again til they get it right, til they stop lunging, stop biting, stop jumpin, stop fighting and listening to commands. If a 6 year old and a 5 year old can work with these dogs, I think anyone can.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Off Leash Field Work

Today I did a nice 10 dog off leash open field work for a little over an hour. I had dogs at all different training abilities. They all do know off leash recall and have all been trained on remote collars. I am fully aware that there a folks that feel that electric collars are mean and abusive, this is reinforced by Positive Dog Trainers over and over again, they thing about this is that these trainers have never actually trained a dog on a remote collar. It is sort of like a Running Coach saying that having an athlete swim laps is mean and abusive and will make the person a worse athlete. To a swim coach though it makes perfect sense that the athlete do swimming laps because the Swim Coaches Athlete is a swimmer. So both are coaches but in 2 different sports.

If you want your dog to have 100% recall training and be able to work your dog around any possible distraction there is and insure the safety of your dog and everything and everyone your dog comes in contact with Electric Collar training. I don't expect folks that train dogs for agility, show floor, flyball and just inside classrooms to even start to understand what I do and what my clients want out of there dogs.