Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Calm Communication and Control to Teach Manners


Jeff Gellman
at Solid K9 Training has a lot of great videos on Youtube, Facebook, and Periscope

What's interesting about this video is what a clearly blank slate he is working with -- not with the dog, but with the people who run this shelter.

This is far too common -- good folks who love dogs and have "been around" dogs may be OK right up to the moment they have to deal with a big, heavy, adult dog who is the very epitome of "self-will run riot".

There is not a bad bone in this dog's body, but he is NOT going to be trained with cookies, "ignore it," and body turning alone.  This dog is started off with the wrong collar and the wrong level of energy, and given both the wrong reward and the wrong consequences.  The result is that this dog spent months in a cage, when he could have been our learning and adopted.

Jeff saved this dog's life.
He does that a lot. Check him out.

3 comments:

Susan said...

WOW! Very impressive!

John Watts said...

Patrick, What do you think of this, a fox acting like a dog:

https://youtu.be/rwW76CgZ9PQ

Jeff T. said...

Really good video! I expected not to like it but I watched the whole thing through. The guy reminds me of a young Penn Gillette and he works magic with this dog. Watching it made me realize that my dogs are both bad dogs- wild and not very controllable. To be honest I really like them that way but only because they're 16-17 pound terriers and not 70 pound pits. They have that same exuberance and daffiness Brick had- especially when we go hunting. They will never bo off leash in public- too crazy.