Amber at 6 months old is a sweet, doofus, loveable, hard-headed dog. She now knows much of what we want her to do, but many times CHOOSES not to do it. We’re having good luck using treats to encourage her to respond to commands. The main problem area is getting her to stop doing things she shouldn’t.
We got a smart no-pull collar that works with our retractable leash that gives her a warning when she pulls too hard for too long, or decides to play, “Crazy Dog,” running back and forth to the end of the leash. If she continues, she receives a shock. Now, if she’s wearing the collar, she acts very nicely – EXCEPT when she is confronted with a whole vet office full of critters at one time, with ONE big dog acting hostile.
We have to say things over and over, such as “Down” when she’s right beside our dining table. It’s as if she’s on a trampoline. She obeys the command and then pops right up, over and over again. Or we say, “no.” She stops for a split second, and then starts in again. Over and over…
Lately we got a more regular shock collar. I don’t like these much, but certain dogs don’t seem to take you seriously until you really get their attention and show them that you are the lead dogs in the pack. Amber seems to be one of these. The squirt bottles of water and the fly swatters seem to invite her to PLAY many times, rather than disciplining her.
So, the collar is set up so that we can warn her with a sound she can hear, but we can’t. We warn her, and sometimes that’s enough. She stops whatever she’s doing. If she ignores the warning, we have the shock level carefully set so that it gets her attention, stopping whatever she’s doing, but it doesn’t hurt her so she yipes.
My husband started using it day before yesterday. The first day he had to hit the shock button 3 or 4 times during the day and evening. Yesterday it was only once. So far today, not at all. And when he hits the warning tone, she’s beginning to respond to that well.
At almost 62 lbs now – with possibly another 20 pounds to go, we need to be serious 24/7 before she hurts one of us. Her exuberance is pretty impressive, and she has a healthy streak of ‘stubborn,’ as well. Since we have heard that labs are ‘puppies’ for 2 years, we’ve set up for the long haul on serious training. We’re making good progress. We want her to be a happy member of our animal and human family, plus act politely around other people and other animals. We just need to keep on keepin’ on…
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