Dog Reactive Malinois Ecollar Session

As many of you know, I am not a big fan of using collars to train for dog reactivity, but there are exceptions. In this case, Lisette had been using the ecollar on Whisky for some time, but perhaps not exactly the right way. Whiskey is a lot of dog for anyone, and he has not had a lot of training. He seemed to me to be very insecure about a lot of things, but not when it deals with running up to other dogs. In other words, his insecurity was mainly fed by being protective over Lisette. Now, I will say that Lisette, like so many owners of dominant dogs made common mistakes. There was no intentional neglect, just rather a neglect of structure.

I talk a lot about it in this lesson, it’s a long one, but one that is full of great information – including when I go a little hard on the ecollar. I believe in everything being fair to the dog, and in that case for to all dogs, including the one that is on the receiving end of being bullied. Whiskey knew what we wanted in the form of a recall and a leave it, but chose not to obey. The BIGGEST problem that handlers make in a situation like this is not enough correction. What happens then is a dog learns to push through that correction and that leads to more dominance / disobedience. I’ve seen it 1000 times and when it gets set into the dog’s mind, it’s very very hard to undo.

As you know, I leave all of the lesson intact for members to see. Even though it might not look pretty for that 1/2 second, it solves the problem. Dog training is about being fair to dogs and their owners and also protecting other dogs. When Whiskey pushed through my initial correction to leave Pluto (the small Valhund) I increased the correction to gain compliance. It taught him that I am serious and that he must listen. Furthermore, I had worked with Pluto for months to gain his trust because early on he was insecure and mistrusting of bigger dogs. Leaving that encounter to chance would risk the safety of Pluto, the mental trust of Pluto to all larger dogs and it would teach Whiskey that I am not serious in my commands. I won’t let any of those things happen. Corrections are information, and this information, as you’ll see at the end of the lesson is 100% clear to Whiskey and Lisette.