Here are this weeks member Q&A’s
Anton N
Hello Robert, big fan of yours! I have a Belgian Malinois and everything with training goes well. We participate in an IGP club but I have an issue with him. He gets reactive towards skateboards, bikes, etc. His main issue is when he sees people playing football outside he gets so hyped about the ball. I start playing with him near the football field with his favorite toy and then he ignores the football. How do I condition my dog to ignore all the different stimuli and have him reliably of leash?
Neal
Hey Robert my 14 week old GSD puppy is really good with his basics, recall, leave it, sit, down etc in the house/yard where we always train and they are really distraction free. So if he indeed does get distracted from something outside on the road or is going to his frenzied nipping state(unlike play biting it hurts) or just blows me off for a command like ‘Down’ which I am 100% sure he knows really well, should I follow my verbal correction of ‘No’ with a leash pop or pressure to get him to comply?
Sally
What are your thoughts on pitbulls? I’ve been following your training as a member for half a year now and my pit puppy has progressed far. I was wondering if I have her well trained will I still need to worry about her “snapping” one day? Is there something valid about the idea of nature vs. nurture?
oldsap Charlie
Hi Robert, may I ask how do I fix the back end of my Mal, 1 year 3 month old, when he goes to the heel position. His front end is right where I want it to be but his back end is always angled outwards or inwards. the same happens when I do the “here” command (crotch finish, he’s not centered to me) and also when we do the heel while walking backwards, so what happens is he either backs up and hits my legs or goes outwards and distances from me. Thank you for your time and God bless.
Arvid J
Hi Robert, We have a jumping on people problem with our 1 yo staffie. I’ve started training commands for on/off meaning two paws/four paws on the ground on different elevated objects (and also on my legs) so that she’ll have a clear understanding of what I expect when she gets too excited. I just wanted to hear your opinion on this so that it’s not counterintuitive to teach her “on” as a command, when in reality we see it as an undesired behavior.
Riggan
Lesson w/ Oliver was great! In the first part, Oliver responds pretty quickly to leash pressure when he is distracted. What do you do if the dog does NOT respond and continues to stare at the distraction? Same thing with random walking. Oliver quickly returned to heel. If dog keeps going in wrong direction, do you let him hit the end of the lead while you continue walking? Do you encourage him to return before he hits gets the leash correction? Thank you!
Simon S
Hello Robert On the AMA 04/17 you told me I need to give my GSD bowl of food to distract him from other dogs. I tried it and it worked. Today I found out he was just leash aggressive. He was showing EXTREME leash aggression toward other dogs,so I made a session with few other people. I kept my leash loose, I tried to be as calm as possible and it worked!! After I removed the leash, In a matter of minutes my dog was playing with 6 other dogs on the field next to our ranch,I was so happy! My next question is, how do I make him listen to me while we are with other dogs? When there is no one around he knows all basic commands on german and we even got to that level he understands hand signs,all that thanks to you . But If there is a dog nearby he will completely ignore me
Matthew
Hello Robert I have a 7 month old malinois. Somehow he gets selected by people, he also growls or attempts to lunge at someone who calls him by clicking their tongue. He is friendly to some strangers. One time I did a hard pop on the leash when he tried to lunge at someone because he called my dog by clicking his tongue. Should I stop the people by letting them call that way? Or should I just do the corrections every time he lunges and growls?
