[Logan C.]

I’m so sorry to hear this news. All the things you do for us members truly gets overlooked. My life would be in a much worse spot if I didn’t have Robert and the community. Robert, Janet, and the whole crew have done more for me than just teaching me how to build my relationship with my dogs. They provided a sanctuary for me to seek out, and shined a light in the darkness that eventually bloomed. I am forever grateful and I am truly saddened by your loss.

[Logan C.]

Hey Char,

You need to be clear with your expectations. If he knows he’s supposed to lie down, then he needs to lie down. At this stage of his life he’s trying to figure what he can and can’t get away with, so you need to make it clear to him. If you ask him to do something, he MUST do it. With that being said, if you’re in a circumstance where you don’t think he will listen to you, then don’t ask him to do anything unless absolutely necessary.

My dog absolutely nails his obedience and listens well everywhere except for the vet’s office. I know this, so I drastically lower my criteria and ask very little of him. If I ask him to do something, I make sure that he does it but I only ask of something if I need to. I usually take it easy on him though because I don’t believe it’s fair to over force him to do things.

[Logan C.]

Hi Jacques,

Don’t ever let your dog be in control of his own food. Using the food for training is a great thing to do, if you need to feed him outside of training then it should be at a specific time every day.

I would recommend giving it to him in his crate.

[Logan C.]

If he is scanning and darting around before there are any dogs then I would probably address that first.

I would work on getting him to direct his drive and energy toward focusing and engaging with you. When you’re walking give him things to do. Turn the walk into a training routine. If you’re having trouble getting him to heel and pay attention without any dogs around then your foundation needs to be stronger.

Do the majority of your training in a much less stimulating environment and build on your obedience to the point to where Zeke doesn’t think about doing the commands, he just does them as a muscle memory reaction. Add in your distractions very slowly.

When you’re out on your walks reward him for just looking to you, this is one area where hand feeding can help you out a lot.

If your corrections are agitating him then you are too close to the subject stimulus. The closer you are, the harder the correction has to be in order to interrupt the aggressive behavior. If you are close enough that the dog needs a severe correction, then normal corrections will agitate him further (especially on a prong collar.) This is where some trainers use e collars and light dogs up, but that should be the absolute last resort. Add lots of distance and work your obedience where the dog won’t get so frustrated.

[Logan C.]

Great lesson! I think this will help A LOT of people in both their training and their relationships with their dogs.

[Logan C.]

I don’t know a whole lot about raw feeding but I do know that if your town has a butcher, you may be able to make a deal with them. Butchers will throw out things like skins, tallow, organs etc. but you can make a deal to buy the scraps at a lower price.

Since the goal is to get as close to the dogs ancestral diet as possible, it is important to get things like organs and skin into the diet.

I’ve also read to grind bones into bone dust and sprinkle it into the food. It provides a source of calcium and wolves typically get this when they’re chewing on the bones.

In order to mimic the vegetables present In the stomach of a wolves prey, you can blend veggies up into a purée and mix it into the meat.

Different types of game meat are best on a dog’s digestive system such as: rabbit, dear, elk etc.

You can cut up whole beef livers into bite sized pieces and freeze them. You can use these for training treats. I haven’t tried this but I’m willing to bet that it works pretty good.

[Logan C.]

@danajatmyahoo-com

Yes I believe you understood what I meant. Your dog doesn’t need to interact with other dogs, it just needs to have exposure to them and be able to engage with you around them.

[Logan C.]

Couldn’t have said it better 👍

[Logan C.]

Dogs brains are based on simple associations. If she bites and you tell her to stop, then you reward her for stopping, it creates an association to the behavior. “I bite you until you tell me to stop and when you do I get a treat.” The biting itself is a reward because it’s how puppies play, you’re simply asking her to temporarily stop her normal puppy communication/play in order for her to get a treat. Essentially she’s trading one reward for the other instead of eliminating the behavior altogether, but she is too young to really correct in any harsh way.

Watch the vid Alin linked, it’s pretty much everything you need to know about puppy biting. She’ll get older and it will subside itself

[Logan C.]

Wow! That is absolutely incredible