Q&A with ‘The Paw Man’ (531) – Too Good On His Recall Priority Paid Answer Jasmine Hi Paw Man, Hoping life is treating you well & clients are keeping you busy!! Paw Man A little too busy actually. Because I have to make a living in the real world there are times when I have to walk away from this page in order to pay the bills. Jasmine I am more than happy to pay you to answer this very long question if you are able to help me!!! Paw Man Every little bit helps :) Jasmine I am having issues with my 11 month old French Mastiff. He is a very big dog (stands approx 120cm tall and weighs approx 60 kilos but that was 2 months ago) I got him at 8 weeks old. He is walked twice a day for approximately an hour in total. Any longer and he doesnt cope very well physically. At 5 months old I had him trained (in basic obedience) with a guard dog training centre and that was great but I am still having issues with him being overly excited! He gets so excited to see us that he gallops at full speed towards us & doesnt always stop, banging straight into us or anything else in his path! As an example, He does a great impersonation of a cartoon dog that tears in at a hundred miles an hour and slides for 3 metres on his face with his legs spread! Its crazy and very frustrating! Not to mention that he is going to really hurt himself one day!! As soon as he stops, he will sit down and wait for a pat or if he is ignored he will just drop where he is and stays there, So I don’t believe it to be a lack of attention thing as much as it is clumsy, docile & way too excited! Paw Man Does this inability to stop only happen when running toward people or is it a general thing that happens whenever he runs toward anything? Jasmine My dogs are kept in a yard away from the house and let out when we are home where they have access to our outdoor area etc.. I always make him sit and stay while I open the gate until he is told to come and he does this with no problems, I have put him on the lead with choker chain and made him walk sensibly out of the gate and into the other yard but after months of doing this as soon as he is not on the lead coming out of the gate he goes silly again.. the same as if we are inside for a while and go back out to the outdoor area, we almost get bowled over as though he hasnt seen us for weeks! He is normally very good with the stay command but when I try this (if he is laying in the yard when we go outside) he will stay there for a second with his whole body thrashing around in excitement but within 5 seconds he is up and running! We encounter a similar problem when trying to do things with him, for example putting him on lead, feeding him, bathing him, he gets so excited and thrushes his body around and knocks into everything in his path with his head, rump or tail. I can get 3 seconds of control when I tell him to stop sit. He will do this but then it all gets the better of him and he will start again. Its getting very tiring!!! Paw Man So he has difficulty with his impulse control? Jasmine Smacking him hasnt worked, Ive never made him vocalise and twice I have used the RTC he shat himself, yelped, tucked his backside in and bolted to the furthest corner of the yard absolutely petrified and wouldnt come out for ages, but when he did he went on to try doing the same thing almost instantly. So Im unsure if that was doing him more harm than good so I havent used it since. I tried the collar over a period of a few days both times and used strictly as per instructions from start to finish.. This response happens when the collar is on level 9 c before this setting there was little or no reaction. Paw Man The two thing that worries me about this is the dog’s reaction to the stim and the fact that you say that on a lower level that you get no reaction from the dog. This combination of factors in relation to a dog wearing a RTC is indicative of a collar that is not tight enough on the dog’s neck to give reliable constant contact to the dog’s skin. I would advise a re-assessment of the fitment of the dog’s collar and ensure; 1. The collar is tight enough that you can only just squeeze two fingers under the collar at the top of the dog’s neck. 2. That when the dog shakes his head that the black box does not move out of position and stays exactly where it was placed at the 6 o’clock position. 3. Start the testing procedure to determine the dog’s threshold of discomfort again and I am pretty sure you will be able to work the dog at a much lower level without the adverse response that you describe. Jasmine After this initial reaction when he first sees us, We can be in the yard for hours and he is very quiet, placid & sensible the whole time with no dramas at all. Paw Man Once you have the RTC working at the correct level for the dog you will quickly be able to control his level of hyperactivity using a very low level stim setting with no adverse behavioural response from the dog. Jasmine I dont want to send him back to the training centre as I wasnt overly happy with a few things there but I really need help to get his initial excitement under control before he really hurts himself or someone else! Paw Man This is yet another comment that worries me. You have a dog that was trained at a training facility whose procedures obviously gave you cause for concern…. And you have a dog who exhibits some impulse control issues. I too know of a training facility in your area with the same name that I had concerns about many years ago when I visited their facility. Their methods were very questionable then (unnecessarily hard and nasty) and they put out a dog that exhibited a high level of fear of disobedience. Jasmine Do u have any suggestions on what I can do??? Pretty please!!!! Ps... Geez I hope this all makes sense and gives you a clear picture of whats happening as I feel I have rambled on a bit!!! Cheers & thanks HEAPS!!! Jasmine Paw Man Given that you have a RTC is makes sense to use it as it is by far the most efficient means of solving the behavioural problems that the dog has. It may be worth your while to see if you can locate someone closer to you who has some expertise in the use of RTCs and ask them to give you some tuition. If however you just have questions that require information as opposed to technique then feel free to ask them here.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 06:13:03 +0000
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