Dog training thread

[Folly's place]

And the Herman Sprenger prong collars are by far the best ones! Our pointer broke his first prong collar, not a good thing, in the field, and I learned. Buy a good one!
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The only prong collars I've been able to find in recent years have extraneous hardware on them. Namely, a little chain you have to thread through a ring at the end of the collar, then use a scissor-type gadget to clasp it while trying not to lose it. This adds needless weight to the collar and I don't use it anyway. Trying to find original collars that don't have this junk on them. Trying to thread that chain through on a hairy, wiggly dog is a nightmare!

 

[Folly's place]

I bought mine long ago, but Amazon has them.
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I bought mine long ago, but Amazon has them.
Mary

Thanks, Mary! I need one more now that I have three dogs.

 

[Folly's place]

What's hard is finding a flat nylon type collar with anything except those plastic (breakable!) locks. I still have one old collar, safety orange, with good hardware, if I need to use one, which is nearly never.
My story about idiots wanting to pet the cute doggy:
Years ago I found a middle aged Dalmatian some jerk dumped on the road near our house. Of course he wasn't neutered and had the 'Dalmation liver thing', producing urate crystals and bladder stones, later needing surgery, and naturally the special diet and meds.
He was a typical Dal, a guard dog, and cursed by that awful Disney movie. The only time i took him to a pet store, this young father sent his toddler over to pet the nice doggy, who was growling with his hair and tail up, while I was correcting him firmly so this child wouldn't get hurt. Daddy reluctantly called his little boy back, and Jake subsided and listened to me. We left and never went back! I wondered if this child survived uninjured, given his daddy's behavior.
Mary

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Did some training with Tucker. It was dark and there have been so many skunk spottings in town. I figured it was best to stick to a road i know with lots of street lights. I just had a slip leash with his regular collar and a traffic handle. He heeled when asked and not asked. He only barked at one person, he got scared didnt know they were there. He did alert me after the 4th lap. I kinda ignored it. As we were practicing alerts(heavy breathing and fidgeting) as we got to our final lap he did some DPT after alerting.

 

[Squawkers]

I read this thread today, it's been a good fun read! Lots of good advice and interesting stories.
About transitioning to off lead at a distance: long ago I had experience training a Chessie for bird work, and a GSHP for field bird work. Different types of field work, but the transition from 6' leash, to 20' rope, to off lead, included a 'shock collar' that gave me a 200' to 300' foot 'leash', and made a big difference, especially for that madly enthusiastic pointer!
He needed to know that I could always reach out and touch him.
Now we have rescue dogs with very sad back stories, and a whole different set of issues, and I'm much less motivated to work hard at training. And almost all the local trainers are 'cookie and harness' folks, not what works for either me or my dogs!!! Just recently I found a trainer nearby who will work with difficult dogs, and is fine with the prong collar necessary for both of my doggies.
One from a fighting dog abusive situation, and the other was living in an abandoned junkyard until rescued. Issues, you bet!
Mary

Welcome to the thread! Noticed you exploding my notifications glad you’re here!

 

[Squawkers]

Did some training with Tucker. It was dark and there have been so many skunk spottings in town. I figured it was best to stick to a road i know with lots of street lights. I just had a slip leash with his regular collar and a traffic handle. He heeled when asked and not asked. He only barked at one person, he got scared didnt know they were there. He did alert me after the 4th lap. I kinda ignored it. As we were practicing alerts(heavy breathing and fidgeting) as we got to our final lap he did some DPT after alerting.

Good tucker!!!!

 

[ShrekDawg]

And the Herman Sprenger prong collars are by far the best ones! Our pointer broke his first prong collar, not a good thing, in the field, and I learned. Buy a good one!
Mary

Brew has a Herm Sprenger one but we don’t really use it anymore

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hmm. Those are different from what I am used to. Mine don't join in the middle. Interesting.