Rant My Father My Dog

[ranchhand]

You say you GAVE your father the dog and he is an adult. He won't put a collar on the dog. It's his dog, his choice.

How about getting Dad some nice warm winter shoes or boots, with ice gripper soles, thick outdoor ski pants and a cell phone to call for help? AND spend a bunch of time training Holly to walk properly on a leash? Maybe you and Dad can work together on training her. Perhaps a consultation with a pro? So he'll see that a collar can be a good thing?

Hope something in there works, I'd worry, too.

 

[Judy]

It's not about the collar. It's about training. And no, the dog is not too old.

All he has to do is give a command that means the dog should walk next to him, like "walk," doesn't matter what word, just use the same word every time. When the dog starts to pull, he should say "no" then turn around and walk 5 steps the other direction, the turn around again, repeat. The dog will learn that if he wants to get further he has to not pull.

Whatever collar he wants to use will work.

You or anyone else can do this; doesn't have to be done by your father. Actually anyone who walks him should do the same.

Say the command only once, in a calm but firm tone.

 

[Moxiechick]

I have to disagree with the others regarding the Ez-walk harness.

We have one for Moxie and it works wonderfully! The leash attaches to the front of the harness, not the back, to discourage pulling. The D-ring has a slide, so that a gentle tug indicates to the dog which direction you wish him or her to turn. I see no difference between a dog wearing this and a collar as far as training is concerned. A trained dog will respond to the EZ-walk harness as easily, if not more easily, than a collar. A dog that is not trained will respond to neither, but would be easier to control with the EZ-walk harness. That is the difference.

A big plus with the EZ-walk harness is that it is safer than a collar for small dogs, who can damage their necks more easily using a collar on a leash. No responsible small dog owner would ever pull sharply on a leash, but sometimes it's an instinctive reaction to pull back if your dog is in danger, such as when an aggressive larger dog suddenly runs up and lunges at your dog.

We got our EZ-walk harness from the trainer we took Moxie to when she was a youngster, and have been totally happy with it!

 

[NYboy]

Sorry I guess I didn't make clear Holly is a well trained dog. At 1 year she became certified therapy dog. That was one of the reasons I thought she would be a good match. Because I have a fenced in yard the pass 2 years she hasn,t been walked much. I have no problem walking her, my 83 year old dad lets her do what she wants.Dogs are very smart they soon learn who they can get over on. I forget the name, but my father puts human feeling and emotions on dogs. He wouldn't want anything around his neck, so he thinks the dog willn't

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Anthropomorphism. Very common; see it on here every day.

Well, I wondered why no one mentioned training. It does not look like there is much you can do about this at all -- he is who he is, and the dog is now his.

Harnesses were considered much kinder when I was a kid, which was not that long after he was a kid. Doubt he'll be changing his mind soon.

Good luck to all of you.

 

[teach1rusl]

You might print out some info. on prong collars for him. I'm about as big a sap as your dad when it comes to animals, and I DID try it out on myself...lol. I always thought prong collars looked like evil torture devices until I did a lot of reading on them. An older person would definitely need the "easy release" type, as they are not easy to put on otherwise. And of course they need to be removed as soon as a training session (for him, a walk) is done. But they are much easier on a dog's neck than a choke collar, as distribution of pressure is all the way around rather than in one area.

I agree that training would be the best gift, but it can be pretty costly to have someone come to the house. A trainer could show your dad how best to work with the dog. And hearing advice from someone other than you might be taken better...

 

[ChickenFanaticAB]

I get it, your dad is very unlikely to train the dog to walk nicely, so work with that. Of course training her to walk calmly on the leash is ideal, but unless you can go on every walk with them and help him, it's probably not going to happen. They sell a cheap (like $5-$8) anti-pull harness at wal-mart. We used them when my dog was younger (then wetgraduated to the prong collar, which works much better for us and our 80 pound pup) and it worked very well. He was a nightmare to walk before we found them...and yes...also poorly trained I'll admit tha). People talk up the gentle leader, but like others have said, I think that dogs are very uncomfortable in those. This is pretty much a standard harness, but will tighten up under the pits when the dog pulls. Couldn't find it on the wal-mart website, but it is just like this:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753702&lmdn=Dog+Collars+and+Leads

 

[RiverOtter]

OK, it's not a dog training problem, it's a Dad training problem and Dad doesn't want to train the dog.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Who Cares???

The dog is happy, your Dad is happy and the daily walks are VERY good for him. In fact, if I could give my Mom (who is younger but has health problems) a way to happily walk every day and that way was a dog, it could eat at the table, pee on the mailman and I wouldn't give a rat's patootie because the most important job, that of keeping a beloved older parent active and healthy, is done.

Get the ezwalk harness for Christmas and smile and be happy to have them both in our lives. I totally agree with ranchhand who says to throw in a good air of walking shoes, some warm clothes and a cellphone.

Yes, there are lots of us here who love to give dog training advice (bordering on rants sometime - and me included) But sometimes we all need to look at the big picture. I wish I still had my Dad around.

 

[RiverOtter]

sticky keyboard

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

Quote:
I'm glad that you like it, and it's obviously fitting in with your family. I don't mean to imply that someone who uses it is a bad owner or anything similar. But my question - as a person who trains dogs without one - is this: If I took the harness OFF your dog, and put her on one of my show chokes (tiny paracord choke collar), could I shift her gait up and down with the pressure of my pinkie finger moving?

A TRAINED dog would never pull, regardless of whether they are wearing anything, and they're acutely aware of a tiny signal from the handler.

A MANAGED dog is somehow physically kept from pulling. The owner may think this means they're trained, but on another collar or with another handler all of a sudden the dog is a pulling machine again.

Dogs don't have a lot of "pay attention" nerves around their fronts. What they have are nerves that tell the brain to move forward in response to pressure backward. I use this in the show ring to get the dog to set his weight over his front end; I will actually push a bit on the front of the dog and it'll push back into my hand (watch the handlers on TV when they televise Westminster or one of the other shows - you'll see this a lot). The pressure of a harness tells the dog to surge forward; that's why sled dog harnesses work and why tracking harnesses work and why weight-pull harnesses work. The harder you pull back on a harness the harder the dog pushes into it.

An ez-pull harness doesn't have any ability to send "pay attention" signals to the owner. The dog eventually learns that every time he walks forward he's going to get swung around again by his own weight, but he's not saying "I will not pull because my handler doesn't like it when I pull." That drives me nuts; I want a dog who is making a decision based on what I want, not based on what he thinks he can or cannot physically do.

I know it "works" for a lot of owners and I know a TON of trainers recommend them. However, those trainers forget that the point of any tool is to get rid of the tool. The goal is a dog who will heel off-leash despite any distraction, or will move out ahead of you on a very thin leash acutely aware of your signaling. However you get there, whatever tool you use, from a choke to a clicker to a prong to a harness, you're supposed to be able to chuck the tool as fast as possible. The ez-walk harnesses tend to become a permanent piece of clothing for the dog, and (worse) on any other collar or off leash the dog behaves poorly again.