Thank you for all of your wonderful advice!
I really do love this site
Mattie wrote:What may help is 2 leads or a double ended lead, once clipped to a harness the other to the collar, you have 2 points of contact that you can use to help control him. The harness will keep his body closer to you and the collar his head and neck. Walk him on the harness and only use the collar when you need extra control.
So when I'm not using the collar, would I be still holding the lead attached to the collar? I guess this is a stupid question but..just to make sure
Mattie wrote:Personnally, I wouldn't take a reactive dog to school until I have sorted out my dog's reactive problem, my attention has to be on my children and not my dog, when walking a reactive dog they need all your attention, both children and your dog needs your full attention.
I usually take him to school after all the kids have gone, like around 4:00PM. The school is over by 2:30 so by the time I get there nobody's there except for the few teachers.
runlikethewind wrote:Try ditching the chuckit which IMHO is a nightmare to carry if you have a reactive dog and teach him to enjoy a ball-on-a-rope (which can be a tug toy and a throw toy in one).
The ball-on-rope sounds like a good idea since he loves tug of war. And yes, I learned quickly that it is a pain to carry it around when I'm walking Bagel...I got so excited when I first got it because I always see labs and their owners playing with them, but Bagel made sure I realized that he's a beagle, not a lab. He knows how to play fetch but most of the times he's more interested in sniffing the ground and chasing imaginary squirrels that, I think, he smells after they have left a trail..Now I'm trying to do the scent training that Victoria did with the Weimaraners in season 1.
runlikethewind wrote: The important thing to do is to do them at a safe distance (where there is no reaction). This is the distance where the dog will learn and I think you can do them all together.
So the emergency U-turn must be done before he lunges and growls? I realized that he is fine with
most small dogs. He doesn't mind much when he sees small dogs, and occasionally he even wants to sniff them. It's the big dogs that he has a problem with. And dogs that are running freely without a leash on. So I was wondering, if he doesn't react in any way, but he does look at them is the emergency U-turn still required? Sometimes he stares at them, but there's no stiffening or growling.
Also, it's been awhile since we've taken him to the dog park. I was advised before to stop going to the dog parks for awhile. So we've stopped, but I was just wondering when you think it would be a safe time to start taking him back? It's just that sometimes, I want to let him loose and let him run around freely. There's not much fenced area around me. Most of the fenced areas forbid dogs, and the one that dogs are allowed in, (the fenced field near a school that I was talking about) is taken by a little league base ball team either practicing or playing games most of the times. If it's available and open and there's no tiny baseball players running around, then it's my lucky day or it's just a rainy day..And my back yard, we're fixing our back yard so it's not suitable for him to run around..I don't have a car yet (I'm a student) so I have to walk to take him somewhere, and the dog park is the only fenced field that is available that is also in a walking distance. So I would really love to take him back to the dog park...but I don't want to take him when he's not ready.
jacksdad wrote:I personally wouldn't recommend relying on something like the dogmatic, which from what I can see on their site it is just a variation of the gentle leader concept. I briefly used the Gentle Leader with Jack and the way he flailed about in a full on reaction I was worried he would break his neck. he was that worked up and that "out of control" of him self. it also did nothing to resolve pulling, only training resolved that.
I thought of getting the Gentle Leader, but I also afraid that I might injure his neck. I know alot of dog owners love it, but I'm just not comfortable using it...and I don't trust myself to use it correctly. I currently have the Easywalk harness but I'm not really satisfied with it..Because the lead attaches at the front and Bagel is so low to the ground (he has short legs
) the lead sometimes go between his legs. I've been wanting to try out the walkeez harness...Is it a good harness to use?