Puppy was attacked (Page 2)

The website (www.k9mastery.com) has video of a few other dogs doing the advanced test.  I will deploy before getting to that level with my dogs but plan to pursue it once I'm home.  We'll only get partway through intermediate at least with Sweetie before I leave.  My sis will have Misty so hopefully I can convince her to work Misty through the higher levels.  Though "command rejection" will be a touchy subject.  I could envision a scenario where my sis taught her command rejection and now she won't listen to me anymore!

So in your method do you use any negative correction such as tone of voice that Aaron mentioned?

We got a puppy when our older dog was 2 and were told that puppies can get away with stuff like taking food from the alpha male's bowl until about 14-15 weeks.  Sure enough, she would happily chomp away at food in his bowl, until one day at about 15 weeks he totally went nuts on her (no physical violence but she has not tried since, and she's now 9).  I wonder if the OP's puppy hit that "age" where social norms are expected, and enforced, and happened to make a mistake on a particularly cranky alpha dog.

The corrections are mostly physical...pops on a leash choke chain.  HOWEVER, once you start working things like stays and you are too far away to correct immediately with the leash then you have to use a strict tone of voice as soon as you see the dog try to break the stay so they understand that the movement is what is wrong.  That is then followed up by a physical correction where you physically put them back into place.  Once you put them back into place you do not repeat the command (because you already told them to stay and they didn't) you just go back out to the end of the leash (or farther if you've progressed there) and make them start over.  My dogs are up to 5' sit stays and 10' down stays on the leash.  Last night Sweetie went to lay down 4.5 minutes into her 5' sit stay so I used my big girl voice and went over and corrected her back into a sit and started the 5' timer over again.  She made it the second time. :D  This was our first night doing 5' though (previously 1') so I expected her not to necessarily make it through the first one okay.

Does that make sense?  So I guess you could say it's mostly physical correction but backed up with verbal when you need immediate (as you start doing things where the dog is farther away and physical becomes too delayed).

And every dog requires a different level of praise and correction.  I cannot praise Misty much or she starts bouncing around out of control.  She requires VERY little praise to please her.  Sweetie on the other hand needs a LOT of praise to reassure her.

Edit: Adding another example.  Heeling.  To correct heeling (and let me be clear that you do heel PLACEMENTS first before you ever do heels with corrections...but I'm specifically speaking of once you are past placements and on to corrections here) you pop the dog in the direction they need to go.  Assume standard left side heeling.  So, they are walking too far "away" from you?  Pop to the right.  Too far forward?  Pop back.  Too far right (i.e. switch sides)? Pop left.  Too far back?  Praise them up.  You also praise constantly when they are in the correct position so they know they are doing it right.  In 5-10' of heeling I generally have to pop my dog once or twice right now and otherwise they are just where they belong.  My dogs seem to have a problem with switching sides on tight right turns.  So they usually get a pop left.  They don't tend to get too far away or too far ahead.  And you only say "heel" one time...at the beginning.  Of course if we stop for some reason (to look at something) I will say "heel" again when we start up.  But after a pop there is no command again...just keep going....

This is way easier to show than explain...and like I said, we BUILT to this point.  There were a bunch of steps that came before it.

Excellent example of dogs correcting dogs...sufficiently enough to correct behavior the first time.  A more minor correction probably wouldn't have been effective.  See, dogs speak dog!

Please remember that breeders are not veterinarians and they often have little to no medical knowledge.  It's best never to apply anything topically to flesh wounds - especially without input from a veterinarian.   If your dog has a wound, contact your veterinarian for advice.  There are no active ingredients in Preparation H that will facilitate wound healing.

Been gone all day - catching up on all the replies. I do use food with the pup as he is a very food driven dog and there are different schools of thought on all of this dog training stuff. A tiny piece of kibble goes a long way with him and once he has learned what I want I phase the food out. So we started a long time ago at 6 weeks with sit for a kibble - now he never gets a food reward for sit (besides dinner) but he knows he will not get to go, get out of his kennel, get his bowl of food until he sits. Same with stay - taught him that in two tries (I really don't even know how he figured out what I wanted him to do) now he knows stay when we go in and out of the house, stay before I open the van door etc.

Talking about dogs speak dog - while we were walking this morning he was beside me and instead of saying heel I just sort of growled with a really low voice. He put his ears down, tail stopped wagging and he didn't move in front of  me again until he heard me say o.k. . Thought that was kind of funny.

I have a really food motivated dog too.  But you don't need to give the dog food to train them.  The above video of Daisy?  That dog was trained without using food as a reward.

Very interesting!

I understand what you are saying and I appreciate your enthusiasm. I assume you are working with a trainer who is teaching you the proper technique? My situation is not the same. The training facility does not want to take dogs younger than 16 weeks without the permission of the vet and the vet would not give permission so that means I am on my own until the dog is old enough. Now, I personally believe it is better to be teaching him something using methods I understand than nothing at all.  I do not know the proper technique with a choke chain but I am trying my best to help the pup learn manners in as happy and peaceful a way as I understand. I am not opposed to learning new methods, I'm just working with what I see provides results so we (the dog and the family) can all get along.