QUESTION:

What are the best toys for puppies?

ANSWER:

I am rather opinionated on this issue. I believe that everything you do with a puppy from the time you get it at 8 weeks can have an effect on what that dog will be like as an adult. With this in mind I like to be very selective in what I use as toys for a pup. In most cases a puppy has to learn what a toy is. In other words, the first time it is presented with a   orbee ball  it has no idea that we want this to become a toy. So my feeling is that the handler should select toys that can be used in later training. 

I will use orbee balls on a string. I like these because they are almost indestructible.

Tennis balls are a terrible idea to use with dogs. There have been studies that show the glue on tennis balls eats tooth enamel. The larger breeds (like German Shepherds) have a tendency to chew up tennis balls when they get to be adults. If a dog eats a tennis ball it will often kill him because it gets stuck in his bowels.

I do not like squeaky toys. If you allow your dog to play with these type of toys you are asking for problems. Most dogs will eat them. Its only a matter of time. If you are lucky they will puke them up, if you are not lucky they will kill your dog. Why risk them?

QUESTION:

I have a German Shepherd, she/he 14 weeks old. After 10 weeks both of his ears stood up, not straight up, they actually leaned towards the middle quite a bit. However, a few days ago his left ear just went down and has not gone back up. Does this mean that he has a broke or lame ear now? This has me really worried since both ears were up, but now one won't stand. Is this normal, or did he hurt it some way? Will it ever go back up or not? Thanks for your help, and answers.

ANSWER:

My experience is that if the ears of a shepherd stand one time and go back down they will always come back up. There is nothing to worry about here. What you are seeing is normal. It is not uncommon for the ears to be up for some time and then when the pup goes through teething they will come down for awhile and go back up again.

If a pups ears are not up by the time it is 18 weeks old (and they have never been up) it’s time to tape them. The best way to do this is to take a woman’s tampon and put it down the ear canal. Let it bottom out in the bottom of the ear and then pull it up 1/2 inch. Wrap the ear around it and tape it with the real thin surgical tape. The stuff that looks like thin paper. Tape both ears like this and then tape a pop cycle stick between the two.

Every pup is going to rip the tampons out the first few times that you put them in. They will eventually get used to it and leave them. I recommend leaving them in for several days, then let the dog go a day without being taped and then tape them again until the ears stand.

If people wait until the dog is 6 or 7 months old to tape ears its to late. I can almost guarantee you that the ears will not stand because you waited too long.

QUESTION:

My son's 4 month old German Shepherd snaps or bites quite often. What should I do?

ANSWER:

There are a couple of things to consider here:

• There is a difference between snapping and chewing. If a pup snaps, this is a way that it warns the person to stop doing what they are doing and leave him alone. Often when this happens the hair will be up on the back and the pup will be showing some teeth in the form of a snarl. This is a concern. I would be very concerned about the temperament on a pup that is doing this. My feeling is that this dog does not belong in the family. In fact it should probably be put to sleep. This behavior is only going to get worse and as an adult it will be a very dangerous animal. These are the dogs that grow up to be fear biters.
• Pups from working bloodlines are very mouthy as pups. This is a totally different situation. These pups naturally grab and chew on things. While this can be annoying it is not a sign of a poor temperament. It is no different that a lab pup that is always chasing a toy or chewing on a toy. This mouthyness goes away at 4 1/2 to 5 months of age.
  How a person deals with this depends on your goals for the dog. If your child is very young (a baby), the pup needs to be corrected for chewing on the child. Grab it by the nape of the neck and shake it until it screams when it even goes near the baby. If the child is a little older and this chewing is annoying, try and keep as many toys around to divert the pup to one of the favorite toys (a tennis ball on a string works well, a rolled up hand towel works well). Just leave these laying around everywhere. If you play enough with the toys and the pup, the toys become more interesting than your hands and pants. Make the toys his center of attention.

The bottom line is that this behavior will go away. In fact this is what I want to see in my pups that are bred for high drive working dogs & personal protection.

QUESTION:

Our 1 year old dog is obedience trained but we cannot keep him off the furniture. What can we do?

ANSWER:

There are a couple of things that come to mind when I see and hear about this problem.

1. The dog is not really obedience trained.
2. The owners do not really understand how to give a proper correction.

What I recommend in the dog should always wear a short drag line while in the house. It should be as long as possible without causing problems with getting snagged on furniture. If the dog has somewhat of a hard temperament (one that recovers quickly from a firm correction) the owner should also consider a prong collar. If the dog is a softer dog (one that takes awhile to recover from a correction) then a normal choke collar will work.

When the dog climbs on the furniture, the handler should only use "ONE COMMAND" either No or pfui (pfui is the German word for NO).

Many dog owners forget this very important point. They come into the room and say "Spot get off the damn couch." or "Spot if I told you once I told you a hundred times, get down off the couch." The fact is that the only word the dog probably understood was his name. He may react to the harsh tone of the voice but this is not good dog training. We should not have to get mad or even sound mad when we train our dogs.

It's important to learn to give a firm command without sounding mad. This is not easy to do, it takes practice. To often new dog owners teach their dogs that the only time they really have to mind is when they sound mad. They accomplish this by not moving to give a correction until they sound upset.

So, the proper way to handle the dog when it gets on the couch is to issue a firm "NO" and if the dog does not get down the owner should calmly walk over, pick up the drag line and give a firm "JERK." Here again we see a lot of mistakes. Many owners will drag the dog off the couch or chair and not give a proper correction.

The correction needs to be a "snap jerk," it’s more like "Popping" the dog. Many new owners correct the dog with something more like a pull on the leash rather than popping the choke collar with a firm quick pop. This kind of a correction should almost create a little shock in the dogs temperament. We want the dog to realize that he screwed up and just got popped for it.

The the most important part of the entire process is to praise the dog when it gets down off the chair. Dogs will naturally seek an area area of least stress. If owners are consistent with this NO - calmly walk to the dog and give a JERK CORRECTION followed by praise or NO followed by praise when the dog gets down. The dog will quickly learn that getting on the furniture is not in its best interest.

If you have a very stubborn dog that will continue to climb on the furniture (after you have gone through the above process) and just get down when told then you need to change tactics. When the dog is found on furniture you must calmly walk over to the dog and give an automatic correction. This means that you don't act mad or upset, you simply walk up to the dog (without giving eye contact), reach down and give the dog a correction that he will dream about tonight. As you issue the correction you give the "NO" command. When it’s down you still must praise. Every dog will appreciate your consistency and praise.

QUESTION:

I am hoping you can help me with a problem I am having with my female German Shepherd "Sadie." Sadie is now 4 years old, she knows the basic obedience commands, but refuses to obey on recall. The minute she hears the door she will try to bolt through the door and refuses to come back until she is ready. We will live in a rural community in Tallahassee, Florida and so far this has not caused a problem, but it is extremely frustrating as well as posing a potential future problems (chasing squirrels).  She does not chase people and horses. I am quite concerned but do not know how to break her habit. I am thinking of ordering an electronic training collar in hopes this will break her, but I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Any suggestions?

ANSWER:

There are a number of things that need to be considered to correct this problem. The electric shock collar is the last on the list and probably not needed.

Every single obedience command follows 3 simple steps. First we teach the dog the meaning of the command. Second, we teach the dog that once he knows a command and then refuses to do what's asked he/she gets corrected for it. Third, we teach the dog that he must perform the command under distraction or he is corrected.

A dog can never be corrected for not "coming" if it does not know the meaning of the word "come." So the first thing that needs to be determined is if she knows the word. I assume she does because you said that she has gone through basic obedience. So this dog needs to learn that it will be corrected for not coming.

This should not be done in the back yard. There are too many distractions for this dog out there. I would begin by putting a nylon collar and a normal leash on the dog in the house. I would put here in a "Down Stay" in the living room and then have someone open the door like they were going outside. At that moment I would call her to me. If she goes to the door rather than to you (your assistant does not allow her to go outside), you calmly (without screaming or raising your voice) walk over pick up the leash and give her a level 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) correction for not "coming." In these circumstances I correct several times as I back up to the point where I was when I called her. All the while saying, "Come!!!- You Come!!!!"

The key is to sound firm and not mad. There is a big difference here and novice trainers a have a problem not sounding mad.

When you get back to the point where you were when you called her, you stop (she should be considerably upset if the corrections were firm or hard enough). Wait a second or two and then praise her and show her that you do not hold a grudge.

This training continues until the dog minds under every distraction in the house. We want her to mind when the back door is wide open and she needs to run by it to get to you. When you get to that stage of training it is best to put a 30 foot line on her and not a leash. If the dog bolts outside it is always easier to catch her again if she is dragging a 30 foot line. They never know where the end of the line is. But again, when you catch her, the corrections are severe. I have one simple way to look at corrections: "ONE GOOD CORRECTION IS WORTH 100 NAGGING CORRECTIONS."

A point not to forget is that the correction is actually a series of corrections all the way back to the point where you originally were when you first called the dog. Also this process can take days to accomplish. Do not try and rush through this in one or two training sessions. Then when you get to the point where you are outside, you always have her drag the 30 foot line. When she is 100% with the line on, you can shorted it to 10 feet, then 3 feet, then a foot long line attached to the collar.

Very few dogs do not respond to this training.  It is a no nonsense approach to dog training.

The following are a list of the biggest mistakes novice trainers make, don't let yourself fall into one of these traps:

• They don't praise enough when a dog does the command properly. You really need to exaggerate the praise when you dog train (men have more of a problem with this than women - it’s an ego thing I think).
• They start the correction phase too soon. In other words, they start to correct the dog before it understands what the command means. That's simply unfair to the dog. You need to be 100% sure the dog understands what you are asking him to do before you correct him for not doing it.
• Novice trainers try and teach new commands in places where the distractions are too high. A perfect example of this is in an obedience class. You don't try and teach a new command in a obedience class with 20 other dogs near by. That's crazy, you will never see a professional trainer take his own personal dog into and obedience class and try and teach it a command. This is why I am not a proponent of these 8 week or 10 week obedience classes. Teach your dog at home in your kitchen or back yard. Then when the dog is through the learning and correction phases take him to class and use the class to teach your dog to mind under the extreme distraction of 20 other dogs.
• Novice trainers forget to praise after a correct. When you correct your dog you are adding stress to the dog. When you praise your dog you are letting some of that added stress out of the dog. Its always necessary to show the dog that you are not mad at him after a correction, by praising a little and saying "OK, you screwed up but I still love you."

Obedience

If you have questions or comments about Obedience, contact me:  VON FARREN KENNELS
Obedience Trials test a dog's ability to perform a prescribed set of exercises on which it is scored. In each exercise, you must score more than 50 percent of the possible points and get a total score of at least 170 out of a possible 200. Each time your dog gets at least a 170 qualifying score, he's earned a "leg" toward his title. Earn three legs and your dog has just earned an obedience title! There are 3 levels at which your dog can earn a title and each is more difficult than the one before it. The classes are divided into "A" and "B" at an obedience trial; "A" classes are for beginners whose dogs have never received a title and "B" classes are for more experienced handlers.

The best part of watching a trial is to see the close bond that has developed between the dog and handler. Their total concentration on the task at hand gives way to the sheer delight of accomplishment that can be seen on the faces of both - and in the wag of a tail.

Experience the ultimate in companionship and teamwork. Taste the thrill of competition. Join a training class and participate in obedience trials. It is lots of fun, and your dog will love you more for it!

Purpose

Obedience trials are a sport, and all participants should be guided by the principles of good sportsmanship both in and out of the ring. Obedience trials demonstrate the dog's ability to follow specified routines in the obedience ring and emphasize the usefulness of the purebred dog as a companion to man. All contestants in a class are required to perform the same exercises in substantially the same way so that the relative quality of the various performances may be compared and scored. The basic objective of obedience trials, however, is to recognize dogs that have been trained to behave in the home, in public places and in the presence of other dogs in a manner that will reflect credit on the sport of obedience at all times and under all conditions. The performance of dog and handler in the ring must be accurate and correct according to the Obedience Regulations. It is also essential that the dog demonstrate willingness and enjoyment while it is working and that a smooth and natural handler be given precedence over a handler moving with military precision and using harsh commands.