Making Progress
I wanted to let you know I have been watching your videos and just recently started working on the “place” command and using a pinch collar on my dog Mookie and can’t believe the change in his behavior. Mookie is a very nervous, anxious 70 pound, 8 year old dog. Since he was about 1 year old he started going on the offense and has been mostly reactive to dogs but also to people. I took him to puppy classes, dog training classes, worked with several different trainers, took him to 2 sets of Feisty Fido classes at St Huberts in NJ, took him to 2 different vet behaviorists and tried at least 5 different medications (prozac, paxil, amitriptyline, xanax and valium) with very little improvement in his behavior. I heard your radio show last fall when I was driving up to UNH for a football game and am so excited about the results I am getting after finally trying the pinch collar on Mookie. We live in Brooklyn and in the past I would drive Mookie to the park in a covered crate during quieter hours and would take him on long walks, keeping our distance form people and dogs and using positive reinforcement training (and getting no where). I started using the pinch collar last week and have been able to walk Mookie to the park (don’t have to take the car out and worry about finding parking) and instead of avoiding dogs I am actually going out of my way to walk past dogs to practice and Mookie is doing GREAT! We have a long way to go but this is the first time I really feel like we are making progress. You are so right that some dogs just don’t respond to all positive reinforcement training….and Mookie is clearly one of those dogs. Thank you so much!!
Eileen