approaching one year of walking my dog with rules.
 

okay I'm jogging.

but full heel. he runs by my side. I turn he turns. I stop, he stops and sits next to me. we are still a work in progress. just yesterday, he ran on one side of a lamppost and I ran on the other. the snap release came undone, as it should for safety reasons. it did startle him to get out of heel, but I slapped my hip and he came back next to me unleashed. I clipped him back in. we went on.

That Cesar Milan dude used to state the importance of dog walking. not that extendable 50 foot leash thing, or the regular leash stretched out taut like flying a kite. I never understood. I get it!!

I have become the pack leader. anything happens, he stares at me for input. he now leaves his dogbed on my wife's side of the bed and will sleep on the hard floor on my side. (I put his travel bed there now :D). he comes to me when he is hungry. or has to pee. he will not bark at the doorbell if I am home. if it is my just my wife, CUJO-Mode.

he will still guard my wife 100%. she goes out in the front yard, he hangs by the open door watching. he won't come if I call..hahah..dude has a job to do.

but the dymanic has changed. my wife will now say, "hey..I want my own dog now"

Hank barely heels with her. she like to let him "Be a dog" and he knows it. dude is smart!!!

wife and I plan on taking a break after Hank. this dog has been the most challenging. costly... but I hold the "no cats" line..in am allergic to them. (shhhhhhh)

Congratulations! Having a well trained dog is something to be very proud of.


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Very nice! Well, it only makes sense. He knows that you are the boss now. Clearly you exude authority these days at home and work. Is the wife minding too? :D

All kidding asides, good job. It takes work and consistency and understanding to accomplish that.

Sounds very much like my guy. Mine is a working dog - Black Mouth Cur to be exact. He definitely needs to have a job. And protecting his peeps is apparantly not negociable.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1753801605.jpg

Yea. Hank was not good w other dogs. We had altercations. We were at a crossroad. One path was surrendering him. A death sentence.

We chose expensive as heck, we skip vacations this year level of by professional training.
I think we skipped two years of vacations actually.
I wouldn’t categorize him as perfectly trained. But so much better. I still own a dog muzzle. :)

The bond between a man and his dog can be very strong.

Is this the Blue Heeler, Cliff?

They are very smart and dedicated to their human. Best breed I've ever been around.

Thanks for doing your part!

I ended up with TWO girls! Used a splitter leash device to go on walks. Worked great!

Billabong in Purple and Winkipop in Red.....full on alert!!! :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1753812491.JPG

It is funny, Rod, in that Dottie, a (being generous) Heeler mix and I get along like like best friends.

But when my wife gets home, the "Mom's home!" street lights come on and I cease to matter.

I think it is great.

BTW, well done, Cliff.

...and you were gonna change his name ;)....

Followed your journey from day one... you could not have done it better ... and Hank approves....

Awesome Cliff ... yep!

no. my bro, got the cattle dog.

I end up with more unique dogs...hahah...staffordshire and border collie mix. total shenanigans.

How involved did you have to be in the professional training? I've known folks that just sent their dog away for a couple weeks but I was never sure how well that worked. I didn't get to see the end result. I would think the dog would have to learn inputs directly from you for it to be effective.

We've considered this route. We had Bullmastiffs for 25 years and they are pretty easy to train and very smart. Almost effortless. The most recent fella in our house is a rescue from Texas. He's like a cross between a Coyote and a Whippet and he's pretty anxious. It's, well, a completely different breed. Professional training might help him.

OK gotcha. Keep up the great work with the "Hankster"! :)

keep in mind we just had a come to Jesus meeting with an animal control officer. we were desperate. we chose a boot camp for Hank. they took one look at him at the half day evaluation and said they will need to work with him for a bit. the nuclear option. we dropped him off and then look on his face was downright comical. it was WTF..where are you going?!! we left him for 6 weeks..maybe 4? I think 6.

they asked me one real question. "what do you expect from Hank when we are done?" I replied. "I simply want to go to a beer garden, sit down with Hank, have a beer without drama."

she smiled and said, "oh we can do that easily, that's it?"

Me: "..you take a personal check? or Venmo?"

it was profound. Hank had structure. routine. he was with other dogs. he learned to walk next to horse riders. full immersion. my wife and I picked him up with instructions to dress comfy and to budget the entire day. we got trained ourselves hard. we would have him heel and dogs were running and fetching around us. they rang a doorbell and hank would just low growl..they told us to keep working with him. I could point to a rug and say, "place!"..he would trot to the rug and lay down and not move.

I did go to a beer garden, had a beer. zero drama except the nervousness I was feeling.

I can jog past other dogs and he sticks to my side. he will heel without a leash.

when we dropped hank off that day..the shelter was full house. there was zero barking. none. dogs just laying around, playing, no barking. they only housed trained animals. Hank sniffed a bunny. I was sure that bunny was dead meat.

I would say Hank is 80%...90% with me. if he stresses, I say, "down". hey lays down and won't move unless I release him. he may tremble at the big Great Dane walking by, but he stays put. he trusts me to have his back, I think.

my wife did the unthinkable. she told Hank, "down"..and she pulled out this Dremel tool thing and trimmed his nails. pre-training that wouldn't have played out at all. now it is a regular thing.

This is great to hear, Cliff.
Nothing more valuable (or satisfying) than a well-trained buddy.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1753826329.jpg

This was a photo of Finny.
He was my wife's buddy and confidant for 6 years. Eventually was well trained - but he still 'needed' to defend the homestead (here in suburban WI neighborhood).

Finny's hobby was "Barn Hunting" - they find rats in a hay bale maze. (Rats are quite humanely kept and protected in a PVC tube, by the way - in fact they are pampered and kept happy & well fed). He had many ribbons from local 'meets'. Who knew this was a thing? He also took every direction from his person, and she treated him as good as if he were one of the kids.

Enjoy your pet friends while you can.

Sorry for the hijack. Finny passed a few months back from a fast developing cancer. (We thought it was an injured leg - and then he got worse quickly).

RIP Finny. great name for a great face

Thanks, Cliff.

This is the secret:
"I have become the pack leader. anything happens, he stares at me for input"

Much better than all those yappy little dogs you see, who think they are the pack leader and try to protect/lead their owners!
Cheers

Wow. Nice write up Vash. My pup is nowhere near as civilized. Congrats!

Years ago we tried a training program where they took the dog for a week or two. Years later we also paid someone to work with us. That was much better as it's really the human that needs to be trained not the dog.