Balance Revisited

I recently re-read the entry that I had written hastily about this concept of balance. I noticed that only a few months later, I already disagreed with most of the observations I had made. Just by nature of being fairly new to reading in depth about dog behaviour and training, I'm constantly re-visiting and honing my own skills. This means, I'm constantly addressing my own misconceptions, faux-confidence, and mistakes.

The theme of that post was around the idea of figuring out what a balanced approach to dog training looked like in regards to Pierre. Balanced dog training, is a phrase that generally means that it is neither compulsion* or positive-only training, but an appropriate combination of the two, that ideally prioritizes reward-based training, but allows for the space for appropriately timed corrections. This is very individualized based on the dog, like all training truly should be.

For example, Pierre bit his last adopter when overwhelmed on a walk. According to what I've heard, he was on an "easy-walk" harness, which is a type of harness that clips on at the front and tightens at the chest to signal to the dog that he's pulling. It's a feeling of mild discomfort that sometimes reduces pulling, depending on the dog. Pierre is a dog that needs very direct, firm guidance or he gets panicky. He is a very intelligent dog so actively teaching him what to do in different situations is essential, or he will quickly get frustrated and confused. Anyway, I'm not a dog-trainer and I probably can't make claims about why this happened, but my opinion is that positive-only dog training isn't completely helpful in situations where the dog is consistently making a dangerous and reactive response. There are ways to work on changing dog behaviour, with only positive training, but the reality is that this kind of behaviour modification takes months if not years to get to a safe place. It's not realistic. And to deny that dogs are physical creatures that correct each other quickly and safely when one dog is out of line, is to deny their very nature.

With the guidance of Jess & Brent @ Complete K9 Care, we use a prong collar when Pierre's on walks. When I first encountered prong collars when I was fostering dogs, I was pretty uncomfortable with them. They look scary. But if you put them on your bare leg or neck, and pull them, which I did, you can notice that the pressure is distributed evenly and that a very slight flick of the wrist gives a noticeable but not painful stimulation. The thing about corrections, that I've learned so far, is that they have to be well-timed and use the least amount of force possible. Some dogs need them some dogs don't.

Pierre needed them when we first got him. He is strong as heck and if he wanted to go attack another dog, I was going to be pulled with him. He was already trained to use and comfortable with the prong collar when we adopted him. He's not phased by it at all. To him, the prong collar at this point just means, "omg I'm going for a walk this is so great".

Anyway, these last few weeks, after all of that explanation, I've been working hard to ween him off the prong collar for walks. We've been doing a lot more work around loose leash walking with his regular flat collar. Because truly, the prong is a training tool and it doesn't have to be used forever. The exciting news, is that he's progressing SO well. On the training podcast, "dog training conversations", they were explaining the difference between a dog making a decision so that they can avoid a correction, or making a decision to obey and respond to you as their leader. This is an important distinction to make, and I realized a few things I was doing wrong with the prong collar with him in the past. Another thing that really solidified it in my brain, was that his new amazing dog-walker, said that she prefers thinking of the prong collar as a "communication tool" not a corrective tool.

At this point, I'm trying really hard to make sure that he only feels the prong collar pressure in the situation where he is lunging forward or pulling. That's it. I don't want him to feel it when he sees another dog, I don't want him to feel it when he's happy to see a person he knows, or when he's excited to be at a park. IThis means having both his flat collar and the prong collar on. I switch the lead to the flat collar for park smelling breaks, for when we pass by dogs, and when it's just so exciting to walk that he is realistically not going to be able to heel nicely, like when we're hiking.

So far, this has been working really well. He is really responsive to verbal cues, in general, and when he is getting huffy and angry, I back him into a sit with my body and we take a break until he can re-focus. He still sometimes gets over threshold with triggers of other dogs and will turn into a snappy alligator, but it's not common and I'm not scared of it anymore. I personally think it's important not to associate the prong with his dog reactions at this point, because I don't think it's helping and may actually be making it worse. His reactions to other dogs seems to be out of frustration, so we're trying other strategies to reduce this and it's coming along.

Here's some pictures from our beautiful hike this past weekend. I put only a bit of weight in his backpack, though it was kind of lopsided; it seemed to keep him focused and able to remember how to act appropriately. We walked passed many dogs and he was an angel. He went back on the lead as needed. It was a wonderful walk overall!

*compulsion training definition:  uses positive punishment, such as leash corrections, and negative reinforcement, such as ear pinches or an electric collar. The trainer manipulates the dog into a position by using physical placement or training equipment *