Posted on 11/17/2005 7:33:51 AM PST by ZULU
New Jersey is Hell itself.
Of course, this will all be counter-productive as owners with certain breeds, or dogs that might have aggression problems, will simply not seek to have their dogs train with professionals.
Oh, I had a sit/down problem with my second obedience dog (golden). I finally ended it with lemon juice. Probably not a solution AR folk would like, but it worked. She went on to get 2 CDX legs before I had to stop showing her for an unrelated reason.
susie
And what on earth will they do with the electronic collars that retriever trainers use to "reach out and touch" Bullet when he's two fields away and not listening to the whistle?
It's a "controversial training tool," even more so than a prong collar -- but judiciously and carefully used, it works. I went to a seminar with a high-up retriever trial guru (and N.J. would no doubt touch this fellow up for the license) and he used my dog as a guinea pig to show how to train the "here" command. He never took the collar above high "2" (3 levels on each number, goes up to 15), but she was zooming to heel like she'd been shot out of gun in 10 minutes.
If you have a hard-headed Lab like mine that you're trying to train for retrieving work, you pretty much have to have the Ecollar. (In the days before Ecollars, trainers used pellet guns or slingshots with BBs . . . wonder what PETA would think of THAT!)
Good thing you found a Dog-God. Fortunately, I don't really need one, as my girl is a little hard-headed but actually very anxious to please. She just thinks she knows better how to find that bird than some silly human 100 yards away, and please don't disturb her with whistles and hand signals while she's hunting, thank you very much!
New Jersey. The only state in the union where you risk government subpoena for saying "Bad Dog".
I remember, when I was a kid, my dad used the pellet gun technique on clients who had dogs with *extreme* recall problems - maybe 1 case every year or two. It did work wonders, but PETA would certainly condemn that technique today.
Logan was excellent in the moving exercises, but he was so intent on mounting the dog next to him at dog shows (which is extra unpopular because it disqualified all the dogs that reacted to it) that I was willing to try anything. It was always a problem that only showed up with new groups of dogs.... he'd become accustomed to the dogs in his class, so practicing with the same dogs every week didn't fix it. Dog show... new group of dogs, and the inability to correct him there, and we had a problem.
So I started sitting in and auditing all the other dog classes in town to expose him to new random groups of dogs. I'd make him do sits and downs around those dogs even if that wasn't what the class was doing. The thing about him is, he was willing to take whatever punishment I could dole out. He'd mount some innocent Golden (male or female, it wasn't sexual, it was dominance) and he'd cringe to see me coming from across the room, but he'd be even more determined to do it before I got there. There he was, humpin' away, cringing knowing I was gonna hit him and do it anyway. Man he was stubborn! And willing to take a beating for what he wanted.
I purchased a shock collar that would reach him at distance and that fixed it. He respected that. It fixed our whole problem and was a lot less abusive than a very angry HairOfTheDog was when she got ahold of him. The wussy clicker ladies didn't like it, but they let me train there and do my thing once they understood the magnitude of the problem :~D.
He completed CD and CDX, but it had taken me so long to finish his CDX that by the time we could have gone on from that, he was 8 years old and was beginning to injure himself over the high jumps. They are so high, and most shows being on concrete, I had to quit.
BTW, since old Logan is dead and gone and I'll never show again, probably, I'll admit now that to complete his CDX, I cheated. At dog shows, he wore a special leather collar with a nice brass name plate on it, where I left the attaching rivets on it too long so they protruded down to mimick the prongs on his shock collar. And since he was smart enough to know I was leaving the room, I had a friend of mine do all the enforcement of sits and downs for me, and I had her stand right outside the ring and glower at him during the sits and downs.
Like I said... He was so great in the moving exercises, super animated, super responsive, and a joy to work with... he just couldn't work near other dogs.
LOL - I think you've heard the Logan story before... but it's all out there above ^
I see "licensing," as a third leg of this concept with the added absurdity that you must first demonstrate that you can do something before you get to pay a fee in order to do it legally.
Sounds SO much like Claret. No matter what venue we were in, she was sure I was an idiot and she was a genius. Sadly, she was usually right! lol
susie
LOL :~D
She is my very first dog ever, although I do have the advantage of having trained horses for many years. Despite being handicapped by her ultra-novice handler, she has a retrieving title (SHR in UKC) and three agility titles (AD in USDAA and OA and NAJ in AKC - one leg left to go on Jumpers. As a sign of my idiocy, I moved her up before she had three qualifying scores, so she's behind in Jumpers due to my own grievous fault . . . .)
She was MUCH too wild to do obedience to begin with, but now that she is 4 and has settled down a bit, we'll probably head back to the obedience ring and see if we can put a title on her, just for fun.
They don't have a clue how to handle a dog who actually needs trained, or has a difficult behavior problem... I've seen it.<
But, but, you might harm Pookie's self esteem, if you actually compel him to position his furry butt on the floor! How COULD you??? I must retire to the couch, I feel faint, at the thought (Hee Hee).
If I lived in NJ, would I still be allowed to teach my own dog to sit, stay, roll over, etc.?
"Cat trainers, however, remain unlicensed."
All you need is a size 13 shoe to train a stupid cat.
Theft pure and simple.
There is a world of difference between training a hunting dog, a personal assistance dog, a seeing eye dog or a family pet.
You don't need to be a genius to be good with dogs and most dogs that are family dogs would be better off trained by their owners.
They give you prison time for teaching to shake.
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