new to the flock Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Tiercel: As per our conversation last night concerning your GWP. I have been putting some more thought into him today, let me know if you think this may work, if not just say so and I will work on some thing else along another line. Being an eight month old GWP male, I think that you are facing a dominance problem. Not in an aggrissive form but in a shove it up your **** I will do it in my own sweet time form. At this point and time I would take him out of the field in any off leash exercises that you are doing, and consentrate on his yard work, so that he learns that he is going to have to do it whether he wants to or not. Work his sits, stays, and recalls on lead. Refrain from throwing him any bumpers until you try the following "Force Break" program. Force breaking refers to teaching the dog that he is going to pick up a bumper and hold onto it, then deliver it to you with or with out distarctions including coming across another bird during a retrieve. The force part of the exercise is the pressure that you apply to the dogs ear, or lip to have him open his mouth and accept the bumper. There are many ways to accomplish this and there are lots of books written on the subject, I will try to walk you through the method that I perfer and use. . start with the dog sitting at your side. ( I do this with the dog on a training table so that I am not bent over and so that the dog is removed from his home enviroment. If you wish more info on the training table let me know.) . with your left hand looped under the collar to control the dogs head. place the first two fingers of your right hand infront of the dogs mouth, use your thumb to gentley but firmly put pressure on the dogs lip against his teeth. . When he opens his mouth, timeing is essential, slide your two fingers in across his teeth, tell him to fetch, and use your remaining two fingers of your right hand and your thumb to gently wrap around his muzzel so he cannot spit them out. . have him hold your fingures till you count to ten, push your fingers towards the back of his mouth causing him to open his mouth cleanly, at this point use your release command ( in my case out) and remove your fingers. . PRAISE . repeat this exercise 4 to 6 time per session. . when he will readily open his mouth to accept you placing your fingers in with out any lip pressure you are ready for step two. STEP TWO .with the dog standing beside you on your left hand side, fingers under the collar to control the head, and his right ear between your left hand finger and thumb (this is so that you can administer an ear pinch as the force. Remember to deliver force, direct the dog, remove force upon complience, and PRAISE) . Hold your fingers approx. 4 inches in front of the dogs muzzel. . apply pressure to the ear, direct him forward with the collar, and have him reach for your fingers. When he takes them in his mouth remove the pressure to his ear, and tell him goodboy. DO NOT LET HIM SPIT YOUR FINGURES OUT OF HIS MOUTH. HE MUST HOLD THEM UNTIL YOU GIVE THE RELEASE COMMAND. . push fingers towards the back of the mouth until he opens, give release command, and remove fingers. . PRAISE . repeat until he will readily take two steps to reach your fingers. STEP THREE . repeat steps one and two using a bumper. .when he is ready to advance you should be able to pull on the bumper and he will not release until given his release command. STEP FOUR .while the dog is holding the bumper walk him back and forth the length of the table several times. have him sit, walk, and jump off and back on the table. If he drops the bumper at any time pinch his ear place the bumper back in his mouth, PRAISE, and continue on. If he continues to drop the bumper back up a step . STEP FIVE This is where he is probably going to balk. You are now going to give a command , apply pressure, complete task, release pressure, PRAISE. . with him standing on the table, your left hand under the collar to control his head, the bumper in your right hand, give the command fetch as he reaches for the bumper lower it slowly to the table. allow him to have the bumper at approx. an inch off the table. . when you can hold the bumper just off the table, tell him to fetch, and he will reach for it place the bumper on the table, and repeat. . when he will readily pick the bumper up off the table place the bumper at the far end of the table and have him walk to pick it up. STEP SIX . repeat step five on the ground. . When he consistantly picks the bumper up off the ground, switch to a long line (from the eight foot lead you have been using up till now). Place bumpers, do not throw, at 15 to 20 yards. . send the dog on the line, when he picks the bumper up use the long line to control the retrieve directly back to you, This will eliminate his desire to play tag. on completion of the retrieve sit him beside you, give a release command, take the bumper, PRAISE, repeat. When he delivers back to you with no ideas of wandering off,or playing tag , work this exercise off lead in a controled area. If he continues to preform well you can start to toss the bumpers for him. The above should get his dominance issue under control, as well as increase his disire and drive. Remember to balance his work time with some inter active down time. When you are spending 2 or three hours at the computer let him lay down at your feet and just be with you. Or go sit under a shade tree and have a couple of ales with him. This just lets him know that it is not always work, and lets him mature with a disire to be with you and to please you. Hope I'm on the right track and not wearing the dreaded egg on the face :*) . If you think I'm off base let me know and we will see what else we can come up between us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzer Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 ....phew...thats a lot of typeing NT.....may be you should write a book...... ....... All the best Buzz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new to the flock Posted May 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Buzzer alot of typing your telling me. The tips of my two fingers are bleeding. Cheers Mate....NTTF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiercel Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 NTTF I think i got the general drift of the draft but will have to read it a few times for it to sink in my initial thoughts are that i can see only one problem with it that is i only have 2 fingers on my r/h but i can do it left handed instead. Its intresting what you said about the dominace thing because i have allways had dogs never bitches and thinking about it now it looks like that could explain a few things that are happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new to the flock Posted May 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Teircel: Let me know if you want to modify it, there are other ways to apply the " force " part of these excercises. Ernyha, Red Stag, Buzzer, and Dead Eye : No star wars comments please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkshire Pudding Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 NTTF I guess that means i'm free........ USE THE FORCE TIERCEL USE THE FORCE....................... all the best yis yp :ph34r: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new to the flock Posted May 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Yorksire Pudden How could I have forgotten You. :*) :*) My sincerest appologies, I will endevor to never let it happen again. Cheers Mate...... NTTF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzer Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topgunners Posted September 25, 2007 Report Share Posted September 25, 2007 Buzzer alot of typing your telling me. The tips of my two fingers are bleeding. Cheers Mate....NTTF pehaps you should have removed them from his mouth sooner! go back a step.!!!!!! :( :look: dave k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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