Tranfering obedence to other family members

[aulrich]

So in recent week we have made real good progress formalizing the boy's obedence, eventually there will be two of us hunting him, but I am really thinking about the basics here, heel and sit. comfortable so they can take him for a walk in an un-fenced off leash area. Short of the son that will hunt them I don't want them using the e-collar.

What I was thinking was to take each of my family out on a normal walk they give all of the commands but I run the collar for corrections. Does that sound reasonable, or how do folks spread out the authority to the family.

[Munster]

Dealing with family and the dog is difficult. Kinda like the telephone game. It shouldnt start out on a walk, but in the home with everyday life. Wait for food, wait for the door. Sit, down, stay. whatever you do. Work with each member individually. Make sure they are being consistent.

[DonF]

My grand daughter like's to walk Bodie. She walks him and I tell her what she needs to know to keep from getting bowled over. Takes a bit and she made mistakes but she learned to walk him and he learned to mind her.

[aulrich]

In the house he is pretty good, the kennel command is rock solid with anyone, he is not bouncing off the walls when I am not home, but it could be better.

[onuhunter02]

Mine is not usually out of the kennel unless I am around for no other reason than no matter how much I tell her, my fiance does not give consistant commands. I hear why is it she doesn't act like this for you, in the same breath she will tell the dog stop no and quit it. Now I know some of you have family members who understand, listen and handle the dog great but I would be willing to bet I'm not the only one with this issue

[Steve007]

Mine is not usually out of the kennel unless I am around for no other reason than no matter how much I tell her, my fiance does not give consistant commands. I hear why is it she doesn't act like this for you, in the same breath she will tell the dog stop no and quit it. I would be willing to bet I'm not the only one with this issue

Non-dog people never learn. Those who just lack experience (it was all of us at one time) certainly do, but dog handling with consistency and good timing of praise and appropriate correction is just beyond some people. Maybe even most. We all know you can "untrain" a dog in the field; you can at home, too.

My wife would be just as happy with some little fuzzy dog. But she couldn't handle that one either.

[DonF]

Mine is not usually out of the kennel unless I am around for no other reason than no matter how much I tell her, my fiance does not give consistant commands. I hear why is it she doesn't act like this for you, in the same breath she will tell the dog stop no and quit it. Now I know some of you have family members who understand, listen and handle the dog great but I would be willing to bet I'm not the only one with this issue

Your dog and your girl friend are two different people. Your dog has to understand that when the boss speaks it must listen and if the other one speaks, well, as long as she won't learn then she get's what she gets. Don't let your girl friend come between you and your dog. If you want to know the difference between them, lock them both in the trunk of the car. Come back an hour later and let them out. Which one do you thing will be glad to see you?

[Ms. Cage]

by DonF » Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:08 pm
onuhunter02 wrote:Mine is not usually out of the kennel unless I am around for no other reason than no matter how much I tell her, my fiance does not give consistant commands. I hear why is it she doesn't act like this for you, in the same breath she will tell the dog stop no and quit it. Now I know some of you have family members who understand, listen and handle the dog great but I would be willing to bet I'm not the only one with this issue

Your dog and your girl friend are two different people. Your dog has to understand that when the boss speaks it must listen and if the other one speaks, well, as long as she won't learn then she get's what she gets. Don't let your girl friend come between you and your dog. If you want to know the difference between them, lock them both in the trunk of the car. Come back an hour later and let them out. Which one do you thing will be glad to see you?

[onuhunter02]

Now I will say this she does well and the dogs listen when it comes to keeping them safe but it is the obedience that she has a tough time enforcing consistantly. What is nice though when they listen to me on command and not her it does make it look like I don't just take them out and do nothing when we are out training. I feel confident if we have little ones running around the house one day the kids will listen a lot better to dad lol.

[RoostersMom]

If you're just talking obedience, why can't the other family member take the dog to a basic obedience class? Certainly for onuhunter - that would be a great option. You DON'T need to go with her either. She can take the dog on her own. My husband took one of our beagles and now he's turning into quite the dog trainer himself. Before, he wasn't much interested in working the dogs - just hunting over them, now he does much better.

[Trekmoor]

If you're just talking obedience, why can't the other family member take the dog to a basic obedience class?

That would be my advice too. Both heelwork and sit can be taught on a lead so I don't really see what the problem is. My 8 years old grandson can control a 60 lbs. dog on a lead , he was given a few lessons by me on how to do it and he now makes sure the dog obeys him. I.M.O. the person who is with the dog should be prepared to learn too. The lessons you previously gave will help the dog understand what the other person is requiring it to do if those things are done in a similar manner.

Bill T.

[EvanG]

As a pro, I was brought all breeds of gundogs. The expectations were that, if nothing else, the dog would be going home and obedient dog. I developed a habit of inviting the owner to bring his/her whole family to pick up the dog when the time had arrived. Our task was to have a "Transfer of authority" day.

Of course the dog would obey me. I'm his trainer, and he respected my authority. I wanted the dog to also respect his owner, and anyone who would be placed in a position to give him orders. I handled the transmitter, and taught the primary owner/trainer how to do things with it that he/she would need done. But we had the whole family put the dog through fundamental tasks, which I enforced a few times with little-to-moderate pressure to assure the dog obeyed even the smallest child.

My instructions to the owner was to allow only rare and minimal commanding of the dogs by anyone in the home other than him, unless he so chose. But make sure that person or persons did not give commands they could not or would not enforce.

EvanG

[MikeB]

Other than the e-collar what kind of trainng collar do you use? Your dog can learn really quickly to obey with the e-collar on and not to obey with it off. That's Collar Wise. For just basic obedience skills that the family should learn and teach the dog to respond to should be done on a trainng collar. My choice is a prong collar for walkng a strong pulling dog. The e-collar is great for off leash control once the dog understands the commnads and doesn't do them from a distance. IMO.

I agree that he should learn these skills in the house, yard, along with how to greet guests that come to visit, etc. before going on a walk. Also the family needs understanding of what it takes to become the ALPHA Pack Leader over the dog. It not about physical force but a confident attitude of handling the dog.

This information best tells you what is needed in becoming a leader to the dog.
http://www.cowdogz.com/tips/alpha.html

Now go have fun with the family training the dog.

[DonF]

If you're just talking obedience, why can't the other family member take the dog to a basic obedience class? Certainly for onuhunter - that would be a great option. You DON'T need to go with her either. She can take the dog on her own. My husband took one of our beagles and now he's turning into quite the dog trainer himself. Before, he wasn't much interested in working the dogs - just hunting over them, now he does much better.

That likely as not won't work. Basic obedience course's normally help the handler more than the dog. They teach the handler what to do. Both should go to the obedience class and take turns handling the dog or they should go to two different class's with the dog.

[EvanG]

That likely as not won't work. Basic obedience course's normally help the handler more than the dog. They teach the handler what to do. Both should go to the obedience class and take turns handling the dog or they should go to two different class's with the dog.

Truer words were never spoken.

EvanG

[RoostersMom]

I'm suggesting that the OTHER family members take the dog through an obedience course. The "she" I mentioned was onu's fiancé. She definitely would benefit from taking the dog to the class BY HERSELF so that she can bond and learn without his (boyfriends') interference. I think you may have misunderstood my posting.

I won't have a dog in the house that won't listen to both myself and my husband. Yes, I'm the primary handler for most of the dogs - he's only home weekends, so that works out best - but when duck season rolls around, the chessies are with him 24/7. I think if you've got a house dog, they need to be able to be handled by everyone in the house. The best way, IMO, to get your family on board with training (or the fiancé) is to let them be responsible for taking the dog through a class themselves - without your criticism and hacking at them that they are doing it wrong. They won't ruin the dog if you're talking about a class to teach "here, sit, stay, and heel." Especially if the dog has already been trained by you to understand these things. They may not be perfect at it, but they will likely learn more from a trainer than from you (the husband). I've found this to be very true in most cases of teaching women about hunting and dog training - they tend to learn better from an expert and learn less from their spouse.

[Steve007]

I'm suggesting that the OTHER family members take the dog through an obedience course. The "she" I mentioned was onu's fiancé. She definitely would benefit from taking the dog to the class BY HERSELF so that she can bond and learn without his (boyfriends') interference. I The best way, IMO, to get your family on board with training (or the fiancé) is to let them be responsible for taking the dog through a class themselves - without your criticism and hacking at them that they are doing it wrong. They won't ruin the dog if you're talking about a class to teach "here, sit, stay, and heel."

This is an absolute stone cold great suggestion, but the key to obedience is daily work, six or seven days a week. Putting aside the possibilities that A) the fiance' is not residing with the poster and thus has no access to the dog, and B) many novice "obedience" classes these days are run by "behaviorists" and not dog trainers, the facts are that most people will not work a dog six days a week for eight weeks. The dropout rate in novice obedience is high. Most people are not motivated to train a dog, though many claim they are.

Great suggestion if the situation is right,though.

[onuhunter02]

I would agree class would be good for her in fact they would be great that is an idea I had not thought of. I will put that along the lines of when she wanted to learn to shoot a pistol I signed her up for classes. So that she could hear the similar ideas and methods in a different way.

[aulrich]

Just thought I would post an update, I did the easy transfer over the weekend, the son who has always done work with the dog, though he had become a bit discouraged with the seeming/actual lack of progress. If there was one thing that had him and I frustrated it was heel we just could not get him to stop pulling on the lead, till last week. So he was skeptical as we left the house. The first couple of minutes of back and fore and box drills, he held the lead and I had the controller, then it was off to the off-leash area. Along the way it still took a couple of reminders, the son we seeing the improvement but it was not fully sunk in yet.

Then it was the big test at the off leash we unclip the lead, my son was flabbergasted , his frustration melted away and the confidence came back. Getting the dog to do something with a lead on is one thing to do it without lead is the other, he was smiling again walking the dog. Last night he flew solo, I let him take the controller, but when he came back he reported he never needed to use it once. And he said for a while he was dancing around and the dog stayed on heel.

Now to get everyone else trained

And still more work to do.