I feel evil

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by rachnjam27
I was agreeing with your statement about rewarding dogs that do good things.
Yes, I'm new here.

Actually you are new to posting, not new to the forum.

[Shelteez2]

I don't know anyone who hasn't lashed out in anger before. It may have not been a physical lashing out it could have been a verbal lashing, or heck it could have even been mentally. The point is that sometimes our emotions cloud our reasoning. This becomes a problem when you don't realize the impact you might have. I believe the original poster has stated his/her remorse over what has happened. Recognizing that they acted inappropriately is a step towards changing that reaction in the future.

The discussion has now moved onto the "merits" of "tapping" your dog instead of hitting. Well one person's tap is another person's hit.
Hitting a dog in the face can make it head shy. It may or may not cause a dog to "turn" on it's owner. A dog too may flinch from getting hit or tapped on the butt. It depends on the dog. I do not raise my hands to my dogs. Not to say I never have. I spanked
Emily once and I've never forgiven myself. I doubt she remembers it, but I always will. I do raise my voice though and this works for my dogs, and others I've trained.

Also there was a comment on negative reinforcement isn't the way to go when dealing with pets.
Negative reinforcers are something that the dog wants to avoid and thus, decrease the likelihood of repeating a behavior.
These can be things such as withholding a reward, ignoring a dog, and verbal objection. They most definitely do have their place in dog training.

I'm sick of seeing bad advice given out by well meaning people. I don't care how many books someone has read, how many links they have looked over. Nothing can equal the experience gained by working with a lot of dogs.

[rachnjam27]

I applaud you for your response.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

Originally posted by Shelteez2
I'm sick of seeing bad advice given out by well meaning people. I don't care how many books someone has read, how many links they have looked over. Nothing can equal the experience gained by working with a lot of dogs.

What bad advice has been given?? We were all just stating our opinions on the subject.

[petlover]

You guys are all going to hasty conclusions. Now since I have read some more posts it sounds like I went from slapping my dog on the head to beating my dog. Yall make it sound like I am totally abusing Hallie, which I would never do. I didn't hit her very hard and it wasn't exactly on the face like I made it sound. It was just near the top of her head. It's not good to hit a dog, I know. I also know that you should reward a dog when it does good. It just sounds like yall are going to Hast Conclusions. It's gone and over with. I learned my lesson. It will never happen again. Trust me.
By the way, I am not trying to be rude. I don't even know if this is what you meant, but binka_nugget, it kind of sounded like you were saying that we shaved our Hallie because she had mats in her hair. Well, I groom her everyday, twice a day. She has almost never had a little knot in her life. That goes for all of our longhaired dogs. Oh, and Hallie is the first sheltie that I have ever had so I didn't know that you were not supposed to shave that far.

[rachnjam27]

Actually, I felt that it was wrong of them to put you down like that, when in reality you did not do anything 'wrong'.

[Karen]

Please, let's not continue this discussion in this thread. Poor petlover feels bad enough, we do not need to debate training methods in her thread.

Start a new thread if you want to, okay?

Jan (petlover) I am glad you had the nice walk, and ice cream silliness, and am just as glad that you seem to have learned, and promise never to do that agin. It's even better that Hallie has forgiven you, but still be careful about raising your hand quickly around her, or yelling around her, for a few days, okay?

Trust and respect can be earned. I am sorry you have had bad examples in your life. But you are young, and can learn! Keep in mind that Shelties are bred to herd sheep, and often will nip at sheep to keep them going the way they want them to. Have you ever done agility training with her? She might really enjoy that, as might you, and it'll help strengthen communication and trust between you two. Give it a thought, anyway.

[binka_nugget]

Originally posted by petlover
By the way, I am not trying to be rude. I don't even know if this is what you meant, but binka_nugget, it kind of sounded like you were saying that we shaved our Hallie because she had mats in her hair. Well, I groom her everyday, twice a day. She has almost never had a little knot in her life. That goes for all of our longhaired dogs. Oh, and Hallie is the first sheltie that I have ever had so I didn't know that you were not supposed to shave that far.

Oh no, I didn't direct that at you. I quoted Goldenretrluver's comment and just added onto it.

[petlover]

I am sooo sorry binka_nugget I didn't mean to make you upset. I am really sorry. I hope I didn't offend you.

[Twisterdog]

I'm sick of seeing bad advice given out by well meaning people. I don't care how many books someone has read, how many links they have looked over. Nothing can equal the experience gained by working with a lot of dogs.

I so agree with this!

[petlover]

Hi Karen. Thank you for helping me out with this situation. I have hearded sheep with Hallie. We have a hearding day every Saturday. It is a lot of fun. It is a full day of hearding sheep with other collies and shelties. We are with the LuvMyCollie club. We do lots of fun things. Also, the club does agility every Wednesday. Hallie seems to really enjoy that too. Thank you again for understanding. And helping me out. I couldn't thank you enough. Also, when I raise my hand Hallie doesn't really mind. I think it is because I have signals that I use with her with my hands. I am teaching her commands in sign language. I also use signals with sheep herding. Sheep herding is pretty important to her because she gets to do it everyday. We have a lamb that I raise for show and she gets to run it. She just loves it!


Thanks again!

[Kfamr]

i'm curious... Which advice in here would you consider "bad"?

[rachnjam27]

I have an idea, but I won't bother to post it.
Hey Kfamr, I posted my intro in General.

[cali]

I dont know what is it with you people and jumping to concusions honestly if anyone here says that they have never ever lashed out on there dog at least once in their lives they are lying. plain and simple. things happen, sometimes you have to do what you have to do, I do have to hite misty, why? because NOTHING else is effective, she could not care less how many times or how loud I yelled NO, she doesent care if I ignore her, she has no response to a tap on the nose or a slap on the but, so she gets a slap on her shoulder, however she is he ONLY dog I have that gets that sort of punishment, and only because she is very tuff and strong willed so much that she barly even responds to the slap, no I dont slap her in the face but EVERYONE makes mistakes. I got run off a board once because I lashed out on misty, they expected me to be able to think in a panic and even said I should not even have pets if I am going to lash out like that, what she did is while I was finishing up my lunch before heading back to school misty came out of nowhere flew into my lunch sending the boiling hot tomato sauce all over my face, lets see I have sauce scalding my face and I am supposed to think about what I am doing? like I said EVERYONE makes mistakes, and anyone who can say they have never once ever lashed out on there pets in anyway is lying through their teeth. have I kicked my dogs? yes I have perky, WHY because she is a jack russle terrier, and when a jack gets into a full out fight you cannot just stick you hands in there and pick her up, that is unless you want to end up in the hospital with gashes all over you. you have to get in there and break uo the fight with you feet, which means kicking them apart, and anyone with a true tuff jack russle that has gotten into a fight will know that, when misty gets into a fight all you need to do is pick her up by the scruff and crate her(so she cant get to the dog she was attacking) but things happen, and no one shoul be condeming her for what she did.

[Dawn]

and grab her coller (gently!) and lead her outside, because being alone is the WORST possible punishment you could EVER do to her. It's like a time-out. I works great for us. 5 mins later, I let her back in and she is good.

This is a training method Tyr's trainer suggested when he would "play" way too rough-jumping up and grabbing me with his mouth and sometimes really hurting me.
He suggested I say"no" "bad"and walk out of the room, and leave him a lone for a while and come back 5 or so minutes later and do it every time-most dogs hate to be left alone-and when they find certain things they do will make you go away-they will stop doing it.
It worked with Tyr-it's the only thing that worked!
But hitting-major No-no-just makes the situation worse. I would get angry and push him away-not hard-not enough to hurt him - but he would get more excited and come back harder, thinking I was playing with him.
Hitting confuses the dog-so try to avoid doing it again. I know sometimes you reaact to a situation out of anger-but you have to think-if this was your child-would you reaact like that-and in a way aren't they our "children" so to speak?