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Mayissa: Of course, you have to be a *itch -- the Alpha *itch!! http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/wink.gif Sounds like you're making progress with Zorro. There are a couple of informational things I'd just like to add about approaching strangers and line of sight: Whenever two strange dogs approach each other, have you ever noticed how the heads and tails go straight up and they seem to lift onto their toes? Same principle as why they hike as high as they can on things -- I'm Bigger Than You. Now, just apply this concept to the dog's thought process and you'll see that when someone comes toward him and looks him in the eye, he probably perceives them as challenging him in size and eye contact dominance. Come to think of it, this might be some of the basis of Zorro's aggression -- whoever breaks eye contact first is the "lower" pack animal. If people look at him, he growls, and they not only look away first, they back away, he's won and considers them "lesser mortals" (so to bark, uh, speak). Of course, it doesn't help much that we have almost all been brought up to distrust large black dogs from early on -- look at the reputations of Rotties, Dobies and the other large black dogs. They've almost all been portrayed as mean, evil, "I'm going to eat you up" dogs and since people can barely see them at night, they surprise most everyone. Add to that that Shepherds have been portrayed as guard dogs for the police and in wartimes and we have developed a populace that is trepidatious around a black Shepherd at best. You are doing an excellent job from the sound of it and I applaud your efforts. Far too many people with the same situation would have sent the dog to the pound/shelter, put him down, or driven him to the country and dumped him. Kudos and commendations for taking an active and proactive role in this dog's life and working on making him a good citizen of the world. http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/biggrin.gif
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The above is just the bare basics of
the Koehler method of Dog training.
Ask your trainer about it.[/B][/QUOTE]
Is this the guy on TV? I've read a lot of books about training and seen a lot of videos and don't recall this, but it sounds like a guy that was doing infomercials on TV. Have you used this method? Did it work like you wanted it to? I'm always curious about methods of training that are not the "jerk and shove" types we used to learn. Does this person have a website? I'd be interested in exploring it if he does.
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Ryan, yeah me too! I would be really interested to read more about it.
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Amazon.com has his books. It was very interesting to read the consumer reviews. People either love him or hate him.
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Rachel,
I just went and read the reviews
at Amazone.com.
People are shure passionate one way or the other.
I purchased an older print book on E-Bay
and I found a trainer by recommendation who uses this method of training.
I will keep everybody posted on
how my boy does.
