I thought I would just come here today and gloat of our success! I'm talking about Charlie of course here lol. He was one year old on about the 15th march, that long ago... gawd. And this sunday gone was the anniversary of his being here for a year! :o How it seems to fly by. ANYWAY that wasn't my point- we got a POLICE DOG TRAINER in near his birthday as we were still having great difficulty in walking him. He came in, was all full of himself saying how most trainers aren't worth the money, and how charlie wasn't even bad. The we seen a dog, oh the joy f it. Anyway, he told us to stop using the halti's as it can harm eyes and that they don't olve the problem, they just cover it up. Plus Charlie broke like four of them...

Instead we tried him with a chke collar, which i was very uncomfy with. So after about a week we took it off but still used what the man told us. A slow success I would say. In taming the wild idiot dog that is Charlie.

Good day! Jay.

Choke chains are not nice on dogs. Have you ever checked the APDT list for a trainer in your area? I am always suspicious of police dog trainers as they often don't use very nice methods. Pyreneans are as far removed from German Shepherd behaviour (which is what most police dog handlers are used to) as you can get and they need special understanding when training (and I am not saying that it is ok to use choke chains on GSDs, because it isn't!)! Ideally you would find a trainer that has experience with pyreneans. Shame you are not closer to me, otherwise I could have helped you out!

Vera

Well there's always the breeder we can ask for help. But we livee in the north-west and she lives wayyy in the south. I wouldn't make that journey with soft arse again lol. But he's making progress now. But to be fair, a lot of the stuff I've said before is what this man said and as with anything, I'm ever wary about what he told us. Which is why the choke chain is in some rubbish dump somewhere now... unless a junk moocher went and discovered it...

But he said things like "if you see a dg coming up the street, just turn and walk away" and "he seems to be rewarded with your attention because he doesn't like treats, just use one toy to play with him with". I'd said this and my dad is like "o no no sonny boy, I know ALL there is to know about the doggies now". Anyway, he is getting better gradually. But he has earned the name "Mad charlie" around where I live. But everyone likes his crazy bouts of barking and pulling.

On a totally different subject, have you ever had people saying they LIKE your dogs barks and that they feel SAFE at night when they hear them? we're told that and its utterly bizzare! lol

Thanks, Jay.

I am so glad you dumped the choke chain for poor Charlie as i agree with Vera they are not nice in fact i will go as far as to say i think they are really cruel and i would never use one on any of my dogs , i do not agree with teaching any dog by using painful or uncomfortable methods at all .

I can totally sympathize with you about charlie pulling akira went through a faze of pulling like a steam train when taz was ill and her training had to take a back step , i tried all kinds of leads harnesses etc before i tried using a gentle leader with her and along with a lot of hard work training , changing direction when she pulled or stopped , she did eventually stop pulling and walks nicely on a lead these days , i still use the gentle leader as i feel i have better control over both her and storm with them on and as i walk them both together i need to be able to handle them both no matter what . and i can ,not bad when i am only 5 foot 3 inches tall and no where near as strong as they are :lol: :lol:

Storm used to over react to some dogs outside too , i was told he was dog aggressive but it turns out his previous owners had thought that and dragged him away from other dogs when all he wanted to do was say hello rather loudly , and 12 stone of barking Pyr at the end of a lead could be a wee bit intimidating for people so i had to stop that straight away so i used to turn him around and walk away if he saw another dog and started barking to start with so he got the message that was unacceptable behaviour , i progressed to using the watch me command and eventually Storm learned that if he watched me and sat nicely when he saw a dog approaching he got to say hello .

As Vera said it would be ideal if you could find an APDT trainer in your area with some experience of Pyrs and their nature . Most APDT are very good and i found that if i told them one of my dogs would not do something or would only do it once , when they realized i knew my dogs and what they would and would not do they were great and did make some allowances for their little quirks , i love the Pyr's independance and i love the fact you can see them thinking things through before they decide if something is worth doing or not , a well trained german shepherd or dobermann will obey instantly most of the time a Pyr wont , they will think about it first just the joy of a Pyr :lol: :lol:

Fiona xx