So today I had my first appointment with a personal trainer. She came by my home and stayed for 2.5 hours. We talked a lot and she showed me afterwards how to walk my dog (9 months) correctly (with a gentle leader).
All well and good (at least much better than I was doing). But much of her teachings depend on corrections.
She uses two of them. One is the grabbing of the skin beneath the neck, the other one is grabbing the muzzle from above and holding it tight for a few seconds (not holding his mouth closed). She explained to me that if he bites me/someone, jumps, I have to correct holding his muzzle. The intensity depends on what he did, how often. In her opinion some behaviors are simply unacceptable and need to be corrected immediately. He needs to know his position.
She says she's all about positive (clicker) training, explained to me the importance of intelligence games and how I needed to exercise my dog much more (although I should not play tug, because that shows the dog his strength and I'm not a skilled dog trainer to know how to react if he does something wrong).
I'm pretty happy with how everything went today, but I'm not sure about the corrections. He has however not jumped/bitten me anymore after I corrected him a few times this morning.
What do you guys think?
All well and good (at least much better than I was doing). But much of her teachings depend on corrections.
She uses two of them. One is the grabbing of the skin beneath the neck, the other one is grabbing the muzzle from above and holding it tight for a few seconds (not holding his mouth closed). She explained to me that if he bites me/someone, jumps, I have to correct holding his muzzle. The intensity depends on what he did, how often. In her opinion some behaviors are simply unacceptable and need to be corrected immediately. He needs to know his position.
She says she's all about positive (clicker) training, explained to me the importance of intelligence games and how I needed to exercise my dog much more (although I should not play tug, because that shows the dog his strength and I'm not a skilled dog trainer to know how to react if he does something wrong).
I'm pretty happy with how everything went today, but I'm not sure about the corrections. He has however not jumped/bitten me anymore after I corrected him a few times this morning.
What do you guys think?