Collars for training

[Sherry Miller]

I just wondered what type of collar you all use for on leash training for your Irish Setter?

[Sherry Miller]

That is what upset me the day the two dogs were parked next to Molly and I was hearing I needed a shock and pinch collar.  I ended up walking out minus collar that day ( was just looking for a nice, soft ,pretty everyday collar).  It just felt threatening to my Molly to have two large dogs on either side of her that had to be controlled by those shock collars...I probably would have come unglued completely if they had shocked the dogs in front of me .  They were so pushy and sure that their way was the only way and my gentle leader looked awful...two collars on each of theirs...one pinch and other the shock and they thought Molly looked bad!  I told them I believed gentleness and fun the proper way to train any dog and using shocks or pinches to me would only train a dog to fear their owner.  I have not been back to that pet store since as I do not like not being asked if they can use Molly as a training tool for their dogs!  I know it was the owners and not the store but do not want to repeat the experience. I did tell the store about the incident but they said all dogs need to be trained...I just don't think they realized how threatened I felt by them using Molly as a lesson.  Their loss though as I am afraid we spoil Molly terribly and they have lost a customer!

[Teresa]

Reading your success with the Easy Walk makes me feel glad for you, but really sad for myself... On the days Pitanga was a big puller I virtually tried everything available here to make her not pull - of course i did not try anything that would hurt my dog!

There were no gentle leaders available and I did not hear about them until much later, so I never got the chance to solve the problem the way I did with Romã, who wasn't nearly as bad as her mum!

A friend recommended the Easy Walk to me as it had worked wonders in her boxer. I borrow it from her, just to try it on Pitanga and see how she reacted - It took her about 5 min until she learned to turn around an pull while walking backwards! I have never seen another dog do this and nobody would believe me until they saw it, so I may be the only person in the world claiming that the Easy Walk did not work for me!

[Teresa]

I have car-harnesses for my girls. I had to change the closing part into a metal one, because Romã somehow is able to chew them off. She would free herself and then would go onto freeing her mom. Once they were both free they would continue to sleep in the backseet, as if they still had the harnesses on, so I never really understood the urge to get free.   She never chews the nylon part, just the plastic closing things - so now is all metal, she does not chew and it doesn't bother her that they have their harnesses on.

Makes it look like i carry around lions in the car, tough! It's unbelievable the things we change around us to setter proof everything!

[Howard Glansfield]

It amazes me all the things we do for our setters and what we sometimes have to tolerate but you can't help but love 'em and I have never met a nasty setter owner....yet!

We went out for about an hour and Arthur had his first freedom of the house  .No problems! Nothing chewed and a great welcome off all three.Lovely!

[Sherry Miller]

Howard isn't that one of the most wonderful feelings to come home to happy dogs who didn't misbehave while you were gone?  :)

[Sherry Miller]

this one made me laugh!  Least you know where to find him! Picture please? 

[Sherry Miller]

I kept laughing about this while at work today....Fergus is just setting the table for you!  Is the table by a window he likes to look out?

[Howard Glansfield]

Some terribly, inconsiderate, owners about!

Arthur has just, as my back was turned,grabbed some rashers of cooked bacon from the pan on the back of the cooker hob and legged it down the garden! By the time i got to him they had gone,I did tell him off but I was laughing as well and his tail just kept on wagging...ah well! I'm off to Sainsbury's now!

[Howard Glansfield]

Like Jasmine, we had a dog called Lizzie who would lift down a huge pan of stew, which was cooking ,from our Raeburn cooker and devour the lot.The cast iron pan was  so heavy that it was difficult for me to lift it.She managed with her jaws.Fine mandibles have setters!

Ellie can turn the round knob of the gas cooker oven door and has pinched a cooking joint before now.We now have to use a broom stave so the door can't be opened!

[Sherry Miller]

I think we have a new topic going here.)  Finn, perhaps Fergus needs a pillow added to the table so he will be more comfortable on top of your things.  Surprised nothing has been knocked off so he must be awfully careful getting up there.

       So far the only thing our Molly counter surfs for is the kitchen towel (don't tell her I never use that one since she claimed it)...afraid it is now a game of steal and hide and then tease us with it which is repeated as often as we find  where she hid the towel. ( husbands!)

  Our last boy, Shilo( three ended up being called same name by everyone else so gave up and just called them what everyone else did)...was an awesome thief of peanut butter sandwiches....my daughter would make one and place it on the table and he would immediately get something from her room to make her get up to get her treasure....he'd drop it and off would go the sandwich. Shilo also would borrow loaf of bread...make a tiny whole in the bag and eat a piece or two and hide the loaf...redid the kitchen with that in mind...put in a bread drawer...with a metal slider you had to push back to get to the bread...well took him a week and he mastered opening the drawer and pushing the metal slider back....so that drawer became where we keep coffee and tea as he did not care for those. 

  Amazing what they will figure out to get what they want.

[Howard Glansfield]

Lizzie would steal any food and had an ' up and under' technigue which you have all probably experienced.One night my wife opened a tin of corned beef, as the corned beef slid out of its can onto a plate Lizzie's jaws grabbed it and she ran! My wife caught her and removed the corned beef from her mouth(with some difficulty!)She decided that she would put the beef in the fridge and give it to all the dogs as a treat later on.My younger son knew what had happened.

Later on that night my other son,Roy, returned home and headed for the fridge.He spotted the corned beef,my younger son was protesting,"don't eat that" but Roy ignored it thinking it was being saved for me...and ate half of it! Then he fancied a piece of cheese not knowing that had also been in Lizzie's jaws and was also being saved as treats for the dogs.

He didn't raid the fridge without checking after that!

[Howard Glansfield]

After reading Sherry's tales of Shilo you can only wonder at the intelligence of the dog........and people say Setters are stupid!