My Jax

[gunslinger2006]

Jax at the training club (11 months old)

[Damasyn]

Good looking boy!

[DeDe]

Very serious about that camera in his face, isn't he? LOL :-)

[gunslinger2006]

Just a couple more of the little fella

[breesmom]

Very nice looking boy!!!! Love how intently he is looking into the camera Looks like he enjoys the training!!

[von Cosack]

Nice lil Boy, don't see that expression that often anymore. You will have good times with him. Nice dark eye too! I see a prong on him, is he a stubborn dog? Are there techniques hes not responding well to? Work hard to eliminate those kinds of "tools", the Dobermann always responds to their bond with their handler once they understand their tasks. Long use of those kind of tools deminishes the natural bond. Compulsion is a Method but for training only, once training has led to a finished product compulsion is eliminated. Are you working in sport or Personal Protection? Von.

[gunslinger2006]

Thanks Von. Your right about the prong and I use it very sparingly. He has a dog aggression problem that I have been working on with great success but he still wants to stink eye another dog which did not pop up that Saturday. It's getting to the point where a good "phooy" changes his attitude toward other dogs. The prong is there for that reason only. I can get him to do what I want with his toy. Most all his corrections I can give with his flat collar. I try to stay away from compulsive training as much as possible.

We are training for IPO and he's doing well in all aspects for his age. Tracking is where I'm having some trouble with. He will track and sometimes he does really well but he has his moments when he follows the track in warp drive. So I'm working on slowing him down.

I train with him every chance I get and bring him everywhere (malls, parks, festivals, parades) to keep him socialized and will do my obedience work in those places. Seems to be working.

[gunslinger2006]

One more thing, I'm open to any and all suggestions...;-)

[Shadowlands]

He is gorgeous!! I love that dead serious stare with those deep dark eyes of his. Stunning fella.

[Nellie]

Mar 14, 2012 18:12:37 GMT -5 gunslinger2006 said:

One more thing, I'm open to any and all suggestions...;-)

The best advice I can give, long distance, is to remember to break all of your training down in the smallest bits. Train them separately and don't put it all together til the bits are 110%. And for heavens sake don't pattern train a Dobermann!!

Have fun - if it ain't fun then you are doing it wrong.

[gunslinger2006]

Thanks Nellie, I will keep that in mind. And we always have fun when training. I train, he plays.

Here's a pic of both dogs at play

[Kia]

Very handsome guy you got there!

[von Cosack]

I understand the dominance issues very well having intact males for 50 years!!! The only thing I've found to "alter" their motovation are extremely serious, fast, hard correction once your "first" command fails!!! Confront the problem head on at a training session or a kenneling situation where theres a fence for safety purposes. You can use the pinch for that reason and he will associate that collar with that issue just as he'll do with his harness or flat for other tasks. I personally would switch to a correction (choke chain) if the pinch isn't giving you quick success.
The fact that a choker is so fast when used correctly to get a dogs focus back to their handler is why I prefer them. Theres alot of people using a choker incorrectly these days and they actually try to control through it instead of using it strictly to redirect back to the handler. Once the correction is given and the dog turns back to his handler you need to continue a sequence of OB tasks so the dog has little to NO chance to revert back to the other dog.
I'm not trying to make this sound so easy but I've trained an awfull lot of dog agression problems and GSD & Dobermanns are at the top of the list.
As for training overall I conquer with Nellie that your progression into training needs to be individualized with a Dobermann, the fact that your into a trial that was developed for GSD sometimes aborts a Dobermanns personality. A Mal is a Mal as a GSD is a GSD but a Dobermann is the only one bred to protect humans not other animals. The insistance on developing the dogs "interests" in "prey" can be a problem when dealing with a real Dobermann. They certainly can have prey drive but their breeding is based on Defense & Fight hence the PP abilities.
Continued success and let us know how hes moving along, their are members here who have participated in IPO (Sch.) in their pasts and theres also people just getting into it along with interests in PP training. I'm a former PP and Security trainer so if there anything you want to bounce off me just give me a shout. Von.

[gunslinger2006]

Von, I was going to PM you but decided to post here so that others with more expertise than I with IPO may chime in.

Just a bit of background on me. Jax isn't my first dobermann, # 7 in fact, he's the first that I'm doing IPO with. My training foundation is based on Koehler's method (more like Frawley now) and all of my training has been in obedience only, up to the time I brought Jax home. I decided to go into (Schutzhund at the time) IPO before getting Jax. So I did research on breeders. Price, location and pedigree where the factors that I considered before buying a dog. ( Jax's pedigree to the best of my knowlege www.dobermannpedigrees.nl/modules/pedigree/pedigree.php?pedid=229315 ). Also reading alot about the sport so that I had some idea of what I was getting into before getting the dog. In other words, I didn't go into this lightly. The club I joined is all GSD's but they have an understanding of dobermanns and help me train Jax according to his breed.
So I come here welcoming all opinions.

@ Von, I agree with you on how to offer the correction and have been using that with his (as you put it) dominance issues. Belive me, I have no quams with offering a stout correction when needed. I do not belive in nagging corrections. My saying is, "the severity of the correction befitting the dog". I also, the half second before the correction, I use "PHOOY!!", to get him to relate the word to the corretion. He's gotten MUCH better with me doing this and, although carefully, I can walk him past dogs and not lose his attention, more times than not now. I would rather get the dog to want to do something instead of having to do it (hence the toy) but he must know right from wrong so I go crank and yank on him when needed. And Von I will definitely, "bounce things off of you". Thanks

@nellie, you're correct with training in bits and pieces then putting it all together when he understands what is expected of him. Could you explain, "pattern training". I don't think I'm doing this but if I am, I'll have to stop and fix this.

Now just to let y'all know, I'm training to make Jax a better dog and if in the process we get a IPO title all the better. It's not about me, it's all about Jax (and Jewel too). As I said before, I welcome your opinions and comments.

Terry

[von Cosack]

Very interesting pedigree, a strange combination of American and Euro breds. First off your dogs granddam is my dogs dam (anja) the Homike dogs are out of Scudamore dogs (Janet Skidmore) a personal friend of mine who I bred one of my Demo dogs to her Champion Anubis de Scudamore who was an "Outstanding" dog back in the 70s. He hit as hard as any Dobermann I ever worked with could pull a cart loaded with kids and worked all the akc OB skills and got some awards for his overall skills. He also was a "special" after his conformation title was achieved. One of my favorite dogs ever, loved him!!
You have some work kennels in the ped but the majority are so-called Euro show lines. The vast majority of the show breeders bred from the original stock that the working kennels bred from but the so-called show dogs never get a chance to perform in sport! Your dog has nice temperament dogs in his backline along with the character needed to work. The very best PP dogs weren't the original German stock rather the combination of them and the generations from them bred in the States.
As I stated your dog has the expression I look for in a Dobermann and since all I have is a picture I'll judge what I know from a pic............Nice Pup! ........"train em up" Von.