Also known as Austin German Shepherd Dog Rescue (AGSDR)           A 501(c)(3) non-profit, 100% volunteer organization

German Shepherds Are Known for Helping People...   Now It's Our Turn to Help Them

          Our         To rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home German Shepherds from across the State of Texas.

      Mission:         To educate the public about the versatility and ability of the German Shepherd Dog...
...from Family Pet to Working Dog.

Home

Contact Us

 

Obedience Training
Your use of this website is subject to the terms, conditions, and understandings detailed here. By accessing this website, you hereby acknowledge that you have read and accept all of our terms, conditions, and understandings.
Obedience Training:  NOTHING can be more rewarding than you and your dog going once a week for a few hours to obedience training. Learning together as a team will create a stronger relationship, a closer bond, and enduring loyalty. If you've never taken a dog through training, we promise you it will be one of the most rewarding experiences you'll ever have with your dog.  Can it be trying? You bet! Can it be frustrating? Yes. Will your dog embarrass you? Count on it! But the pay off is, not only will your dog learn from this, but YOU will learn more about your dog in those few short weeks that you may ever learn in the dog's lifetime.
DO take your dog to a training class.  You can drop your GSD off for a week to be trained, and then spend a few hours with the trainer learning how to handle your GSD when you pick him up. For some this is ideal. But we HIGHLY RECOMMEND that both you and your GSD attend a 6-8 week long basic obedience class.  Not only will this be a real money saver, but more importantly, nothing can replace the loyalty, respect and knowledge you and your dog will walk away.  Training your own dog is an experience you will never regret.  We believe this to be a very important part of the bonding experience.  After that, practice, practice, practice...  a well-trained GSD makes for a happy human and home.  (*See a list on page 7 for trainers and training facilities we have used and recommend.) One of the MOST important things you can teach your dog is the RECALL.  There are several books listed on our website that can help you teach this to your dog or ask for help from a professional trainer.
I use a mix of all types of learning that dogs are capable of.  I think it’s necessary for most.  While some things can be taught with nothing but positive motivation, there is a time where it is imperative that your dog learn it MUST comply.  An immediate down the moment you say the word is an example if you let your dog off leash.  Frankly, even if you don’t.  Accidents happen and dogs get out.  If they are headed at a run towards a busy road, an immediate down, especially if they are merrily running TOWARD you, may save their life.  It would be so tragic to have your dog hit because it was crossing a road to get back to you and didn’t down on the other side when you commanded it.  I don’t feel most dogs do that well with just positive motivation.  It starts there, to be sure.  But proofing the command, in my opinion, often requires compulsion. You are correct that the clicker training is an operant conditioning method.  So is use of food (as either reward or punishment (lack of food)) and use of a pinch collar.  Operant conditioning is a term that includes most forms of training dogs, including the correction with a choke collar style.  It consists of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.  Most items (food, clickers, collars, etc.) are actually used in more than one form.  For example, clicker training is mainly positive reinforcement but also has an element of negative punishment (when an incorrect response is .  So if “do the command, get a piece of food.”  But food can also be used in negative punishment as well, where the food is withheld for the lack of doing the correct behavior.  So you say sit, the dog downs, no food.  Negative punishment.  Choke collars can be used in more than one method, also…negative reinforcement (pull up on collar, as soon as dog sits, release pressure) or positive punishment (fail to sit, get a jerk on the collar). For a good explanation, see this site:  http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/ While I know that many clicker trainers advocate never using positive punishment, I do feel it has it’s place, especially in proofing an exercise that the dog may not care for. However, I do agree that it is certainly possible to have a highly competitive dog that is very reliable yet never had any form of positive punishment used.  Nonetheless, I believe that it takes a great deal more time and effort than many dog owners are willing to invest to get the same results this way.  I do personally use all four methods of operant conditioning myself.  Including the use of a pinch collar in both negative reinforcement and positive punishment. I recommend to others that positive reinforcement is the best way a dog learns.  It’s also much easier to not harm your dog this way.  Positive punishment is something that needs to be applied carefully and in a way that does not cause physical or mental harm to the dog.  I think many dog owners are perfectly capable of this discernment on their own, while others need some assistance from a professional trainer or at least from a friend that is more experienced with dogs to make sure they are careful both in the nature and timing of any positive punishment and some types of negative reinforcement.