\r\n \r\n Good article Liverock, thanks. So many of us give our pets human attributes, and interpret what they\'re doing with people reasoning. It\'s easy to do, because they\'re part of the family. You can say look, know he\'s doing that out of spite, or look, now he\'s sulking because I took his bone away, etc. I\'m guilty of that myself, LOL, but I\'ve learned over the years that they\'re just animals and humanizing their actions too much is just our projections, and doesn\'t benefit them or us.
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\nCesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer, often deals with spoiled and out of control dogs, and many times the owners are at fault and benefit from changing their atitudes and routines. He makes clear to them that the dog is an animal, not a child. That it needs a leader, because it wants to please the owner, but often gets mixed signals.
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\nMy boy\'s favorite part of the day is when I send him outside to bring us the morning newspaper, his reward is a piece of jerky, but a pat or a kiss on the head makes him just as happy. \r\n

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\r\n "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~
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\r\nNatMedTalk and Beyond\r\n

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\r\n \r\n That is a good article and I really enjoy watching Cesar Milan\'s show when it come on.
\nour dogs are mostly indoor dogs, and when we go out we always leave without fussing over the dogs, and when we come home we do the same, just dont give them any attention.
\nwe have a small recorder we set to see how they behave while we are out, and most times there is not a peep out of them apart from playing sounds, and we never let the dogs go out of the house until they sit inside the door and then we go out first.
\nAt meal times they are not allowed to eat their food until we say ok first.
\nthe only real problem we have is the Labrador pulls on his lead, when we go for a walk, even with a gentle leader, and hubby won\'t use a choker chain on him,I think we might give a head halti a go and see if that helps, any other suggestions would be appreciated, we have tried the treat thing and that doesn\'t seem to work\r\n

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\r\n \r\n I did use a choke collar just for mild correction in training to walk in a heel position, and not pull forward or walk ahead. Cesar suggested while doing "the walk" to make the correction with a sideways motion, as opposed to a backward one, which they naturally fight against by pulling forward. This does seem to make them momentarily off-balance, and they stop pulling forward. May work with a regular collar, worth a few tries, maybe you\'ll get good results also. It just one of those habits that can be broken. \r\n

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\r\n \r\n Thanks for your suggestion K2c pulling him sideways instead of back, we will just have to get a shorter lead, to try that and hope that it will work eventually, he is very good in that he will always sit at street corners, without being asked.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n It sounds like your furkids are very well-behaved and willing to please. Good luck with your lab, he\'s a smart boy. \r\n

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\r\n \r\n Great article thanks. My Australian Shepherd did the same thing! We would never understand why he would pee. Now I feel horrible.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Ozzie, you can carry a plant sprayer filled with water to teach your dog to heel. Keep squirting the dog\'s face with water, every time he moves ahead of your knee. I have several dogs, one is a hyperactive heeler/Jack Russell terrier cross. She was bound and determined to surge and pull, until I employed the plant sprayer. She became thoroughly soaked the first time I used the plant sprayer during a walk, as I had to spray her many times to convince her that she must abide by my rules. The second time, I only had to show her the bottle to remind her to stay in position at heel. (I did have to show her the bottle several times, but I didn\'t have to spray her.)\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Thanks for the tip dogwoman, at the moment my hubby has been taking the dogs for a walk and he seems to be able to put up with the pulling, but I will tell him about the spray, we do use that trick when we have visitors as the dogs get so excited when the family come to see us, I have asked them to ignore the dogs when they come in so they don\'t get quite so exited but I might as well chew a brick.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Even though your husband is tolerant of the dog pulling on leash, pulling on leash is very bad for the dog\'s body. Pulling and lunging on leash can cause throat, neck and cervical damage. Eventually the result will probably be degeneration of the spinal discs in the back of the neck which is a miserablly painful condition when the dog becomes old.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n I can see your point dogwoman. thank you,we do use a front clipping easy walker harness,which we thought would be less stress on him , which did work for a while, but he has learned to pull on that as well, hubby is letting him off the lead more now, while he is in the park, and just puts him on lead to harness again when he gets to road side, its a bit disappointing though when you buy something that\'s supposed to stop them pulling and they still find a way to pull.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n I wish my neighbors would figure out what their dog that barks all the time is trying to tell them-' + '-"I\'m bored and anxious from being stuck in this yard and house all the time, and I\'ve gotten into this barking habit and need your help to break it, because this isn\'t my normal habitation like it would be in the wild and you\'re the human, the leader and you need to be a leader". They NEVER take it for a walk. They have 5 rescue dogs (over 5 is illegal) and think that since they rescued them, that\'s good enough. It\'s not normal for a dog to bark constantly, contrary to what they think.
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\nYou owe it to your dog to understand them and take care of their needs. Oh, and to your neighbors and their needs.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n u&iraok our daughter has just moved into a new house and just before they moved they bought this little gadget that is shaped like a house and it has some sort of device in it that sets of a frequency that only dogs can hear, when they bark, it seems to work, they wanted the dogs to stop barking before they moved into their new home, their last neighbour used to aggrivate the dogs and make them bark, the dogs are so much calmer and relaxed now, she also bought a small pocket recorder to set when they went to work to see if they bark during the day.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n I cured a new dog of barking, by pretending to leave the house. I would drive halfway down the block, walk back to the house, sneak up to the window she was near and shake a small metal candy tin which contained several pennies. I only had to do this a few times to teach her that she was not allowed to bark complaints that I had gone off to work. The neighbor who alerted me that the dog was barking was given permission to use the same method. I supplied him with a noisemaker candy tin. He later told me he only used it once, as the dog did stop barking within three days of his complaint to me.
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\nYou might call animal control and request that they speak to your neighbors, if you haven\'t been able to obtain cooperation by informing the neighbors of the noise the dog is creating. I had no idea my new dog was creating a nuisance. I thanked my neighbor for letting me know.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Well, that was a clever cure, dogwoman! As to the neighbors we and others have complained for several years and it\'s gotten a little better but not enough. The last time we talked to them the wife said, "We don\'t even notice the barking anymore", so you see what we\'re dealing with. We\'ve given up complaining because they\'re not doing what they need to to help the dog, like walks. To never ever have taken your dog for a single walk in it\'s poor life is not good dogcaretakership.\r\n

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\r\n \r\n Inconsiderate and uncaring pet owners are very common, and it\'s so sad. I feel that dogs should be a part of the family, and not out in the yard all day. Exercise is needed for a balanced state of mind. Never having walked the dog is a form of abuse IMO.
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\nI take my dog to the park to run free nearly everyday of the year, or my husband takes him. When not possible, I take him out for a good long walk on a retractable lead. The barking dog is stressed, and if the owner doesn\'t give a damn, there\'s not too much a neighbor can do, other than walking the dog themselves...but if the neglectful habits of the owner continues, except for giving the dog a break, it\'s all for nothing.\r\n

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