I have tried it!

Primary Tool: Easy Walk Pet Harness

Walking your dog can be very relaxing if there is a good harmony between the owner and the dog. However, if that understanding isn’t there, it can be quite frustrating. Not to mention the slips and falls on the road / owner shouting at the dog to listen or not pull. Ha ha. I have been through it with my male Shepherd, Oscar.

I am going to document what I noticed helped me the most. But before I start, please don’t think for a moment that my German Shepherd was well behaved or that he was an easy dog. Let me clarify it for you. Oscar is a super excited,anxious, curios dog. You can add all kinds of superlative adjectives to describe him. In other words he has extreme energy and always wants to explore and lead.

Now let me describe the problems we both had:

• dog trying to walk ahead of me – results in me stamping on his legs
• dog continuing to go in the same direction while I am thinking on stopping or turning. Results in abrupt jerk to his neck since he is on some training collar
• dog pulling on leash – results in wrist pains / elbow pains depending on the force and the size of the dog

These problems are sufficient to induce frustration and a sense of helplessness. In order to help us, we tried all kinds of tips that books, videos and professional trainers suggested. Those included the following:

• Use of a choke collar
• Use of a prong collar
• Stop when he forges ahead and let him understand and come back
• Treats (real treats and/or verbal praise) when he does the good behavior
• Saying the word No when he pulls and tell what he needs to do. Praise him when he exhibits good (no pulling) behavior.

Not a single thing worked. He would suffer with pain (in case of choke/prong collars) but still forge ahead. Me stopping if he forges ahead – was BS. Sorry trainers. He would see that I stopped and quickly adjust backwards. I start walking and forges ahead again. I was told to try as long as it would take. And I really did try on every single walk for 14 days (2 weeks). No benefit which is when I gave up. The treat giving on the road – this is the one I hate the most. First of all Oscar is not that food motivated. Secondly, I find it extremely inconvenient to give treats while I am holding a bag of poop with me. The treats thing really works for the trainers when their 100% focus is on the dog. Think about it. In a normal daily life, you have so many things to do and devoting 100% to your pet is impractical.

Anyways, so here is what worked for us. I am a firm believer of one thing – there is no single formula that works for every dog. You have to know your options and try them in different permutations and combinations with your dog. You never know what will work. So feel free to figure out what works.

So assuming you have the pet harness securely fastened to your dog, try the following:

1. First warm up your dog inside the house if he is super excited to go out. You can walk him inside your house for a few minutes. Take as long as you need. The goal is to make sure he is not super excited every time a door/exit is near. So go near a dog and as he starts pulling, say “NO” and then the command you want him to do for a normal walk. You can use the words: “HEAL” or “RIGHT HERE”. Whichever you like.
2. Once you think he is manageable near the doors, that’s a good sign. You don’t really want him to be agitated even inside the house before you start on a walk.
3. Now arrive at the door and make him sit. Don’t move till his ass is firm on the ground. Oscar does this trick of fooling me by keeping his ass a few inches off the ground. If he is whining, let him. Don’t get frustrated. Remember, in dog training, you should always focus on one thing at a time. You cannot focus on several aspects at the same time. You might end up confusing your dog. So for now, its only the walk.
4. Open the door and make sure your dog is still sitting firmly. If he gets up. Make him sit again. Keep doing this till he maintains a sit position.
5. Now you can say “WAIT” and try to go out the door first. This is because you dont want your dog to cross the door before you. If he tries to do that, use the same mantra as before: say the word “NO”, then say the command “Wait” with a little leash correction of course so as to stop him from going out the door.
6. Once you are outside the door, say “Come” and he can then come to you. This happens very quickly and really you don’t need this.
7. Now start walking. Every time he tries to go ahead, you should do the following in the exact same sequence:

• Slight pull on the leash sideways (assuming you have the Easy Walk Pet Harness)
• Say the word “NO”
• Say the command you want him to do: “Right Here” or “HEEL” (whichever command you chose – make sure you stick to one)

As simple as that. So the mantra is this:

1. Loose the excitement by walking your dog inside the house for a few minutes. Go near doors as if you are about to leave but then turn around.
2. Make sure you walk out the door first.
3. Say NO when he forges ahead along with a leash correction sideways assuming you are using the Easy Walk Pet Harness and say the command RIGHT HERE.

In the first 3 days, you will notice a significant change in behavior. After a week, your dog will be more manageable. After 2 weeks, you will be happy you read this article. Oh by the way, don’t think after 2 weeks you will be on cruise control. Remember, that your dog is a living thing and you both need to adjust to each other.

Remember, every owner is different and so is every dog. You really need to find what works for your dog and be patient with the routine. If you have questions, shoot me an email.

Happy training.

Getting your dog into/out of the car only when you want him to seems to be a fairly common problem. So problematic that many pet owners freak out about opening the trunk of their with their dog inside. If that is you, keep reading. If thats not you, perhaps you can still benefit from reading it anyways.

So today, lets look at the basic dog commands In and Out.

Actually if you think about it, its no different than releasing or dropping the leash of a dog. The moment you drop the leash a dog thinks its free to go and goes into the free state of exploration. Thats obviously fun to them. Similarly when you open the trunk of your SUV or the door of the car, the world opens up to a curious dog and he wants to go explore with or without you.

You really need to teach your dog two key words. In and Out.

In and Out dog commands Short Definitions:
In – you want to associate this word with getting in to the car. Your dog should wait patiently outside the car till you say the word: “IN”. At that point the dog should hop in.
Out – You want to associate this word with getting out of the car. Your dog should wait patiently inside the car till you say the work: “OUT”. At that point the dog should jump out.

In and Out dog commands Long explanation:
Dog Command In – You obviously dont want your dog to jump into the car while you are not ready for him to do so. Imagine you walking out of your house to your car along with your dog. You open the door of the car to perhaps let a child in or may be take some things out. Instead you have your dog jumping in. It can get real annoying or frustrating. It could be much better if the dog had waited for you to tell him when he can get into the car. So how do you do this. I mean how do you teach him the “IN” word. In other words, how do you associate/register the word: “IN” in your dog’s brain to that behavior of waiting to get into the car. here is how you do it:

Important: Always have your dog on the leash while you practice this. Make sure you practice this near your home or in an area where is no external disturbances. This helps the dog focus more on what you both are doing.
1. Walk with you dog to your car. Then open the door of the car as usual.
2. Wait for your dog to jump in. While he is jumping in, say the word “IN” so that your dog hears it.
3. Now that your dog is inside the car say “good IN”. This is the second time your dog is hearing it.
4. Get him out of the car, close the door and take a short walk away from the car. Come back to the car and stand in front of the car door. Make your dog sit.
5. Open the car door. If your dog gets up, make him sit again (remember you have the leash in your hand).
6. Wait for a few seconds/minutes so that your dog does the bad behavior (jumping in without you saying the word IN).
7. When your dog shows the problematic behavior of getting into the car without you saying IN, say the word: “NO” in a firm manner and get him out of the car with your leash immediately. Now the dog is confused. He might try to get into the car again almost immediately. If he does, repeat the word “No” and get him out of the car.
8. By now, he probably will stay outside next to you. If he doesnt, then repeat step #7 till he stays next to you outside the car.
9. When he is staying outside the car next to you waiting for your instruction, say the word “IN” and give a little directional move for the leash showing him to get into the car. He will immediately jump in. Then say “good IN”

Repeat this a few times at different times of the day and make sure you do this as a routine everytime you take your dog out in the car. Your dog will very quickly learn what the word “IN” stands for and will always wait for you to say the word “IN” to get into the car!

Dog Command Out – You obviously dont want your dog to jump out of the car every time you open the trunk or door of your car. Imagine you went for shopping with your dog. You have him in the back of your car and you came back with some shopping bags. All you want to do is to put these bags in the rear of your car. You open the door / trunk and off jumps your dog. It can get frustrating very quickly especially if you are in a high traffic area or its raining. I have been there.  So how do you teach your dog the word: “Out”. In other words, how do you associate/register the word: “OUT” in your dog’s brain to that behavior of waiting patiently inside the car. Here is how you do it:
Important: Always have your dog on the leash while you practice this. Make sure you practice this near your home or in an area where is no external disturbances. This helps the dog focus more on what you both are doing.
1. With your dog inside the car, open the trunk / door of the car and get hold of his leash.
2. Wait for him to jump out on his own (problematic behavior). While he is jumping out, say the word: “OUT”.
3. When he is on the ground, say the words: “good OUT”.
4. Now give him the command “IN” and move the leash in a direction towards the car. This is assuming you already taught him IN. The dog should be inside the car now.
5. Wait for a few seconds and give the command “OUT”. While giving the command “OUT”, pull slighlty on the leash so the dog understands you want him out of the car. Once out of the car, say “good OUT”.
6. Put him back in the car again and this time wait longer. Basically wait till he shows the problematic behavior (jumping out without you saying the command OUT).
7. The moment he jumps out on his own without you saying OUT, tell him “NO” in a firm manner and then tell him “IN” and get him into the car.
8. Now you will make him think a little bit. Wait even longer for him to make a mistake. If he does repeat step# 7. If he doesnt you are good.
9. By now, he understands that he should not get out of the car without you saying “Out”. Once he learns to associate the word “OUT” with the behavior of getting out of the car, its pretty easy on both of you.

Good luck. If you have questions, shoot me an email.

A leash.

Oscar has been a heavy chewer. He has chewed up at least a dozen leashes so far. Luckily, he seems to be out of the habit now. Well almost. I say so since he still does that as an attention getter. How smart!

So after changing more than a dozen leashes, there is one and only one leash that I have settlled down with – the “Ruff Grip leash”. Its amazing. There is no other leash that even comes close to what this has to offer. The two training institutes and the boarding place that Oscar and Perle go to were so impressed with the ruff grip leash that they ordered a few of the “Ruff Grip leash” after looking at mine. I was lucky enough that I came across it during my search for the ultimate dog leash.

You can get one from Amazon. I vouch for the Ruff Grip leashes.

RuffGrip leashes won’t slip in the rain like leather or give you rope burns like cotton & nylon, never tacky in hot weather and a great grip in cold weather. Leather bands every six inches are sewn in and add to the unique control this leash gives you. The leather handle is padded with a luxuriously soft leather lining that makes it extremely comfortable.

Here is a picture of it:

To sum it up, here are the advantages of the RuffGrip leash:

• Provide extra grip when puppy training
• Benefits those with arthritis or carpal tunnel
• Easy grip leash allows you to easily shorten the leash whenever you want
• Lightweight
• Low maintenance
• Extremely tough and Durable
• Works wet or dry, hot or cold

Once again, here is where you can get this ultimate dog leash from

We have two awesome dogs named Oscar and Perle. They are both German Shepherd dogs (GSDs). As you might have guessed already, Oscar is a male GSD while Perle is a female GSD. Agewise they are 3 months apart. Oscar is elder and as of today is 2 years and 4 months. And Perle is 2 years and 1 month as of today.

Oscar is probably like the dog in Both? Handsome, Confident, a deterrent and … of course Hyper. Yes he is. Me and him – have visited several training institutes, consulted with several individual trainers and have spent thousands of dollars ($$) over the last 2 years. I have him since he was a baby (about 3 months old). He was so active then. Well, even now he is the same. I wish he were a little less active. I guess it would be boring then. Here is a picture of him.

Perle is awesome. She is calm, cute, gorgeous, well mannered, has a striking coat. Everything is so good about her. Well not everything. I guess nobody is perfect. She is a little fearful. However, she has improved a lot over the last few months. She was at a breeder’s place and spent her early life (1.5 years) in a cage with very little to no exposure to a house. So when we got her 6 months back, she was fearful of everything. Things have changed quite a bit over the last few months. But still there are those moments when she sees certain things. Would you believe if I said she is afraid of those big bouncy balls that kids love to play with? Unfortunately she is. I am sure she will get past that some time soon. And this is Perle.

And here is a picture of me, Oscar and Perle!

German Shepherds own me