Tomoe update
Tomoe is 5 months now, and she's getting her stuff taken out next week. 
I'm honestly not looking forward to her having to wear the lampshade.
So how is she doing? At 21 weeks, she is still alert and prey-driven as ever. She still loves her backyard, but is a bit wimpy about the temperatures we are having right now, and she has not suddenly decided that being outside in the rain and going to the bathroom is awesome.
She is still very quiet and barks seldom. She loves hopping into her crate, especially if there is a small treat provided.
We still can't trust her by herself out of the crate. She really thinks the tile floor by the sliding glass doors is her bathroom.
She is still hyper-friendly with people and dogs, and mouthy, though she seems to know that people don't like being mouthed on...she just can't help it.
The biggest challenge is recall and attention. She won't come when you call her unless there is REALLY nothing better to do. And while she will focus on you with the intensity of a laser indoors when it is "training game" time, take her outside around even the mildest distraction and its like "I'll get to you in a minute."
She slipped her easy-walk hanress a couple weeks ago when my wife had her out for a walk in the deep snow, and slipped out of a standard puppia mesh harness just last week and went after a large mutt. She ignored me and dodged when I first reached for her, but thanks VERY MUCH to the help of the mutt who simply stared at her until she stopped strafing and let me sneak in and grab her, we got her under control before anything bad happened. And the Sporn harness I picked up at PetSmart seems to be really escape-proof.
Puppy kindergarten, I wouldn't consider very successful. She learned sit/down/stand fairly well, and she targets. The drills we were taught for basic stay and come, I can't even do those right. Class time after about the first three sessions was essentially all wasted, because I spent 95% of the class hours trying to get her to focus on me and stop fussing about the other puppies.
I am looking at another place to take her for training, a school that does everything outside, says they use no-food training techniques, and claims to focus on high-drive breeds.
Question for you Shika owners: Tomoe is 23.6 lbs at 21 or 22 weeks. The breeder estimated she'd be around 42 lbs when fully grown. Really? Do the medium-sized Japanese breeds pack on that much muscle in months 6-12, or does the breeder's estimate seem high?
I'm honestly not looking forward to her having to wear the lampshade. So how is she doing? At 21 weeks, she is still alert and prey-driven as ever. She still loves her backyard, but is a bit wimpy about the temperatures we are having right now, and she has not suddenly decided that being outside in the rain and going to the bathroom is awesome.
She is still very quiet and barks seldom. She loves hopping into her crate, especially if there is a small treat provided.
We still can't trust her by herself out of the crate. She really thinks the tile floor by the sliding glass doors is her bathroom.
She is still hyper-friendly with people and dogs, and mouthy, though she seems to know that people don't like being mouthed on...she just can't help it.
The biggest challenge is recall and attention. She won't come when you call her unless there is REALLY nothing better to do. And while she will focus on you with the intensity of a laser indoors when it is "training game" time, take her outside around even the mildest distraction and its like "I'll get to you in a minute."
She slipped her easy-walk hanress a couple weeks ago when my wife had her out for a walk in the deep snow, and slipped out of a standard puppia mesh harness just last week and went after a large mutt. She ignored me and dodged when I first reached for her, but thanks VERY MUCH to the help of the mutt who simply stared at her until she stopped strafing and let me sneak in and grab her, we got her under control before anything bad happened. And the Sporn harness I picked up at PetSmart seems to be really escape-proof.
Puppy kindergarten, I wouldn't consider very successful. She learned sit/down/stand fairly well, and she targets. The drills we were taught for basic stay and come, I can't even do those right. Class time after about the first three sessions was essentially all wasted, because I spent 95% of the class hours trying to get her to focus on me and stop fussing about the other puppies.
I am looking at another place to take her for training, a school that does everything outside, says they use no-food training techniques, and claims to focus on high-drive breeds.
Question for you Shika owners: Tomoe is 23.6 lbs at 21 or 22 weeks. The breeder estimated she'd be around 42 lbs when fully grown. Really? Do the medium-sized Japanese breeds pack on that much muscle in months 6-12, or does the breeder's estimate seem high?
Comments
http://www.pupsdogobediencetraining.com/
I'm rather partial to Alaskan limited slip collars that can be left on the dog. They've been used by mushers who have to deal with escape-prone Siberians. Here's a link covering the differences in the types of collars.
http://www.jindo-dog-rescue.org/articles/collar.html
Tomoe sounds like a normal NK to me. Puppy classes for Koda didn't teach him anything special. He wanted to play, and didn't understand that he couldn't and it was time to work. We did private lessons after that. He's 8 months now, and I am going to try and bring him back to a group class in three weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.
He can also get out of any collar or harness if he wants to, other than his ruffwear. But, the $$ for one when Tomoe is still growing doesn't seem worth it. BTW, the lead harness is the easiest to get out of.
Don't expect Tomoe to have perfect recall at 5 months. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just don't get yourself into a situation where you call and call and he ignores. It's just reinforcing his ignore. I only call Koda when I really need him. Like when we are leaving the dog park. I usually say "Koda go bye bye." Then he knows he is supposed to do something and comes to me to leave. Otherwise, I leave him alone. If I kept calling him to try and work on recall, the little stink wouldn't come. It has really helped.
I have to check on Koda's weight, but I think he was bigger at 5 months. He may well be a 50-55 pd. Kai when he's finished filling out though. If I remember correctly, Brad told me that Kona was 21 pds. at that age. I think he's 42 now?
The weird thing about Tomoe's recall is that she is more likely to come if I call her from the basement door than if I call her from the kitchen door above.
One time I called Koda in the dog park, and the little stink looked at me, pauses, thought for a good 15 seconds, than ran the other way. He was 5 months old. It was amazing to watch him actually think about whether coming to me was better or running off to play since he still had energy. I had to giggle a little. They are smart.
I am waiting to hear back from P.U.P.S. about what they actually do.
It is just without rewards it is much less clear to the dog, what you want of them. It is why most behaviorists strongly advocate reward based training.
The place seemed okay from their with a few things, that at least for me personally would be red flags.
~More than one picture of dogs wearing prong collars
~The repeated use of the term "dominance aggression", which is nowadays considered an obsolete term since numerous studies have dis-proven almost all "dominance" theories.
~If the training methods are not reward based does that mean they are using averssives?
Again this is all my personal philosophy. But there is just so much proof that positive reinforcement training works, while strengthening the human canine bond, and keeping the dog feeling safe and loved.
I will be interested to hear what their response is to you.
But, as Jess said, a click from a clicker is no more than a "marker", you can do exactly the same thing with a word, or even making a "click" sound with your mouth. We use "YES" in place of the "click" sound, and that helps a lot. Also, we invested in some dorky treat bags, they actually helped a lot. Check them out: http://www.petexpertise.com/dog-training-aids/dog-training-pouches-bait-bags/gentle-leader-training-pouch.html
Also, I know you have been on the forum for a while, and I know you know that Jess and I are basically the forum's "Positive Training Method Cops", so I will spare you the usual treatment.
But, I do want to point out something I noticed on that site (on top of what Jess pointed out already)...
They seem to do a lot of taring with GSDs, the lady that started it appears to have had a lot of experience with training GSDs. The GSD can be a VERY HARD dog, meaning they are the opposite of NK breed. NK breeds are "handler soft" while GSD tend to be "handler hard". I have seen trainers literally kick their GSD while training them and the GSD just steps up and asks for more. So, just be careful that their methods are not geared toward that type of "high-drive" dog breed.
Just my $0.02.
Also, all the things you mention above sounds pretty on-par with the experiences I have had with Shika Inu. They are not mean, or aggressive, actually they are very social - almost too social - so social that they get frustrated when they cannot meet a new dog (or an old friend)... and that can turn in to reactiveness. Also, when our Shika Inu are young, they have crazy ADD, they will not work for you if there is anything else going on. Loa has a great recall now, but it came from us calling her in to the house and giving her a treat, and then giving her a treat even when we didn't call her and she came in. We did this EVERY TIME... It took us 2 years of that to get to this point, where I can say she has a good recall. It takes time with these silly Shika Inu.
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Using a squirt gun didn't work at all when I first tried it, but I gave it another try last month to get her to leave the cat alone and it worked very well - I think, though, that this is because I squirted her in the face from an angle where she couldn't see me, and i didn't accompany it with any voice or anything, so she didn't attribute the sudden wet sensation / break in flow to me.
Anyway, that's one of the questions I have for the P.U.P.S. people, is whether they use choke or prong collars or other negative reinforcement. We shall see.
Also. Brad, thanks for the tip on treating when Loa comes in the door - that's exactly what we do with Tomoe, religiously.
With the training place, try seeing if they will let you watch a class without Tomoe. Watching a class in progress is a lot more helpful than anything they would put on a website. Also ask how they feel about other styles of training, if they would allow you to use other techniques than the ones they teach. The training center we take our boys to isn't "you have to do it THIS way" but more "we'll help you with the basic concepts and help you improve your use of that style". In class, we have a person using a clicker next to a person using a training collar next to a person using toys as a reward next to someone using food as a reward. It is great to be going to a place that allows other styles, especially if you find one way to teach her something that works better for her than what they are teaching you to use.
Watching a class sounds like an excellent idea, I will ask about that.