Teaching a Boxer Dog with Ducks and Geese

In this video you will see an in home dog training lesson with a reactive boxer. This dog is not terribly aggressive but he does react to big birds taking flight. On this day we are training at Heritage Park in Irvine California. This is the first part of a thee part video series. We begin with our arrival at the park and a critique of previously learned training techniques. Including a crisp and precise about turn and the two leash grips I most commonly use. You’ll also get to see the change of pace exercise used to keep the dog’s attention in distracting environments.

In the video I go over some personal equipment requirements and how it relates to safety. Along with this I go over techniques that make executing commonly use training movements safer. One thing I don’t mention in the video but it is important is if you are moving quickly such as running don’t do a square left turn or you are likely to fall over your dog. I did add it as annotation in the video. Left turns should be done as a deliberate and precise movement even when moving at a normal pace. If you have good knees and a good back you can probably get away with doing a square right turn at a fairly quick pace.

There is a little control issue when the dog wants to bolt after a flock of flying geese. It’s at this point that I go over how to use a stable stance to control the dog. In this section of the video I explain what good body positioning for control should look like. Good body positioning is especially helpful when the dog is getting out of control.

It’s sometimes easier to know what needs to be done than to actually perform the technique when needed. The reason I give specific drills is so the dog handler will have the behavior in their repertoire at a moments notice. One should be able to react without thinking too much about what needs to be done.

Throughout the video I encourage dog handlers to be aware if their dog. I actually edited most of this information out because there were too many children in that part of the video. However, you should focus on what is important and not be distracted by superficial events.