[skodish]

Hi there,

we just adopted an 11-months old V girl called Tatum. We also have a 7-year old boy whom we’ve had since he was 8 weeks old. Since he was so young when we got him, he was very easy to train.

our new girl not so much. We got her with virtually zero training and are struggling to get through to her. She gets 1.5-2 hours of off-leash run and play time a day, and several shorter training sessions. Some things (basic commands like sit, down, stay, shake, etc) she’s picked up super easily.

What we are mainly struggling with is
a) the crazies. Several times a day she’ll turn into a tornado and particularly likes to “zoomie-attack” us where she starts running her zoomies and jumping/play-nipping at us. Unfortunately this often happens while we are on the go, aka when she’s walking on the leash. In that state, there’s no getting through to her. No distractions, commands or treats will do the trick. Any suggestions on how to handle the leash-zoomies and zoomie-attacks?
B) when she’s in a “state” she also pays no attention to us whatsoever. Her recall is mostly pretty good now, but when she’s in a crazy state she completely ignores us. This also applies to when she’s stalking squirrels and birds. What do you guys do to get your V’a attention when completely out of it? Our boy has always turned attention our way when called, so this is new territory…

thanks so much!

 

[texasred]

While this isn’t going to totally work with her, it should help in the future. When your doing the short training sessions inside. Practice winding her up, getting her very excited, and then getting her back calm to where her attention on you.

 

[BellaVT]

My recommendation for the leash is that you should get a high quality pinch collar. For us, this instantly converted the crazed zooming monster that you describe to a perfectly attentive well-mannered dog on a leash. There is no pain or punishment involved, it just seems to be an intense enough stimulation when she pulls that she immediately decides the walk is more fun with a slack leash.

Ours is a Herm Sprenger 3.0 mm Medium 20"/54cm in Antiqued Brown made in Germany. It cost about $30, but that was a good buy and most things things have gone up since then. Any color works, but the brown looks less imposing than the shiny. The 3.0 mm is the right size for a Vizsla. 18" might work as a minimum, longer is fine because you can remove links. Find a different model if you have arthritis or weak fingers, since taking this one off and putting it on involves pinching the small pieces of metal between your fingers.

There's lots of criticism online about using such collars, but I think most of it is misguided or from people talking about different products with similar names. Avoid "choke collars", which work on a different principle. You want something with dull prongs. My guess is that it will work as well for you as for us, but if your dog doesn't respond well or freaks out, don't try to use it to enforce compliance through pain.

 

[callagyl]

My recommendation for the leash biting is a simple 'gentle leader' - it's like a muzzle, but, because my dog is heavy and strong (75 pounds) and super energetic, it's like taking a little pony around when that's on him. He hates it, and constantly rubs up against my leg when we stop to talk to someone, but, if I don't have that on when he's on leash, it's pointless. He's v good off leash in general, and I've just purchased a shock collar as we live near the mountains and there will be no controlling him when he sees a deer or a coyote. He's 15 months. I started using the gentle leader at 4 months...I tried the choke/pinch collar and it did nothing,.

 

[Clydehhi]

We have a 9 month old male with MANY of the same qualities you described! We recently invested in a Dogtra e-collar and hired a trainer to help us appropriately use it. It’s great because it doesn’t shock him - it feels almost like a TENS unit if you’ve ever used one (we tried the ecollar on our own arms lol). This has been a GAME CHANGER with his recall - especially when he’s in the zone and totally ignoring us. He knows his commands, but sometimes needs a little snap back to reality. He has close to 100% off leash recall now - and often we don’t even need to use the page feature anymore after just 2 weeks of training with it.
We’ve also used the vibrate function in the house to help with counter surfing and other unwanted behaviors. It feels like a phone vibrating, but always reigns him in.

 

[callagyl]

Re

We have a 9 month old male with MANY of the same qualities you described! We recently invested in a Dogtra e-collar and hired a trainer to help us appropriately use it. It’s great because it doesn’t shock him - it feels almost like a TENS unit if you’ve ever used one (we tried the ecollar on our own arms lol). This has been a GAME CHANGER with his recall - especially when he’s in the zone and totally ignoring us. He knows his commands, but sometimes needs a little snap back to reality. He has close to 100% off leash recall now - and often we don’t even need to use the page feature anymore after just 2 weeks of training with it.
We’ve also used the vibrate function in the house to help with counter surfing and other unwanted behaviors. It feels like a phone vibrating, but always reigns him in.

Regarding counter surfing, I highly recommend the PET CORRECTOR SPRAY - it makes a sound they do not like. It's just air. After a few months of patient training, he was still coming up to /past the kitchen counter/under my feat, and one spray (I kid you not) into the air had him bolt down the stairs with his tail between his legs. He has not come past that counter one time since, AND, if he ever is about to do anything I don't want him to inside the house, I simply hold up the spray and he changes his tune It's almost comical. Thanks re the Dogtra - since I've invested over $200 on this thing, I'll give it a whirl...apparently other Vizsla owners say similar things like it takes a few trainings and then it's barely necessary again.