Do You Have a JINDO Dog? Does It Live in the House? Stubborn? Aggressive? Chew on Furniture?

As you know from some of your previous questions I have answered I have a vast amount of experience with Jindo training. I have trained several in the past and my current dog is a purebred male Jindo. Dog training is my career and I have been doing it for over 17 years.

I am an expert in training Jindo's. Jindo's do very well in apartments or in a home if provided a sufficient amount of daily exercise. As I stressed in one of your previous questions, Jindo's require a minimum of 2 hours of daily exercise.

This needs to be accomplished in a combination of walks, socialized play with other dogs and daily training routines. If the dog is not provided this type of activity daily, the dog will become bored and then destructive, stubborn and may get aggressive from anxiety. Training a strong breed such as a Jindo correctly takes time, dedication and fulfillment of the dogs needs.

To train a dog properly you must first determine if you have a soft or hard dog. A soft dog can be trained with mostly positive methods with very little applied discipline. But a hard dog requires more discipline in the training process to ensure reliability.

I have never had a soft Jindo, again something to think about. Dog training is not about being a dominant or physically tough person to your dog. It's about being a strong and confident leader that gives the dog structure, guidance, appropriate praise and fair discipline.

A dog should never fear his handler but enjoy being with him, there should be a strong bond in the relationship. There is no place in dog training for abuse or neglect. You can never love or spoil your dog into respecting or listening to you, that is humanizing a pack animal!

"Hard" dogs that are not disciplined for bad pack behaviors always become dominant, overbearing and aggressive animals. These are the exact dogs I end up training from people who were clueless on how to train a pack animal.

· Related Questions

My dog doesn't know how to act around new people, and especially other dogs.

What should I do?

I'm a huge fan of Victoria Stilwell from the TV series "It's Me Or The Dog". I've watched her tackle these same issues before.

First off, I just want to say that it will take many, many, many repetitions for these to work so don't be suprised if you spend an entire wekend starting this off. You will also need to enlist the help of a neighbor / friend / or classmate who is willing to help you. Especially if they have a dog that can also be used in the training.

As far as your dog going crazy when someone comes over, the thing to remember is distraction, and reward for good behavior. Have your "helper" ring the doorbell. Before you can open the door to let them in, have your dog sit somewhere away from the door and stay.

Try to open the door. If your dog gets up, in a firm tone tell her "NO", reposition her again, and try to open the door again. You will have to reposition her several times until she realizes that she doesn't get to greet this person at the door until you say so.

Reward her with a treat and lots of praise once she's remained sitting and the person is now on the inside of the door. Once you've got your visitor in the door with your dog remaining sitting, have them walk right past your dog, perhaps to a sitting room. Your helper needs to avoid eye contact and physical contact with the dog at this point.

Again, if your dog gets up to greet this person, send your helper back out the front door and start over. You must do this several times before you see any results. Once you do, you will need to do this EVERY time someone is at the door.

Do the same thing when a dog comes over, although, be prepared to spend more time with the repetitions as dogs greeting dogs are much harder to take focus away from. As for the other problem, your dog freaking out when you go on walks, again, enlist the help of someone with a dog. You may want to invest in a pinch collar for this exercise or a chest collar (not to be confused with a halter) a chest collar simply wraps around her belly so when she pulls, she takes the wind out of her and it makes her more vulnerable to be controlled by you.

If you have access to a large field or area, have your helper walk towards you and your dog as if you were walking down one side of the street and they were walking up the other. Once your dog starts pulling or behaving badly and heads towards your helper, immediately say "NO!" and quickly pull your dog in the opposite direction you were just going until his focus now changes to this new "path".

Once she's calm, gently turn back to the original path you were traveling and head for your helper again. Praise your dog when she remains calm and give her treats for good behavior. Repeat the exercise until you don't feel your dog is going crazy anymore.

Then you can start practicing getting closer and closer until your dog calmly walks up to another dog to greet them. I hope this helps. I know, it sounds like a lot of work and takes a lot of time, but it will work if you are consistent and determined.

Good luck!

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I am not a natural pack leader how do I learn to be my dogs leader?

I love Ceasers stuff.

I have to say the "bite" thing with the hand works really well for me with my dog. He is a nervous type, I yelled at him one day when was outside and he was so scared he ran all the way home! The key is follow through.

Be consistant. Walking is good, exercise will help with alot of problems, they won't feel the need to get into as much trouble when they are getting enough exercise! My little guy is a terror around the house if he doesn't get out for exercise.

I would also suggest hand feeding your dogs for a while. I know it sounds funny, but it reinforces that you are are higher in the pack than them, because you are permitting them to eat. This is behavior that makes sense to the dogs.

With two dogs, I would give one a few pieces, then give the other one a few. Though if they are being pushy wait until they stop, ask them to sit and be quiet before you feed them. I have found that hand feeding works better for me than some of the other food bowl exercises.

Its easy and you don't need any special equipment! The toy issue is related to the leadership issue. The dog will be better at giving up the toys when you are in charge.

I found that a flick on the nose works well for encouraging them to drop the toy. When my guy was a puppy and he would grab something that he was not supposed to I would trade him for a dog toy that he liked, such as a chew bone, particularly a new one that had not been used yet! The issue with the dogs behaving poorly at the door is a common one.

German shepards have been breed to warn people and protect property. So they are just doing what they think is correct and have been bred to. If you are walking the dogs and they are still not getting tired out by the exercise you can get a doggy backpack and put alittle weight in it so they get to work harder.

I would seriously try the hand feeding though and see if that is able to reinforce your position as being in charge of the pack.