Extreme Leash Correction??

A few months ago I was watching the outdoor games on ESPN. This particular event was for retrieving dogs. There was a trainer out there with his golden lab and she was supposed to be paying attention to where the fake ducks landed for the retrieve. Instead she was distracted by the audience and had wandered several feet away from her spot by her trainer's side.

To get her attention, he grabbed her leash in both hands and jerked so hard that her front paws left the ground, she was pulled several feet toward him and she yelped really loudly. She immediately slunk back to her place by his side. But to me it seemed a little disturbing. It seemed like an extreme correction to me, though I don't claim to know anything about training hunting dogs.

I guess what I'm asking is, is a leash correction like that normal? For hunting dogs or large dogs like labs? Is that kind of force necessary to correct them? Or does it all depend on the dog?

The announcers at the event laughed it off like it was a normal thing, but it's bothered me a little ever since I've seen it. Opinions please??

 

Personally, I prefer more positive training methods so I don't use leash corrections on my dogs at all.
I highly doubt a leash correction that intense was really necessary to get the dogs attention but some people that use traditional training methods...from what I understand, claim that one very intense correction is much more effective than several small corrections which might be why the dog was jerked with such force. I think leash corrections such as this are pretty normal amoung many traditional trainers.

 

What Nern said. When I first got Nala and was desperately searching for ways to get her to pay attention to my commands, I found Leerburg Kennels. I got a video on dog training. He advocates the "one giant correction is better and more humane than 100 nagging small corrections". It showed him training his dogs to heel - and every time he popped the leash to correct the dog, he would yelp just a little.

I suppose it is a fast way to train, but it doesn't seem respectful to me. I wouldn't smack my kid for not understanding his homework or making a mistake, so why should I jerk my dog around to teach him what I want to do? If that's the only way I can make my will known, then I am a bully.

I think many people think hunting dogs should be "tough" or something, so they use harsh methods. I suppose that dog didn't let her attention wander again anytime soon - but what do you think she was thinking about her master? And how much do you think she was having fun?

 

Wow. So it's pretty common then? Everything I had read before about correcting a dog with a leash was that you just wanted to "pop" the leash and that it wouldn't hurt the dog at all. It seems like yanking the leash so forcefully is to deliberately cause the animal pain.

I'm planning to get a dog within the next few months and I definitely won't be using that technique to train my animal.

Thanks for responding to my post, guys.

 

Buy and read one of Ian Dunbar's puppy books and Pat Miller's "Power of Positive Dog Training" before you get your pup. Oh, and "How to be Leader of the Pack" by Patricia McConnell.]

And when you get your pup - we want photos!!

 

I don't advocate that kind of corretion at all. Its abuse, one way or the other. First of all, she should have used a simple "COME" command before leash correction. I'm sure the supprise of it was startling more than hurting the dog. But still, No reason for that.