The training

Uncle George came to my house for the evaluation/training session couple of days after the incident. I have told him that I was following Lou Castle's articles to train Brandy. George said that he doesn't see eye to eye with Lou, but by then it wasn't a surprise to me as I had figured out that Lou brushed many dog trainers the wrong way. I do not really know what the matter was or who was right or wrong and to be honest I don't really care. The one thing I liked about Lou's articles was the fact that they made sense to me and I like things that make sense, but I was  willing to keep an opened mind and give a shot to the new approach explained to me by George. 

The biggest difference was that we didn't use the continuous button anymore, instead, we switched to the "nick" button. For example, on recall, instead of releasing continuous button as soon as the dog would start moving towards me, we would use "nick" button all the way till the dog comes, that was suppose to encourage the dog. Somehow deep inside me I didn't quite understood, how the prickling of the collar would be motivating, but so far I was willing to go on with it.  Then George called his dog and used it as a distraction while Brandy and I were walking around them in a circle. I was told to stop using the word "here" as a  recall command as it sounds too close to "heel" and will make the dog confused so I should start using "come" instead. 

At the end of the session George said that I did a good job overall, that Brandy wasn't a tiny bit aggressive, that the aggressive incident was a defensive bite and that I should be careful and not let her near other dogs without carefully assessing the situation and that I should give him a call again if I wanted to teach Brandy some new tricks. 

Now before I move any further, I have to say that after following Lou's instructions Brandy had a very good recall, she would forget a deer or a rabbit if I call her, but to get there the "here" command had to be proofed with distractions. Well, George forgot to mention to me that if I switch the command I should start all over again. Yes, I should have probably be smart enough, done what I have done by then in the training area, to figure it out but I was so happy and  proud with myself after George told me that I have nothing to worry about and that I did a great job, that I simply didn't think about it.