“Zak George Can’t Train His Own Dog”: My Response. How I Trained My Dog to Listen Off Leash

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26 Comments on ““Zak George Can’t Train His Own Dog”: My Response. How I Trained My Dog to Listen Off Leash”

  1. How important is it to you that your dog listen to you off leash when distracted in an uncontrolled environment? I’ll show you how we approach this type of training without the use of any physical punishments/corrections!

    1. It was so important but we never got there. We tried everything but we just can’t get her off lead. She’s so smart and kinda evil. Like when I take her out hiking on the long lead, she’ll go under something I can’t get under, wait for me to be off balance or not holding the lead and then BOLT. She can only remember her training outdoors if she’s already tired. But she gets car sick so we have to walk her anywhere we take her. So we just live with it now 😂

  2. I have three dogs, all trained with force free methods as a guiding philosophy. Two out of three can run off leash in our yard no problemo. The third is a rescue with a bite history, and she can make others nervous, so for good measure she’s always on a long line, but she probably has the most solid recall out of the three of them.

    1. @everywhere but the sea I’m not certain that I fully understand. Dog #3 can be off leash and does get off leash time, just not in our yard. I’d say that a 50 foot line is pretty darn close to the same thing.

  3. I Love your training method, you are my favourite dog trainer by far, wish i had found you when i got my first dog 5 years ago. I am currently working through your 30 day program , teaching our new Lab puppy (now 13 weeks old) as well as my 5 year old Lab. Training is going pretty well, puppy is still biting a lot and our 5yr old is getting a lot of treats since she knows the commands & happily demonstrates to the little one how it’s done. I walk off leash twice daily (and have done since little one turned 8weeks old) over fields etc and little one sticks very close to me & our 5yr old (I let her run wild the first few weeks trying to wear her out, hoping she stops biting etc, i know better now, she’s eaten a few things she shouldn’t have and your video’s helped me a lot so far but we have a long way to go yet and i love that my older dog is learning too). When little one turned 10 weeks, i found a video of you training biscuit and have been hooked to your channel ever since. I have ordered loads of the Pupford treats and started training immediately after they arrived. I can already see a massive difference in both of my dogs behaviour. Thank you for all the great work that you do, i really love your positive training approach, hopefully both my dogs will keep on loving the training and treats. Keep up the great work ❤

  4. Thanks Zak! Seeing you doing these things is great because it lets me see the little things in training that might not be talked about so much.

    For example, you training your dog to stop chasing the frisbee to lay down was eye-opening, I’ve done emergency break training on the way back but never on the way out – and that is clearly a big hole. Although I’m not exactly sure how to go about starting it. It also got me thinking about how great that type of training is for getting your dog to listen to you no matter the distraction which I hadn’t really considered too much using it for that purpose but it seems such an obvious and natural starting off point now that I think about it.

    I’ve quibbled with you on minor things in the past I don’t fully agree with but you are very good trainer and one of my biggest inspirations for keeping things positive. You should be very confident about your abilities as a trainer.

  5. I started some time ago thinking of my dog as a two year old. Everything changed after that. I stopped having expectations of her and started understanding that she’s really only doing the best she can. All frustrations have vanished from my training. My dog has taught me to be far calmer person in everything I do. You can get the absolute best out of you dog with zero force.

  6. We are getting our new puppy in a week and have been watching the reality dog training videos. Very excited to put everything into practice but I know that I will need to be patient and persistent. Thanks for the videos and keep up the great work!

  7. You’ve been making videos for years and years going over the foundations. It’s been really nice to see you showing where those foundations can lead if a person is willing to continue nurturing what they started. This content is great. (Even if it took some trolls to push you to show off a little 😉)
    Showing the lifestyle is key.

  8. Thank you for the video. The use of a long lead while playing fetch has helped me tremendously. My dog can now effectively play fetch off lead even with many distractions.
    The point you made about watching your environment is important as well. If you put your dog into a situation where bad things can happen they likely will. Thank you for speaking about making changes to your training based on the environment.
    The quality of videos is great as well and I do not see any repeat clips.

  9. I’m only in the beginning of the video, but I must stop and compliment how well behaved Inertia is! I know she had problems in the past with food and guarding it Sharing the snuffelmat with Veronica like that ❤️ She’s a wonderful big sister. Goes to show, love, bonding, training and patience, make one hell of a sweet and goodgirl!

    1. We have overcome every significant issue she’s ever had and she has passed with flying colors. I was very transparent about the issues we faced and how I addressed them. Thank you so much for this.

  10. Not gonna lie, Inertia stopping and not pursuing the frisbee is still stupidly impressive to me. I have always known you are a great trainer but seeing these advanced steps in action was amazing. Keep fighting the good fight!!

  11. Really fantastic video Zak. It looks like Inertia has a similar temperament to my dog and we are using the same methods to work with them, including keeping them on a long line when it just feels too risky! I think his scent drive is stronger (beagle x spaniel) which has slowed our progress, but it will take as long as it takes.

    I do have a question though, related to the sniffing habits. We regularly go to the same field for exercise, but my dog’s not interested in playing fetch at all until he’s spent 10-15mins sniffing around doing his own thing. Is it okay to continue allowing him to disengage like that and start fetch on his own terms, or would you insist “Hey, it’s time to play fetch!” ?

  12. Zak, ignore the haters. Seriously. I got my new puppy 5 months ago and it is thanks to you, Bree, and your videos and books that I am building a strong bond with my pup. I understand him better thanks to you. He is learning so much and the positive reinforcement training is helping so much. You have also exposed me to other positive reinforcement trainers from diverse backgrounds whose videos are also helpful.

    I used aversive training methods with my old dog because I was young and I didn’t know better. And it is my biggest regret to this day. I’m so grateful that I found your channel. I am so grateful that you exposed me to this concept of positive reinforcement training and gave me the tools needed to create the best life possible for my puppy. So again, forget the haters because your methods work and you are having a real impact on the lives – not just the humans but on our fur family members as well. Your methods are grounded in logic and science, which at times seem to be absent in the dog community as a whole. Thank you again! I will continue to advocate for this channel and positive reinforcement training.

  13. I want to say thank you for your advice and tips. I only found out about you yesterday, and I watched 2 of your videos from years ago on potty training your puppy. I just adopted mine on Sunday so getting on top of that is super important for me. I can say that my puppy seems to be learning already. Only 1 accident today and it was right next to the door to the outside where she is learning to go. I’m staying on top of it. If he eats or drinks too much, I take him outside for about 10 minutes and always give him a couple treats when he goes outside. Always trying to stay vigilant, and thank you for the help.

  14. Hey Zac, I have nothing but praise for your YouTube channel and it’s content. I don’t understand what has caused you to be so worried or sad but suspect you have been singled out by bots or just plain unpleasant people. Thanks to you and your positivity, my sweet pup has grown into a very pleasant, excited, eager, and happy companion. We are not finished learning together but thanks to your help, we are on the right path. I look forward to every one of your posts so please keep them coming.

  15. Keep in mind not all balanced trainers or advocates think you cannot train dogs. I have a crazy dog reactive pit/gsd/rott mix and have watched all videos on your series featuring George and Moira. There is a lot of good information regarding positive reinforcement in those videos and I have definitely implemented several of your techniques. Having said that, I have kept an open mind and have read and watched videos from other balanced trainers and have found some of their techniques equally helpful. This does not mean that my dog is being tortured or harmed in any way and I have found he has learned a lot by using a combination of positive but with corrections such as a verbal “no” and a leash tug (martingale, slip, or prong depending on situation). We are 5 months into training our dog and have seen a lot of slow but steady improvement. When we first got him, he would react to a dog 100 yards away. With our trainer, we have him within 20-30 yards away from another dog with less reactivity but he is very inconsistent. Again, we are using mostly positive in our training with some corrections. Keep in mind also that my dog is NEVER corrected for reacting and NEVER for a behavior or command he does not already understand. When he reacts, its a 180 and a reset, then try again trying to keep him under threshold then lots of engage/disengage, give space, and praise. This is what most balanced trainers do. We decided to use a prong collar because controlling a reactive 70 lb pit mix with crazy drive, that is lunging, spinning, and out of his mind did not respond to a harness, martingale, slip, treats alone, toys, redirection, or anything. He still reacts on the prong but he is much easier to control and reset so he can learn. I can assure you it is not destroying our relationship and if anything it has only grown.

    To be fair, there are many trainers that call themselves “balanced” but are anything but. We experienced this with our first trainer who was a “yank and crank” on a slip lead guy that thought having my reactive dog 10 feet from other barking dogs while mine was going ballistic with the trainer yanking him so hard my dog was gagging was going to fix my dog. That was awful to watch and we never went back to him again. These are the trainers we all need to be calling out. Abuse and poor training techniques are very obvious when you see and experience it. As many have stated it is not the tool that is the problem, it is the trainer that is the problem.

    I am sure you will just come back and cite “the Science says…” argument but remember science is almost NEVER truly objective and contains the biases of those conducting the studies. Further just because you have “evidence”, how do you know you have ENOUGH evidence to support the claims behind these studies you keep citing? I think the bear example is ridiculous in this argument and you stated in a response it was 4 of 8 bears that were under positive reinforcement training successfully and that there were no follow-up studies. Is this just confirmation bias then? Is it possible that those conducting those studies injected their ethical and political biases into the studies you keep citing? In my opinion there are NO absolutes in life (well, taxes and death I guess) so to say aversives are NEVER necessary in ANY situation just does not sit well with me. It does not seem logical.

    Anyways… I don’t think you are a bad trainer and I think you have a lot to offer in terms of positive reinforcement training. I hope you continue to focus on that and chill on the use of aversives as it is becoming to look really arrogant on your part. I certainly do not claim to know everything and I continually make mistakes and I think that holds true for all of us. We should all take a step back and realize we have a lot more in common that many think.

    Oh, I did watch the video and I think Inertia is doing great and you have done a good job with her.

  16. Inertia did awesome with the frisbee proofing session and resisting temptation. I think people tend to get impatient and think that if there’s no obvious change right away that a training method isn’t working. Positive reinforcement takes more time and patience, but it clearly has long lasting results.

  17. I’ve never had a trainer so the internet has been very helpful especially your channel. I’ve even sent your channel to friends with reactive dogs as well, because you’ve shown so many different kinds of dogs. Thank you so so much for the work you both put in for us and the dog you help.

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