Frisbee’s Training Part 4 – My Personal Training Video + Easy Tricks to Teach Your Dog

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I hope you’ve had a chance to watch the first 3 parts of this series where I share my personal training videos with Frisbee.  If not, you can read them here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

In this next video, I just pull everything together and go through the different commands.  I add “over” in this video as well.  

But before I share this video I want to tell you a story about how not knowing the “leave it” command ended up getting Frisbee attacked at a park by two dogs off-leash.

It was New Year’s Eve and I took Frisbee for a walk and was doing some training work with him.  We got to the little neighborhood park and it was a beautiful day so I found a spot off the side for Frisbee and me to sit and just enjoy the moment.  

We were just relaxing and watching people and minding our own business when all of a sudden…

I notice two dogs off-leash looking our way.  There were probably about 30 yards separating us.  I immediately saw this as our cue to leave.  

I got up and just when we stood up I saw the dogs come charging towards us.  My initial reaction was, “oh shit”  (sorry to swear but I hope you understand the stress at that moment).  

Keep in mind, here I am trying to do the right thing with Frisbee, working with him, training him, and taking all precautions, and here he is about to be attacked and defenseless.

Why defenseless, you ask?

Because I walk him with a gentle leader which helps me keep him calm and beside me (I will share more on that in the future) but it’s a loop around his snout.  With this on he wouldn’t be able to defend himself very well.

What happens next was like a blur.  

The dogs reached us quite quickly, one smaller than Frisbee and one larger.  And honestly, who knows…maybe they were just curious and wanted to play.  

When Frisbee saw them coming he went into defense, body language mode.  You know what I mean.  Head forward, chest out, ready to lunge. 

I tried to walk in the other direction but once the dogs caught up to us, it was too late.  They started fighting and in my effort to pull Frisbee out of the pile I nearly fell down a small hill. I never let go of the leash and kept trying to pull him away.  

Looking back that was kind of stupid because even if I got him away, the other two dogs weren’t restrained so they just would have kept coming after him.

The owners, what I am assuming to be a nice family, husband and wife and two younger boys chased after their dogs and were screaming at them but it was obvious they didn’t know any leave it or recall commands.  

It was one of the boys that grabbed his dog’s leashes (they had leashes on but no one was holding them) and managed to take control of his dogs.  

When the mom caught up to the mess, I unloaded on her verbally asking her what the hell was wrong with her to have her dogs off-leash at a park with leash requirement rules and children everywhere?  She kept apologizing but I was angry.  

Even though I was angry I took the time to ask if their dogs were okay.  It’s not the dog’s fault after all, right?  And I looked Frisbee over and other than having a wet face and head he seemed fine. 

So, no harm was done, or was there?

Of course, there was.  

What do you think that did to all the training I’ve been working on with Frisbee and his fear aggression?

I don’t really have the answer, how could I?  But, I am sure it didn’t help.  

And when I got home I realized I hurt Frisbee by pulling on his leash.  I didn’t realize it at the time but every time I pulled on the leash I was tightening the gentle leader around his nose.  He had a mark around his nose for at least a week.  

My poor guy.

Needless to say, we stay clear of the park or crowds of people and try even to avoid other people walking their dog if possible.  It’s just not worth it for me.

So, there’s a perfect example of two things:  First, teach your dog the “leave it” command, and second, if your dog doesn’t know this command without any shadow of a doubt he/she probably shouldn’t be off-leash in public.  This is for their own safety as well as the safety of other dogs and people. 

Okay, so where were we…oh yes the final video in this series to just pull it all together. You can download it by clicking here.  And remember after you download it and view it you can delete it or save it.

I hope you got a ton of value from this series of posts sharing my personal training with Frisbee and why it’s so important.