great pics kev.. bulldogs have a strong bite. i held the sleeve for one and man oh man was that a monster chomper. one of the guest trainers at the lake matthews club is also a huge proponent of bulldogs. he took one of his personal bulldogs from OB straight to SCH3 in under 1 year and caused a major commotion in the sport (from what the other members tell me). of course those who complained aren't as good a trainer as he was LOL... man i wish i could take my pups back to bite sessions

im assuming everyone that does serious training uses a e collar correct? dogtra?

dogtra is a great brand. like all training of anything, you need to mix up the methods till the conditioning is bomb proof. two main ways of using an e-collar: nag approach (nag till they do it) or corrective approach (zap em hard)... which method depends on how hard your dog is. but you don't need it... you can still accomplish the same conditioning without it

some more helpful training aids: you should have lots of different line lenghts, a prong collar, a fur saver/choke collar, a flat collar, a slip/dominant dog collar, and a harness.

clickers also work great for obedience training.

MIdKnight he's a siberian husky about 3 years old
verryyy stubborn, around 55 IBS, am his only trainer

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02 4.4I
alp. white
sport package

Chocolate red nose 6 years old.

3-05-05.02 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

6-28-05.02 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

1-28-07.01 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

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04 X5 4.8is
76 2002

X-Pipe and Dinan Mufflers: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQh-izaTcY

Pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenb...7607968312734/

Heres my babygirl Bella. she passed away in june 09. Best dog I ever had. 125lbs

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2001 X5 4.4i WHITE-Loaded like a baby's diaper SOLD

I agree with Hayaku that an e-collar is not necessary for the majority of training. In fact, I think it is the exception rather than the rule. We may have to use it at some point depending on what kind of training we'll be doing and to what level but up to now, we've used pinch/prong collars primarily. We use fur save choke collars as well. For protection work we have an agitation harness and an agitation collar. We use the harness almost exclusively. If and when we progress to higher levels of Schutzhund then an e-collar will come into the mix. We also have a collection of leashes and lines for various purposes.

The most important thing of all is to have some good knowledge on how to train with training collars. We would be so much worse off without the help of our trainers. They simply know more than we do and know what works with our dog. It is so important to understand not just dogs but your dog specifically and what works for him/her. It is possible to do more harm than good with improper techniques and incorrect use of a training collar. This is especially true when working with drive and trying to develop it. It isn't hard to mess that up early on with improper training.

I know we go a bit overboard with our dedication to training our dog but we're glad we do it. We have a better dog for it and it is fun. I don't mean to insult anyone or assume that anyone here doesn't know how to train a dog. I do believe however, that everyone can benefit from the help of a good trainer.

Buster and Bella: LOVE those faces!

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