he is a husky cross tho

If trainability is your highest priority in your dogs.....you've selected the wrong breed. You really ought to educate yourself on your chosen breed......else get yourself a lab or collie.

The notion that keeping a dog on leash for it's own safety is cruel makes no sense... You are punishing your dog for being a dog- and that is cruel.

But some GSD for 'trainability' also, I thought?

Wow, I am sorry gnasher but I find your last sweeping statment the worst of the lot

People on here have tried to help, and to point out why the method you have used did not work for the reasons you thought it did and how your dog is NOT yet trained in a recal

and now it breaks my heart to read that if your quick fix method that you incorectly used breaks down you wont be bothered with actually learning to train your dog, you will just give away a member of your family rather then find secure places to let him run

I am so sorry for Ben

To me it sounds like you took him on and assumed some treats and a bit of yelling would turn him into his father

Poor Ben, failed by his first owners and now failed by you

I deleted my original post - you're right, it's just a dog

this thread does give me that sinking feeling.

i keep envisaging mobs of people walking the streets in the dead of night carrying burning torches.

i feel really really uncomfortable being a witness...

C'mon now folks, a dog is not a human, a dog is a dog, this really ought to be kept in context. Why should a persons's existence revolve around that of a dog, it's a two way process?

If it is not working with the dog and owner.....maybe a new home is what is required? If the op feels they can't live harmoniously with the dog..... what is the point of keeping it?

Just saying.

Gnasher, I think you are being a tad unfair here.
You knew when you posted that there would be a lot of replies and questions, and you've not answered very much. This might be why some posts are not as informed as you would like

If you put this thread up, then surely you also accept that you at least need to answer some of the questions posed? (People are aware Ben was not in a sheep field, but he is near to one that can be reached and are concerned. It is easy for a dog to run a long way to seek out sheep if he has a predatory instinct).

You've answered me on one, for which I thank you
However I have put in several very important links which I hope you may take the time to look at. I don't take the time to find the links and put them up for fun, but because i hope they may help a bit. One shows how important certain criteria are for shock collar training, the other gives numerous case histories which show that shock collar training is not all it is cracked up to be. Some of those histories relate a little to what you and your OH are doing with Ben.

I do think it would be much fairer to go into more detail about training and who you had to help you (no names, obviously, but just a rough idea). I recall some time ago one of your posts (cannot recall which command it related to, it may have been recall or may have been sit.. no tsure) but I remember reading it and I do recall that I felt that you were not doing the best in training by either Hal or Tai, (sorry again, cannot recall which dog was being discussed). I think you were basically saying that due to his character he would not do (what was wanted)and could not be motivated, but i could see totally that the training was not being done correctly.

If this is also true of Ben's training, then it may explain a fair bit as to why you felt the need to resort to a shock collar.

Whatever, I do think you are being unfair as obviously this thread has generated a lot of interest (which it would do) and yet you are not spending the time answering questions, which I am sure are not particularly comfortable nor pleasant , acknowledged, but which I feel could be answered (at least some of them) due to the fact that you posted in teh first place about using a shock collar.

But you are not being fair because no-one knows what has been happening (not really) over the past 8 months or so. Certainly not in any detail, just a bit.

To cut a long story short, I feel that the whole thing should be more open to examination and discussion so that we can understand more of the whole process of what happened to make you choose a shock collar.
Just my take on it... I do understand you must feel very "got at" at the moment. This sort of thread is always hard

Wys
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I agree that if it came to it, a new home might be OK. I keep thinking Gnasher's dogs are wolfey but to be honest I have no idea exactly what breed they are! I don't recall it being said.

Dogs are adaptable and if a new home was good for Ben, I see no real reason "why not" as it were It would be more upheaval but might be good at the end of the day.

Wys
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