I know EXACTLY why Tai likes to lunge at the chickens in their pens ... because it is FUN to see them all flying up in the air squawking their heads off. It is prey drive - if he could, he would get in there and kill them. It is up to me to stop him doing that, quickly. Which I have done. With a couple of tugs and some sharp "no's", he no longer does it. Until the next time

Just watched the video, so sad to see this dog being yanked around so much. I didn't have the volume on and the body language is so sad
Why do people do this to dogs instead of build trust and build up successes?

If he does it again next time then you havent trained him anything
There was a house we walk past with two huskeys in the garden who always barked mental at us
Mia ignored them - nice surprise
But Ben barked back
You could hear him panting and getting excited and ready to pant as we came close to the house - and it was getting so that he would bark first and set them off
So all I did, for the first week from just before he started panting I shoved treats down him as fast as he could eat them - he didnt get a chance to bark and was rewarded for being quiet
The next week I gave more of a gap between treats
Within 3 weeks he was happily looking up at me (with no command from me) the whole time we were walking past the dogs housem - whether I had treats or not
Then if the dogs barked I quickly gave him a treat
Now he calmly walks past the house, if they bark he looks up at me - and dosent bark
So from the day I decided I didnt want him to bark he hasnt given a single bark, he needs no commands from me and I only have treats with me a couple of times a month
I think as well it is to do with what happens next
For example dogs often go balistic when the lead tightens because they have got used to something bad happening after it
No mystical energy, every time lead goes tight there is nasty dog so he goes balistic - so lead tight = balistic

I found this out accidently because with Mia I wasnt sure of her triggers so I tightened the lead often - and often nothing happend to her after tight lead - therefore to her tihght lead = just some random thing her clumsy human does

[QUOTE=Ben Mcfuzzylugs;2229099]

do u mean the 'nasty dog' is the bad thing?

I really must learn to stop joking ... yet again, my flippant and obviously pathetic attempt at humour fell on stony ground!

I was JOKING Ben! I don't expect Tai to go back to his old naughty chicken-frightening ways, but I suspect that he might try and slip one in one day just to see if we are still on our toes

that's not a question of having been, or not having been, trained correctly. That is merely taking account of his breeding - mal/husky mix, high prey drive, highly intelligent, norty gene!

yes good point! so it (tightening of lead) might in fact be called classical conditioning

That's so far from correct, I don't know where to begin. There is nothing, nowhere to suggest that they can smell fear. It's just this kind of outdated , folkloric misconceptions that have wrought so much suffering onto dogs.

Because some people don't understand the body language. Because they want a quick fix. Because this appears to get results faster than positive reinforcement as it doesn't consider the dog at all. Positive methods would involve slowly desensitizing the dog to its triggers and it can take time to see any improvement and could be months before it could go for a proper walk. This gets the dog out and about much sooner and unfortunately that's all some people care about. And showing it who's boss of course because it not wanting to go for a walk means it rules the household

This is like me claiming I got someone to stop smoking by punching them in the face when you lit up. True, I stopped them from smoking then and there, but remain smokers.. Just as gnasher hasn't trained to the dog, merely manages it with force.

Millan and his fans often confuse forceful management with training

Poor confused dog absolutely no consistent guide lines for it to follow at all.I think the family badly needed an education on how to be responsible dog owners.