A WORD ON CORRECTIONS

By Debbie Kaminski

At this point, you may be asking yourself, "why aren’t we correcting?" The answer is, "in due time". It is very important to be absolutely sure that your puppy understands the meaning of a command and will respond to that command in all sorts of situations. When you are certain that this has been accomplished, you may need the use of a correction at times. It is best to start with the least severe type of correction...using the leash to pop on a buckle collar. In some cases, it may be necessary to correct on a choke collar or even a prong collar. Note the proper way to correct for each exercise:

SIT - pop upwards and back.
DOWN - pop straight down towards the ground.
COME - pop towards you (providing your dog is still attached to the long line). Only when you are absolutely sure he will come to you 100 percent of the time should you remove the long line.
STAY - this correction depends on whether the puppy is sitting or lying down (See SIT and DOWN above for the proper correction).

When you give a correction, immediately praise and release. Play with your pup for a few seconds and then ask for the command again. Note that we do not reward with food when a correction is needed.

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