Thinking of buying an Australian Shepherd mix ? Want to know more about the characteristics of this breed? Read our guide for facts & information…
Even today the Australian shepherd dogs display traits that bespeak their herding breed and display strong genetic control responses. If you want to teach your dog to heel or stop at your command, a street or even park is not the ideal environment for this type of training simply because there are too many distractions. What you are trying to do here is accomplish a contrary response to the dog’s natural instinct, which is telling him to chase things. So if you continue along these lines in such an environment soon your obedience training will be rendered completely futile.
If you are training a dog such as the Australian shepherd mix (and this is a breed that is genetically designed to chase and control herds of sheep) you may want to incorporate various obedience-training tools. And a halti collar or choke chain as awful as that term sounds is the safest and one of the most effective tools to teach a dog, including a Australian shepherd mix, to stop on command and walk without hustling and jostling with you.
You can use the halti on your Australian shepherd mix with the regular collar and chain. Do not resort to leading her by the nose, use the halti to lead her in the right direction and to stop her from running all around you. Also remember to include a reward system in your training.
You have to understand that all animals will respond better to positive reinforcement rather than negative tactics like beating or using shock collars. Also, make sure that you use a command word or term such as” Come here” when training your dog, eventually the dog will associate this term with the action that you want him to make.
Once you are sure of compliance you can test the extent of your dog’s obedience by taking it out into a public space, including a park or street; however, you need to understand that by making the dog heel on command you are expecting it to fight its core genetic instincts and this type of training is going to take time. Don’t expect your dog to turn into a well behaved and immaculately trained overnight.
But if you are patient and consistent, most animals will respond very well to your training efforts. Ensure that your dog does not get into a routine of all work and no play. The Australian shepherd mix is a very active breed and will have to be constantly motivated or they can become bored very fast.
