dog training/behaviour

Question
my sister has a 3 yr old lab/berneese mix named cala. I have been trying to help her train cala but we are having a hard time. She is great on a leash and off but on our way out the door and to the park she goes insane. She whines, pulls, basically screams. I have tried yanking on the leash telling her to heal, not letting her walk until she stops whining. It doesn't seem to stop. Its improving because I'm using force but i don't know how to get her to calm down . I had someone tell me to use a choke chain what else can i do?

Answer
Hi Christine.  I can imagine that a big dog like Cala must be very hard to control at times like that. You must be quite frustrated.  I'm curious about these fits she's throwing--is she frightened or happy to be going out?  Using force, as you know, isn't going to work. She's very strong and all you're doing is showing her that you're not.  Force is not going to be the answer--you will never win.  She has to think that doing what you want her to do is what SHE wanted to do too.  I certainly use choke collars with some dogs, but not without showing the owners how to use them properly--they shouldn't really get tight, they should remain loose-fitting, and  when you give a correction, you give a sharp POP on the leash, and release.  The idea is to get your dog's attention in a sharp, quick way, then release.  Keeping the tension on the neck as the dog continues to strain away from you is incorrect but many people end up using the collar in this way.  The thing is, does she know what you want?  You say you are telling her "Heel", but has she been taught, in a calm, controlled, less-stressful way, exactly what you mean when you say Heel?  Shouting "Heel" at a dog that is highly stimulated is not going to give her a clue as to what you want from her.  It's not fair to punish a dog for something it was never properly taught to do in the first place. (Imagine if you started a job and no one ever told you how to do your work, but smacked you in the head every time you made a mistake.  You'd HATE that job!)  So the best advice I can give you is to enroll in a Basic Obedience class so you all can learn how to communicate.  Yanking on a leash and giving confusing commands and resorting to punishment to get what you want is only going to prove to Cala just how much you are not in control. Cala obviously associates going outside with something very exciting but from your letter I can't tell if that is something good or bad.  Either way, she needs to see that you are in charge and she can trust you to take care of her.  Remember that you are on the same team and if she starts to see you as an adversary, she will not listen and will continue resisting you.  She needs to learn to relax and know that you will meet her needs.  If she's happy to go out, she needs to know that going out with you does not mean a free-for-all where she can go nuts.  On the other hand, if she's worried about going out, she needs to know that you are not going to let anything happen to her and she can trust you to be in charge.  Either way, I think you should change your approach.  Put her on the leash, open the door, and just sit down and wait until she calms down.  Put her on the leash and DON'T open the door.  Go sit and watch TV instead.  Pick up the leash and walk around with it but don't put it on her.  Put on your jacket, pick up the keys, pick up the leash, and then go out without her.  Walk around the house with the leash over your shoulders. Take her out and then come right back in again.  Mix up the order of how you do things, break down the going-out process into tiny steps that are not necessary related to going to the park.  Let her see that just because she's on a leash doesn't mean she's going out.  Just because you opened the door doesn't mean she's going out.  Just because she went out doesn't mean she's not coming right back in again.  This may confuse her at first but the idea is to make each step in the process of going out become meaningless.  Then she won't be so overwhelmed when they all happen together.  In time she won't associate all those things with so much anxiety and excitement.  Do some simple "sit" exercises at the door--she should learn a little more self-control in places of high stimulation. I hope in time you see some improvement, but if not, I urge you to have a professional trainer evaluate what's going on.  Good luck!