I know that one! :D I've always incorporated hand signals in my training commands since they may be out of hearing range or the noise level may be too high. Sometimes I'll just be doing menial tasks or talking to someone and make a gesture that he responds too. Most often it's reaching for something on the ground near him and he offers me his paw. :D

The can of air sounds interesting. I'll have to try that if I train any more dogs. At my age, and the fact that he is still young (3), I don't think I'll be training anymore puppies in the future. The scars from his paws (claws) are a constant reminder of how tough big-dog puppies can be to train. (His paws, now, are as large as the palm of my hand and he grips like shaking someones hand. ZonieDiver met him a couple of years ago and can attest to what we were dealing with. He didn't get to shake hands with him though, but we tried. ;))

Pat

Of course you do - won't expect otherwise

Well, they need to go hand-in-hand. It's not negative reinforcement, it's punishment from "god" for not following the voice command. "No" should come before the zap and the zap only if he doesn't respond to the command. Reward only comes when they respond correctly to the voice command, not the zap.

You are not looking to inflect pain, per se, it's to redirect attention to the pack leader behind the voice or "bark".

E-collars, clickers, and voice are only tools in training, not training in and of themselves. Like most tools, they all take practice to use correctly. I've zapped him when I only meant to recall him with the pager and I've turned the transmitter off when I meant to zap him. Mistakes like that are detrimental to training, but I've learned (my wife put an e-collar on me!).

ETA: Maybe this should have been a separate thread.

Pat

Interesting counter argument. Clearly I need to reconsider my opinion on a matter I've been involved in, and evolved in, for over 40 years. Thanks.

Pat

Your dogs track lions by any chance?

You are really not making yourself clear, here, mi amigo. I thought that we were discussing "home security" with a pet dog. Did I miss the post about tracking lions? :confused:

To address your question, we do have mountain lion down here and I reckon he could track one (Akitas are bear hunting dogs), although I'd rather he didn't. Are you saying that, for him to do so successfully, I need to whack him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper? :confused:

Pat

Sorry you're right about the post.

Thought I knew who you were.

No problem. :D Dismissed! ;)

Pat

Preventing Garage Door Break-Ins
 

I just saw a post on another site warning about thieves who can break into a garage by slipping a coat hanger through a gap at the door top, then releasing the safety catch using just a small amount of pull-pressure.

The safety tip was to secure the release catch using a zip-lock light enough to foil a coat hanger, but weak enough to be broken by someone inside during an actual emergency.

Here's a YouTube video explaining the technique.

Regards,

--ghp

Lost four sixers of good IPA to high school kids "garaging" with coat hangers last year. Favorite tactic among the fresh-soph crowd.

Thorny plants as a defensive barrier - inosculation
 

Focusing on deter: Last weekend I planted a triple row of hawthorn whips across the back of my lot. The property backs up to a parking lot and has a four foot cinderblock wall. The plan is to graft the plants together as outlined below. I’ve also added a few blackberry canes on the front side of the hawthorn but really they’re just for the berries. A rugosa rose hedge would have been faster but more expensive.

"Another fascinating option is to join the individual plants into a single living whole by osculation (or sometimes inosculation—in either case, based on a Latin word meaning “kiss”). The young trees or shrubs that will make the fence are planted at four to eight inches, depending on the species used and the desired height of the fence. As the plants grow, the branches are tied together. The inner bark may be exposed with a knife, but with inosculate species the abrasion of the bark of tied branches as they move in the wind usually causes the branches to grow together in a natural graft. (Crossing branches not tied, even crossing roots, may bond as well when the plants are so tightly planted.) The result is a closely meshed barrier that grows stronger and more resistant each year. And it is a single living entity: Each individual plant in the fence is now part of one continuous vascular system—should the roots under any single plant die, its top growth continues unaffected, supported by the other plants with which it has inosculated."

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/art...ng+Fences.html

Hand Wired Alarms?
 

I've considered doing this for a while now, but have never had the time/budget to really get down to it. Some of you may, however, benefit from this information.

If you're any good with wiring or soldering, you might be interested in picking up a few small prototype boards such as an Arduino, and a few simple sensors to hook it up to. You can get light sensors, motion sensors, pressure sensors; pretty much any kind of sensor you can find or buy at a radio shack or hobby shop. The smallest and cheapest ones cost about ten dollars and are finger sized. They can handle a number of different power sources, and aside from the wiring, all you need is a very basic understanding of the language it's coded in, which is very easy to learn, and very simple to code, a computer (I'd be really surprised if you could read this without one) and a cable for plugging it in to that computer. depending on the type of board, you may also need an adapter piece for particularly small ones.

you can pick up the smallest size for about 10 bucks here:

https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/103


If you want to get really crazy with it, they make all kinds of radio receiver/Internet send and receive/ GPS Locating Addons. Please note however, that these addons are often intended for full size boards, and can add up rather quickly.

Since it's basically a platform rather than a prepackaged system, you can go as far as you want with it or not. I've seen people doing simple things like getting a speaker to play a song, and I've seen people hooking up "nerf guns" to thermal cameras and motion sensors.

Yucca Plants
 

I have not seen one of my favorite natural fences mentioned. The Yucca plant usually grows to about 5 feet high and sports some of the sharpest highly irritating spines on their leaf ends. they need about 3, 3.5 foot wide area to get established. They multiply so they have to be kept from creeping wider and wider. NO ONE will crash through them in normal clothes. They would be cut to ribbons.

Yuccas look good, dark green, large fleshy leaves and each one sports a large white flower each spring. They will grow just about anywhere, almost any type soil.

They are native to the desert SW USA. In Alabama they flourish.

I have them flanking my main driveway. Anybody, especially on foot coming up my driveway has to stay on the gravel driveway or get punctured. Not sure but they would probably flatten a regular road type car tire.

I saw some very good ideas put forth here. You can always depend on SF to be thoughtful and inventive. Good thread. :)