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Big dog, big brakes, but he does still need training and guidance.

In the Brisbane area take your puppy to classes at a Craig A Murray facility find out more on his site click on link below.
<http://www.dogschool.com.au>

CESAR MILAN I see him mentioned on many dog forums some love him, some just have to let the forum know that they know better (funny that we have never heard of them) and many get confused.

Most on those forums who go one about his 'training' methods miss the point, his TV shows are not about training dogs at all, they mostly are about how he goes in and helps PEOPLE to see how they have caused their dog to behave in certain ways and how they need to behave to get the behaviour they want, a lot can be learnt from the mistakes of others by watching his shows.
Actual training is another matter. He does sell books and DVDs on that too, maybe worth your while to get some.

Get some of Cesar Milan's books or DVD's <http://www.amazon.com/How-Raise-Perfect-Dog-Puppyhood/dp/0307461300/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/186-4742998-2354121>

Dear God: We dogs can understand human verbal instructions, hand signals, whistles, horns, clickers, beepers, scent ID's, electromagnetic energy fields, and Frisbee flight paths .
What do humans understand?

Training is not just a series of actions to teach your dog to do, such as to sit, drop, and come, it is part and parcel of how you treat your pup from day one to instil into him your household rules, and the fact that you are his leader,he needs to know his place in your pack, the fact that he must come in last after other family members and kids need not be a trauma to him, a dog who knows his boundaries and limitations is a far happier dog than one who is constantly testing boundaries and trying to vie for top dog position, the best way by far to train the dog is to work in harmony with his natural pack instincts to shape him into the dog you want him to be, follow a few simple rules to do this and you are sure of success.

Training does not have to be, nor should it be a time for battle, to lose your cool when training is a sure way to ruin your dog, no amount of money can buy you a fool proof dog! so take care to follow the main rule for any breed or dog, from the very first, set your rules, keep them simple for the very young pup, and ALWAYS SET HIM UP TO SUCCEED.

An instance of this would be to keep him in an environment which does not allow him to be frequently in the wrong, when you are not with him, he should have an area of the house or yard where he can be put and feel at home, and not be able to pull things that are not his to bits, or destroy your gear by chewing or slobbering all over it, you need to either put all chewables and destroyables away, or be able to put the pup away, to yell at, or worse hit a young pup who is forever chewing and investigating all he can in his environment is not good for his eventual confidence in himself, the less you have to do this the more sure of himself your pup will grow up to be, he has enough to learn without having temptation shoved right under his nose, it is fair to teach him not to jump on your bed, and not to beg at table, or jump on kids or chase the cat ect.try to set his environment up in such a way that you need only to worry about a minimal set of 'rules' to start with. I say it is best to minimise the number of rules you must enforce because YOU MUST ENFORCE THE RULES OF THE HOUSE, do not let the pup slip up and do stuff he knows he should not, it may be cute sometimes but it will not be cute if you wind up with a 50kg or bigger, dog pulling you around the yard by the hair as happened years ago to one couple who's dog had no respect whatever for the lady of the house, that dog is today, in different hands, a model for his type.

Keep this set for success theme going when you begin obedience training, do not rush into this, you have time, so take time, a little done often is far better than having a few long training sessions which tire and bore him, if you think ahead, you can set him up to be successful here as well, ALWAYS have him in a position so that you can immediately back up your command, it will be quite some time before you can expect him to automatically comply with a command, expecting too much too soon and getting impatient when a pup who was sitting on his own without a second prompt the day before. then backslides and needs to be put on his bum by you the next day can do a great deal of harm, so just always have him by collar and hand near his rump ready to push down a second after you give the command to 'sit', later, a pop of his collar may be cue enough, but do not rush it and even after he has been sitting well for some time, do not try yet to command him to sit from some distance away and off lead. All that will come with time and constant drilling, bit by bit, a few minutes each day, no more, if you do things right and take your time, you will get there and retain a thoroughly confidant dog as well as an obedient one.

Give each command once only, the cue to sit should not be sit sit sit sit, sit, but one 'sit' and that is all, his ears are better than yours and he heard you the first time, repeating an ignored command will not lead to an obedient dog but one who knows it is ok to ignore the first few times any command you make,good timing is the key to good obedience, you will also not learn the technique of how to 'pop' a collar, ( choker or prong)and use your lead in order to gain his immediate attention without hurting the dog from any book or article, that is best learnt from being instructed or from watching an experienced person or trainer, wrongly used chokers in particular can break the trachea. prong collars may sound evil but they are wider and used right are not as likely to do damage, so do go to a trainer and get some lessons.

This "Go to a trainer" advise can lead to a downfall if the trainer chosen is one of the Teddy Bear brigade, who will not advise (may not even know) tougher methods of training with those few dogs who are so hard and confident that they will take over and walk all over the soft owner, by tougher methods, I do NOT mean bashing although in extreme circumstances a dog may need to be stood right up with a good whack, I simply mean he must learn that his actions can have negative as well as positive consequences, how negative is where you must have an experienced trainer of the right sort who can watch you and the dog and read both of you and see exactly where you are going wrong, in all cases I have had to look into I have not yet found that the dog could not be trained, it just needed the right trainer. I can only give general advise here this is not a manual for home training and no outside help needed!! while in most cases, owners will not need help, in some cases they will, and the sooner they get it the less harm done, to them and their dog. Do not do as I have so often seen people do with a young pup, new to lead, dragging behind, putting on a turn, or even screaming his head off, they pat an 'encourage', and tell him "Good boy" THINK, what do you say and do to let your dog know he has done well? pat and encourage and tell him he is a 'good boy'?
So, do you want him to continue to act like a pork chop and scream and drag behind you? NO?
Then do not pay the wrong behaviour, ignor it .Praise ONLY good behaviour at all times.

Another very important point when controlling your dog in any situation, be it training or just learning the 'rules' of the home, do not ask him to do or nor to do a thing, do not have a conversation about it either, he hears and heeds (or not) your tone, this does not mean you have to yell, but neither use a sweet little 'asking' tone, you tell. and in a tone and using body language which brooks no argument!

With a very young pup,if you want to use food as a reward I see no harm in that, but wean him off that form of training as he grows, he must do as you say because you say so, end of. I do not like the use of halties or food rewards unless perhaps there is a reason such as a physical disability, big strong dogs with equally strong characters are better taught, not by brute force which they resent and do not tolerate well, but by very strong leadership.

I like to get people to watch the Dog Whisperer where they can, or go to his site <http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/> and order some of his DVDs, or see if he is on a channel you can watch on TV, you need to watch carefully as he instructs people in very plain and easy to understand ways, how to handle their problem dogs, you may miss the nuances of what he is doing at first, but watch several times over and you will begin to understand his body language, the manner in which he conducts himself, and timing, and you will see for yourself where the owners have gone wrong in not providing strong leadership for their dogs, they have in all cases caused their own problems, in watching such episodes you can perhaps avoid making many of the same mistakes, still, also see a trainer if you can.

It is sad that we have come to this, years ago the neighbourhood kids and dogs would roam together, the dogs were all thus thoroughly socialised, and were, by and large, treated like dogs by their families and so knew, and kept, their place and you very seldom heard of kids being bitten, now, I have recently been told by a trainer who has studied the more modern ways of training and the changes in how dogs are kept and treated in general, and he told me that 60% of the children he surveyed had been bitten by a dog by the time they were ten years old, these are pretty sad statistics and to think they come about in a so called enlightened time is sadder still, they reflect to me the fact that we have lost touch with our animals and so many people do not have the knowledge that we just soaked up from simply living with dogs and observing, probably without even realising we were doing it, years ago, these days, if you do not already have a good deal of experience you need to sort through all the new age touchy feely guff and get back to common sense stuff if you want a safe and obedient family (pack) member in your dog.

If you do seek the help of a trainer, suss them out thoroughly first, if you are hearing about ignore all bad behaviour and praise all good behaviour and give NO negative corrections, find another trainer with more sense.

A dog, no matter how much you think he is 'humanised' is still motivated more by the primary instincts of the wolf he descends from than anything we have been able to do, sure some are better at hunting or guarding or being gun dogs and pointing or herding or whatever, but primary instincts still come down to the common ancestor, put in any situation he is not sure of a dog will decide, if it is a threat, on: FLIGHT or FIGHT, if it is a situation where there is something running maybe even squealing as kids often do for instance, his old hunting instincts can kick in and he will decide on hunt and on catching his 'prey' may well pull it down,often no particular malice is intended to start with, pups learn to kill and fight through play, watch a litter, all that mock fighting, silent stalking and the big surprise spring on the one stalked, is getting ready for the real thing later, and 'play hunting' can turn to 'real' hunt/ kill situations in a flash once prey drive really kicks in, what started as a game can end in a dead animal or kid. unless you have and are training a hunting dog, DO NOT PLAY HUNTING TYPE GAMES, DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS DO IT , DO NOT LET YOUR DOG PLAY THAT WAY WITH YOU OR KIDS.

When it came to keeping order in the pack, the wolf leader did not run around praising the good little wolf, he simply set rules and expected them kept, no emotional shit about not hurting feelings or even bodies, if his rules were broken retribution was immediate, the wrong doer got from a growl to a fierce shaking or an outright bashing, if he had mounted a serious threat to leadership he might even get killed, not many dogs will kill pups although some are so intolerant that they will, but a balanced leader would suit the punishment to the crime as we should also do.

Love you dog, but love him as a dog, understand that he must have clear boundaries and he cannot know those boundaries if you are a wuss who will not lay them down in a way that crosses the species gap, he can, and does, study you very closely, he sees where there is weakness he can charm, bully or otherwise use to his advantage, he does not use sloppy sentimentality as people often do when deciding how he will interact with us. it is up to you to do a bit of study too and understand what drives the mind of the dog and thereby help him to fit usefully and harmoniously into the foreign 'pack' he finds himself in.