Fila training?

[Angelbears10]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the training forum!?! Fila are so different from other breeds should the same training methods be used on them?

Finally found a trainer for Cane, he has only trained one soft fila. He has been out twice and Cane is not taking to it well. I'm a little confused with how to deal with a Fila. I have been told two things consistently by Fila people. 1) Be gentle with these guys. 2) Be in control no matter what it takes. With Cane these are conflicting statements.

I know the trainer is going to want to start applying more pressure on Cane, less treat more correction. Cane has decided that he could care less about treats. He has gotten really stuborn right now. He will not do any of his commands. He is also pouting big time. He wants nothing to do with me.

Honestly, in the house he is such a gentleman but he scares the living sh* out of me outside on lead.

Any suggestions?

Thank you
Robin

 

[Renee750il]

NO!!! You absolutely do NOT try to train a Fila like any other dog, especially if a trainer uses corrections At best, it's dangerous -- at worst (and most likely) you ruin a good dog.

I do use a prong collar on mine when we are out -- she doesn't necessarily "need" it, but most importantly, it allows me to say, with total conviction, that my dog is always under my control.

The most effective way I have found to "train" -- and you really don't train a Fila, you TEACH a Fila -- is to do just that, teach. I am constantly explaining, reassuring, praising, redirecting, just like I would teach a very intelligent child, when the dog is young and starting out. After that, it's more like guiding a somewhat impetuous but extremely bright student.

This is one of the reasons socializing is so imperative. They need a good base of experience of human actions and environmental stimulus. They also need to have that bond of implicit trust with YOU, their person. There can be no dishonesty, no fudging, no heavy handedness between you because your dog must learn how to react appropriately to new situations and people with your guidance and must be able to have faith in what you tell him/her.

This is also one of the reasons I do not like to see people hire a trainer to work with their Fila. If the proper bond is there between owner and Fila, the trainer will always be an interloper and there will be a certain amount of distrust. That's the nature of the beast.

 

[Aescleah]

grrr i wrote a long post and it was lost
so here we go again i am not a fila person so i really do defer to fila people here i do have a boerboel though they are very different but they have a few things in common. one you are going to not be able to bully a fila or boerboel into anything they absolutly refuse to do. you do need to gain there respect and trust and the bond will make them try to do anything you could ask them to do. that is so very important. if you damage that bond or do not form one its bad news.
i think you can be in control and gentle at the same time you have to be calm with these guys they know when you are mad and frusterated. you can not hide it from them and that means you have to be honest with yourself cause you are not fooling the dog at all.
as for this trainer it does not seem to be a good thing for cain cause he is going to blame you for bringing this fool in to mess with him. i had a trainer but it was a informal sort of thing he never came over and we did alot of talking on the phone personally i liked it that way he would tell me how to do it and it would go from there maybe that would be more important for a fila then a boerboel. can you find a mentor ?

Ashley