Help!

[seazr]

Dakota is very smart. He picks up new commands almost instantanously. But lately, when given a command, he will just stand and stare like, "I don't want to do that right now." I do watch the Dog Whisperer and try to follow his advice. But I am sure that Dakota does not have enough boundries and limitations. He has the full run of the house and the furniture. He even tells us on Saturday morning when we are getting up! How does one change that? I've grabbed his collar, looked him in the eye and have given him a firm "no" or negative word (in class we use eh! eh!) with no apparent result. It's been hot lately so he hasen't been walking but we give him a good work out in the pool every night. Another problem I have (even though I dragged my husband with me to both sessions of Dakota's training) is there is no consistancy in our house. My husband and his son (who doesn't live there but is there everyday) are back with the old school style of slapping at and yelling at the dog--even though Dakota's instructor clearly warned against that. And our commands are inconsistant. Last night I caught my husband giving the had signal for stay and using the word stop. When I corrected him, he said, "Dakota knows exactly what I mean." What to do?? I know this is much more of a people problem than a dog problem because Dakota is very smart. Although maybe some of it is his teenage years?? Advice?
Diane (and Dakota)

[Jac]

Hi Diane...the fact that you and your husband are training with different signals is confusing to Dakota...he will learn, but it is much harder for him to do that...my husband is much more lax with his training than I am and we have had a hard time getting our dogs to mind...so I know what you mean.
Still Dakota is testing you too...
When my dogs go through that, I take her head in my hands and get right in her face and repeat the command, looking her in the eye until she looks away...she usually knows she had made a mistake and tries harder.
I strongly suggest that during training you use a prong collar and a pull tab, that way you can really enforce your commands and you should always enforce a command or else don't give it...otherwise he will learn that you won't follow through.
You might want to take some intermediate training classes...or get a good book and work on new things, maybe making games of the learning.
Good luck!

[Clippart]

Jac,

What is a prong collar and pull tab? Thanks!

Cathy

[seazr]

Thanks Jac
I have a new plan. I wrote out a daily training schedule for Dakota to keep us more on track. And I went over all of the commands with my husband. I am much more attentive to the training than my husband is but between work, making dinner, etc, I can use some training help--and occasionally I get some! I'm still reluctant about the prong collar--I know many people on this forum love it. His flat collar and lead usually work fine for training except on walks when I need to use the gentle leader. Dakota will mind almost any command for a treat, but it is working without treats and for a purpose that we need to focus on. We'll get him there . . .
Diane (and Dakota)

[Jac]

Sounds good Diane!

Cathy, a prong collar is one used by many of us...it looks so bad...very mean looking, but believe me it is not and it really helps to train the puppy...but you have to be sure that you fit it properly. They also make plastic ones that aren't so scary...and may work well for younger pups.

http://www.leerburg.com/fit-prong.htm

A pull tab is a very short leash, about a foot long, but one that the pup wears all the time, hooked to the collar so that you can make quick corrections and yet the pup doesn't need to have a long leash on him.