Obedience

:grumble: fixing didn't help mine

It's probably big fun to run away.

You need to show him the commands repeatedly over and over again treating when he does it right, so for sit, push his bottom down saying sit and treat, repeat a few times and then try again without pushing his bottom down and see what he does. as long as he is focused on the treat he should catch on. Its about getting and keeping their attention!

Treats.....small ones that are meant for training, would be where I would start.
I have Two (count em 2) Bull Mastiffs and they are putty in my hands. I got them both when they were 8 weeks old and I trained them to Listen to ME and NO back talking LOL By using small training treats, always followed by a "Good Boy or Girl" they love praise.

Good Luck

You unknowingly just opened a can o'worms here. :-)

I've been training dogs professionally for nearly 9 years (trained about 1500 dogs so far), so I know what you are dealing with, and know how to fix it.

Here is the biggest problem with asking for advice on a forum.... you are going to get good AND bad advice, and you won't know which is which.
Second problem is that training takes time, and you won't know if you are using the wrong approach for quite some time, and if you followed bad advice, you could very well be worse off than before posting the question.

My simplest, cheapest advice is to buy the book "Ruff Love" by Susan Garrett. No, it's not in the 'adult intimacy' department.


It's a small book, that follows the same philosophy that I train my dogs by, and yields terrific results without being gimmicky.

I don't offer training over the internet because it is extremely time consuming, and involves recurring follow-up instruction. But, if you buy that book (around $20 I think from Amazon or Dog-wise.com), you will get sound practical advice.
Good luck.

Before you bother with teaching the dog 'tricks' like Sit and Stay, you need to gain their respect. This is where psychology comes into play. I've trained far too many dogs who were masters of skills, but still had no respect for their owners. You are entering the dog's adolescent age, which only makes things more interesting.

Clearly you just need to call the Dog Whisperer. Thank me later. :smokin:

Clicker training! The "For Dummies" books on dog training are great on dog training. Start with teaching them that the clicker means food. When he's sitting by you, click and give a treat. Do that for a while until he associates the click as a good thing. Then move on to actually teaching him stuff.

Remember to click and give a treat when he does the right thing, not just pointing and clicking like it's a remote control. For instance, for sit, say "SIT" and hold a treat over his nose, then move it up and back, until he has to sit to stay watching it. Don't click until his bum hits the floor, then click and give him the treat. If he jumps up, tell him, "no" and turn away from him. But be prepared to praise him like he just split an atom if he does it right.

For me, using treats (and they should be TINY pieces... one Beggin' Strip is about 20 treats when broken up) and guiding him into the motion works a lot better than pushing or shoving him into position. Sometimes it's just a matter of being more patient and stubborn than he is. Sometimes the best way to teach is to wait until he's doing something on his own, like sitting, catching him about to do it, saying, "Sit" then clicking, treating and praising.

Obedience training isn't really for the dog. It's for the owner to learn how to teach him.

I trained my Pekingese to sit, down, wave, paw, high five (really low high five), play dead and sing on command with clicker training, as well as front door, back door, go to bed, and leave it, which is getting them to ignore something they really want (best thing ever to teach!) Pekes are INCREDIBLY stubborn dogs... the folks from his rescue group were absolutely amazed at what he can do. Most of their dogs were obedience school dropouts.

Video of Beavis doing tricks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOJCbtOAIys (this was when we were still taking classes... if you look at other videos of him, he improved a lot)

Boxers, in my experience, will stay hyperactive puppies until they're about 10-12 years old. And they'll always think they belong on your lap. :happy:

Alright, first thing is first. Sounds like he trust you and IS listening, but doesn't respect you. You have to show him YOU are the boss. Coming when called is actually a more advanced training in this case. You need to first establish you are the pack leader. For this type of hard headed-ness. Clicker training and treat training WILL NOT WORK. I bet he comes every time and sits every time when you try to give him a treat, yes? NO MORE TREAT TRAINING!!

First of all --
Dominance/Pack Leader exercises:
-Make sure YOU go out the door first
-You eat in front of him,THEN feed him afterwards.
-Make him sit before you put the food bowl down.
-Don't let him eat until you give him permission.
-If he doesn't respond on the 1ST try, make him do it!
-Staring contests. Never let him win. ALWAYS stare at him as if you are challenging him until he looks away.
-Crate him during the day. If you are not home and he is left in the house, he can start to think he owns the place.

Tips (for sit and other commands)
-Never repeat yourself. Non-verbal command are actually better for these types of dogs. The fist is the command for sit. Put the first in front of his face where he has to look at it, say firmly 'sit' and if he doesn't sit in 10 seconds, grab the front of his collar and push his bum down.
If you still have to push his bum down on the 5th try of sitting, grab the front of his collar, do your hand signal, and say 'sit' staring into his eyes the whole time. If he still doesn't, push his bum down still. This is intimidating to him, and tells him you are the pack leader-not him.


The first command you should work on is 'sit' right after his own name. Until he learns this, he won't learn anything else. Then try 'down'.

Manners are also very important. If you have any questions or anything I can help you with, please let me know -- send me a message.

You unknowingly just opened a can o'worms here. :-)

I've been training dogs professionally for nearly 9 years (trained about 1500 dogs so far), so I know what you are dealing with, and know how to fix it.

Here is the biggest problem with asking for advice on a forum.... you are going to get good AND bad advice, and you won't know which is which.

And oh, it's a nasty can of worms!

Ditto to all of the above!! The person is the hardest part..remember once you have spent your money on training YOU MUST KEEP UP WITH IT!! I also have been training for many years..Good Luck!

I trained professionally for 15 years. I can be nothing but blunt. You invested in a new dog, and IMO ability to pay for training classes is on par with ability to take care of veterinary costs. If you can't afford it, you shouldn't have a dog. So invest in the classes - hopefully you've done your research and this $200 place is reputable and lets you go and watch some classes, so you can check out their methods and talk to their clients. If they don't, check out another place. When you do find a class you're happy with, give those trainers the respect of following their system and don't listen to all the well-meaning but potentially disatrous advice you might get on, say, fitness forums or from friends. :happy: If you're not seeing the results you want, press the trainers. Dog trainers don't want unhappy clients, so they should bend over backwards to help you fix your problems.

I would never dream of giving anyone training advice without seeing the dog, because they're all different. We assessed each and every dog prior to putting them into class, because not every dog *should* be in class. Some need private lessons.

And of course, it's not really about training the dog at all. Dogs are easy. People are the tough ones!

:flowerforyou:

I had an extremely "spirited" lab. Talk about attitude. I attended a 1 day training seminar given by Brian Kilcommons. He studied under Barbara Woodhouse in Great Britain. I was really impressed w/how he handled dogs at the seminar and his thoughts on training so I bought his book..Good Owners, Great Dogs. It was a huge help. We now have another lab...just as ornery...and we used the same techniques on Hershey that Kilcommons recommends. Hershey responded well to those training methods. My budget is tight here as well so we can't go for training classes. I would second mortgage my house if one of my pets had a medical need....but there are plenty of books and videos for training. We've had great luck with the book.