Jacqui-S
Moderator
- Location
- Fife, Scotland
Perfect advice!
Adolescent chat
- Thread starter Leanne
- Start date
- Location
- Isle of Man
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Ditto. I've read it six times already and every time nodding in agreement and getting ideas to help with mad Maxx
Boogie
Moderator
- Location
- Manchester UK
I repeat this to myself -
“Avoiding the battle is far more important than trying to win it.”
Eg - it’s much easier to put my boots and socks on behind the baby gate than try to get him sitting nicely while I do it and he’s sooooooo excited about going out!
.
“Avoiding the battle is far more important than trying to win it.”
Eg - it’s much easier to put my boots and socks on behind the baby gate than try to get him sitting nicely while I do it and he’s sooooooo excited about going out!
.
I think I need to adopt this approach!
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
You definitely need to pick your battles. It's really easy to end up nagging at your dog and not really training them - in @Boogie's example, this might look like "Get off my socks! Stop biting my toes! No, leave my shoe alone! Come back here with it! GAGH! Why can't you just wait calmly while I put my shoes on?! You're not making it any quicker, you know!", all of which might let out a bit of steam, but the dog doesn't learn anything from it and it'll likely do nothing to change their behaviour. You'll just end up getting more frustrated each time. The number of times I hear J saying "You know you shouldn't....." and I think, "No they don't - they've never been taught that!". So your choices are:
1. Continue doing what you're doing, getting frustrated, and having that increase over time while you're letting your dog rehearse the unwanted behaviour,
2. Spend time training what you do want from them.
3. Use management so they can't do the annoying thing - @Boogie's baby gate.
Option 2 is great, of course, but it takes time that could be spent on doing other things, and when you're dealing with behaviours that the puppy will most likely grow out of, then it could be seen as a bit of a waste of time. 1 and 3 are equally easy, but 3 gets you the far better outcome all round. I've mentioned before how I have so many things I let my dogs "get away with" that would be unacceptable to other dog owners, but the truth is that I just can't be bothered to spend time training them. Life is too short to train boring things, so I choose to spend my time on the fun stuff and then use either option 1 or option 3 as I desire. Sometimes 1 is actually quite fun - like when Squidge tries to suffocate me by sitting on my head. "No! Gagh! Get off! I can't breathe! Help! I have a hippo on me!"...
1. Continue doing what you're doing, getting frustrated, and having that increase over time while you're letting your dog rehearse the unwanted behaviour,
2. Spend time training what you do want from them.
3. Use management so they can't do the annoying thing - @Boogie's baby gate.
Option 2 is great, of course, but it takes time that could be spent on doing other things, and when you're dealing with behaviours that the puppy will most likely grow out of, then it could be seen as a bit of a waste of time. 1 and 3 are equally easy, but 3 gets you the far better outcome all round. I've mentioned before how I have so many things I let my dogs "get away with" that would be unacceptable to other dog owners, but the truth is that I just can't be bothered to spend time training them. Life is too short to train boring things, so I choose to spend my time on the fun stuff and then use either option 1 or option 3 as I desire. Sometimes 1 is actually quite fun - like when Squidge tries to suffocate me by sitting on my head. "No! Gagh! Get off! I can't breathe! Help! I have a hippo on me!"...
This is definitely me! As you say option 1 can be fun, it's just when you're in a hurry option 3 is definitely better.
And you can add "Don't steal the woolly hat off my head when I bend down to do up my shoe laces!" which is Pepper's favourite trick now it's winter!
Boogie
Moderator
- Location
- Manchester UK
I do do option 2 - when I have time and patience 
.
.
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Yup, it's all about time, patience and whether you can be bothered 
Of course some things will be more important for your pups to learn than mine, too! I don't really care if mine have what other people perceive to be "bad manners", but those things might not wash for a Guide Dog in training
Of course some things will be more important for your pups to learn than mine, too! I don't really care if mine have what other people perceive to be "bad manners", but those things might not wash for a Guide Dog in training
Boogie
Moderator
- Location
- Manchester UK
Absolutely. Spencer, at six months old, is far far better trained, manners wise than Tatze!Yup, it's all about time, patience and whether you can be bothered
Of course some things will be more important for your pups to learn than mine, too! I don't really care if mine have what other people perceive to be "bad manners", but those things might not wash for a Guide Dog in training
I do wish I’d properly trained her to wee on command ‘tho - that is so very useful and time saving.
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
Well my oh patience has run out with Hunter the Humper. His pulling is way off scale and he literally humps any gender and at any angle! Hunter that is not my Oh! So we are going for chemical castration. Not sure if it will help but at least it is not permanent.... 
Leanne
Sniffer Dog
- Location
- Shropshire, UK
We had a lovely walk today on a local country estate... hormones Are obviously up again as we had 3 separate dogs have a pop at him when he was just trotting along with me. Poor bugger - nothing other than noise and macho behaviour but I will be glad to get this sorted!
In other news we have had the therapy dog assessment form through! Gulp!
In other news we have had the therapy dog assessment form through! Gulp!
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
You may find any hormone-driven behaviour worsening at first, as they have a testosterone surge before it subsides. You could keep a log to help you see whether or not there's any change - maybe starting now, before he has the implant?
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
I think I read a thread on here about it which was very helpful. Yes I have started my log. Also his stem cell therapy is at its best around 6 weeks after the injection. Just about now! We have been thinking about it for some time now and today's behaviour was just too much for my oh and my son!
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
So we decided to go to the woods again...glutton for punishment. We decided..Any Humping problems and we go back. This time when we first arrived Hunter did not get a scent of a female. The off leash walk was actually enjoyable and he played with other dogs.....and sort of came back during recall. So my OH is talking to the vet to see what we should do as she thinks the stem-cell therapy has boosted his hormone levels. Never a dull moment with my chocco baby!
Gagh, I’m finding some of our regressions really frustrating at the moment!
Recall has gone to pot, so on this morning’s walk I went out armed with cheese (high value) with the aim to just concentrate on fun walking and recall. Which was fantastic and worked really well - Kipper recalled beautifully to the whistle 3 times, and we were heading back to the car after a very satisfying, simple walk...when two crazy spaniels darted into view. I should have been quicker on distractions but I wasn’t and Kipper disappeared completely with them. Rah! I used the whistle of course, blooming idiot. I eventually caught up with them and their owners who had thankfully (finally) stopped, with Kipper entirely wired and not listening to a thing as we yomped back to the car. Man, it was an annoying end to a great walk...
Recall has gone to pot, so on this morning’s walk I went out armed with cheese (high value) with the aim to just concentrate on fun walking and recall. Which was fantastic and worked really well - Kipper recalled beautifully to the whistle 3 times, and we were heading back to the car after a very satisfying, simple walk...when two crazy spaniels darted into view. I should have been quicker on distractions but I wasn’t and Kipper disappeared completely with them. Rah! I used the whistle of course, blooming idiot. I eventually caught up with them and their owners who had thankfully (finally) stopped, with Kipper entirely wired and not listening to a thing as we yomped back to the car. Man, it was an annoying end to a great walk...
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
I know how you feel!! The big snacks to help and ...boom..that one distraction that I had not anticipated...and they are gone! I have now learnt not to beat myself up.... as any recall will be a TOTAL FAIL!!
. You know what...if they were totally well behaved...well it would be kinda boring!! Granted less stressful but boring!!
- Location
- Cornwall , UK
Oh dear , I`m sure this will be me very soon and I empathise 100% , remembering back when Sam and Tess were pups and turned a deaf ear . At the time, we think we are the only people in the whole world with a " naughty " youngster, but of course we aren't ! I might be eating my words soon, but when I had walks like this , I tried to just wipe them out, put it down to normal juvenile behaviour , frustrating though it is ! x
You are both so right, I keep coming back to that sound advice 'remember the positives, let go of the blips' - and he's not quite himself today bless him; he's been sick once (possibly the heady combination of cheese and spaniel excitement) and is a bit fussy, so I'm going to just go gentle, hope everything settles down and we can re-set over the rest of the day