Tully-Behavior Issues

Obnoxious teenage behaviors?

My Nell went through about 6months of being a total a$$ working sheep after being fully trained. She aged out of these behaviors without much additional training.

Obnoxious teenage behaviors?

LOL-ayup! Not listening, sassing, biting (not vicious), getting in our other dog's face, etc.

I'm not going to be much help other than to say "hang in there". I'm FINALLY on the other side of Augie's adolescence and he could be a real, um..."Ausshole". The animal who could jump 6' into the air while lunging to play with a passing dog, will now simply sit quietly with just a whispered word. It's not that *I* did anything differently - he just needed to mature between the ears (and I didn't have problems with pottying in the house)

My daughter's (neutered) Shih-Tzu was a notorious "marker", so when they needed to move in with us shortly after our new carpet had been installed - I said OK only as long as he wore a belly-band diaper while indoors. Worked great! I also had put them on my Jimmy, who was elderly, diabetic, and would occasionally "leak" in his sleep. Amazon sells them - the ones we had were soft and washable

Our Oscar is an 80lbs lab mix, 18 months old and strong as a bull moose.

I think our trainer would say "he thinks he owns you" and is trying to be the alpha dog. Sounds like you are in active training, with someone that knows a lot more than me.

But couple of things that have worked well for us.

When he is unruly leash him up to an inside doorknob. That way he is still part of the family but is confined and gives him a chance to calm down. Works very well for us.

And second Oscar could care less about a martingale collar. But he does care about a prong collar. It gets his attention, which is what you want, and lets him know we are going where I want, not where you want.

I know they are controversial, but it changed his leash pulling behavior in about 5 minutes. And maybe wishful thinking on our part but he seems to be a better dog all around. I do not jerk it or yank it, just a twist of the wrist, to exert a little pressure. Might be worth a shot.

I would be interested to hear Dr Doug's take on a prong collar

But he does care about a prong collar.

He walks awesome with a prong collar but he can't wear it for his Good Citizen test so that's why we are trying the martingale. He's worlds better with that than on a regular collar but not quite as good as a prong collar. When he gets out of control in the house we use the "settle" command with varying degrees of success-then it's a time out in his pen. It's just his sass attitude that we can do without!

Re: prong collars - yes, that collar enabled me to hang onto the leash (arthritis) during Augie's antics. He too doesn't like to pull very hard against it; and IMO, he got so used to not pulling, that he simply doesn't bother, even with his "regular" collar. BUT: spend the money and buy a GOOD "Herm Sprenger" collar. The cheap ones have "square-cut ends" and the Sprengers have round, smooth ends. Surely they are more comfortable for the dog to wear?

I'll start this with the disclaimer that behavior is not my strongest area of vet medicine. I've had most of my personal experience with Golden Retrievers a breed so easy to train that it's hard to screw them up. After spending hours every day dealing with difficult behavior (almost always understandable as the things we do are often uncomfortable or strange), the last thing I want is to come home to more difficult behavioral situations.

Most animal behaviorists do not recommend pronged collars. Many trainers do. I don't think there is a universal situation (always OK vs never OK)- each individual situation is different. The behaviorists maintain that pronged collars are used by owners as an easy out rather than dealing with the bad behavior.

There are tons of new training aids as far as collars, harnesses, head collars, and training protocols. Many current behaviorists also discount the "alpha" dog theory that we all grew up with.

Bottom line is that dealing with an adolescent dog can be difficult. You have to be willing to try different things and even change things up when what has been working no longer does. Far too often people just tire and give up and that produces an adult dog with poor behavior. We've all seen them, those that bark uncontrollably, lunge while walking, are aggressive to people or other animals and any number of other undesirable behaviors.

One universal theory is that a tired dog (both physical and mental) is a good dog. Uniform, regular daily training on a schedule (feeding, elimination, play, exercise and training) seems to have benefits. Don't ignore the mental stimulation as a bored dog will misbehave.

The fact that you are seeking suggestions means that you are actively dealing with the situation. Keep the faith and keep trying different things. They do grow up.

Another thing to keep in mind when dealing with an unruly adolescent dog is at some point they will mature and the necessary corrections for when they are mentally immature may become too much once they mature.

Part of the problem is keeping up with the exercise he needs. The bulk of our backyard is now fenced so he can run a lot more. He does get walked 2 times/day most days, I play ball with him in the yard, and my husband is his playmate inside. Biggest issue lately is weather-below zero temps plus wind chills make it a lot uncomfortable for his hoomans to be outside plus it can be dangerous for him. He needs a buddy but we still have old man Jake and I don't think I can handle 3 dogs. The training center has doggie day care but since he's 8 months old and intact, they won't take him. Our vet has daycare and will take him as long as he behaves appropriately. He's definitely a beta dog so that helps. Guess we just have to tough it out-and probably retake the Canine Good Citizen class when he matures. I am also meeting with the vet to talk about getting him neutered.

My Tornado-dog picked up potty training quickly as a young puppy. He caught on to "pee first, then play" with no problem. With poop, he would get distracted and forget because there was so much to do outside. Then he'd come in and suddenly remember "I have to poop"...

As the weather was nice, I could stay out as long as he needed to remember to poop.

Then, when the weather changed, he decided he would rather be inside and he wouldn't pee outside either. And all the waiting in the world didn't get him to poop outside.

So, I started teaching him cues. When he started to pee, I'd say "potty" and when he finished, I'd praise him. When he started to poop, I'd say "poop" and when he finished, we'd go straight inside (that was his reward because that's what he really wanted when it was cold and wet outside) as I praised him.

It took a while with him because he is easily distracted, but one night, we were out back and I was sitting on the patio. He peed and then ran for the back door. I just sat there and said "poop". He looked around, then ran out, pooped, and came racing to the door. I praised him and we went inside.

The next morning, he had the same "aha" moment.

Now, I sometimes have to wait until he focuses (we are learning the "focus" cue - which is simply "stop worrying about the neighbor dogs barking and focus on your goal"). But as soon as he lets go of the distraction, he rushes off to do his poop.

I had to train myself to first understand his poop schedule and then use that as a guideline. My instinct was to have him poop right before bed and when we first get up. But after a week, he just stopped pooping at night. Mornings, he was quick to poop. I thought he had backstepped.

My habit was to let the dogs out back during the day to hang. And I only go out for the morning and bedtime trips (to ensure his potty time). What I discovered is that he was pooping in the afternoon rather than at bedtime. Now, if he doesn't poop at bedtime, I trust him.