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Here’s my best description of our leadership profile:
Affection:
We provide affection on our terms and not when the dog comes to us asking for it. We do so several times throughout the day. The only exception to this is when we come home. We wait until he’s calm in his crate before letting him out and then give him affection for 30-60s.
Play/Work:
We play tug of war with him as well as him chasing a flirt pole bait. When we do actively play with him we stay in control and don’t allow him to keep the toys during play. We end the game and put the toy away from our own initiative.
Possible mistake: when the dog is overly active or starts chewing on things in the house, we usually will start playing with him, but when we are unable to play, we throw one of his chew toys or one of his plush toys for him to chew on instead, however we don’t always actively engage him when doing this.
Food:
We feed the dog with raw food based on the quantities specified by the company. At 5 months we feed him about 1lb of food a day. When we feed him from a bowl, we do so in his crate and we don’t bother him while he’s eating.
We never leave food items laying around, and we especially don’t allow him to eat or chew bones or kongs outside his crate. As soon as he takes it out we take it away.
His feeding schedule is twice a day, after coming back form his walks/exercising. EXCEPTION: recently I have converted his meals into 15-20min training sessions. I am going through Phase 1 obedience with him on the Sit/Stay command with an added effort of me moving away from him before “freeing” him.
The dog has a high food drive, and when we eat he’s always next to us and will actively try and get to the food or to us while we’re eating, especially if snacking on the couch. We push him down and say “NO”, that’s the extent of our correction at this point.
Resting Places:
He is NEVER allowed on furniture or the bed. He tries often to get on, especially if we’re eating something. In the morning when he’s let out of his crate he wants to jump on the bed.
We allow him to rest on the floor in front of the couch or in his crate. When he’s in the crate we never bother him and let him rest/sleep or wtv he wants to do. (except chew his bed up)
Outdoor Access:
We take the dog out at least 2-3 days a day if not more. Each lasting 30min or more. When he walks we encourage him to follow us at a normal pace without pulling or lagging behind. When he goes to smell other dog’s signs we discourage him from lingering by tugging slightly on the leash.
Whenever he pulls forward, we bring him back although this rarely disuades him from actually pulling until we more “forecefully” bring him in line with us.
We don’t allow him to cross any threshold first. He is supposed to sit, and let the handler go through first. We enforece this as often as possible.
The only time he is allowed to walk freely (on or off leash) is in the park where he does his needs, and where we play tug/chase the lure/fetch or where we do some obedience work.
