16 Rocky is not possessive at home, he has his toys and plays with them, he does not guard them or his crate or beds. He goes to the door and hits the knob to let us know he must go out, if we don’t here the knob he will walk around crying till we go to take him out, he won’t even go to the bathroom in his dog park, he must think it is a room of the house.? He has his Kongs that he chews, he is an aggressive chewer literally can chew a black Kong to bits, we now know to rid them once cracked. His balls are only Kong Balls. But, you can take anything away from him, he does not mark anything, he is the perfect dog at home. We choose when to play ball not Rocky, he is sent to his crate to sit and wait while I put his food in the dish and water and waits till I tell him he may go eat. I feed him 5 am and 5 pm. He has a sensitive stomach and vomits easily so I found this better for him. There is no food out all day. Only fresh water. We usually walk him when he needs or before we go out, he is alone only 3-4 hours the most.
Through training I learned that with Rocky everything has to be at our direction. To be pet, fed, to sit and wait when leashing him up and not to get up till we say so. To walk behind me when going out of the house. Not allowing him to follow me everywhere. If he decides not to listen, when he is to excited to play, we put him in time out, in the bathroom and after 5 minutes let him out, that calms him down. He comes when called and goes down when told, sits and gives paw. He will “leave it” and when I give a treat he has to wait and “sit nice” and wait till I say he can take the treat. Everything is to show him who is the leader. He sometimes tries to take over but, we correct him and he sees it does not work. Just when we are outside and he sees a strange person that he is not familiar with then everything goes out the window. Because he is food motivated one trainer told me to sprinkle treats on the ground and say “track it” and that works great also, until he sees a stranger then he does not care about the treats.
I truly appreciate your help. Rocky appreciates it too!! Thank you.
