[Andrew]

Great! thanks Judy we’ll definitely try that when we eat. Maybe give him a bone or a kong so he can chew on it while we have our meal.

 

He’s been back with the breeder for the last 2 weeks since he was barking a lot at other dogs, she was able to train him out of it to about 100%, he’s back with us now and we’re continuing his training.

He hasn’t started chewing on the carpets yet, but he does still bite us when he’s feeling playful, he’ll grab on to clothes or just bite at hands/legs/ankles. Trying to let him know it’s not ok, we’ll see how it goes.

[Andrew]

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.

[Andrew]

No worries Mike, I actually assumed that your video on house breaking was the response to my questions. As in fill in the house breaking chart for a while and then post the results. I’m actively writing what we and the dog and I’ll also fill in a table with the Leadership evaluation.

 

Thank you sir!!

[Andrew]

Will do!

So if I understand correctly if the puppy starts chewing furniture at 7:15PM today, should I give him a chew toy, or a bone, or play with him, at 7:10 tomorrow?

Thanks!

**edited for typo

[Andrew]

Thanks for the quick reply Mike!

You’re right we have only done the first 2 steps Marking and Fading. Lots more work to do until we’re done.

As for the leadership section, yes I’ve read and reread multiple times and I have started following the advice there. Once challenging thing is when the pup is excited he will start playing with anything and everything in the house. In order to distract him and redirect I’ll take away whatever he’s attempting to destroy and give him one of his toys (this only works for 10 seconds, as he’s back at it after that). So instead I have to start playing with him, basically when he’s in the mood to play. I’ve bought a kong and some bones so I will try that as a distraction technique. Is there anything else you recommend at this point ?

thanks again!

Andrew

[Andrew]

Dave, yeah i’ve done some troubleshooting with him, and he loves the flirt pole and sometimes fetch with the right toys. I stopped playing fetch until I get a long line, as I had an episode where he ran out of the park after another dog.

The other way I take his energy out is by running him for about 15-20min twice a day. The running is a steady jog, and interspersed with short sprints. This seems to take some energy out of him.

We also train a couple of times a day for his meals, I try to make things hard enough for it to be a challenge but easy enough so it’s not frustrating/boring.