[Bill]

Hi Mary – I offer for your consideration that perhaps you are most perfectly suited to make all this work and come together. Your ability to observe, monitor and adjust to control external stimuli for your son’s benefit are the same skills you will need to make things work with the addition of the new variable, the dog. While there are myriad ways to train for the results you require for harmony in the household, which will require monitoring and adjusting, I offer that perhaps the most important place to start, considering the various nuances that make your situation quite unique, is what is the overall and immediate behavior(s) required of the dog. “Invite vs. Invade!” Whatever behaviors you address, the overall important and immediate dog behavior that will contribute to harmony in the home is to condition the dog that only when he is invited into any human’s space is he to make contact with the human. Making this a universal behavioral response of the dog removes specific conditioning requirements that only apply to interactions with your son which may be confusing for the dog. I suspect your situation may be compounded if your son does invite the dog into his space and then decides he has had enough and wants the dog to leave – that would be part 2.

Dogs are brilliant – you can count on the fact that they will generally repeat behaviors that bring reward. They don’t always care whether it is an actual reward or just a human interaction and this is where your patience may get tested.

Human Dining Time – when humans are eating, dog is either in the crate or once trained, off at a distance. If you are not done training the dog to stay away from the table, crate the dog and there is no conflict. When the last plate leaves the table, my K9 knows its his time to eat and that is the reward for obediently staying away from the table. My K9 has never eaten a meal before humans are done with theirs. He never gets food from the table or the prep area in the kitchen. His feeding routine is once humans are done eating he participates in his feeding by accompanying me to his food source, watching me measuring his meal, walking back to prep area and sitting patiently while I finish the prep, then walking in a heal position to his eating area where he sits and waits for his release to eat without disruption from the human(s).

Invite vs Invade. Robert’s video on door greetings is something you may find helpful and consider taking it to the next level in that it applies to all greetings and all humans at all times. Reinforcing these good “dog” manners will serve you well.

Whether your dog is a hard dog or a soft dog will determine your training approach. Hard vs soft refers to how they handle correction. When given a correction does it seem that the dog’s feelings are hurt and they are sulking or looks like they feel bad, OR, do they accept the correction, comply, and move on. Both are trainable though the approach may have some variance.

I concur, counter surfing simply can’t be tolerated for health and safety reasons. Be consistent, be firm, and vigilant. The more effort you can put into being consistent at the start the more quickly you will see the desired result and consistency you desire and you will soon forget it was an issue. Personally, I do not use physical interaction, I issue a firm, NO! and move on as the dog is learning what is ok and what is not. If you walk in to the kitchen and discover surfing in progress – startle the dog with a very firm no. Some suggest using a can filled with pennies and rattle them to startle the dog – you just need to find what works best for you and your dog which takes me back to where I started, your ability as a mom to monitor and adjust all that you have for your son’s benefit are now applied to finding what works best to get things in line for the dog to fit into that harmony.

Should you find things getting crazy and so stressful that life is miserable, I echo @rshilsto because as you already know, doing what’s right is not always easy and doing what’s easy is not always right.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress.

All the best be yours!

[Bill]

Hi Alfred, The ball as a tug may likely be the issue. Use the ball as a reward or lure and not as a tug. Use a tug, or rolled towel as the tug. These are 2 distinct types of interaction with your dog. Sure, you can tug a little on the ball when the dog brings it back to you for fun but not as your biting training tool.

1.) Focus the bite: Holding the ends of the tug you are able to maneuver the tug to get the dog to center on the tug and bite. You are looking for a solid bite – no nibbling, bite and hold. Once on the bite, play a little and then release. Caution; if still teething, a towel is not a good choice as it more easily can snag a tooth – a tug is best to avoid this. As the bite strengthens and the nibbling disappears, you can then move your hands closer together on the tug to make the target area smaller. If you get incidentally bit, your hands are too close together (you may want to wear gloves at first but once you have the bite developed, you won’t need them). Adjust and continue. Your arms will no longer be of interest.

2.) Once you have a solid bite and tug, you increase the dog’s drive and ultimately the intensity and hold on the bite by interjecting misses. (Robert’s videos on this are excellent and demonstrative of what you do to assist the dog especially in the beginning). Your goal is that with time and practice there will be one bite and it will be a good one so there is no redirecting to the arm.

3.) The tug is never left with the dog to “play with.” This contributes to the value of the tug in that the only way the dog interacts with the tug is with you. It is a good idea to intersperse letting the dog trot around with the tug as a reward, but it must be brought back to you ultimately. You will know what I mean when you see it – your dog will be so proud and literally trot around and show off what he got/has/did/accomplished. While on parade – verbal praise will make it a grand slam event!

4.) Use the balls as rewards and lures as needed. They work great but because of the pendular motion of the ball its harder to get a bite developed. Once you have developed the bite, you will see a transfer of that skill to the ball, but not in the beginning.

Hope something here helps you get a focused bite – if you haven’t yet, you will find Robert’s videos terrific on the tug as an interactive tool and shows you how to use body positioning to help the dog through the actual bite when in motion. Happy Training!

[Bill]

Hi Stella – you have chosen the perfect size prong collar for your dog! The fit needs to be snug and high, exactly as you describe. The closer it is to the brain, the quicker it works. More good news, those little noises when pressure is applied, are protests. If you stop hearing a protest, you are not being as effective. I am not suggesting to pop harder – I am suggesting reposition the collar and make sure everything is still in the right place and proper snugness. The goal is to use the least amount of pressure needed to elicit the desired response/behavior until the desired behaviors are conditioned/trained and you have compliance. As you begin to see the desired improvements and want to proof behaviors without the prong, I suggest you double rig the dog, both flat and prong collar and switch the lead to the prong if you have issues or see a potential issue on the horizon. Likewise, it is strongly recommended that you have a back up collar when using the prong collar (if you need more description, just let me know and i can add that.)

As to the proper number of links – as long as you have a snug, NOT tight, fit and it stays up high on the neck, you are in the right place. Robert has a modification in one of his prong collar videos to remove the center plate between the links for a continuous direction of pressure. When you look at the HS prong – the center link if you will, that is not an actual prong, is removed and the prongs are then interconnected to be one directional. (So hard to explain a simple concept)

While the videos with how to use the prong are extremely beneficial and will serve you well, I think you may also benefit from looking at the videos for correcting leash aggression. The reason I say this is that if your timing is off, and your dog is a little reactive to other dogs while it is on a leash, you don’t want to inadvertently make the issue worse with incorrect timing. More specifically, the timing of corrections/pops is crucial – done improperly you may inadvertently make the possible issue worse by pops at the wrong time and your dog begins to associate seeing another dog with a pop to the prong collar. By knowing how to correct the problem, you can use that information to learn the proper timing and know what you are trying to avoid.

Finally, when issuing a correction, do not look at the dog to see what is happening. By not looking at the dog, the dog just thinks those pops come out of the blue and they do not generalize that you did that to them. I hope something is helpful as you gain experience with the prong collar – used properly it is a dynamite tool. Happy Training!!

[Bill]

A couple ideas for intro activities specific to scenting to get you started in encouraging and developing scenting without spending a fortune – the process is different than working a retrieve but there is a little crossover.

WHICH HAND – intro would be to show the dog the treat and then place the treat in your hand. Place both hands behind your back and then bring them forward “find it” – sniff – get treat. Wrong hand – no problem – no correction – nothing negative. Repeat. I suggest you do not switch the treat to the other hand behind your back at intro – wait for success and as confidence builds, ok to switch it up behind your back as you will then know the dog is “scenting” the treat and not memorizing which hand it went into. Build on success by increased time behind your back and ready to graduate and move on when you blindly place the treat in a hand and the dog gets it nearly every time. All family members can play as long as the rules are followed by the humans. While the dog may already do this naturally you are also connecting the “find it” with the reward.

WHICH CUP – use 3 opaque non-metallic cups, treat/toy of value (Start with odiferous treats) With the dog 6-10 feet away, let the dog see you place the treat under one of the three cups. Go to the dog and have him “find it”. It is okay if dog knocks the cup over to get the treat. It’s okay if he sits at the cup, barks at it, whatever as long as he is picking the right cup and reward – wrong cup – no treat – reset – try again. I would not allow too many fails before going to another exercise and try again later or the next day so you are not building failure. If the wrong cup is knocked over – no treat – no consequences. Reset – try again. Yes, the dog is seeing you place the treat/item in the cup – eventually as you progress, this will all be a blind activity and the ability to scent the correct cup is rewarded with the treat. It is ok to encourage the dog after “find it”. You’ll think of a myriad of ways to modify the game as you build successes and increase complexity, confidence, and success. (if the dog is toy motivated more so than food motivated, use large pans instead of the cups and place the toy item under one of the pots)

FIND IT – first in limited distraction (home) then outside. As you are walking, hold an organic item, (treat, glove, cloth, etc.) in your hand and rub it in your hand as you are walking so you transfer your scent to the item. Nonchalantly slow your walk a little and drop the item. Stay close to the item, and “find it” If dog is having trouble connecting the dots to what you are asking, its ok to kick the item or draw attention to it. Once the dog finds it – it doesn’t have to pick it up but lets you know he found it – reward with praise galore. As you progress – increase distance between dropping and “find it”. Once you experience success when increasing distance between drop and “find it” you can transition to metallic items like keys, phone, etc. You want to hold off on metallic items as your scent transfer is minimized and could impact success initially. Again, a myriad of ways to make it more interesting as you progress but you get the idea.

Perhaps something in these beginning steps ideas will get you started or assist in creating your personalized fun activities to work the scent. Be creative – switch things up and have fun. Perhaps the only hard fast rule I would suggest is that this is a praise only process – the only consequence is no treat, but when working outside be aware that windy days can affect your results. There are no consequences. What you learn in the process is how to direct/guide your dog, your dog learns to read your cues and knows what to do to when he hears the phrase to get a reward. Hope something makes scents😆

[Bill]

If they are a little skittish about the crate, perhaps adding something scented to you inside the crate so that as the dog is in the crate, your scent is strong and present which may be just enough to make the crate a little more tolerable. You will need to “refresh” the scented item regularly/daily to keep the intensity high until it is no longer needed. Just a thought.

[Bill]

Hi @Omni Adding to the observations of others… your conclusion to move to less distracting environments is spot on. We proof behaviors in environments of escalating distractions in incremental levels so that as the dog exhibits the desired behavior/compliance/behavior(s) in no distraction situations – we move to one with some distraction, achieve observable success and continue with the escalation until the dog is “proofed” in a wide variety of environments with varying distractions. This contributes to confidence. If we find we progressed too fast for the dog’s exhibited response, we can just take a step back, reinforce and try again.

During the puppy years rather than a focus on “commands/behaviors” it is my opinion you want to use that time for imprinting, socialization, and intensifying the bond between puppy and owner/handler. Using this time in positive, interactive bonding you enhance the desire of the dog to be a member of the pack and perform for the alpha who is fair, firm, and consistent. Done successfully, you are more likely to end up with a dog that not only is willing to work for/with you, but one that lives to do it and is confident in itself. This is likely to result in a dog more attentive to your every action/request. When the bond is good but sometimes fraught with corrections which the dog cannot connect to not understanding what was expected, the leader becomes suspect and not consistent. When we repeat the same command multiple times with the intent to help them “learn it” – it is more probable that the dog is learning not to listen to the 1st command and waits for the handler to say it multiple times, or with more vocal emphasis.

This is a topic on which there is likely a wide variety of opinion and something no two trainers would completely agree on – and that’s what makes our work as trainers for our dogs so unique and Robert’s site so critical to sharing our experiences so we have a pool of opinion from which to draw.

Happy training and enjoy “puppy time.”

[Bill]

Hi @jandoraa From my perspective, accepting sloppy in an age appropriate and trained behavior is tantamount to encouraging it and therefore repositioning to a proper sit should be done each time. I am not suggesting corrections at all. Simply reposition yourself so the dog has another try. If you get a sloppy sit, take a couple steps forward and stop again and praise the desired sit. If you note your dog is usually too far forward or sideways, monitor how they enter their proximal position. On a structured obedience walk you can try taking a few slower steps before stopping as a non-verbal queue that you will be stopping – this signals the dog so they can prepare and position. The intent here is to increase muscle memory so they always get it right. If you accept the sloppy sit now-it will likely be really hard to fix it later as they will be doing what you have previously accepted. Happy training😎

[Bill]

Hi Andrew. As you have seen the dog confidently “perform” with handlers in whom trust and structure had been established, it is likely a possibility that you will see the same once you have an established structure in your pack. In the former environment, the “leader/alpha” was established and the dog was able to perform as expected. If the dog is not yet sure, or assured who is alpha I believe it it very normal to see some hesitancy and unsureness as there is ambiguity as to who is alpha and what each member of the pack’s responsibility is.

Establishing yourself as alpha is paramount and takes a little time. There can be no doubt. You are the provider, protector, and leader. When roles are defined and routinely established your dog is set up to perform what its role is. Being in a new pack is certainly a different experience for your dog. Dogs thrive in structure and while pack change is not an issue, its the structure within the pack that has the greatest impact on a successful change. In short, a dog changing packs looks to see who the leader is. Leadership is not synonymous with dominance. A dog that is dominated is generally not reliable. A dog that defers to its leader is reliable and able to maximize its potential.

With time, structure, structure, and structure you will successfully establish your role and I suspect “nervousness” will be replaced by confidence and the awesome bond will facilitate the working confidence you witnessed prior to purchase. With structure confidence is possible.

There are many subtle things you can do to affirm your leadership which serves to define roles which I believe will boost canine confidence. You can either opt to train/desensitize in various situations or work on structure that supports confidence which is then present in all situations, new or old. Enjoy the great journey you are on – its awesome!!

[Bill]

I look forward to it!😀

[Bill]

Hey Alfred – Holding back will increase frustration and ultimately drive for an object, providing the object is a desired one and success is achieved in the dog’s mind/experience. Using a harness for holding back is optimal as it does not focus resistance at the dog’s neck. I too prefer to use the harness during training on bite work once the bite has been established. I think your question may be best attacked in two part so let me try clarifying this way. If I have missed the point, please let me know – I will try again.

First, you want to develop the actual bite itself both in intensity and accuracy. No harness needed because you want a bite and the drive/motivation/desire is already there. You can do this in casual settings and just goofing around with the dog. Once you have proper targeting of the bite and it is a bite and “hold on”, you are ready to develop further.

Once your actual “bite” is developed, you add motion and movement (a harness is great during this part). The dog’s desire to bite the tug will be established so its really fast, quick and easy to bring motion in to the picture. You will actually harness the frustration, thus developing the drive further, when you bring the “missed tugs” in to the picture. Now instead of holding the tug in front of your body and the dog targeting it successfully every time, you will now hold the tug out to the side of your body so the dog can address it head on – in full force as your body is not behind the tug. (They don’t run full force if they are going to crash in to you (that’s another skill.)) You could also use the harness and a helper to hold the dog back and then release so he can get the tug. This allows you to take a sidestep and the dog misses the tug – stay alert because he will be coming right back at it! This also allows the dog to not slow down (run through) on approach so as not to bump in to you. Hope this is somewhat clarifying!! This will likely be a very fast progression for you as high drive, working dogs learn this very quickly and then you are set for years of great, satisfying interactions!!

Happy Training!