# What should I work on first with my one year old difficult to train dog?



## RainbowFish (Aug 7, 2011)

All she really knows is sit and speak (not very useful....) and even the sit is reluctant sometimes. She has no recall at all, her jumping is terrible and she won't sit when I ask to when she's jumping and she can have some resource guarding sometimes and doesn't know "leave it" and she gets mad when I keep something from her. What do you think I should work on first? I was thinking the jumping because I'm tired of getting covered in dirt and and having clothes ripped, plus she does it to other people and will snap at their faces, including mine. 

Do you have any tips for these? I have one method I was going to try by having her restrained on a leash and me approaching her and only rewarding her when she doesn't jump.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

IMO, with having so many problems and, seemingly, not much experience with training I would HIGHLY suggest getting with a behaviorist/trainer!!


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## RainbowFish (Aug 7, 2011)

Yes, she is my first dog I'm raising myself, but there's nothing I can do myself? I plan on looking into a place nearby and I've read other behaviorists websites and say they charge me for a consultation, tell me what I'm doing wrong, tell me what to do and send me on my way after that. Is that how they usually go? Or should I go with a group class of other dogs, because to me I picked out a super difficult dog compared to every other dog I have met.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I agree with scarlett, find a trainer. I would do private classes one on one.

For now, as far as the jumping goes ignore her, do not touch her, do not talk to her, even turn your back on her. If she is very easily exictable and you can kinda predict when she will jump, you can throw a hand full of small treats on the floor to distract her. Also if you know anything about clicker training, you can click her for 4 on the floor.

As far as resource guarding goes, set her up for sucess. If you know what items she guards then limit her access to these items. If its toys, I wouldn't give her any access until she has a solid leave it. If its food items make sure she is alone while she is eating, letting her eat in her crate (if she has one) works out well, that way she assoicates her crate with positive things happening, and that way she will not need to guard. If no crate, then a room by herself is fine, just make sure there is nothing in there she can get into once she's finished eating.

If she is jumping and snaping at ppl when they come in, she needs to be in a seperate space when visitors arrive. The last thing you want is someone to get bit.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

The first thing you need is to learn how to train. There is no reason you can't work on all those problems at the same time as they happen but you must know what you are doing. If you don't, you can cause more harm than good. You don't mention age or breed or how long you've had but if you've had her since a little puppy, you are the cause of all these problems. You are going to have to know how to solve them all.


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## tansox (Jun 22, 2011)

Well I am a full time dog trainer, and my advice would be "find a GOOD trainer!" They can point out where you might be going wrong; show you some "tricks of the trade" so to speak. As Sir Claus Moser once said "Yes, education costs money, but then, so does ignorance!" Once you've been "taught how" that in my mind, is money well spent. 

Training your dog using reward based training, develops a deep bond and understanding between yourself and your dog and is far better and easier in my view, than floundering about, getting things wrong, getting frustrated and ending up making a meal of something that might be relatively simple to correct or change with knowledge.


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

I totally agree with everyone else. Find a good trainer/behaviourist asap. There are many things going on and it is obvious that your dog is in control. She does what she wants when she feels like it and when you try to tell her what to do she knows you aren't in control. She needs to view you as the leader and teacher....finding a trainer to work with will help you take on that role. The jumping up and snapping at your face is serious and needs to be nipped in the bud now.

Google "Nothing in life is free " (NILF) training and begin there.

I currently own a dominant/aggressive prone breed so I know how serious your problems could become if you don't find help from a professional.

What breed of dog is she?

Good luck! :0)


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I would definitely get to work on the jumping. You should be working on it every time you or a guest comes in the door. There are several things you can do for it. One is simply turn your back on the dog every time she jumps. Also stiffen your body (with arms crossed) and turn your head up and away from the dog, as if she disgusts you (thinks about what a child does when you try to feed her something she doesn't like). This gives a pretty clear "I want nothing to do with you" message. AS SOON as she sits or stands without jumping for even a second, loosen back up and look at her happily, and talk gently to her as you continue coming in the house. If she continues not jumping you may pet her. She is VERY likely to jump again during all of this so just repeat. Remember to change your demeanor immediately so she knows exactly what caused you to stop paying attention to her. Never forget to pay attention to her (be it talking, eye contact, or petting) when she's being good.

Now if this is not feasible because she is hurting you then there are a few other things to try. You can train her to go to a certain spot and stay there when you come in the door until you release her (with whatever word you choose). You'll have to take time out to train this separately. I'd use a welcome mat or towel as her place. Then just shape her to go and sit or lie on it. Shaping means rewarding in small intervals until you get the full behavior. So you might start by rewarding her for looking at the mat, stepping towards the mat, then stepping on the mat with one paw, then two, then all four, then for staying there, then for sitting or lying, etc. until she goes all the way on and sits or lies. then work on sending her to it from a distance. If you google "go to mat" you'll find lots of ways to train it. Then whenever you come in the door ask her to go to his mat with whatever command you've taught her (teach it VERY well before you use it for door training or else she'll be too excited to listen) and reward her with attention and treats for staying there. 
The only problem I could see with this is that she might still jump after she's released.


Your best bet is just to train a stronger sit and couple it with the body language I described at the top of my post. It sounds like sit needs more practice. I would start carrying treats in your pocket so you can randomly ask for sits (or other behaviors she knows). If she knows you're likely to reward her she'll start listening to you because it might be worth it for her. If you only ever give treats during training sessions the dog will only ever listen during training sessions.

When you have visitors I would leash her. If she doesn't jump she can say hi, if she does you move her away from the people until she shows some sort of self control (sits or lies down or just stands without straining at the leash), then try again. If the guests aren't the type you can practice this on then either use treats to reward her for being calm beside you (instead of using the opportunity to say hi as a reward) or put her away in another room so he can't rehearse the jumping.

If the nipping continues to be an issue once the jumping is taken care of you'll have to focus more strongly on that, either treating it the same as the jumping or teaching her to put a toy in her mouth when she wants to nip.

You do need to take time out of your day, every day that you can, to teach new behaviors like leave it, drop it, and come. Don't just use them suddenly and hope she knows what you're talking about. First train it in a training session, then once she clearly understands it, you can start using it in day to day life using those treats you should be carrying in your pocket. Remember not to bribe with these treats, the dog should follow the command on faith, hoping you're going to reward her. 9 times out of 10 you should reward her. For strong behaviors it's okay not to reward every once in a while, in fact this will teach her that just because she doesn't get rewarded once, it doesn't mean the behavior was wrong or that it won't work next time. But always reward really good responses, responding to new behaviors, or ones that took a lot of work for the dog to do (EX: she's barking put the window and you call her to come, it takes a lot of effort to come away from that).


I would certainly start on a drop it. I find it's easy to teach, just start with her own toys and then move in to objects like socks or pens. until the behavior is strong you should work EXTRA hard to prevent her from getting anything she shouldn't. If she does use extra special food to trade for the item so that she won't guard. As obnoxious as stealing is, mauling the owner is worse. 

If she is currently guarding her regular food/toys/sleeping places you need to pay extra attention to that. Approach her when she is doing one of those things and give her treats (assuming she won't bite you) or toss them if she growls even for approaching. If she DOES growl at an approach, or actually snaps at you I'd get a trainer/behaviorist for sure. If she's simply growling when you actually try to pry an object out of her mouth, then Id still recommend a trainer, but you could also likely handle it on your own. Approach frequently and give yummy treats so that she figures out you don't come to take things. Teach commands to get him off of furniture (I think teaching a dog to poke your hand with her nose is super useful, and this is one situation you can use it in, to get the dog to move).

Work on self control, she gets nothing she wants unless she sits or lies down. That means food, play time, attention, going out the door. So instead of being a jerk when she wants something, she'll beg politely lol. For example my dog lies down when he sees a dog he wants. It's slightly annoying when he drops on a walk, but better than leaping around at the end of his leash and barking his head off right? Never allow her to jump up and snatch from your hand, she waits until the food or toy is brought to her mouth. You need to be wuick and be able to anticipate her behavior, but it'll pay off.

You don't have to teach anything "first" exactly. The jumping will be dealt with in the actual situation most likely, as will some self control stuff. You can teach two or three things per training session (otherwise it gets rather boring). 

Sorry if my post is a bit jumbled, I'm trying to explain a lot of things without making a gigantic post.


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## DoglovingSenior (Jun 26, 2011)

What is the breed?


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## RainbowFish (Aug 7, 2011)

Thank you for the responses.

She is a mutt. She's a 45 pound Labrador/Husky/Basset Hound/Coonhound mix. I got her when she was a little over 6 weeks (I know that was too young now). I got her from someone who had an accidental litter. I started training her the day I got her. Teaching her sit and simple things like that, but I soon gave up as she got bigger because I just couldn't get her to focus. She wants to do what she wants. 

She gets distracted extremely easy. A fly, bird, strange noise, a smell, someone walking by, anything. She's completely oblivious when I try to call her. She's very rough. She loves to bite and try to wrestle. Ignoring her does squat. I've tried ignoring her when she's jumping. It does nothing! All I get is bruised, ripped clothes and scratched up because she tries her darndest to get my attention. So I just have to block her with something or leave.

I always make her sit before I throw a toy or before I feed her or or give a treat, she automatically does it, but if I take too long to do it she tries to snatch it out of my hand. Same thing with food. Sometimes she'll sit or lay down, but again, if I'm taking too long to give it to her she tries to get it herself or she'll try getting it then laying down, whichever comes first.

Her resource guarding is random. It can be anything from a small blanket to a piece of food. With food it seems to happen more often if she's hungry. She used to growl pretty bad when she was a puppy if you got within two feet of her bowl while she was eating, so I wanted to stop this early. I read that hand feeding would help, so I did that. I fed her piece by piece, but something happened. I don't know if I moved my hand too quick or what but she growled and bit my thumb and that scared me a bit so I stopped hand feeding her and just worked on desensitizing her to people being around her and she pretty much doesn't mind anyone being around her kibble now. Another time we were in my bedroom and and she knocked a tube of chapstick onto the bed, I figured it wasn't something special so I tried to get it back, but instead she growled and bit my hand again and made me bleed. So I know she will bite if you try to take something from her.

I try not to get upset when she takes things because she will just run and hide with it. Instead I try and talk to her and be friendly and then she doesn't seem to mind as much and then I can distract her and get it away. I don't think trading will work because she'll try and get the other thing back too.

Now, I tried working on "leave it" before. Again, I find it hard to work out with her trying to always snap things from me. I tried stepping on a toy to keep it away from her outside and she flipped out. Barking, biting and scratching at my foot, luckily I had boots on. When I don't give it up she then vents her frustration towards me by jumping on me.

At night in bed, sometimes she's not ready for bed and decides she'll get my attention by biting my legs and feet. Then when I tell her to stop she barks very loudly and seems really agitated, but she usually won't stop.

When I said snapping at faces, I didn't mean aggressively, but in a play way. She has no self control around people or other dogs. She has been around our older dog but will not leave him alone. Always trying to jump on or chase him, but he doesn't want to play. Same with my aunts German Shepherd puppy she would chase and try to jump on him, but he always tried to get away from her. So she can't be around other dogs unleashed, because I know if she does that to the wrong dog she'll get hurt.

She's not food motivated at all. She loves food, but if there is something she really doesn't want to do, she won't do it for anything.

Our 14 year old dog is nothing like this, he was very easy to train because of food.

Everything I read tells me it's my fault she's this way, but I don't know why. I think it's her sometimes though. How can so many people I know have such better behaved dogs?


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Part of your problem may be her mix. Those are some stubborn breeds. I don't know what your 14 year old is but his breed may just be more easy going. Her personality may also be stronger. Sometimes certain dogs make us change and grow even when we don't want to. You may have to adapt by being more the leader and letting her know she can depend on you. "Nothing in life is free" is a good place to start and sometimes just implementing these steps outlined in that program will take care of a bunch of problems. You can then tackle others issues that didn't go away. Nothing is going to change until you do though. Try that NILIF website and see if there are some changes you can make in addition to regular obedience work. You won't get to far if she doesn't stop flippin you the paw, you will jsut get frustrated.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Liz said:


> Part of your problem may be her mix. Those are some stubborn breeds. I don't know what your 14 year old is but his breed may just be more easy going. Her personality may also be stronger. Sometimes certain dogs make us change and grow even when we don't want to. You may have to adapt by being more the leader and letting her know she can depend on you. "Nothing in life is free" is a good place to start and sometimes just implementing these steps outlined in that program will take care of a bunch of problems. You can then tackle others issues that didn't go away. Nothing is going to change until you do though. Try that NILIF website and see if there are some changes you can make in addition to regular obedience work. You won't get to far if she doesn't stop flippin you the paw, you will jsut get frustrated.


This is VERY VERY true!!

Jess(Dude and Buck's Mom) and I where talking about the differences between our boys (Rhett my Border Collie and Buck her Blue Tick) and although there IS a 2 month difference(Rhett is older) there is still a HUGE training difference between them(ie. Buck now at 4 months old and Rhett 2 months ago!!) Their styles of training are SOOO different and you, of course, VERY much so have to understand them both and know how to take the training for each of them!:smile:

I grew up with a Basset hound....our(I was about 10 when I started training her full time) training was......unique to say the least!LOL :lol:


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## monikawilson (Aug 8, 2011)

I would work on the jumping part first - I assume she jumps on people. Normally dogs jump because they want your attention and normally the dog handler will give the attention to the dog, just to try to make him/her stop jumping. That means, you award bad behavior. If your dog starts jumping ignore him/her. Turn around and show her your back. Don't talk to the dog, don't pet her/him. She/he will be confused and wonder what is wrong, he/she might even sit down and look at you. As soon as she stops jumping and looks at you, award her/him. Give him/her a lot of attention and start playing with your dog right away. She/he has to learn, ok if I jump, I don't get any attention, but if I don't jump, sit and look at my handler i get exactly what I want, I get an award and I get to play. 

The next step would be "attention". A dog which pays attention to you is easier to train. Do the same thing (either with food or a toy) Have a toy or a treat in your hand, show it to your dog and tell her/him to look at you. (like "look") Your dog will start "guessing" what this new command means and most likely will try all kind of different stuff to get the toy/treat. As soon as the dog looks at you - award him/her and play with him/her. Continue this "watch" exercise multiple times a day for a few weeks and then you can move on to the next. :smile: Now work on "sit" and "down" the same way. Ask the dog to "look" and ask him/her to sit - wait until the dog figures out what you mean now and as soon as he/she sits and looks at you - give her a treat and play with him/her. Same with the "down". You will see, it will become easier and easier.

Look at my Avatar, this is Taz my youngest dog. You can see, she is watching me while heeling and she is waiting (awaiting) a command or a treat/play. It makes it so much easier if you get your dog to pay attention to you. 

Good Luck to you guys.


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## RainbowFish (Aug 7, 2011)

Liz said:


> Part of your problem may be her mix. Those are some stubborn breeds. I don't know what your 14 year old is but his breed may just be more easy going. Her personality may also be stronger. Sometimes certain dogs make us change and grow even when we don't want to. You may have to adapt by being more the leader and letting her know she can depend on you. "Nothing in life is free" is a good place to start and sometimes just implementing these steps outlined in that program will take care of a bunch of problems. You can then tackle others issues that didn't go away. Nothing is going to change until you do though. Try that NILIF website and see if there are some changes you can make in addition to regular obedience work. You won't get to far if she doesn't stop flippin you the paw, you will jsut get frustrated.


The 14 year old is half Beagle and half Springer Spaniel.

Okay, thanks. I will look more into that.


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