Dealing wtih a very stubborn puppy.

[emn315]

I have an adorable 11 week old male boerboel puppy. He was a singleton puppy, but from good lines and from a reputable breeder who did quite a bit to socialize him with some of the older puppies they had around before he came home to us at 8.5 weeks. That being said, he might be at kind of disadvantage because of it.

My husband and I are very dedicated to training our Hank early, well and often - we are willing to put in the work. So far he is an amazing dog and we are very happy with him. We are having two big issues with him that I am hoping some of you more experienced owners could help us with.

Issue #1 - He does not understand "No" or care that he does something wrong.
No type of punishment or reprimand seems to have an effect on this dog. So when he does things like jumping up on the sofa, or biting too hard etc., we are unable to communicate to him that this is not ok. So far we have tried:

• Try to teach him the word "no" - putting a treat down and saying "no" so he has to leave it alone. He does well with this game but does not care when we so "no" about other things.
• Saying "NO" in a loud voice with a clap or other loud noise - this startles him the first few times but then he thinks we are playing and wants to play more.
• Growling at him - he thinks we want to play more and barks at us
• Yelping when he bites to hard - he just thinks we want to play more
• Grabbing the scruff of his neck - he yelps but as soon as we let go he thinks it was play so he plays more.
• Flicking his nose - thinks it's a game
• Blowing in his face/raspberries in his face - oh fun!! Let's play more!
• Squirting with a water bottle - drinks the water
• Walking away, turning our back - just follows and either bites or humps
• Leaving the room, shutting the door - he whines and then pees on the floor or finds something to distroy.

Issue #2 - The Walk
If he is off his leash, he will walk perfectly by our side (like in the park). But this is not safe or legal on the normal walk since we take walks along areas with traffic and he is easily distracted. With the leash on, he will walk nicely if we are going someplace he wants to go (to the tree to pee, or towards the park, etc.) but if he decides he does not want to go some place, he will sit down and not move. He is 35 lbs now so I can force him to move, but not for long. So far, we have tried:

• Stern voice, "come" with a sharp tug on the leash - 20% success otherwise he plants himself and won't move.
• Going back and standing next to him, getting his attention and then trying to walk forward again - 10% success.
• Getting him excited and trying to jog a bit to get him to go forward - 30% success.
• Candy or treat - used to work but now he ignores it. Even high value treats have a limited time of interest to him.
• Lifting him up a bit and moving forward to get him going - 30% success.
• Dropping the leash and walking away - 95% success, but this can be dangerous if he decides to run into the street or if a strange dog is coming by.

When he does walk nicely we praise him constantly and he seems happy with himself. But he doesn't seem to care about making us not happy.

We understand that some of this is just him being a puppy, but we just want to be sure we are teaching him as best we can and that there is some progress over time with him. I would hate to have a 200 lb dog with these issues in the future.

Sorry for the long post! Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[DMikeM]

He will not have these issues in the future. 2 things are happening here.
1 He is a puppy (doesn't know anything yet)
2 he is a Boerboel (thinks he knows everything already) They are stubborn indipendant thinkers. Anything they are doing seems right to them so the get the" why should I stop" attitude.

Don't put down a treat and say no that just confusing. Put down a shoe or a sock, then say no and when he gets after it Say no loud and stern and grab his scruff and pull him back. If you are not comfortable with the scruff grab, get him a good fitting collar and a short leash that you can correct him with.
Flick the nose harder.
He will need stimulus if you lock him up get a kong toy and fill it with kibbles or chunks of dog treats.
Get a crate and train him to use it and make it his safe cave.
Squirting with water didn't work for Odi either.
With leash walking I was lucky because I had Jade to train Odi. But he did some of what you said Hank does like stopping. I just keep walking and pull him along with short quick jerks on the leash, Odi always gave in after a couple of these corrections. You could also try food rewards to get him to continue to follow the leash walks. Buying a long lunge line 25 to 50 foot can be great when teaching leash walks. Dog sits down and won't follow you just start walking away and letting out line. As the pup sees you leaving they tend to not like being left behind so they catch up. Once he is with you for about 3 seconds praise him. Don't do it sooner because he will think he was praised for waiting for you to walk away. Anytime he keeps up with you walking remember lots of praise.

So most of what you are doing is right and you just need to be consistant until his infancy is over.