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Suddenly not listening AT ALL

Yami94

New Member
Nova is now 14 weeks. (CC)

She’s been super good with training, has learned all the basics, waits for her food until she gets the go ahead and has dramatically reduced her nipping.

Her recall is pretty good too considering her age, and she’s used to other dogs and people and with the occasional jumping up has good etiquette.

In the last two days though, it’s like she’s literally forgotten everything I have taught her (the only time she really listens and looks at me is when I make her work for her food at mealtime)

She will not even look at me. Ive raised my voice, I’ve tried to keep calm, I’ve tried to bribe her with treats and nothing works, it’s literally like she does not give a s*it. It’s getting super frustrating.
We’ve tried to take her out twice today, we had to turn back before even getting to the park, at the same point as she would not listen AT ALL before crossing a busy road which we won’t tolerate. She wouldn’t even sit! And stay. That’s not been a problem for weeks now.

Really not sure how to tackle this.
She can get on the couch herself now, and we always take her off if she jumps up herself. The only thing I can think of is that we’ve eased on rewarding good behaviour in the house because she just seemed to get it so we concentrated on rewarding good behaviour outside.

We reward in the house with toys and playtime... and the couch etc.

Any ideas? It is literally like she doesn’t care and is being a bratty teenager, it is so frustrating!
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
Kryten got like that a few times as he grew up. We got through it by removing the privileges that he had already earned and making him earn them again. We literally restarted from scratch with behavior training, so incredibly frustrating. Once he realized that we were not going to give in to him he would start listening and suddenly 'remember' what he was supposed to do. Not everything was at the same speed but eventually he did start again and we were able to continue advancing his training.
 

Yami94

New Member
Kryten got like that a few times as he grew up. We got through it by removing the privileges that he had already earned and making him earn them again. We literally restarted from scratch with behavior training, so incredibly frustrating. Once he realized that we were not going to give in to him he would start listening and suddenly 'remember' what he was supposed to do. Not everything was at the same speed but eventually he did start again and we were able to continue advancing his training.

Thanks for that, this morning we are starting from the beginning. I’m making her work harder for her food and if she disobeys I put her food away and make her wait until I feel we can try again. She’s not allowed on the couch anymore. And I’ve taken her toys and only allow 1 toy at a time and control when she can play and make her work for her toys.
I’m also rewarding good behaviour with treats in the house again.

I may set a target I.E no couch until she has recall 100% down, that keeps me focused as well as her.

Let’s hope today’s walk is successful.

Thank you for your advice. X
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Totally normal. Expect it to happen again in a few months. I agree with going back to basics. I also suggest getting the best possible treats you can and working on heavily rewarding the behaviors you want. Not your usual rewards. Something that's super high value. Especially for a recall.