I'm just venting but suggestions are more than welcome. My sister in law is visiting and she "knows dogs". And she has " owned a lot of dogs". She also thinks Ceasar is a legend. I have a 6 month old. he's a child in an adults body. I have had nothing but succcess with Pippas methods and she is from Africa and owns dogs for protection. Within minutes the war was on when she grabbed his mouth and held it closed with two hands. She also indirectly invited all the attention that ensued and then continued to help is trsin him. I'm now ready to drive her back to the airport. Why oh why can people just effin ignore our puppies in training and let us deal with them. Why can't they just ignore them and listen to our requests. Auntie is nkw three hours later a toy in my dogs eyes and disrupting our flow. Had she not just respected my request when she entered my home everything would be ok. HES A PUPPY.
Grit your teeth and be glad she's gone? I think most of us have been in this situation all you can do is carrying on with your training. other people's ideas can be a real problem. I just make it clear my dog my rules. The frustration is enormous though when experts visit
Sending sympathy your way. What was the holding your pup's snoot closed supposed to achieve? Sigh. You don't say how long she is staying, but let's hope is a Christmas visit and she'll be on her way shortly! Just on the CM thing, this forum has really been an eye-opener for me. I belong to a large dog-walking group here that lives for him. What I've noticed amongst my dog-walking group is that they don't actually work on training their dogs. Just if you have the right attitude of pack leader, then all will magically fall into place. What happens in reality is that the owners just work around their dogs' behaviour and the dogs never learn better behaviours (why should they?). It may help you to image the reality of your SIL's dogs in Africa - which is probably pretty much a free for all with the dogs large and in charge. You're working towards a different goal - a well-brought up doggie family-member and friend who is a joy to live with.
We actually had this exact thing with the holding the mouth shut when my friend and her partner came round last night. Thor was mouthing and her partner told us how he heard holding their mouth shuts teaches them not to bite. Immediately sounded like rubbish and a little cruel. He did it to Thor while i was in the kitchen and surprise surprise Thor just continued to mouth but saw it as a game so the second the pressure was released he would start mouthing again. As for your SIL, your dogs are your dogs and hopefully this is a fleeting visit.
Have you a dog crate? Pop your SIL in it...end of problem! Sorry I know that was a bit flippant. Make it very clear her input is not acceptable, it is your home, your dog. I wouldn't bite my tongue at all in this case....
My puppy + my house = my rules. If people didn't like it they could always find somewhere else to stay..
Yes. My grandma lived with us when we were children - her ways were not my Mum's ways! My Mum would say 'Mother, they're my children and it's my house, I will choose how to bring them up' Be firm and assertive
Exactly. Sometimes people have to be reminded that dogs are not public property. We have to advocate for our dogs - you lay a finger on mine and you will feel my wrath.
Sympathies! If you want to avoid all-out confrontation, there is always the line..... "look, you may be right BUT I'm trying out a different way of training, I've researched it a LOT and I want to see what happens. It is going to make my job a lot harder if the puppy has two different styles of training, so I'd really like you to NOT interfere. I'm not saying you're wrong and I'm right, but you'll spoil my experiment so I'd appreciate it if you backed out... Meanwhile, in the privacy of that small padded cell in your own head, you can tell her she is an interfering busybody with outdated ideas and just plain WRONGWRONGWRONG and can she just b*****r off right now and leave YOUR puppy alone. And come and vent here as often as you like!
Funny that. Very few people would tell you how to treat your kids (maybe family...). But even strangers easily let their views be known about how to train a dog as if dogs are public property. The brother of a friend we were visiting with our pup said you must squeeze the dog's ear to let him know who's boss. And then promptly squeezed Snowie's ear and made him yelp in pain. I was furious and we left immediately and his sister was forever apologetic. The ridiculous part was that I felt bad for "overreacting" - but am thankful that I "overreacted"; I'd do so again.
You have my sympathies I have this issue with my sister and her husband, sister is a Cesar devotee and my BIL is just a loud mouthed t**t (sorry peeps but he really is). Compare my boy to theirs, mine is a confident loving boy, who (mostly ) shows the behaviours we like and theirs is a nervous wants to be friendly boy who's so unsure of himself it's a shame . After half an hour of playing my sisters boy becomes more confident and they play like nutters and then eventually flop down together. All I can say is Christmas Day is going to be fun! To be fair my sister respects that we don't train Bailey the same way and she dies keep out of it, the husband on the other hand . Good luck with your SIL
How dreadful it never ceases to amaze me how people always seem to have a view on how you train your puppy. I think you showed amazing self control, good luck over the festive season, all your forum friends are here if you need to vent again.
Well done for your self control and vent away, you did better than I would. My dogs my rules, don't try to train my dogs because they are part of our family not anyone elses. My FIL grabbed Charlie round the mouth quite forcefully once, I did should at him and told him "don't treat Charlie like that, how would you like it?" he doesn't do it any more and is now gentle. I wouldn't allow anyone to tell me how to bring my children up either. I wouldn't dream of doing that to anyone's puppy so I don't understand why some people suddenly become dog trainers and child experts. The mind boggles I hope you are OK. xx
I hope that in reality that won't be very far away. You never know, she might come round. If not, Gin is good. And wine, lots of wine - I guess you can chose whether to drink it yourself of just keep your SIL in a permanent state of drunkenness so she can't get up to interfere........
