My 13 month old 80lb English girl had a hard 3months. She spent May in heat, spent parts of June boarding while people had to travel, much of July with a pad abscess requiring surgery, and was spayed at end of July. Recovered and now crazed dynamo of energy, all training vanished. She jumps, bites, grabs food, won’t heel. Her sit is still pretty good. I feel like I have to re-teach everything at once and don’t know where to start. My husband is hinting at a shock collar and tries to hold her jaws shut when they wrestle. She loves to wrestle other dogs at the dog park. How do I get on top of this situation?
Hi @susanto on this, disregard your husband. The suggested approach he advocates is hopelessly flawed. Under no circumstance should you hold your dogs muzzle shut. You will either end up with an aggressive dog or it will shut down. Don't use an ecollar either. Totally out of the question. DON'T Infict real harm on your poor dog. TAKE CARE OF HER. Think of the situation. You are shipped off and go to a school in a foreign country., in which you speak and learn a foreign language. After a year you return to your native country. You would have lost quite a bit of your vocabulary. Same sort of thing has happened to your poor dog. Enrol in an obedience class in which you will learn to use positive rinforcement. Take it easy. Some things will have to be re-taught. But with loving and patient teaching, she will pick up things really quickly. I taught my 9 year old Lab to do a laser pointer retrieve. Your dog is young and will pick up things even faster. But you have to use the right methods. Search through the threads here, there are lots of suggestions on how to deal with a mouthy, boisterous Lab. None of them advocate ecollar and holding muzzle shut. Since I sense that you know such methods are a serious error you have my permission to have a domestic verbal stoush with your husband. Lol.
Obviously do not listen to your husband. I can't give you advice on husband-training though Why is he holding her jaws shut when wrestling? I wouldn't really recommend wrestling with her, if she is the full-on lab she sounds like she is - this is only likely to get her further worked up unproductively and to encourage her to jump up and mouth. She isn't going to know when she can do this and when it's not acceptable, so you're likely giving mixed messages with the physical wrestling. If you want a more productive replacement, try using a tuggy and getting her to play tug with a toy. This involves just as much energy, occupies her mouth so it prevents mouthing of human arms, and you can keep it nice and low to keep all paws on the floor with no jumping... I would not recommend you take her to the dog park. This is just the dog-equivalent of the human wrestling scenario. If you have a dog which learns to deal with their feelings by repeatedly being all over the place and unable to think, that is the state of mind they are going to be in more and more frequently. Hence all your other problems. You might like to have a read of this link: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/blog/Dog-Parks-Are-Dangerous-21816-1.html and also of https://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/dog-parks-and-why-you-should-avoid-them I think you need to enrol with a good local force-free trainer who can help oversee you retraining things and regaining your dog's focus. Whereabouts are you based, so I know which lists or directories to recommend?
Thanks to all for helpful suggestions. We live in Lake Oswego, Oregon in the USA. It is very near Portland. You have all given me backup to stop the wrestling matches and muzzle holding. Will look for trainer in our area for good positive approach to regaining lost ground.
Here you go, see if there are any trainers on these directories near you: Karen Pryor certified trainers: https://karenpryoracademy.com/find-a-trainer/#!directory/map Academy for Dog Training (Jean Donaldson certified trainers https://academyfordogtrainers.com/find-a-trainer Grisha Stewart's list of trainers: http://grishastewart.com/professional-directory/ PPG list of members: https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/Findyourmember Hope that helps!
