So I'm frustrated at best with this but frankly I can't change my spouse I have worked very hard with our puppy since we've had him and have been to two different training classes with him which he did very well. Here is the problem. My hubby just "magically" thinks just saying "go get it" the puppy should "know" what he means ect. He will NOT work with him instead of just "expecting" him to know. Same when he's playing with him, Oakley will jump up constantly on him as he holds the toy higher up and just gets frustrated because he's jumping then complains to me that he keeps jumping, I so nicely try to tell him that he needs to work with him, have treats, make him do something he wants him to do before giving him the toy or making him sit when he is jumping, he ultimatley will give him what he wants. I keep telling him that he's basically telling Oakley that the behavior he's doing is ok and it's getting him what he wants, but well hubby just doesn't get it, and this is him, he's 51 years old and yes this is how he is. Oakley behaves just fine for me, once in awhile he will attempt one of these behaviours but as soon as I tell him to sit for jumping or wait he seems to know that I don't play with him that way, and same with our son, he knows not to with him. My concern is that it will get worse and he'll start to do it to other people in interactions, although he hasn't yet, just with hubby. Our 11 yr old lab has always known what each of us are ok with, who he can get away with certain behaviours and who wont tolerate it, and how each of us play. So do you think that the puppy will get this or were we just lucky with out other dog?
Hi @mom2labs I agree with you that training would be easier if you were both training from the same page. But for some unknown reason your partner will not do so. Dogs are smart in reading your body language and your partner's. I expect that she'll follow your cues just as your other dog did. And fail to behave well when your partner has the dog. I understand your concern with respect to the dog lunging on strangers. If I were you I would do all the training outside the home so that dog learns to discriminate: It's okay to jump up on partner but for everyone else it is not appropriate. It's only a partial solution, if after your training discrimination your partner allows your dog to jump up on strangers, then the inconsistency will result iin confusion and your training could be undone. I know that my suggsted solution makes you shoulder the burden of the training outside the home. I hope that the opportunity to work with your dog rather than your uncooperative partner will be not such a burden.
well hopefully yesterday he finally see's how he has to train him to not jump up on him. The only time he jumps up on him is when he goes to play frisbee/ball with him, now other time. So yesterday he went to play frisbee with him and as they were playing Oakely jumped up to grab the frisbee and unintentionally got his finger and got it good. He came in complaining about what Oakley did and I was very unsympathetic which he could tell. Finally later I said to him, after all the training classes I went rhrough what we learned and how we needed to work on these things and you don't ever want to take the time you just want to play with him and expect he should automatically know what he's suppose to do and not do. He said ok show me, so we went out back and we worked with him, my fear is though that my hubby will give up easily and I explained to him that this isn't going to happen over night, it will take a bit to break him of this so hopefully he'll stick to it.
My partner is the exact same!! Makes you so cross, his excuse is it's "your dog". You do all training etc which is fantastic when your also managing 3 children and a degree lol... he will then continusly moan that Marley is out of control, when I'm not here. Even though I'm pretty sure Marley behaves more then the partner does lol.. Hope your hubby will help now after you spoke to him.. good luck
Sorry you have "my spouse", it is indeed frustrating. Today with better success Oakley listened better to him, he still jumped up a couple of times but he did the right thing and made him sit and didn't throw the frisbee until he did so and he firmly told him no jump, so although he seems uncomfortable (and yes it is since he just isn't good with being a diciplinarian very well) I was pleased he was willing to keep at it. Hopefully he'll continue as it wont change over night.
If your husband likes to read, I can totally recommend the book called The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson for helping people to understand the dog's perspective in the learning process.
