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Old October 15th, 2010, 03:18 PM
pattymac pattymac is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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I'm no expert here, but your dog sounds alot like my Bayley...shep/husky and maybe a few more thrown in but her mom was a sled dog. She's 4 and until recently it seemed the husky part of her brain worked more than the shepherd part. Until she turned around 3, she was a major handful. As a puppy she was a dog/shark all teeth. What do you mean walk nicely beside mom....ahahahah. One trainer where we lived told me that if you can get her trained, you can train anything! She still has her moments, but I take my time with her. Now she knows how to heel, she still prefers to be in front or behind but I let her as long as she doesn't pull!! I don't care where she is, as long as the leash or line isn't tight. She knows in town she stays close. She's also super smart so we work on tricks in the house. She learned not to grab treats and watch me with the closed hand with the treat. Sure you may get slobbered on, maybe gnawed on a bit but it works wonders and teaches them patience.

As for her recall, I will admit we've never had much of an issue but a long line and lots of praise and goodies works wonders. Also if we were say at a dog park, or just out on the trails, I'd call her back to me, give her some loveys or a little treat and send her off again. That way, she'd realize that just because I'm calling her doesn't mean that we're going home.

The tricks are great too, to help them focus on you. In the mornings, we work on her bringing me things that I ask for, so she gets her morning cookies. She has to bring me my shoes and slippers and anything else that I name that she knows the name of. If she brings me something I didn't ask for she doesn't get the cookie. She also can't just drop it on the floor, she has to give it to me. I don't use a clicker for that, just YES and a cookie. We do use a clicker for things like shaping, but I think to get to that they need to be able to be calm and think without getting too excited.

I don't know if that helps, I'm not a trainer and Bayley's just my 2nd dog. I remember one day when she still had her puppy teeth she nailed me good, drew blood and I really doubted myself for getting her. Now though she has awesome control over her teeth and while she does mouth when we're wrestling, there's never any pressure and most of the time she has a toy in her mouth.
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