Need serious training advice

I'll bet she would find feeding the livestock quite thrilling!

Keep in mind that on top of performing this as your daily chore, you will be using it as a training opportunity so it may take longer and require more patience.

would you be against baby gates in the house to keep her 'corralled' when you're inside (sorry if that was already mentioned, I skimmed)? We used them to keep Rubie from sneaking upstairs to chew on stuff when she was a puppy. Worked wonders along coupled with training to tire her out mentally :thumbsup2:
 
This worked for us until Bogie figured out he could just jump the gate. I had to add plan ‘B’, which was a scat mat on the other side of the gate. :rofl:
Now that worked like a charm.:spit:

We have a baby gate that originally blocked half the house off, now that he’s bigger and I know his personality we have moved it to only block of the laundry room so he Dosent eat the cat poop lol, hoping he will never figure out he can jump over it :p but if he does I’ll keep that in mind!
 
I know his personality we have moved it to only block of the laundry room so he Dosent eat the cat poop lol, hoping he will never figure out he can jump over it :p but if he does I’ll keep that in mind!

Just don’t let the cat hit the scat mat or he will become an aerial Kung Fu kitty. I have seen it happen just once with our fat cat ‘Tater’. Never thought I would see that much motion out of a sedentary big cat. :spit:
 
Just don’t let the cat hit the scat mat or he will become an aerial Kung Fu kitty. I have seen it happen just once with our fat cat ‘Tater’. Never thought I would see that much motion out of a sedentary big cat. :spit:


Ahah oh god I could imagine I reAlized after I said I may use it that I also have to make sure the cats don’t touch it. So let’s just hope he Dosent figure out jumping over it. Don’t need any Kung fu cats in this household
 
I probably threw the ball across the room 20 times while reading through this post :rofl:

Their energy at that age is endless. I agree with others though that they just want your attention. If we leave our guy outside alone he stands there frozen staring in the direction of the door :facepalm: It can be hard because after working all day you just want to relax but they have been waiting all day for your attention. You have already been given some great advice! Kongs with frozen treats are great to buy you some time. As others said a good training session or play session is great. You could try issuing mental puzzles for feeding time that will challenge her.

When it comes to sleeping in the bed our guy couldn't handle it until about 7 months. He had to prove he wouldn't chew on the blankets or get up and down every 2 minutes.

Hang in there. Im sure the training classes will tire home out too and give you some more ideas. It can be very overwhelming at first. I'd do short training sessions at home to start. Good luck!!
 
These dobes are intelligent and that is why they are difficult to get through the puppy, teenage period. Just learn to stay two steps ahead of them and remember they can read your mind.:D
Exactly, and it's the type of intelligence that questions everything! Think of the kid who constantly needs to know "why" before accepting something. In the end you will have a thinking dog who can make a good decision, even if the situation is new! ....................... But the puppy stage! :shock:
 
Sorry for the really delayed reply, it's been a hectic past few days. I really appreciate all the advice from everyone and will definitely try alot of it out.

I definitely to need to figure out a way to keep her more relaxed inside and more crazy outside. Any tips on good ways to do that? Even if I remain calm inside, that has no impact on her. Right now shes closed her in the exercise pen so I could reply here and shes "sleeping" 10 minutes later. As soon as I open it once I post this, shell be wide open again until I take her outside.

I can get her to play fetch outside, but she only will stay actively excited about it while in the garage, and I dont like doing that for long periods of time since shes running on concrete. When I try to throw the ball outside in the grass for her, she loses interest rather fast, and usually wont bring it back after a few times.

As for inside, I do attempt to actively play with her, playing tug of war, etc. But it eventually turns into biting or diving under the couch and chewing at that after a few minutes. With the biting, I've tried doing what the trainer reccomended with trying to make it uncomfortable for her by messing with their tongue etc. when she does bite, but doesnt seem to help much.

I do currently have containment thing in place for her as i dont trust her enough to give free roam. Basically I use the exercise pen fully opened to cover a 16' part of the room by the couch, and a small wooden thing I made to block the doorway to the kitchen.

And definitely have been trying to work on training commands a bit too, maybe I'm not doing it enough though.
 
In Jazzies early days I had to teach her how to play with me. Her only mode of play seemed to be the rough and tumble that she had with her litter mates and that was her "go to" for fun and excitement! Not so fun for me!!! We had a hit with a jolly ball, which she chased and pushed around, growling and barking at it. It seemed to fill her need for rough interaction, and she would keep at it until I stopped the game. She would play with it until she dropped. (I did interact in the game by pretending that I was after the ball too, which upped her excitement!) Hopefully you will find that sort of trigger for your girl soon. If you do try a jolly ball I would definitely keep it for outside only!jazz068.webp
 
I'll definitely give one of those a shot, I had already been considering one anyways. She always seems to show interest in the soccer balls that are in the sheep pen everytime we walk past that, which was what gave me the initial idea.
 
Definitely try the Jolly Ball or Jolly Egg or the Egge. They are amazing toys for wearing them out. We used ours to get through long winters. They are amazing to burn off energy and you don’t have to be involved unless you want to. Also, if she is kibble fed, get her a Wobbler Kong so she can work for her food. Without all these toys, I don’t think we would have survived the first year or so with all that crazy energy. With the balls, you want to time the play sessions so you’re not building endurance.
 
I was wondering about the Jolly Egg, too, so I’m glad to see the recommendations, as well.
@Mearntain, have you watched any of the Leerburg training videos on YouTube? I’ve found most of them to be helpful, although the sound quality is bad on some. Zak George also has some good techniques, but he doesn’t focus on working breeds, so he’s more positive reinforcement, and you’d need to take some of it with a grain of salt. His tutorial on teaching puppies how to play tug is good, though.
 
My boy Hoss is always trying to chase down MY big exercise ball........he would punch a hole in it upon contact!
So I think I will have to get one of these Jolly Balls for Hoss......amazon here I come .......
 
I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but have you tried working on basic obedience commands to give you a break here and there inside the home? Sit, down, place/bed, crate, etc? It sounds like some duration work would help tremendously. Starting small, of course, based on your pup’s knowledge of the commands, then building on those three D’s: Distance, Duration and Distractions. I had a Weimaraner cross with seemingly boundless energy in the house no matter how many hours I’d run and drill him in the sometimes oppressive heat. Inside duration work seemed to do the trick when I needed him to stop bouncing off the walls.
 
I wasnt able to find a jolly ball today, but I was able to find a similar looking ball with 2 handles on it, along with a tennis ball in the inside and squeaker as part of it, so I will try that out. I may try to order a jolly ball at some point as well if she doesnt enjoy this one.

This is the one I picked up today--
https://www.chewy.com/kong-jumbler-...MI_4bQmODS4wIVCp6fCh0OwgsCEAQYASABEgI7U_D_BwE

I got one of the Kong wobblers too. Its a Kong that's like a hard plastic with 1 hole in it. Other than putting kibble in it, any other suggestions to try out as well?
 
MelonJ, didnt see your post before my most recent reply.

I try to work on obedience training, maybe not as often as I should but I do do something already every day. We are in obedience classes now, so I work on what we learned that weekend for the following week.

This week has been mostly walking commands like about-face, halt, etc.
 

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