In over my head with training!

[JennG]

First off, I know that my dogs lack of proper training and misbehavior is 100% on me and my husband. It's very humbling/embarrassing to ask for help with this and I am genuinely trying to find a way to remedy my mistakes, so please keep that in mind when framing your responses. That being said... I NEED HELP!

My girl is just about to be 15 months and she has turned into a total nightmare. I realize that I didn't give her all of the training, discipline and structure that she needed in the beginning and now I'm really paying the price.

June knows and responds to her name, sit, down stay and come; but only when she feels like it. She also knows a few other commands, but again doesn't always feel like complying. Her leash skills were getting pretty good and now they're almost nonexistent. She's also started to get out of control at random times throughout the day; jumping, biting and barking aggressively at me.

Do I start over at the beginning with her training? Hand-feeding? A strict structure on her days...? Any and all advice is more than appreciated.

I want my dog to have the best life possible and I realize now that my lack of training is giving her the exact opposite of what I'd hoped for.

 

[Gelcoater]

Do a search for NILF training.

She’s a looker! Love the coloring,
The deep
Is a SA bred dog, correct?

 

[Ravenbird]

I appreciate your honesty and your admitting where you made your mistakes. As you know these dogs can be wicked smart & most would like to run the show. Those two things right there are the biggest reason to raise a puppy with pretty firm rules. Give an inch, they take a mile.

As mentioned above, NILF - Nothing in Life is Free. All of her food & rewards should be in trade for a good behavior. If you or husband is home all day with her, this can be learned fairly quickly.

You don't mention corrections. Use a prong collar to stop any leash pulling/misbehavior. It's safer than a choke chain & flat collars/harnesses don't send a message. If she jumps, barks or bites at you use a firm no with leash pop, followed quickly by your normal self. Keep emotions and getting mad out of it. Firm but fair is a mantra around here. She has to be able to identify what behavior you are saying no to. No longer than 3 seconds between unwanted behavior and a no/leash pop. If you have been mostly positive training with few or no corrections you can expect her to get worse before getting better. Is she crate trained? Does she have free range of the house including sleeping on the sofa? Does she sleep on the bed with you at night? I personally would take away all the furniture privileges. Use her meals to train throughout the day and yes, pretend you are starting all over with a new dog. Include lots of fun games with balls or tugs, do some mental games like nose work. She will learn that every good and fun thing comes from you & your husband and will look to please you rather than boss you.

Best thing is, being smart means that once she learns that you will not be bossed by her anymore you will both enjoy your relationship much more. Your husband has to be 100% on board as well. It won't happen over night, but you can make it happen!

 

[JennG]

Do a search for NILF training.

She’s a looker! Love the coloring,
The deep
Is a SA bred dog, correct?

Thank you so much for the NILF recommendation! I'm already researching it online and will be implementing this approach ASAP.

I agree, she's a looker! She's the only Doberman in town too and she loves all the attention she gets because of it. I don't know much about her bloodlines, except she has an American mom and European dad. I just call her 100% Panamanian.

 

[JennG]

I appreciate your honesty and your admitting where you made your mistakes. As you know these dogs can be wicked smart & most would like to run the show. Those two things right there are the biggest reason to raise a puppy with pretty firm rules. Give an inch, they take a mile.

As mentioned above, NILF - Nothing in Life is Free. All of her food & rewards should be in trade for a good behavior. If you or husband is home all day with her, this can be learned fairly quickly.

You don't mention corrections. Use a prong collar to stop any leash pulling/misbehavior. It's safer than a choke chain & flat collars/harnesses don't send a message. If she jumps, barks or bites at you use a firm no with leash pop, followed quickly by your normal self. Keep emotions and getting mad out of it. Firm but fair is a mantra around here. She has to be able to identify what behavior you are saying no to. No longer than 3 seconds between unwanted behavior and a no/leash pop. If you have been mostly positive training with few or no corrections you can expect her to get worse before getting better. Is she crate trained? Does she have free range of the house including sleeping on the sofa? Does she sleep on the bed with you at night? I personally would take away all the furniture privileges. Use her meals to train throughout the day and yes, pretend you are starting all over with a new dog. Include lots of fun games with balls or tugs, do some mental games like nose work. She will learn that every good and fun thing comes from you & your husband and will look to please you rather than boss you.

Best thing is, being smart means that once she learns that you will not be bossed by her anymore you will both enjoy your relationship much more. Your husband has to be 100% on board as well. It won't happen over night, but you can make it happen!

I definitely gave June an inch and she took a mile a ran with it.

I'm going to start implementing the NILF pricinciples. I have already been doing that to a certain extent, she has to sit/wait for the release command before crossing thresholds and while waiting for her meals. I'll just be making her work for EVERYTHING from now on.

We do have a prong collar for her and it was working great in the beginning for walks, but now she's started to just pull against it like it's not even there. I'm going to revisit the basics on the prong and begin to implement more training with it.

As far as the house goes, she is crate trained and always sleeps in her crate at night with the door shut. During the day she normally chooses to nap in her crate as well. She only has free range in the front room of our house and absolutely no access to furniture.

Thank you so much for all of your input and recommendations!

 

[Ddski5]

Damn she’s pretty!!

Lots of great info posted already.

This will be hard but YOU have to be disciplined to not break to being easy and lazy. That’s a lot of work and energy on your part. That means NILF and not letting her get away with anything. Establish rules, boundaries and expectations and ABSOLUTELY stick to them.

Breaking them down is hard to do and takes a lot of immediate on the spot effort but once you establish it, it gets easier. They now understand that there are rules and expectations. Tbh, they tend to thrive on it once they understand what’s going on. The structure of rules and boundaries is something they will look forward to as a job.

I train both of mine with the help of a prong collar and ECollar.

Always remember that what you put into her is what you will get out. I worked with mine everyday (multiple times a day) to get them where they are now. My male was/is very bullheaded and I had to use the prong collar ALOT as like @Ravenbird stated. Then I would use the ECollar for when he was offleash. My female was substantially easier and was/is highly sensitive to the prong/ECollar- she wants to please and is easy to train.

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Ddski5]

Both of mine are very food motivated so I would skip a meal with them to have them hungry and willing to please for the training session. Even outside the training session, always carried dry kibble in my pockets and rewarded them everytime they did well. A quick jerk of a half leash attached to prong collar made sure they were reprimanded for a bad deed.

One of the things I wish I would have done more with my male was to try and have more fun with training and less militant with the discipline. You have to hold them to the rule…and discipline them for when they know but still choose to do wrong- - but still try and have fun and joy in there somewhere.

 

[Ravenbird]

One of the things I wish I would have done more with my male was to try and have more fun with training and less militant with the discipline. You have to hold them to the rule…and discipline them for when they know but still choose to do wrong- - but still try and have fun and joy in there somewhere.

Totally agree. These really hard dogs kind of force you to be hard right back. Not mean or cruel, just always on the lookout because they constantly test you & push buttons. When I wanted to play and lighten up Asha would play hard ball at me. (that ol' give an inch/take a mile thing) It was crazy. But like you, we worked through it, we are both better for it and she is my whole life now.

 

[JennG]

Damn she’s pretty!!

Lots of great info posted already.

This will be hard but YOU have to be disciplined to not break to being easy and lazy. That’s a lot of work and energy on your part. That means NILF and not letting her get away with anything. Establish rules, boundaries and expectations and ABSOLUTELY stick to them.

Breaking them down is hard to do and takes a lot of immediate on the spot effort but once you establish it, it gets easier. They now understand that there are rules and expectations. Tbh, they tend to thrive on it once they understand what’s going on. The structure of rules and boundaries is something they will look forward to as a job.

I train both of mine with the help of a prong collar and ECollar.

Always remember that what you put into her is what you will get out. I worked with mine everyday (multiple times a day) to get them where they are now. My male was/is very bullheaded and I had to use the prong collar ALOT as like @Ravenbird stated. Then I would use the ECollar for when he was offleash. My female was substantially easier and was/is highly sensitive to the prong/ECollar- she wants to please and is easy to train.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Both of mine are very food motivated so I would skip a meal with them to have them hungry and willing to please for the training session. Even outside the training session, always carried dry kibble in my pockets and rewarded them everytime they did well. A quick jerk of a half leash attached to prong collar made sure they were reprimanded for a bad deed.

One of the things I wish I would have done more with my male was to try and have more fun with training and less militant with the discipline. You have to hold them to the rule…and discipline them for when they know but still choose to do wrong- - but still try and have fun and joy in there somewhere.

Thank you for your input! I'll definitely be using her prong collar more consistently for training purposes, as well as getting a half leash. Eventually I'd like to get an e-collar, but I think I'm going to focus on getting these good training habits and behaviors started before implementing another new tool.

June is food motivated but her world revolves around a good game of tug. I'm going to start using her morning kibble for training and during a morning walk and then use her tug toys for training in the afternoons/evenings.

 

[jazzies mum]

One of the things I wish I would have done more with my male was to try and have more fun with training and less militant with the discipline. You have to hold them to the rule…and discipline them for when they know but still choose to do wrong- - but still try and have fun and joy in there somewhere.

This, absolutely! It took me a while to realise that the militant type training wasn't a good fit for my girl whereas lots of fun and play rewards for good behaviour and attention alongside QUIET, FIRM and emotionless corrections worked the best! With the advantage that I lightened up and started to really enjoy her.

Take heart though as she is still a pup and super smart, (and beautiful!), and will learn very quickly! Eventually you will forget the monster stage!

 

[LifeofRubie]

You got this!!!!

 

[GennyB]

We do have a prong collar for her and it was working great in the beginning for walks, but now she's started to just pull against it like it's not even there.

That tells me it's not being used correctly.
The prong can be a GREAT tool if used right. Research how to use it and it will become like power steering for your dog.
The biggest problem with them is they can easily become a crutch that you are dependent on vs the training tool it's meant to be.

 

[JanS]

Do a search for NILF training.

NILIF - Nothing In Life Is Free

NILIF Nothing in Life is Free Undesirable behavior can be caused by many things, including undetected illness. No behavior modification program should begin without first taking the dog to a veterinarian for a complete physical examination. While you're there, give your vet a printed copy of...

doberman-chat.com

Do I start over at the beginning with her training?

You absolutely can do that and she's not too old.

 

[JennG]

That tells me it's not being used correctly.
The prong can be a GREAT tool if used right. Research how to use it and it will become like power steering for your dog.
The biggest problem with them is they can easily become a crutch that you are dependent on vs the training tool it's meant to be.

Thank you for your response! I rewatched some videos on proper fitment of the prong and realized that by removing one more link I was able to get a much more snug fit and it wasn't sliding down her neck like before. Her morning walk was like a complete 180⁰ difference from yesterday.

 

[Ddski5]

Well hot damn!!! Lol!
Always a feel good moment when folks come back to post that they things are getting better and being successful.

I remember having that “lost” feeling of not knowing what to do until I found this site and started asking a shat load of questions.

Good for you.