Having a hard time

[Brian-911 210]

Having a hard time getting my pup to stay, sit command does it straight away don't even have to tell her anymore, retrieve dummy's is going great, but the stay thing is hard as she doesn't want to leave my side, even when we're out in the field she just walks by the said of me looking at me (I know it's not a terrible thing) but she just won't seem to stay never had this problem with dog before. 5months now she should be getting hang of it

[earlystart 56]

Sit means stay aswell, try just telling her to sit and walk away.When you tell her to sit she shouldn't move till the next command.

[skycat 6,174]

At five months a pup is still VERY young indeed. It sounds as though you are trying to go far too much too young. If the pup won't leave your side she is telling you that she lacks confidence. This may be due to her age, but it may also be due to the fact that you have instilled in her a fear of doing her own thing. She may be scared of running free, letting off steam because you are coming down too hard on her. Could this be so?

 

It is difficult to offer 100% correct advice without seeing the dog in the flesh, or a video of how she behaves.

 

I would train less, have more fun, and actively encourage her to feel a bit freer in the way she behaves.

 

The 'stay' is one of the hardest things for a pup to cope with> it means being left on her own. At the moment she only feels safe by your side, so it is understandable that she refuses to stay put while you walk away.

 

Don't forget she is also teething at the moment: there are big changes going on in her body, as well as her mind, which can show as a second fear stage in her life. Concentrate on building her confidence, try not to give commands all the time. Allow the pup to be curious about things, and never tell her off. Try to learn how to read her body language: is she constantly looking at you with ears down, tail held low and maybe wagging? Dogs are better at reading our body language than we are theirs: have you been too firm with her? Not saying you have, but if the dog lacks confidence then you need to make her relax: have fun around you. Play games, roll about on the grass with her. Get her bouncing at you, let her jump up at you.

 

Leave 'stay' training for another month or so, then start slowly: down then stay, but don't move away. When she is staying with you at her side, then move ONE STEP away, no more. Only for a second, then go back to her, praise like mad. Only when she is perfectly happy with you moving one step away can you move two steps away, and so on. Build it up one step at a time, literally.

[skycat 6,174]

Just wanted to add: it pays to look at a pup's temperament very carefully before starting any training programme because shyer, less confident pups need a totally different approach to the active, forward going and confident animal.

 

We have two sorts of mind set in dogs: the active, and the reactive. The active dog is always pushing the boundaries, demanding something from you and its surroundings. It isn't scared of putting itself out there and making things happen. The reactive dog is always scared of getting it wrong, it lacks confidence and can appear slow to learn, but it isn't necessarily slow, just cautious: sometimes by nature, but most often because humans have made the dog worried about expressing itself naturally.

 

Most owners stop puppies jumping up at them: even that simple act, of telling the dog off for jumping up, can be enough to make a pup reactive. Look at it from the dog's point of view...............jumping up at other dogs is normal, so the pup does the same to us, and we tell it off. Immediately the pup is confused, feels put down, rejected. Of course we need to teach our dogs not to jump up at us, but the way we do it is of real importance to the dog, and how it perceives us. Rather than telling the dog off for jumping up, we should teach the dog an alternative behaviour, one for which it is rewarded: such as sit. You can then reward the dog for sitting when it comes to you, rather than endlessly telling it off for jumping up: it can't jump up if its bum is on the ground.

 

I know that this may seem a bit off topic, but the whole thing about training is to try and make the dog feel good about itself, not scared of getting it wrong. This may seem like a curious notion to some people, but you can really affect your relationship with your dog by continually telling it NOT to do something, rather than putting it a situation where it can ONLY do the right thing.

 

If a dog is always waiting for us to pounce on it for doing the wrong thing, its understandable that it will be scared of accepting our word in anything because we have already proved that we don't understand what makes the dog tick: a negative human reaction to the dog jumping up is a good example of this. I allow my dogs to jump up at me for a cuddle, but only when I say so: that's the difference. They stand in front of me begging me with their eyes, tails wagging slowly, waiting for me to open my arms: then they stand up against me and we have a cuddle: this may sound soppy, but close physical contact with a dog makes them feel very secure and good about themselves: the thing is to make it happen when YOU want it to happen, not when the dog forces it on you.

[satan80 358]

wow, brilliant post Skycat. It's got me thinking as i was beginning to get stressed out worrying that my pup is ignoring my basic training commands, and the poor little sod is only 10 weeks old!

Nice to be reminded that young pups need confidence to build a strong bond with the owner, before getting all hung up over creating the perfect robot dog!

 

Good luck with your pup Brian, sounds like she'll get there in the end if you follow such good advise.

 

cheers

[Brian-911 210]

Just wanted to add: it pays to look at a pup's temperament very carefully before starting any training programme because shyer, less confident pups need a totally different approach to the active, forward going and confident animal.

 

We have two sorts of mind set in dogs: the active, and the reactive. The active dog is always pushing the boundaries, demanding something from you and its surroundings. It isn't scared of putting itself out there and making things happen. The reactive dog is always scared of getting it wrong, it lacks confidence and can appear slow to learn, but it isn't necessarily slow, just cautious: sometimes by nature, but most often because humans have made the dog worried about expressing itself naturally.

 

Most owners stop puppies jumping up at them: even that simple act, of telling the dog off for jumping up, can be enough to make a pup reactive. Look at it from the dog's point of view...............jumping up at other dogs is normal, so the pup does the same to us, and we tell it off. Immediately the pup is confused, feels put down, rejected. Of course we need to teach our dogs not to jump up at us, but the way we do it is of real importance to the dog, and how it perceives us. Rather than telling the dog off for jumping up, we should teach the dog an alternative behaviour, one for which it is rewarded: such as sit. You can then reward the dog for sitting when it comes to you, rather than endlessly telling it off for jumping up: it can't jump up if its bum is on the ground.

 

I know that this may seem a bit off topic, but the whole thing about training is to try and make the dog feel good about itself, not scared of getting it wrong. This may seem like a curious notion to some people, but you can really affect your relationship with your dog by continually telling it NOT to do something, rather than putting it a situation where it can ONLY do the right thing.

 

If a dog is always waiting for us to pounce on it for doing the wrong thing, its understandable that it will be scared of accepting our word in anything because we have already proved that we don't understand what makes the dog tick: a negative human reaction to the dog jumping up is a good example of this. I allow my dogs to jump up at me for a cuddle, but only when I say so: that's the difference. They stand in front of me begging me with their eyes, tails wagging slowly, waiting for me to open my arms: then they stand up against me and we have a cuddle: this may sound soppy, but close physical contact with a dog makes them feel very secure and good about themselves: the thing is to make it happen when YOU want it to happen, not when the dog forces it on you.

Cheers penny will bear all in mind now. Regards

[Casso 1,261]

Having a hard time getting my pup to stay, sit command does it straight away don't even have to tell her anymore, retrieve dummy's is going great, but the stay thing is hard as she doesn't want to leave my side, even when we're out in the field she just walks by the said of me looking at me (I know it's not a terrible thing) but she just won't seem to stay never had this problem with dog before. 5months now she should be getting hang of it

plenty of good points already put down on this post,

There is no point in a pups upbringing where he becomes untrainable, at no point can he not be trained in his first years

a lot of the top dog people in other dog sports have certain ways of bringing up pups and one of the most important aspects is no corrections during development of an understanding between canine and human, that means no corrections for anything , they just manage a young dogs first year carefully ,

all the time building trust not training, we dont have to make a dog social , every dog is born social, we just have to make sure it says that way,

 

there just seems to be in such a rush as soon as possible to correct or train our mutts , the thing is, dogs already know how to do all that stuff, we just need to set up a situation where they want to do it not have to do it ,,a properly trained dog has trained himself from the inside out in correspondence with our commands, not from the outside in because we want him to do it , there must be something in it for the dog that appeals to his canine nature his drive in other words,

best of luck with the pup bud,