This is what I am faced with. It's been a while since I posted anything. I thought i would take things slow, try some new things, and see where everything goes. For those who don't remember, I now have a 5.5 german shorthair pointer. She is a super active dog, and by super active I mean non-stop, except for about 7 hours at night. For a little insight on how active, I had to go out of town this weekend and left her with my parents. They have had boxers for about 10 years now, very active boxers. They laughingly say my girl is absolutely nuts because she is so non-stop all the time. For instance, you can play with her for 3 or 4 hours straight and she will not stop, ever.

That is all fine and well, i love her being active. she is fun loving and keeps me going. the problem is, she is an absolute terror to do anything with. She is super stubborn and simply does not respond well to toys or treats for that matter. when she gets her mind set for example, that she is going to jump on you, she will not stop. you can show her a toy and she ignores it, you show her a treat and she doesn't even notice. The same thing goes for the 'come' command, she comes if an when she wants to. 95% of the time i keep her on a long line when we are out, so she doesn't have a choice, but if she has a choice she will just simply ignore you.

I felt like some of the problem may just be lack of excercise. I work all day, so I now keep her outside in a half acre fenced lot. she is only in her crate at night. Honestly, this has helped very little. Even with her having a giant playground. Every afternoon i run her playing fetch games until her tongue drags the ground. But that only lasts for about an hour at the most. She will also sit at the gate of the lot rather than in her house, waiting on me to come play with her everyday.

Like I said, I give treats when she does things I like. I have not corrected (much) yet. by (much) i have tested the waters several times to see if I can get her to stop doing something I don't want her to do using a leash correction. Today for instance, she was trying to dig underneath the fence while on a long line. I gave her a solid yank and a 'no' and she never even looked at me, just kept digging.

So long story short, given all my issues, I am wondering if I should try more serious corrections, either with an e-collar or a prong collar. a prong collar seems like it would work great on walks, but not so well in other instances. My firm belief is she knows comands like come, sit, and no, but simply doesn't want to listen. She just ignores me constantly even with steak, chicken, etc.

Where should i go from here is my question? I didn't really want to do anything until she was at least 6months, but nothing seems to work.

Hi Mark,

5.5 months is still very much a puppy, so you can expect a lot of infuriating behavior for a while longer (sorry!), BUT there are certainly things you can keep working on to teach her what she can and can't do and try to lessen the out of control hyperactivty.

You mentioned playing with her in the evening after work, but do you do a similar amount of exercise first thing in the morning? In the morning, a dog has spent all night sleeping and is ready to go - if she's not getting a good morning romp, all that energy will just build up and build up until you come home... and then she can't help but be nutty, hyper and deaf to you.

Just because she has a large outside run doesn't mean she'll run in circles the whole time you're away - she needs more stimulation in the form of structured playing, obedience, or engagement with you in order to get the most out of her activity. Since she's not even 6 months, you shouldn't be doing anything strenuous with her, but chasing a ball or toy, or just having fun with you will tire her out for a block of time. Is there any way you or someone else could take her out additionally in the middle of the day? I had someone come take my 6 month old out at noon a few days a week and it REALLY made a big difference in his overall energy.

You mention that she doesn't respond to toys or treats... have you tried a WIDE variety of treat foods, including ultra delicious people foods like hot dogs or cheese? When I was in obedience class with my pup, the instructor couldn't encourage us enough to keep trying new things if our dogs weren't interested in what we offered that day. She probably loves SOMETHING, you just need to find out what. Once you can get her attention you can start positively reinforcing good behavior - including stopping being destructive at the word "no" or "leave it".

IMO, you're right about saving real corrections for a little later down the road - she doesn't sound like she really needs them anyway, she's just going 100 miles a minute and you need to work on getting and keeping her attention so you can mold her behavior positively.

I've only raised one pup, so you can take this all with a grain of salt, but that's what came to my mind after reading your post. I'm sure others will have good ideas for you too.

Good luck!

~Natalya

Mark,
Now you know why the GSH Pointer is such a valued hunting dog. Their single minded propose is renown. Your challenge is to find a way to channel that focus.
If you remember I'm the one who questioned the wisdom of your choice of dogs. You assured us that the high energy would compliment your life style. So what happened?
I suggest you find a professional bird dog trainer as a start. At the same time join the local skeet club and learn to shoot. If you don't like to eat fowl, use it for dog food.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

I agree with Natalya. She is still just a puppy. 5.5 months old for a large breed means she still has as much if not more energy as when she was younger but now she is larger and packs more power behind her punch... meaning anything she does physically has more effect, more powerful digger, more powerful jumper-upper etc any destructive behavior seems tenfold because she is capable of putting more physical power into it.

She is becoming more independent and more curious. She really needs stimulation. Not 'wants' NEEDS. She needs mental and physical stimulation.

Also..

 Quote: natalya zahn

Just because she has a large outside run doesn't mean she'll run in circles the whole time you're away

That is extremely important to remember. No matter the size of a yard a dog or puppy has, if left alone quite often a dog and/or pup will lie around 90% of the time it is left alone. And Often the other 10% of the time is spent "destroying things" or "getting into mischief" which just means seeking outlets for energy and mental simtulation which are often few and far between and limited to what is natural for dogs. Including but not limited to digging, scratching, chewing, ripping, tearing etc. If left with safe toys they might engage themselves in some ball flinging or chasing but at 5.5 months if it doesn't move on its own it isn't very interesting for long.

Keep her on the long line. Do not take her off of it. The ignoring behavior is exactly the reason why long lines are used in the first place don't give her any opportunity to ignore you. When you give a command, even though she is only 5.5 months old, you should back it up (to a point) if she ignores a "come" command, give her a tug or two, call her, high pitched voice or sounds, be excited to get her to come to you with toys or treats etc. If this hasn't been/doesn't work just reel her in gently but persistently. Usually once you get them a certain distance from their object of obsession they can be more easily redirected so keep on calling her and being happy about it.

Don't lose hope, it will get better! She is still very young. You do have to keep in mind though that she has several more months of this to come. Some slow down at 8-9 months or so, some slow down after a year, some never slow down. It is part of the wonderful world of puppies.

Mark, have you tried back tieing (sp?) her to teach her not to jump? Maybe you could try this after you play fetch w/ her and she's tired.(and make sure she's hungry when you are working on obedience)
Ed shows this on his obedience video (or pack structure, I can't remember which one). Tie her to a solid object (tree, fencepost etc)
Walk away from her, out of her reach. Approach her and if she jumps turn your back on her and walk away until out of her reach. Keep repeating until she 'gets' it. Mark and reward her for all 4 feet on the ground.
If you are physically engaging her when she jumps (pushing her off you, etc) I'm sure she thinks it's grand fun to jump up on you! Remove the physical aspect and ignore (and withdraw your attention, which is what she really wants) the unwanted behavior. The back tie helps to keep it controlled...
You can use variations of this for many behaviors, like putting on her leash. (if she's mouthing or jumping around when she sees the leash, turn and walk away, put leash up and try again a few minutes later. Walk out of the room if necessary, or back tie her with your long line, and approach her w/ the short leash in your hands; you get the picture, I'm sure...)
Good luck!

Randy,

I have no problem with the high energy. In fact it is enjoyable, my question pertained to hard-headedness.

And yes, there was probably a lack of wisdom in dog choice on my part, but live and learn.

The back tieing sounds interesting, i don't recall seeing that in the video's. She will literally latch onto me (like she's dancing) when i turn my back and walk with me as i walk. It's funny, but irritating after a while. I will keep trying new things and see what gives. Thanks!

Mark,
Natalya and Jennifer are right, you can expect misbehavior and general snotiness from a 5 or 6 month pup. For that matter also 1 and 2 year old dogs. In fact any dog worth their salt may face you up at almost any age if for one reason or another one doesn't put enough work or time in with them.
You mention that you're sure he knows the basic commands, sit, come, and no. Are you sure? How were those taught, or imprinted? You said the fetch games are used to eat up energy. Could you discribe for us how the game progresses?

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

And Mark, I think German Short Hairs are marvelous dogs. In my hunting days I was always envious of the owners of such fine animals. I could never afford them.

Randy

Randy,

You seem to know a lot about his breed of dog. I don't. A ecollar changed my existence with this Dutchie I have now. I needed it for different reason than obedience but it did wonders on everything. Obviously you wouldn't want to take any of his dog's drive away, just get some kind of control.