Hi everyone! This is my first post so please let me know if I am doing something wrong! To give you an intro on my situation- I have a 15 week old "valley bulldog" (purebred boxer, english bulldog mix). She's adorable and hopefully if I did the picture thing right you can see her. Anyway- she is a handful, like most 15 week olds I guess. I'm not training her to be anything but a loving but obedient family pet My husband is in the military and is deployed and gone a lot so I am pretty much raising her by myself. She eats the honest kitchen diet and is not really excited about most toys. She loves bully sticks but they last about 15 minutes with her before they are too small and I need to take them away (she almost choked on a pig ear when I first got her so I am vigilant about taking the chews away when they are small enough to fit in her mouth!)

She is really good with the beginner's commands- sit, down, touch, mat (place) and so so with the somewhat more advanced commands depending on her distraction level: ok- (the release when going down the stairs or through the door), come, and close (when I want her to come and sit right up beneath my legs). I don't want to introduce too many questions into this post but I'll start with the three biggest questions and begin with the nipping problem. To me, it seems like it happens when she is cranky or bored. She will jump up and nip at my knees, the back of my leg, my calves and yes, my behind. And boy does it hurt! I don't like to wear shoes around the house and she often goes after my toes which is really painful. Of course she goes after the hands when I am putting her collar on and sometimes when I try to pet her on the head. I don't want to make it seem like this is a persistent problem, but it is a daily problem and painful and i think people are beginning to wonder if I am bad with my kitchen knife given the amount of cuts on my hands and forearms (I wear pants so they can't see the ankles and legs!)

Here is what i have tried to do based on advice from the varying forum posts. I have tried the yelp, leave the room thing (there were baby gates in my kitchen but i recently removed one) She would get quiet but once I went back the nipping would start again. I have tried the hold the mouth closed "no bite", escalate the second time, hold mouth closed "not bite for 3 sec, then if she comes back again (which she always does) I would put her in the crate (which was always a struggle) and ignore for 15 minutes. Usually at that point she fell asleep. I stopped doing that because I realized that putting her in the crate that way was not creating a good relationship for us (or at least I thought so). So recently I try to give her commands she knows like sit, or down or watch (where she looks at me) and rewarding her. That works for a minute or two, then she will start up again. Sometimes it doesn't work at all!

That's the nipping problem. The second problem is recently, and I am not sure if it coincides with my crating when she is being a pain issue, but she will go into her crate for the treat then try to run out. The crate hasn't been a problem before. The way I would get her in there is I would put my hand it towards the back divider, say "touch" and then give her the treat and shut the door. Now she eats the treat and before I can close the door she has her head or paw in it. Again, I hate to shove her back and close the door but when I am late I have to! The only thing that she looks at long enough to shut the door is the kong, but I feel like with the amount of "rewards" and kongs through the day she might be eating too much!! The only time she walks straight in besides the kong time is at night when I have started to turn the lights out. I think she knows its bed time and she goes right to bed.

The last problem is the come. When we are inside. Easy peasy. Outside without distraction, we are at 90%. When there is a distraction like other people or dogs or even if its a nice day and it seems like she's decided she wants to lounge and eat grass. There is no hotdog, steak or cheese that she cares about...

Any suggestions or ideas or comments or concerns would help! I really look forward to hearing from you!

Nipping: Easily solved through redirection.

Crate issue: Using the touch command to get her in is unfair.
She's doing what you asked, which is touch. Getting upset with her for doing exactly what you asked doesn't make sense.
She needs to be trained to go into her crate on command, not tricked through the use of another command.

Recall is a pain.
The rule of thumb is, don't call her when she is distracted.
If you always keep a line on her, you can reel her in, instead of teaching her to ignore the command by calling when she is distracted.

Also, I'm going to do what Alyssa did and name these three separate issues so responders can address one or two or all.

Nipping

Crate command

Recall

On the recall, until you get some good recall-training info here, I'd stop taking the dog outside off-lead and calling her. You are teaching her that it's optional.

This will not pay off.

QUOTE: I feel like with the amount of "rewards" and kongs through the day she might be eating too much!!


BTW, rewards should be of food quality, and then just added in when you figure the day's food.

http://leerburg.com/1141.htm

I use rewards from LB and from my actual 'fridge that mean that I do not ever have to worry that I am using too many. They are simply part of the day's food.

 Quote: victoria woods

The second problem is recently, and I am not sure if it coincides with my crating when she is being a pain issue, but she will go into her crate for the treat then try to run out. The crate hasn't been a problem before. The way I would get her in there is I would put my hand it towards the back divider, say "touch" and then give her the treat and shut the door. Now she eats the treat and before I can close the door she has her head or paw in it. Again, I hate to shove her back and close the door but when I am late I have to! The only thing that she looks at long enough to shut the door is the kong, but I feel like with the amount of "rewards" and kongs through the day she might be eating too much!! The only time she walks straight in besides the kong time is at night when I have started to turn the lights out. I think she knows its bed time and she goes right to bed.

Give this a name, then.
If she willingly goes into her crate when cued by the lights being turned off, pair that with a "Crate" command, and reward heavily for compliance.
After a few days, she'll associate the command with the behavior, and she'll be going into the crate on command only (lights or not).

Sorry i didn't mention this earlier. She is always on a lead with me. I never take her outside without one.

As far as "reeling her in" how does this work? Giving her a few tugs doesn't normally make her move. Should i just go over and pick her up?

If she's close enough to pick up, yes you could go pick her up.

You have to be really excited, clap your hands, run backwards, etc, and give her a few gentle nudges to get her moving towards you.

Here is a link to my puppy, I can't get the photo to actually embed in the post...

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_uUohz_Ym2TU/SfjQtoyagdI/AAAAAAAAABA/x1H20nrWc6Q/s800/L.jpg?imgmax=800

Change the image tag from to