I have a 4 month old GSD pup from Belgian/Dutch working lines. He is very responsive to training, has great food drive and great prey drive (at least as far as I can tell). I am following the methods as laid out in the Groundwork, etc. Leerburg articles, and the 8 weeks to 8 months DVD + basic obedience DVD.

I started doing recall training where my wife holds the dog on leash while I go off and hide and then call him. I realize that I am supposed to be his primary care giver, trainer, etc. which I am. However, my wife is at home 3 days a week so she looks after him then and she has been training him with me all along.

When doing this recall exercise, if my wife goes and hides he tugs and wants to get at her and then trots over at a reasonably fast pace, but when I go and hide he goes nuts crying and whining (people in the park think we are abusing him) and then he hauls after me as fast as he possibly can.

My questions are: Is this reaction of crying and freaking out Okay? Can I stop at least the whining/crying barking part because (not that I care) but people look at us like we are abusing him or something. And how can I get him to be more responisve to my wife?

We also do a game where we call him back and forth - he will come bolting to me on 1 command, but with my wife it takes several commands and sometimes he won't come and she has to tug the long lead even though he knows he will get a food reward.

Any thoughts??

PS - He is a house pet. I want to go a little further than basic obedience with him, but no bite work or protection work.

In my opinion the whining, barking and freaking out are ok. It appears as though he has a lot of pack drive and that's good, especially for obedience. He's attached to you. I really can't answer how to get him to respond to your wife because my dogs are my dogs and no one else in my house can control them. A suggestion from a novice would be for you to let her do the training alone with him for a few days and see if that works.

Well, if it is a good thing then I don't want to discourage it.

Ultimately, I would like my wife to have as much control over him as me. He is definitely my dog and I'm the one who gets up early every morning and plays with him, walks him, trains him etc. It's not an option for me, but it is for her. And, I'm fine with that, but when he is ready I expect him to be fully obedient to her and look to her as the Alpha female.

Thanks for the advice

Hello all, This is my first time and I am a new dog owner. I just got 3 months ago a 3 year old silky terrier (10 Pounds. Fist thing I did was get him nuetored. My biggest problem is that he was not trained correctly, actually not at all. I really enjoy his company, but he has bitten my father. Do you have a general rule of thumb of when is the time to put the dog to sleep? I am really dreading doing that. I dont want to, but if it nopt possible to remedy, I think it is the right choice. I have not purchased the DVD for training yet. I am about to buy it and watch it to learn as much as I can on proper training. Any thoughts?
Thanks All

get the vids and start training. I heard that AKC show dogs are allowed to bite a judge once or twice before they're disqualed, I'm kidding.
we don't know the circumstance why your dog felt the need to bite. were they playing?, did Dad corner him? fighting over the last porkchop? When Dad comes over, crate the dog. I have to remove Maggie and Max when Mom in law shows up. she's a nervouse wreck around any dogs and they behave better than my kids. just my opinion, I'm justa dog owner that went to Obed class

Is this reaction of crying and freaking out Okay? Can I stop at least the whining/crying barking part because (not that I care) but people look at us like we are abusing him or something. And how can I get him to be more responisve to my wife? ***The crying and freaking out is anxiety and frustration. The main purpose of the exercise is to build a fast recall. If your dog has high drives and you are doing a lot of positive reinforcement obedience he should come fast without having to hold him back. The exercise is much more benefitted by highly compulsive trainers. Plus, if you're just doing basic obedience right now it avoids the fact that your dog should be coming regardless of what it's doing.


We also do a game where we call him back and forth - he will come bolting to me on 1 command, but with my wife it takes several commands and sometimes he won't come and she has to tug the long lead even though he knows he will get a food reward. *** Pay attention to what you and your wife do different. Hopefully the both of you are using the same type of food rewards or at least you are not the one possesing the higher value reward.

Is she correcting him a lot for manners in the house while your gone?

THat might make you look more appealing. Not to mention your dog probably values time with you more because he doesn't see you as often and your always doing something fun with him.


You might even want to set up your wife to have a higher value reward so that there is more incentive for him to balance out his needs for the both of you.

See if the tonality in your praising is different. Are you more energetic about praising?

Just take a closer look at the interactions both of you have with your dog and compare what you are doing differently.

And YES, you're wife should be able to get the same response you get so long as she's consistent with the work.

Good Luck.

Matt,
Here's the problem. You're trying to train a recall for a dog that won't hold a stay.
To properly train a dog, some exercises need to be taught in order. And a steady "stay" is required *before* you train a recall.

Ed explains this well on his tapes, for my classes I often use the example of the recall as an exercise that actually has multiple parts to it, all of which need to be trained for that particular exercise to work.

One of the major problems that people have with dog training is that they push ahead to more complicated exercises before they have the basic exercises down pat. An exercise requires hundred's of repetitions to be steady for a high drive dog, take the time and get the basics down, or you'll regret it in the future.

I'll have to go over the video again, but I thought the point of the exercise was not to have him stay, but to be excited and pulling on the leash trying to get me and then when released he will be in so worked up that performs the recall very quickly.

The dog on the tape (who is much older) just doesn't whine and yelp and apart from sounding alarming I was wondering if it was a bad reaction?

I have been doing the basics with him in the house, backyard, and on walks. I always make him come when called in the house, backyard, etc. and I use cut-up hotdogs and keep a leash on him at all times. On the Basic obed. DVD, Ed doesn't emphasize the stay command so much and he says not to expect a pup under 6 months to perform a long stay.

Right now Dingo (my pup) will do a 10-20 sec. down-stay, or sit-stay in a distraction free environment. I haven't been pushing him to much on the stay command.

As for the issue with my wife, the pup and I are much more closely bonded as I am his primary caretaker, I am more fun, etc. I think giving her the hotdogs and I'll just use the craker-type treats is a great idea!!

One day you will miss the fact that your dog whined and yelped to get to you. That will be the day he gives you the finger when you call him, saying "Not now Pops, I'm busy!" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Will,

DO you only do recalls when the dog is in a static position?

When i think recall, i think, come to me when I call you regardless of what you're doing or what's going on.

Now if you're talking competitive obedience then there's a formal recall with the front and all the other goods but for basic obedience you have to live with, i think come when called regardless.