OK, My GS puppy is 4 1/2 months now, she is such a good puppy. I've done just a lil training with her such as No!, sit, down, kennel up, and she seems to be mastering these commands with ease. I've done 85% of our training inside where I have her full attention. Our training sessions are about 5 minutes, one never lasting more than 10 minutes. I'm waiting for her 6 month birthday to really start hitting the training. I have read where everyone has said to establish the Alpha role. And this is where my problem starts. I think I have overdone this. Before I give the details of the problem, let me give you the details of our relationship. My pup (as far as I can tell) loves me very much. Everywhere I am, she wants to be. I'm at the computer, she's at my feet, I'm watching t.v. in the living room, she's right there, and even now I go to the restroom, she's starting to lay and wait for me at the door. I have never hit her in any way. I have given corrections for nipping at our 8 month old daughter, messing with the trashcans ( I have now even bought the ones with the swinging door lids ), etc. and basically I just say No!, the worst was a No!, and a hand grab to her neck area. She's very smart and pretty much responds to No! now. One more thing I've done to establish the pack leader role is when I feed her, I spit in her food and don't let her eat till I say so. (Those of you wandering I read this from a training book.) So you see I'm the Alpha dog in everyway and have a pup that loves me, is aiming to please in everyway, but I have one problem. I'm usually standing up when this happens, if I walk up to her and tell her to sit or anything, she submits to me and goes straight to a down posistion. But if I'm sitting in a chair she doesn't show a problem. I know this stems from looking bigger than normal and this is what a dog will do to show other dogs "look I'm bigger than you" causing a submissive state. But thats not what I want. She acts like she's scared of me in a way which I know she's not. So any advise on this would be very much appreciated. I want to train dogs for a living so everyday is a learning experience for me.

Spitting in the food is something you can definitely skip. Forever. JMO, of course, but it's a strong opinion.

"Wait" for the food is good. After that, IMO, I am the giver of food and when I have given it, the dog is free and secure in her no-stress, no-uneasiness enjoyment of it.

I would stop looming over the dog, if I am reading this correctly. That is, standing right over her to command her is unnecessary.

Are you doing marker training with her? It's a wonderful route to advancing her confidence as well as your bond, and it's also a great way to have a dog who delights in training.

Try making all training a party if your not already. people often tend to bark basic obedience commands, but offer trick commands in a happier tone of voice and wonder why the dog will do the cute trick way more enthusiastically then the basic OB. The dog doesn't distinguish between the two, so a happier tone of voice (almost to an annoying level) goes a long way to affect the attitude especially to a young dog who is reading way more about body language and tone of voice than what you are actually saying.

and there is no better way to increase confidence, reduce stress then marker training like Connie said. If your not doing it already check out some of the Videos and articles on the website. I personally really like the Micheal Ellis videos, there are some great dvds you can buy and a ton of streaming videos you can watch too. There is some great info on working with puppies.

Good Luck

Rob

When mine was younger, he did the same thing. I really don't think it was out of submission, he just preferred to down rather than sit. He's a slumper. Had to do lots of work to get him to sit rather than down. When he started to slump into a down, I would step closer to him till he popped up. He is more likely to sit and hold the sit for me if I am standing right on top of him. Before we did this we did a lot of 'look' or eye contact work so that he was cormfortable with me looming over him like that. But that's just my own dog, yours may be different.

My dog also used to lay down and squirm when I first got home from work (she had learned that I did not like the jumping up on me with excitement). I used to call it groveling. What I did to change it, was calmly say "sit" while pausing in my walk from the garage to the house. She would get up in to sit and then I would pat her on the head and move in to the house. She now greets me with the most excited sit you have ever seen....

Thanks for all your insight and opinions. Connie, I read in "the secrets of a dog trainer" about spitting in the food. It basically is a pack thing (I guess), but after the alpha dog is finished eating he leaves behind his saliva which the rest of the pecking order smells thus creating the alpha role. But I have stopped doing it but please understand I have always gave her time to enjoy eating with no stress. And please don't read me the wrong way because your advise is very important to me, but I don't think I stand over her, I just watch her like a hawk because I want a good house dog. She is crate trained so when she gets her freedom I watch her close since she is still is a puppy. We haven't had a accident in quite sometime now, so I think she is pretty much house broken, although I did catch her chewing on my new shoes the other day,lol. Kiki is a great puppy, she might be the best I've ever owned. Just found out that Timo vom Berreckasten is one of her great great grandsires. But Connie I do thank you for making me see my wrongs.


Jessica what you described is what Kiki does to the "T". So I have since started taking your advise and we are making progress. Thank you so very much.


One thing I wanted to add, when I introduced Kiki to the stay command, she knew what I wanted from the 2nd rep., is this pup awesome or what! Just the other day we went to the park and had our first real training session. Kiki approached, she sat on command, she laid down on command, and stayed until released. It was a brief stay, like 30 seconds or so but man has she impressed me.
Once again thanks to all four of you for taking the time to help me.