Maria, we have a 0 to 10 distraction problem too.

I recently realized that to get my dog over the hump with certain distractions I had to stop feeding her.

Kidding...well only partialy.

For a little more than a week I only fed her during training. Just mixed some really good stuff in with her daily rations and had her work for it over the course of the day, picking times that the disractions were as mild as I could realisticly find as using distance where ever possible.

The added bonus is that as groundwork goes, its about as groundworky as you can get.

Since your dog is still technicaly a puppy, I would start by just cutting her food back, half of it to be offered from a bowl at her regular times and half of it to be mixed with really fabulous stuff in the bait bag. Deli ham is the new favorite over here.

Such a great idea!
I was thinking about doing something like that before! My natural instinct of keeping her well-rounded tells me to never miss a meal. She is neither overweight, nor skinny. But I tend to like when everyone eats well at home , and on time.
This will not starve her, just change the way she gets fed for awhile. Thanks!

Overall, I am happy I found such a wonderful discussion board. A lot of smart, reasonable people her with such good advice. Thank you all.

 Quote: lauren jeffery

I recently realized that to get my dog over the hump with certain distractions I had to stop feeding her.

When Falcon was younger and far more prone to distraction issues, I'd skip a meal if I was taking him somewhere different to work on distractions at a distance... Yummy treats and a pup on an empty stomach does make "focus on mom" a bit easier. I'd take raw beef pieces and string cheese slices... and a wet wash cloth in a zip lock bag. I still do it from time to time if going to an area where I anticipate distractions to be higher than normal.

Maria, I am in the SF Bay Area too and have a great trainer...check you personal messages!

Hi Hilarie;

thank you for all the info, sounds good. we would have to wait a little with group training–I am kind of against it, never went well with my other dogs, people bring in dogs of all kinds–dog aggressive, completely untrained, incessant barkers etc. and classes are usually way too high on distractions way too soon. When i was young and had a GSD my Naida came to class calm and polite and the dogs would rile her up so bad she won't remember even her name by the end of the session. I hope we gonna be able to do a couple of private sessions with one of these guys, thanks!!!!

Oh, and what a wonderful dog you have!

Oh thank you! I hear you -currently Sean has a few GSDs, the "Beastie Boys" (Rottie cousins) and a few pits -you'd be amased at the control he has over them all though. But currently I am the only one that Darryl is working with and I know both do private...good luck!!

 Quote: hilarie coby

Oh thank you! I hear you -currently Sean has a few GSDs, the "Beastie Boys" (Rottie cousins) and a few pits -you'd be amased at the control he has over them all though. But currently I am the only one that Darryl is working with and I know both do private...good luck!!

I know Darryl, too, sort of. My best friend knows him and takes his Rottie down to work with him from time to time. Kevin speaks quite highly of him and I trust Kev's opinion implicitly. Darryl's the one to blame for me having a Mal. I was sent the video of him training Argo and I was hooked.

Yup....a fantastic guy -you can check out that crazy Argo (the vid that Dana originally saw) here:
http://greaterbaydogtraining.com/

...everything has been going on fairly smoothly for the last month, our Akita has been mostly great on walks, long-long walks with a backpack, good at home (we allow some out of crate time now and long down-stays in the house) but she has slowly developed another, more passive but extremely uncomfortable way to challenge me. She has learned through careful observation that ANY tiny whine out of her makes me very nervous (long ago I stepped on her foot and she yelped a little and I was all over her checking if she's fine) and this progressed to something dramatic. Again, most of the days she is submissive, obedient, we have great walks, etc, but a few times a week if she is NOT pleased with something (like my attempt to lead her away form a busy street where she enjoyed people-watching, or turning towards our house when the walk is over, or when she knows she is going to get a correction) she THROWS a horrifying, loud, terrible temper tantrum with yelping and rolling on the ground, screaming like she is being killed, etc. It scares me sh*tless, and the first couple of times I was so perplexed I just stood there watching as my dog was writhing on the ground looking at me sideways to see what my reaction would be. It looks like I have been beating her or tried to kill her, people run up to check what is wrong and probably think I am abusing her. She enjoys the attention. Next time it happened, I tried to correct her for it, said 'Aah-Aah!" and only started to jerk the leash, she predicted what is coming and screamed so loud I almost had a a heart attack. I tried giving her a down command , or a sit, and she did it but when I try to walk with her, rebellion continues. She even flips over on her back and refuses to walk. Yesterday it happened again and I just yanked the leash and kept walking, practically dragging her behind and not even looking at her, just saying "Heel". She after a while got tired of yelping and started walking next to me, still watching me closely and attempting to flip over again, but less intensely.When i saw that the attempts got less strong, i corrected the crap out of her and she finally submitted. She has no fear of anything, and does not act like she is afraid-just acts like a kid that wants a toy and Mommy refused to buy it. Yesterday, it actually made me quite upset because I came home thinking that I somehow hurt the dog and then my husband told me, "hey, she is testing you!"

By the way, she tried it with my husband once, in front of me-I think she was disagreeing with his choice of direction in which we were heading. She only tried to start her performance, with just the overture of yelping and proceeded to flip over when he turned towards her, growled and gave her a strong prong correction after which she sat up, excused herself and heeled like a good girl to him ever since.

The problem is, she screams like it's the end of the world and when i try to do ANYTHING she gets louder. I will most certainly get arrested, I'm afraid, if I do anything to correct her, people DO tend to think that if the dog yells like this she MUST be in pain. She knows very well that I am weak when she throws a tantrum like this.

Anyone ever had such issues? Maybe I should post it somewhere else on this forum, please tell me where if you know!

Oh, I need to add that she only does it in familiar places, like around our home or around my husband's bar that we visit with her often. She never tries this sh*t in the new areas where she actually tries to cling to me more.

Thanks.

Any chance of getting a vid of this?