Hello Everybody,

My family is having great difficulty with our new puppy, such difficulty in fact, that my parents are reconsidering their investment. We have always thought that once a dog was purchased the owner makes a permanent commitment to raise and love the dog, but this puppy often seems unlovable to my mother and father. If we cannot solve these problems then I'm afraid they will get rid of him.

I had my mother write down the problems that seemed insurmountable, and here is what she wrote. Please help!

"We have a six month old male English setter. He has a very difficult personality and we have not been successful in training him to stop: jumping on the counter and furniture, jumping on people, biting, chewing up items such as newspaper and furniture. He does not respond to “no”, being sprayed with water and no. He is extremely excitable and will often run in circles around the family room like a wild dog. Isolating him in his crate usually results in barking, but we do not let him out until he quiets. He is then calm for a short period and it all begins again. He does not enjoy walks. He needs to be coaxed and pulled to go more than one block; he seems to be afraid, puts tail between legs and pulls to go back home. "

have your parents ever had a puppy before? if so, did they have these problems with previous puppies?

there's a lot to know about how to raise a puppy. if they are new to dog ownership, you might recommend they get ed's puppy DVD. i also like a little handbook called "how to raise a puppy you can live with" which is available on amazon.com.

if they aren't prepared for all that raising a good canine citizen entails, they should contact the breeder to rehome him.

Yes, we've had an Irish Setter, and an English Setter before. The personality of this dog is just so difficult, and whenever I ask anybody for advice, they say just what you did. I don't WANT to "rehome" him. I want to train him and learn specific techniques to deal with the problems described below.

 Quote:

..... I want to train him and learn specific techniques to deal with the problems described below....

As Alice mentioned, you could definitely start by ordering the videos "Your Puppy...." and "Basic Obedience." You have a high-energy puppy who doesn't know he has a pack leader yet.

You could read these http://www.leerburg.com/qaobed.htm
in the meantime. I've also PM'd you some basic puppy-training (and exercise!) suggestions.

P.S. I'm not experienced with special-purpose training. But I *am* experienced with the training your dog needs now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> You can do this!

I just have two questions. Why did you and/or your parents choose this particular breed? Did you do any research before you decided to get such a high energy breed?

your puppy just needs leadership. there's nothing wrong with him or diffiuclt about him. he sounds within the normal range of personalities for a puppy, especially a setter breed. it sounds like he was allowed to have run of the house, and so picked up some bad behaviors.

there are any number of good approaches. the first thing i would do is put the puppy on a leash in the house and tether him to your waist and keep him tied to you during all his waking hours. then he does not get to make any decisions about anything. he has to learn to look to you for permission to do anything.

when you go to bed at night, put him in his crate, then tether him up again in the morning.

if you have trouble following directions in books, DVDs, and emails, then get a good pet trainer to come to the house and show you what to do. i don't see a single problem that is difficult to solve with the application of some attention and know-how.

you do mention he is biting and doesn't respond to "no." since we aren't in your house and can't see what you are doing, we have no way to advise you about the right way to handle these things. but within the context of the other behaviors, it sounds like he hasn't had adequate leadership.

not all puppies are the same. you got one this time that needs more leadership than your previous dogs. he may require a higher level of knowledge and management than your family is used to. like i said, if you aren't able or willing to make the commitment to high management for at least the next while, like six months or a year, then you should rehome him with someone more experienced with high energy dogs.

Thank you for all the helpful responses. Tripper is behaving much better lately. We try to keep him out of the crate as much as possible and to work with him and reward him whenever we can. We have started tethering him to our waists, but a big problem is that he does nothing but chew the leash! How do we get him to stop!

Easy....give him something else to chew. You have to re-direct his attention off the leash and onto something else that he can chew.
But make sure it's something that will hold his attention for a bit. Or have more than one chew toy available so that if he looses interest in the one toy, you have a different one on hand to entice him with.

When he starts on the leash i would give him a correction or a "no" and present him with an appropriate chew toy, when he re-directs onto the chew toy...praise him.

Don't forget, a tired puppy is a well behaved one. Obedience training wears out a puppy just as well as a physical play session...or at least thats been my experience. If the chew toys don't work, go through a session of your basic commands....sit, down, etc etc.
Its all a matter of re-focusing your pups attention.