Hi all, I have an almost 9 week old gsd puppy and I was trying to teach her to sit and down. I followed the approach taken in Ed's video 8 weeks to 8 months and things went smoothly at first. On the second day of teaching her, she became frustrated and started barking at me with a little snarl, no showing teeth or anything. I thought it wasn't acceptable to show that kind of behavior so I corrected her by grabbing and shaking the back of her neck. I did this till she screamed and told her "NO". After that she refused to even come close to my hand even when I have food. Couple days afterwards I attempted to teach her again, and like before but not as bad, she would be hesitant to come and pay attention to my commands. She's understanding "sit" quite well because I've also been training her "sit" with toys, which does not spark fear in her the way food can. "Down" however, is tough to do with toys. I wanted to know your thoughts on her chance of recovering from this so that I could train her with food again. How long should I lay off food training so that she would be back to her normal self. Thanks very much.

I don't know what the more experienced trainers on the board would suggest, but personally I would take it easy for a lil while till he's no longer afraid of the training sessions. Only train him positively, treats, toys etc. Make it a fun experience, short but frequent training sessions. Remember, he's only 9 weeks old, he doesn't have much of an attention span. At 9 weeks that must mean you only recently got him, so he's still adjusting to his new surroundings.

Down is a very submissive position for a dog, if he doesn't trust you, you'll be wrestling to get him to down for you.

Be patient, take your time, and always PRAISE, exagerate the praise to the extent of feeling stupid. After a hard correction, don't appear to be mad at him, let him know you still love him. Always end on a positive note, let him have success.

My pup used to very evidently be annoyed at me for being too hard on him, it took me a while to adjust my corrections to his level. He is damn near immune to physical corrections, but he'll lower his head if I correct him too hard verbally.

It sounds like your pup was barking and snarling out of frustration, not aggression. I wouldn't have punished him, but rather taken a look at what I was asking him to do. Obviously it wasn't clear to him. If your dog is frustrated, it means he can't figure out what you want him to do. He keeps throwing behaviors at you, but none of them are getting him any treats or toys. That would make me frustrated too. Make sure you are being consistent in the manner that you are luring and rewarding. Make sure the behaviors are broken down into baby steps. If he won't go all the way "down", then reward him for taking a step forward and bending down, until you finally get the behavior you want.
Work on one behavior per training session until he knows the command very well. Break the training sessions up into 5-10 min. here and there throughout the day. Don't expect him to know the verbal cue if you are still luring; They should be taught seperately. Also, always end on a good note.
There's so many things to remember when training and a new pup is a good way to refresh our mind! Trained dogs make it easy and read our mind sometimes. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Good luck with your little pup!

Everything I have learned from articles and videos suggest that we help the puppy and young adult as much as possible when teaching them something new. Take the time to understand the principles of learning and operant behaviour. The other thing I have seen said over and over is to never correct a dog for making a mistake. Corrections are for willful disobedience. The adivce I was given about corrections on a puppy -- ONLY for biting skin, NOTHING ELSE.

I'm very new to the whole puppy thing. However I have handled everthing in that the puppy cannot do anything wrong. I never gave him an opportunity to get frustrated. I always set him up to succeed.

I taught the sit by putting the food in front of his nose and luring the nose backwards and up and put slight pressure on his rump, as soon as rump hit the ground he got the cookie.

Down was placing the food between his front legs and put sight pressure on his shoulders and stroke backwards until butt was on ground, immediately he gets the cookie.

Because I basically lured and placed in the correct position he ALWAYS won and ALWAYS got the cookie. Now at 4 months old, he basically knows the verbal sit and down, however if he doesn't give me the position I go back to the beginning. He ALWAYS wins and ALWAYS gets the cookie/toy etc. At this point I will not set him up to have an option of failure or frustration. I think that is pressure for an adult dog and not a baby.

If you pup is getting frustrated it is because YOU are not being clear enough in what you want and you are allowing the pup to get frustrated. I would think that would quickly get the pup to quit trying because he doesn't understand what you want and (in his mind) can NEVER get the cookie.

On the barking, I had to draw my line in the sand. He would get a correction for nipping, but not for barking. At this point I can simply say 'No Bite' and he will quit with the teeth but back-talks for several seconds, that is the time I get a toy and re-direct his frustration to the toy and not at barking. But no correction as long as his mouth was not on me. I felt he needed an outlet, for the correction and that I would accept the barking.

At this point, you have set the stage. I would not mess with training and work on building the relationship with the pup. It seems your pup has lost some faith in you that you will have to work to re-gain. Spend time having fun and playing and don't put any pressure on him at all.

Good Luck.

Thanks for your input. I have since started just playing with her and letting her eat from my hands. I have regained her trust and she's doing both sit and down commands really well! This was one mistake that will not be made again.