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Training a stubborn adolescent

JamieHalverson

Well-Known Member
Good lord, this puppy's killing me! She so sweet and well bahaved, but HATES obedience. I swear, she makes me look like the a hole who didn't work on homework for the whole week between class.

She was so good for her CGC on Tuesday and I was so proud of her! Then today at obedience class she was so obstinate, I just had to shake my head at her. I said down, she looked away, I said come she sat there and looked at me from across the room, I said sit, she just stood there. She's 10 months old on Monday, I think we are hitting the teenage (dog) years. I had a Rottweiler I thought was stubborn, she had nothin' on this girl, lol.

I think we are going to try a little bootcamp for this one. She's going to have to work a little harder to earn the things she likes for a while. The trainer mentioned "graduating" to a real training collar and trying a slip collar on her. My hope was to graduate FROM the martingale to a flat buckle, not the other way around. I want to motivate her forward, not leash pop her into compliance. Our trainer said we are ready for level 3 obedience that starts next week, I do not feel like that is the case, I almost want to repeat level 2 or go right to Rally.

How have you guys dealt with teenage stubbornness? Just train through it? Step up expectations, or back up? I've always had adult dogs who were pretty easy to motivate, so this is new to me...
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
I went back to strict NILF. He had to earn everything and all privileges that he had earned through good behavior were taken away and he had to earn them again. Some behaviors were solved in a week others took months. It all depended on what was more important to him.

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scorning

Well-Known Member
Hah, this is Finn in a nutshell. He was amazing at obedience at 6 months, then everything was an uphill battle from then until now. The currently place we go to training does a lot of focus games in between exercises to keep dogs interested and let them blow off some steam. For example, lots of touch and spin and other high energy breaks with treats between exercises. This has really helped Finn, as he struggled with long breaks in class for lectures. His place command is good at home, but not so great for long breaks at class.

We still do a very high rate of reinforcement with treats, and I do walk him with a prong collar, but I don't give him active corrections. We are doing more, but shorter, training sessions at home, and making our criteria for reinforcement for strict. Seems to be working, but he might also just be growing out of those terrible teenager years. He is getting neutered and tacked next week, so am interested to see how that impacts him as well.
 

Hector

Well-Known Member
I did not have the teenage phase everyone talks about, but the important thing is motivation and engagement with handler. Find a way to build her drive. Follow through with commands. I like the slip leash.
 

JamieHalverson

Well-Known Member
You know what else is going on? She really only has about a half hour of focused attention in her before things start going bad... The last 15 minutes of an hour long obedience class is nearly worthless and might even be kind of negative; she's really done and I'm trying to get her to do stuff.
 

JamieHalverson

Well-Known Member
I did not have the teenage phase everyone talks about, but the important thing is motivation and engagement with handler. Find a way to build her drive. Follow through with commands. I like the slip leash.
I'm lucky that so far she hasn't developed any bad habits or unwanted behaviors that need to be addressed. The only thing is that she's started jumping up a bit, but that's pretty easy to work through.

It's strictly the obedience stuff, which is easier in a way than behavior issues.