Training with young boy

[ElderberryGrey]

We've just adopted a gorgeous 2 year and 5 month old boy having had a gentle and lazy girl before (who we also got as a young dog). Our new boy is affectionate, sleeps calmly at night and some of the day and walks well on the leash. We've had him now for nearly 2 weeks and love him, bouncy puppy energy and all.

We've been trying some simple commands like we did with our last girl (as he will eventually be around cats and we want a solid 'leave it' and 'look at me' command before then) with not much success.

He's getting pretty good at a visual command for bed/down by following pointed fingers but anything else we're failing to get him to understand what we want.

For look at me we've been doing a few minute sessions where his attention is drawn up to eye level with a held treat but there's no consistency on him following it.

For leave it, again a few minutes of trying him to leave a treat in one hand rewarded with the other but again there's no consistency in him following. We've also failed to get him to leave the kitchen counters/dishwasher/dinner etc alone with any command or gentle physical redirection... He's strong and he knows what he wants!

Has anyone got any tips?

[EllenEveBaz]

I don't know how your post got overlooked -- I am not a great trainer but will add my 2 cents and hope that bumping up the thread will attract more accomplished trainers.  

I have a strong, stubborn counter-surfer, too.  I am old school and sometimes resort to negative reinforcement.  An expert obedience dog show-er gave me this tip -- when you catch the dog with paws on the counter, tell him down, then grab a rolled-up newspaper, (clean) flyswatter, or anything else that will make a dramatic noise and whack the heck out of the counter.  NO!  NO!  BAD COUNTER!  You are trying to get the dog to associate the counter with something negative.  Milo doesn't try to steal food in front of me anymore, but he'll always try in a heartbeat the second my back is turned.  To keep him away from the kitchen and dining room table, I tell him OUT! and he knows to retreat to a safe distance.  

[HeyRunDog]

I'm also slightly old school and used a similar technique to EllenEveBaz to stop Grace counter surfing in so much as the first time she put her nose over the counter it was a firm NO and a very gentle tap on the nose, I only had to do it once. 

Grace also doesn't get any treats or leftovers when I'm having a snack, preparing food, eating a meal or clearing up. They are given to her either in her bowl at her next meal time or later on so she doesn't associate my food with hers.

I think the main thing is not to let them get away with something you don't want them to not even once.

[mansbestfriend]

HI. As a practical tip, never leave anything tasty/smelly on any benches ever unless (EDIT:)you're there to directly supervise, and always keep benches cleaned of anything that might be tempting for him - the reason being that if your dog does jump on a bench, he never ever finds a tasty/smelly reward for jumping up there. Instead give your dog a reward for having "all four paws on the floor".

A general rule of thumb is to "reward behaviour that you like". Try to encourage your dog to behave how you like, as opposed to punishing behaviour that you don't like. Dogs quickly associate punishment with the punisher, so they wait until that person is not looking then do the 'bad' behaviour. 

If you're training, use treats only as a reward. If you use a treat to lure, the dog's brain concentrates on the lure and not on the training. Especially with a 'typical' grey, keep training sessions very short - possibly one minute at a time give or take. If you can, enroll your dog (and self) in a basic obedience course that uses only Positive Reinforcement meathods. Cheers.

Edited February 27, 2021 by mansbestfriend