My OH is a bunny hugging townie

MrsElle

MrsElle

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What can you do with the above? Is there any hope for change or at 52 is it too late to teach an old dog new tricks?

Don't get me wrong, he is great the majority of the time and is currently building me my stables but hasn't a clue when it comes to animals.

One of our dogs is a rescue, was undersocialised and scared of everything. OH couldn't read doggy body language resulting in getting bitten on more than one occasion. (OH has now learnt doggy body language!).

The latest is that OH told me off for slapping Blue on the nose after Blue had bitten me. Blue is only two and testing boundaries and needs to know what he can and can't do. Obviously biting is a big no no, but after Blue got a slap for biting me last night OH came running over, told me off and went to give Blue a fuss!!!
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Talk about Blue getting mixed messages. Blue rarely nips me anymore as he knows that he will get a slap. He bites OH regularly though.

So, how do I train OH? Is all lost? Do I have to accept that he will always be a fluffy bunny hugging townie? Do you think I could re-train OH using Parelli? Will it work on humans?

Help
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My OH is excatly the same, when I tell our dogs off for doing something, he runs over and gives them a fuss, How will the dogs learn???
I have a tendancy now that when OH does the above action, something he loves soon becomes banned, for him to use. Slowly he's starting to learn.
I'm a Literally a bunny hugger to my rabbits, but when they used to bite I let out a loud cry, they soon stopped biting
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Tap him regularly with a carrot stick and I'm sure he'll get the message - or for longer term results perhaps he would benefit from a short Richard Maxwell type of course - he will like the idea that it is all about Natural Horsemanship but will benefit because it is not fluffy.
 
A friend has similar problems with her OH but it is with the children! It didn't help her case when she said you should use discipline with children in the same way as you train a horse. He doesn't care about the horses (wishes they didn't exist to be honest) but he is a bunny hugger with the badly behaved children. In his case there is no chance with retraining as it has been tried for years, so good luck!
 
get OH to hold the end of a carrot and really watch as a horse (maybe not the baby if titbits make the nipping worse!) bites it in half, then point out how much bigger said carrot is than a child's finger, if he doesn't understand why you are firm with the baby he is bound to just think you are mean, my OH was a bit of a townie when I got him but now understands that how firm I am with my horses at home is often all that stops me from being under a lorry out hacking!

Good luck, of course you can retrain him, look at what ex racehorses achieve!
 
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