Things you wish you'd never taught your dog to do!

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Sarah_K

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So for a bit of fun on this dreary Monday morning- what do you wish you hadn't taught your dog?

We're working on hind end awareness using a toddlers toilet step. Obie has to put his front feet on it and move his back end around so that he's always lined up straight on to me. Now if he thinks he wants a treat/attention that's his go to thing. Front feet on, angled towards me and barks. :)

One of the dogs at the training centre was taught to back up in a straight line away from his handler. That's his thing now. Backwards and forwards if he's getting a bit bored.
 
"Touch/Boop (:rolleyes::p)" where he nudges my hand for a treat. The long game was to transfer it to closing doors but now he just comes up and (very politely it has to be said) nudges my hand and then patiently awaits a treat, no matter if I'm just trying to live my life/do some work.

When he was nervous of meeting dogs out on walks I would have him, sit and focus on me until they passed...this has now translated to we must grind to a halt when we see anyone coming, which we're slowly moving past...:rolleyes:
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who taught Boop Snoot :p which is now a 'FEED ME NOW BITCH' headbutt.

I wish I'd taught my older dog everything with food in the beginning instead of moving to the ball so quickly and turning him into a loony. He is also very smart, but stubborn, so of course learned all the wrong things very quickly and refused to then re-learn the correct way :p
 
Sit to cross the road. Now whenever I walk out across a road without saying the right words first, I feel a tug on the lead and turn to see a little hairy face parked on the kerb looking quizzical....
 
KittenInTheTree said:
Wake me up for my morning medication. That would be the medication that I no longer need to take - dog still wakes me, no sleeping in on a weekend here!
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Oh dear, this one did make me laugh - I suppose at least you're future proofed in case of any further medication needs....perhaps you should train him to let you go back to sleep once you've taken a few placebo pills for his benefit?
 
Taught him to talk to me. Not the "speak on command", he does that. No, this is a stupid thing I should never have started. Talking to him in "noises" with different inflections and he responds in kind, hard to describe really, a bit like the Clangers. A two way conversation. Except I don't always want to converse.

Laughing at him hasn't helped.
 
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I regretted teaching my last shepherd to wait for a verbal command before eating her meals. This worked great for over 10 years and then she went deaf and refused to eat because she could not hear the release command. So I managed to switch to a visual command which worked for 2 further years before her eyesight became a problem.

Now I have a new shepherd and seem to be teaching the same thing again but using both verbal and visual commands together.
 
My collie has ‘learned’ routines that I have ever purposely taught her!
She is also person specific....
So in the morning husband is normally downstairs first at the moment as I am feeding new baby, but she won’t go outside until I come downstairs. She would hold it for an hour extra some mornings (the lab goes out!)

No useful skills! Just neurotic tendencies 😛 only takes once to remember. Husband gave her a nearly empty large yogurt pot one night. Now if she ever sees a pot she sits and stares at you while you eat. Not with other food though!
 
We did not teach B Rotter to open the door into the kitchen she taught herself this useful skill :D We then had to turn the doorhandle the other way up (think door handles to keep elderly confused people in their care homes!) She can also open the outside door which is quite handy when they are both in between it and you :)
 
Encouraging the poodle to show jump when messing about in the paddock. Daughter and myself entered one of those Horse and Hound classes, poodle did a couple of the little ones on the doggy course then decided that was beneath him and set off after the pony, putting in some real fliers on route. Pony became so over excited that it took 3 tries to get through the exit in required walk. I think we were about 2 minutes slower than anyone else but got a goody bag for providing the biggest laugh of the afternoon.
 
CorvusCorax said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who taught Boop Snoot :p which is now a 'FEED ME NOW BITCH' headbutt.
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Hmmm............I taught the snout touch to the back of my legs, so that I could have a dog working in front of me and have two others off lead - one either side - behind me. The snout touch indicating that they were still there whilst I focussed on the dog working in front. Great....until two rather competitive 35kg+ males made contact at the same time to my legs with a tad too much force. Face plant! :(
 
Sarah_K said:
So for a bit of fun on this dreary Monday morning- what do you wish you hadn't taught your dog?

Bark his age- usually when we meet someone new and they ask, so I just have to say 'well, tell them how old you are'

Except he now usually anticipates it and starts barking his tiny pea brained head off!

The highlight was at a charity dog show when he just happily roared away in the judges face-oddly enough we didn't get a place ;)
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Accidentally taught Mrs Spaniel that 10pm is bedtime. Now I get glared at, at 9.50. If that gets ignored she marches up to her bed outside my bedroom, I can hear her noisily arranging her bed and grumbling to herself and then if I've still not taken the hint she comes back down, glares at me and heaves a heavy sigh before going back upstairs and starting the process again and again until I give in
Most annoying when it's the weekend and I'm trying to watch a film!
 
We taught big dog to wait and then go on when we pointed. We did this every time we went to the woods. He was always my right hand dog, but is blind in his left eye so he just doesn’t see the gesture and needs a touch on the head.
 
I taught Frank to close doors - now sometimes I'll open a kitchen cupboard door to get something out, and before I know what's going on he's slammed it shut and is looking at me expectantly for a treat..!
 
Ask for her tea. I suppose I did teach her accidentally as I must have responded when she did it the first time. She doesn’t bark, but sits right in front of me grumbling until i get up then she runs to the kitchen. If I tell her to shush she fixes me with a death stare and doesn’t move or blink for ages. If I still haven’t got up she grumbles again.
 
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