Training mistakes with unintended consequences?

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abb123

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I gave my pup a treat once for getting in the car after a walk. Now I have to put her on a lead at the end of her walk otherwise she'll try and charge off to the car (or any remotely similar looking car!) across car parks and roads to get in the car and get her treat!

What other daft training mistakes with unintended consequences have people made?
 
one of my friends had a dog called Coffee and we used to visit with ours so they could play together, silly OH used to say '' d'you wanna go and see Coffee?'' dog jumps up and down , yeh , yeh ,yeh, now of course that word cannot be mentioned at all in our house except at a whisper which is damn embarrassing when people visit, i have to wave the jar at them and mime tea or coffee.

i also had ' walking the dog boots' never do this!!. throw them away now!
 
Our younger GSD has a naughty habit of chewing stuff when we go out. He routinely did this while we were out doing the shopping and earned the approbation of my husband on our return, every time.

OH thought he would learn not to chew by being yelled at and kicked out after the fact... Instead, he now associates shopping bags with a telling off and will hide, and sometimes pee when we get back from the supermarket. OH is suitably ashamed.
 
The first one isn't a training thing but the second is definitely all my own creation!!

Years ago I sometimes used to call at my local sandwich shop in the morning for a bacon butty, complete with dogs in tow. Lovely lady in shop adored dogs and used to come out with sausages for them.

One day Boston suddenly took off as we were walking across the park (opposite the shop). This was a dog that would have followed me off a cliff so totally out of character. I chased after him and found him sat patiently outside the shop, waiting for his bloomin sausages!!

Second is Kiera, the special needs person bless her. She's as deaf as a post and as daft as a box of frogs but still really active for her age (14). I was determined she was going to enjoy off lead exercise so used food as her motivation to keep an eye on me.

We now do the most extreme version of 'check in' ever as she's become obsessed with the biscuits. She comes crashing into my legs, has a habit of going backwards while she's focussing on the biscuit pocket and I spend a lot of time with my palms open (look no biscuit this time lol).

To be fair she's much happier off lead and I've not misplaced her since food was introduced (I did before a couple of times).
 
OH trained our pup to stand at the kitchen door, step outside, and then rush back in straight away and immediately stand at the cupboard where his doggy treats are kept.
 
Completely my own creation, grown up with spaniels and terriers who were so easy to train I assumed all dogs were like that! Then when the little madam, Jenny the Shih-Tzu, entered the house it was like having a toddler for two years non stop. Taught her to speak one day, ah yes cute she can do that so shes not a simpleton....except now she only whips it out the bag everytime someone enters the house. Would be fine except it sounds like an almighty gurgle which terrifies new people thinking shes growling at them. And yet she still struggles to sit. Woops!
 
Not so much a mistake with training, as being betrayed for a biscuit... I used to work in a dog-friendly pub where dog biscuits were routinely served with pints at lunchtime. Unbeknownst to his wife, one chap came in almost every day with his faithful hound until one lunchtime I saw said dog being walked by said man's wife.

They got about ten paces past the pub door before it dawned on the pooch that his mistress wasn't going to stop in for his biscuit. Dog promptly about-faced and hauled the poor woman right up to the bar. Rumbled!
 
C1airey said:
Not so much a mistake with training, as being betrayed for a biscuit... I used to work in a dog-friendly pub where dog biscuits were routinely served with pints at lunchtime. Unbeknownst to his wife, one chap came in almost every day with his faithful hound until one lunchtime I saw said dog being walked by said man's wife.

They got about ten paces past the pub door before it dawned on the pooch that his mistress wasn't going to stop in for his biscuit. Dog promptly about-faced and hauled the poor woman right up to the bar. Rumbled!
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a story of a friend's dog that went missing last week and was found sitting in the local pub by the fire. Guess where the husband had been calling on his night walks..
 
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