What are your dogs worst habits???

duck85

duck85

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I'm just wondering but are your dogs worst habits as no-one or animal is perfect...

Mine is that he pulls repeatedly when on walks even after constantly being reminded as he has been trained for the first year and a half of his life!
He also does not come back when let off the lead at my local park although he is really good in the woods and dog parks...

Another bad habit is that my brothers (and me occasionally) leave the kitchen gate open (which is there to stop my dog going into the kitchen) and then my dog, Dylan, goes into the bin and eats leftovers... We don't know why as he has been told and hundreds of occasions and been put outside in the garden for a while each time but he continues to do so... He shouldn't be hungry because if he eats anymore food at mealtimes he will become fat...

Any advice???
 
I have 2 GSP's and one of them barks at night when they want to toilet :(. In their defence, they are both old but sometimes it can be 12:30, 03:00 and 05:15. It is beyond a joke and has been going on for about 18 months now :mad:, sometimes I am absolutely shattered :(.

One of them, the same one :rolleyes: is also a thief. Like yours, she will raid the bin given the chance and by far the most annoying is jumping up and eating out of the saucepans on the stove. For this reason, she is not normally in the kitchen at food prep/cook time.

The IG's most annoying thing is to take insoles out of shoes and shred them. In his defence, he is 11 months old and shoes seem to be the only thing he chews.

As for curing you dog of food thieving, let me know when you find the answer. My dog knows full well she is bad, I only have to look at her mid lick and she slinks off to her bed. Knowing it is wrong doesn't seem to stop her though!
 
duck85 said:
I'm just wondering but are your dogs worst habits as no-one or animal is perfect...

Mine is that he pulls repeatedly when on walks even after constantly being reminded as he has been trained for the first year and a half of his life!
He also does not come back when let off the lead at my local park although he is really good in the woods and dog parks...

Another bad habit is that my brothers (and me occasionally) leave the kitchen gate open (which is there to stop my dog going into the kitchen) and then my dog, Dylan, goes into the bin and eats leftovers... We don't know why as he has been told and hundreds of occasions and been put outside in the garden for a while each time but he continues to do so... He shouldn't be hungry because if he eats anymore food at mealtimes he will become fat...

Any advice???
Click to expand...

- Make sure you have a good collar and lead or head collar combo. Don't *let* him pull you. Go back to basics and teach him to walk on a loose line, or he goes nowhere. Time consuming and hard work, but there you go.
Also incentivise walking beside you, take a ball or use some of his daily allowance of food from your pocket to keep him close.

You're setting him up to fail with the thieving. The gate is open and the bin is accessible and there is smelly food in there. Again you could spend a lot of time with a line and a clicker, distract him with part of his normal allowance of food, over and over again, going to the bin means a pop on the neck by you giving the line a tug, ignoring the bin means food.

My dog's worst habits - young one is a terrible, spoilt brat of a whiner :mad: and big dog is actually quite good at the mo although he can be a bit thuggish and he wheedles/squeals as opposed to whining :p

I don't actually believe dogs know they are wrong, they look guilty because they expect punishment because of our voice, facial features, body language, they don't often have human sensibilities, I recommend a great book called The Culture Clash by Jane Donaldson :)
 
Badger - barky dog when excited

Bear - steals shoes, chews off toggles and buttons on anything!!

Roo - eating stones

But I love them really..................bad habits are part of their character and I would not have them any different.
 
CaveCanem said:
I don't actually believe dogs know they are wrong, they look guilty because they expect punishment because of our voice, facial features, body language, they don't often have human sensibilities, I recommend a great book called The Culture Clash by Jane Donaldson :)
Click to expand...

No voice needed. If I walk in normally, as I would be, because I don't expect her to be there, she just slinks off without a word or noise from me. I don't need to punish her, she goes off herself.
I punish my OH for letting her in though ;):D.

Is it Jane Donaldson who is Pat Parelli of the dog world? Or am I thinking of somebody else :cool:?
 
**Through gritted teeth** picnics!:eek::mad::o

I have come to see this as more of a management issue than a training issue these days... cos I am never going to train this one out of him:rolleyes:
 
quirky said:
No voice needed. If I walk in normally, as I would be, because I don't expect her to be there, she just slinks off without a word or noise from me. I don't need to punish her, she goes off herself.
I punish my OH for letting her in though ;):D.

Is it Jane Donaldson who is Pat Parelli of the dog world? Or am I thinking of somebody else :cool:?
Click to expand...

It can be memory as well/linkage and even the tiniest of vibes.
Dogs can detect the smallest flicker, a raised eyebrow.

Jane Donaldson describes dog behaviour very well and seeing things from a dog's point of view, the book is a great read and was a bit of an eye opener for me. I don't agree with all of what she says and she has very strong views about 'strangle collars' as she calls them, I do use them, it's my business.

I think it's helpful to pick and choose the best bits from lots of different trainers, I do not believe in a one size fits all methodology (therefore making me look like a bit of a hypocrite by saying NO dogs know what they are doing is wrong, but of course, many don't) but like I say, I read her book and some of the things she said, were lightbulb moments for me, ie, dog doesn't see a pair of Jimmy Choos and eats them to spite you, dog is bored and sees a chew toy!!! And it was your fault for leaving the expensive shoes there in the first place :p
 
Re; the pulling..we found that getting the dog to focus on you and listen helped the most - to explain further, we set off on a walk, with my lead loose (the more you pull it tight, the less you are able to 'correct') and the minute my dog pulled, I'd turn sharply on my heel and walk in the opposite direction, giving a sharp tug on the lead as I went. Every time she pulled I'd repeat. Very time consuming but I think it taught her to focus on me and realise she had to listen or she'd get left behind. She now doesn't pull with me.
As for bad habits...
My golden retriever never, ever fails to come up to us after her dinner and belch right in our face...:eek::eek:
My GSD unfortunately has a bad skin condition and I suppose her bad habit would be biting and licking when she is itchy :(
K x
 
Cave canem - my old collie cross definatly know when he'd done wrong. When I got home from school usually he'd jump up bark run round etc but maybe once every 6 months if that I get in and he wouldn't come up to me he'd be in his bed and wouldn't look at me. I then knew he'd done something and have to search the house to find what he'd done :rolleyes: he was never told off etc as he was a rescue so these things were sort of expected but he always was so sad and upset that I'd know he'd done something like poo on my bedroom floor :( etc
 
Katie, I was swapping notes with a guy yesterday who owns a half brother, we figured we should just invest in earplugs :p

Emma21, you should read The Culture Clash too :) if he was rescued, he was maybe reprimanded by his previous 'owners' for soiling the house?
 
Shoving a cold wet nose as a cheery greeting where cold wet noses should not shoved!

I'm jolly careful when I get dressed first thing that a lurking skinny mongrel isnt waiting for me to put my pants on!
 
Ricoh pees on his front legs and has to be babywiped before he's allowed on the sofa. He still smells faintly of pee. :o

Dax likes the taste of moisturiser, body cream and bath bubbles and will seek me out to lick me or drink the bathwater.
 
paisley said:
Shoving a cold wet nose as a cheery greeting where cold wet noses should not shoved!

I'm jolly careful when I get dressed first thing that a lurking skinny mongrel isnt waiting for me to put my pants on!
Click to expand...

Ive been caught like this before Im glad its not only me.:D

Diesel & Darcy on their own are very good, together a different story, Diesel will pull on the lead if with Darcy. Giving treats you offer to Darcy and then say leave it offer again and say leave it, the third time you offer and say gently and she will take gently but this is only when she is with Diesel and normally she will just take it gently. There is a definate rivalry between them.
 
Dogs defo know they are wrong, and some are just obnoxious.........for example today I stupidly didnt lock the kitchen door so the dogs got in (was only for 20min or so) I came home Dylan and Teal shot out in the garden very low to the ground and Will was eating a cake I had on the worktop, looked at me and carried on!!! The other two are responsible for the cake eating TBH but they knew they had been bad puppys.


Dylans worst habit: Getting out, my poor neighbours know him well!!! Electric fence doesn;t stop this pup. Not realising hes a strong dog, he just tanks into Teal when playing now.



Teal: Anti social grumbly git!! People who met him at the BBQ can back me up hes not aggressive but he just doesn't like the company of other dogs. He will grumble at them when they pass (I wish I could spend a few hours in this dogs head).



Will: He beats you with his paw if you ignore him.
 
Leo will still chew the dining room chair arms if he is left out free range. He also pees on his front legs - usually cos he's in a hurry:rolleyes:

Splash is a minger - he eats crap - and he's not too fussy who's it is. He also rolls in it and gets it all over his neck:mad:

Other than that they are perfect:p
 
Badger Bear - lovely dog but...

Barking..in a very loud high pitched fashion!
...at people who walk down the lane behind the house
...at the seagulls at 5am
...at any sound he hears when in the house
...at any sound he hears when in the garden.particualry when he goes out for a late night wee
...at my horses when ever they do anything he KNOWS they should not be doing (chewing fencing, scraping floor with hoof) - clever dog but horses unfortunately just ignore his threats!
..at horses when they are doing anything he THINKS they should not be doing
...in excitement when i do anything with horse, ie. ride in school, ride in field, ride out of gate :-(

in fairness he seems to think it is his job to protect me and to keep the other animals in order. but ...have tried everything...and still he barks..

...and other bad habit is humping other dogs on walks ..particularly blondes!
We had Badger's 'nadgers' removed at as early a stage as possible but too late...the urge was already there!

...stealing food goes without saying - he is labrador x collie. The stomach of a labrador combined with the cunning of a collie,,He does However have a skin allergy and is on permanent steroids so wants food all the time..
...he knows when he has been 'bad' but often decides the 'pros' of the delicious stolen grub far outway the 'cons' of being caught.

any suggestions gratefully recieved!

Fantastic with children though and a really loyal chap so all other faults forgiven (usually)
 
I own the cutest chihuahua/Jack Russell dog. :p
She is 4 yo but still acts like a puppy sometimes! When I walk out the door she pull's on the bottom of my jeans and I have to drag her around until she let's go! And another is she LOVES carrots! If she sees me giving one to my horse she will do anything to get it! She would eat a bag full if I let her! :rolleyes:
 
CaveCanem said:
dog doesn't see a pair of Jimmy Choos and eats them to spite you, dog is bored and sees a chew toy!!! And it was your fault for leaving the expensive shoes there in the first place :p
Click to expand...

I don't think for one moment that a dog thinks to do something just to poop the owner off :o:).

As I said OH gets the punishment, not the dog :rolleyes:.
 
CaveCanem said:
- Make sure you have a good collar and lead or head collar combo. Don't *let* him pull you. Go back to basics and teach him to walk on a loose line, or he goes nowhere. Time consuming and hard work, but there you go.
Also incentivise walking beside you, take a ball or use some of his daily allowance of food from your pocket to keep him close.

You're setting him up to fail with the thieving. The gate is open and the bin is accessible and there is smelly food in there. Again you could spend a lot of time with a line and a clicker, distract him with part of his normal allowance of food, over and over again, going to the bin means a pop on the neck by you giving the line a tug, ignoring the bin means food.

I recommend a great book called The Culture Clash by Jane Donaldson :)
Click to expand...

Thank You! I already try doing some of that... He has a halti that my brother uses and I will start using again (I don't because I know he hates it)
When I take him out, if he pulls I just stop and call him back but he still won't learn. As for taking dog food out, I have done that many times but I don't want to rely on it as he is now 3 1/2 so should have learnt...

Going back to raiding the bin, he knows not to take food and looks guilty as soon as you catch him... When I come home and he is quiet, doesn't greet you when you get in and he is in his bed you know he has done something he knows he shouldn't...

If I can find that book it might be very useful!
Thanks again :-) x
 
Betsy pulls like a train. I am considering buying a halti and praying it does something to break through her stubborn terrierness.

She also drinks bathwater (Preferably with me in the bath) and will jump into the bath on occasion :o
 
Meg - stalks horses, drags Maisy round by the tail, picks on the GSD.

Maisy - widdles when excited

Bear - Noisy, likes to bark at anything, even clouds in the sky and tries to voice his opinions at Meg who then tells him off.

Hugo - farting!!
 
Pulling like a train towards other dogs, she's so friendly can't wait to say hello to them :rolleyes:

If I see other dog in time, I've started getting her to sit and stay and let the other dog come to her, hopefully that might start to do the trick!
 
'Muttering' and grumbling under her breath when you are sitting down watching the tv! I realise it is attention seeking, but would have thought for an intelligent dog that she would have figured out it gets no attention whatsoever and packed it up by now. It is possible to find it quite amusing if you don't mind not being able to hear the tv - and I spend a lot of the time concentrating on keeping a straight face.

The tv doesnt bother her if it is on and you are not watching it though!! :D
 
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