I have a 7 week old female German Shepherd,
i want to start training her in a month or so
I've already taught her how to sit and give me her paw, bad thing is she expects a treat (not a big treat, just one piece of chewy dog food), so when i don't give her a treat i just praise her and tell her she's a good dog.
should i take her to a trainer? or should i just take her to the Petco/Petsmart training programs??
I want to train her not to be so aggressive when i give her food.
she growls at me when i get anywhere near her bowl and she eats like she's never eaten in her life.
my bf said maybe it's because she's still used to competing for food when she was around her brothers and sisters.
When my cats get next to her when she's eating she snaps at them but doesn't bite them, but i don't want her to get any bad habits so how do i get her to stop?? I usually take the bowl away tell her "NO!" and give her the food back in like 1 minute.
also how to i train her to roll over and play dead??? if you guys can give me any tips i would really appreciate it! thanks!p.s. my puppy's dad was a pure bred German Shepherd, & her mom was a German shepherd mix.
i don't know what the mom was mixed with, been trying to figure it out. Here's a pic of my pup. what do you think the 25% mixed is?? http://i34.tinypic.com/14t7i47.jpg
Dog Training Tricks - Is Anyone Training You?
Recommended Answer:A good puppy class is usually enough when working with a non-problematic and healthy little puppy.
Later when you want to increase the training level you can take her to a good trainer.
It's not unusual for puppies from large litters to have food. My dog was the biggest of a very large litter and she had extreme food aggression when we got her at 8 weeks old. It's very important to train food aggression correctly. If you use the wrong training methods, you can actually make the aggression worse and I've seen non-food aggressive puppies turn into food aggressive dogs because their owner trained them the wrong way.
There are many opinions and methods on how to train away food aggression. Mine is based on trust and dog language and behaviour - and yes, I do tend to get a lot of thumbs down for this from people who believe that food aggression is a dominant behaviour, but my method works.
The logic behind it is that food aggression is a normal behaviour and it is unrelated to rank or dominance. In the wild, the dogs' law of possession is that even the weakest member of the pack is entitled to protect his food - and unless the pack is starving in which case the stronger and the dominant dogs will take the food by sheer force, then usually the only accepted way of stealing another dog's food is to trick him.
Of course food aggression cannot be tolerated in a dog living with humans. So we train it away and this is especially easy to do when working with young puppies.
My advice is to stop taking the bowl away from your dog. Look at it from her point of view. She's guarding her food because she's afraid you might take it away from her. Her growl is a low key way of telling you to please back off, the same with snapping at the cats. She's not being overly aggressive, she's merely warning everyone. So when you take the food away from her, you're doing two things:
a. You are confirming that you are not to be trusted and that you were indeed out to get her food.
b. You're showing her that you do not respect her warning. The worst case scenario in this case is an adult dog that will skip any ineffective warnings entirely and go straight for a bite.
My training method is the following, where I don't proceed with the next step until the dog is completely relaxed with the step that came before it:
1. Let her eat in peace. Stay away from her while she's eating and keep the cats away from her as well. Do this for a few weeks.
2. Walk around her, doing your daily business. Ignore her and the food completely, even if she should growl at you. Let the cats in as well, but remove them if they get too close to her. The cat law of possession is actually identical to the dog law of possession and in my experience cats quickly learn to respect the dog's warning to keep away.
3. Start throwing tidbits of extra yummy food in her bowl as you walk past her while she's eating.
4. When giving her large treats, before giving her the treat, hold the treat for a while and let her chew on it while you're holding it. (Remember according to the dogs' law of possession, as long as you haven't given it up, then it's yours and you're letting her eat YOUR treat. As soon as you let go, it will be hers).
5. Take out two small bowls. Put a tiny bit of food in both bowls and give her one bowl. As soon as she's emptied it replace it with the other bowl, put a bit of food in the first bowl, wait for her to finish the second bowl then take it and put down the first bowl. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
6. Use just one bowl, take it before it's completely empty to put some extra tidbits and then give it to her again.
At the same time teach her the meaning of "no" or "leave it" with "no"-exercises. Use the praise and treat method where the "no"-treat never becomes the "yes"-treat. Practise every day until she's so good at it that you could drop a prime steak on the floor, give the puppy a quiet "no" and trust her not to touch the steak.
Also, arm yourself with a bag of tiny treats suitable for both dogs and cats and then sit down and give every one a treat, one at the time. Bad behaviour, such as trying to take the treat away from the cats, results in a "no!" and no treats. Good behaviour, such as sitting quietly and waiting for the treat, results in a treat and praise.
If you are forced to have to take something away from her, then try to, whenever possible, to exchange it with something else and better.
Once you've done all the above training and reached stage 6, then your puppy should no longer show any food aggression. Some puppies learn this faster than others, the important thing is to remain patient and consisten with the training and not move forward faster than what the puppy is ready for.
How to Identify Good Dog Training Schools
- Hi,
Training is the best investment you can make in your relationship with your dog. You'll need to do your homework first, though, to learn how to communicate what you want in a way that your dog will understand. Stay consistent and patient, reward your dog for getting it right and remember: you can train a dog of any age. Here's more info:
http://dogtime.com/training.html
- feed her from your hand she can't bite the hand that feeds her ...
stay is the command you need to get down forget about sit ,, they all sit forget the paw it's cute it means nothing right now come.. is number one or two stay come and getting her to walk behind you or absolutely next to you on a leash .. work on those 3 above all things .. use the food because it's a prime motivator .. i giggle when people say hector millian or ceaser whatever //is such a doggy genius .. I bet he'd figure out your dog in ten seconds .. the way i just did .. she's hungry right ..?? u have the food ?? guess who's in charge /// You
yeah my dog has only chewed food twice in the last two years i give her fillet mignon she swallows it .. i give her a rock dipped in gravey same thing ..i haven't ever bought her dog treats that cost more than 99,cents a pound .. she will work for any type dog food you have ..i buy treats because i like the shapes .. lol good luck n remember .. it's just a dog
- Definitely take her for training. Start as soon as possible, don't wait. Deal with the food aggression issues NOW, before she gets too big & hurts you, a family member or your cats. When she's eating, go over & stand near the bowl. Put it out where you can maneuver around it. When she starts to eat, stand over the bowl & get her to move away by moving towards her. Pick up the bowl. Claim the bowl as yours. Keep doing this until you can take the bowl away without any problems. Watch the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan. He has a website & is excellent with dogs. Become a pack leader!
- You can train your dog yourself with treats. All you do is show the dog what you want it to do and then give her a treat like cheese that she likes a lot. For example, if you want to teach her to lie down, force her to lie down and give her a treat while saying "lay down." She will get the idea what to do and in time obey you when she hears the command.
Do not tolerate growling by her around her food. When she growls, tell her "no!" and take the food away. You can train a dog to be gentle and submissive. You need to let her know you are the boss in every regard.