how do I show him who's boss?

lovinmyweim · Puppy Joined: 30 Jan 2008 Posts: 3

I was asking for tips on how to train my 7 month old pup, some people said that I have to show him who's boss, be more assertive, but really other than yelling at him or giving him swat ( which I don't like the idea of), how can I show my dog that I am the one suppose to be charge?

FensMom · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject:

Firm love worked for us.....

Fen gets NO, ZERO attention if he is not following a given command.

Weim's love and need attention and once they see what they can do to get it, they will keep doing that activity. I know it's hard to 'ignore' a pup that jumping or barking but you must.. just act like they are not even there. Say the command again.. even the slightest attempt to follow the command (at least at first) should result in you lavishing on the attention.

More to the "i'm the boss" part: This takes time and training and everyone in your home that will be a "boss" (which should be everyone) will need to take their turn at teaching. We started with treats and the 'sit' command. No treat or "good boy!" till he sits. So he will recognize the sound of the word and know that the result of him obeying pleases you and will get him a 'good boy!'.. so he will do so.

With learning just one command it puts you in the place of 'boss'. You give the command, the dog does as you ask, you pay the dog with praise. You give the command, the dog doesn't listen, you don't pay the dog becuase he didn't do the job. Weim's are smart, they will figure this out after a while. Just like if you don't do your job your boss won't pay you.

It took us 2 months to get the 'sit' command down with all family members being able to give it... 95% of the time he will follow the command the 1st time around.

He will now 'stay' 70% of the time, lay down 50% of the time, and come about 80% of the time. He will 'give' 95% of the time but often we have to chase him down because when he has something he's not supposed to he doesn't like to follow the 'come' command LOL. But once we cut him off he will let go of it right away, we never have to fight him for an object unless he knows it's play time and it's his rope.. even then he will 'give' when told.

Don't crack under the pressure of that cute face! This won't work if you give ANY attention when he's not behaving....you have to be strong.

DanniGirl · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

I posted this on your other thread as well...

Start the NILIF...ASAP! (Nothing in life is free...) He must earn his privileges. Before you feed him, make him sit. Before he goes outside make him sit or lay down, etc...No more free reign of the house, furniture, etc.

Raiding the garbage
I would pick him up by the scruff and shake him telling him NO. If he's to heavy, I'd grab him by the scruff and shove his nose into the garbage (that is on the floor) with a loud NO.

stealing food from the kids
I would not stand for that for one second! Again, grab by scruff and shove him on the floor while telling him NO.

running away and not even looking my way when I call
Keep a check cord on him and pull him when you call, start from the beginning and work your way up. DO NOT CALL HIM WHEN HE'S RUNNING AWAY, this will only teach him to ignore you. DO NOT let him off a leash unless he returns, he must earn that privilege.

biting or nibbling
There's a difference, is he play nibbling or is he breaking skin?
Either way I wouldn't allow biting and again, he gets shoved to the floor with a loud NO and no more playing.

I know this all sounds harsh but you MUST be assertive. If you were the boss he would expect this and react accordingly. From your previous post, it sounds like he's BOSS. He does what he wants, when he wants. You need to put him in his place.

h20fwlkillr · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:09 am Post subject:

Danni pointed some good tips. The main thing is consistency and never giving a command w/o being able to enforce it.

oregonweim · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:55 am Post subject:

Know the old lawyer addage, 'never ask a question you don't know the answer to?'... well imo, with dogs is never give them a command that you either (a) know they won't do or (b) you aren't in a position to make them do it. As was said above, if a dog is off leash and running away, don't throw out the Come word unless you are absolutely sure it will work. Keep them on training leeds, within your boundary of control.

My dogs are far from perfect, but we (ok, I) always work on it Very Happy

My general thoughts to the issues that seemed to have come up in are to make sure you address the problems from both ends. Eg, garbage, ensure the family keeps it in a can out of dogs reach (if he is going through cupboard doors whole other issues Very Happy

); stealing food from kids? Crate him/leash him when kids/you are eating (or put his bed in the corner and have him stay there until you are done; Running away? See above, never off leash/long leed until you are confident he will return; Biting/nibling? What worked best for us with Kennedy (when young) and Miles is to scream 'ow' as high pitched and 'sincere' as you can. You need to make it seem like someone cut off your finger type of ow. It worked for us, worked for others I know. ANYTIME you feel a mouth on you scream bloody murder Very Happy

(Just scream ow, don't yell at him). Give you an example, we ran into a pair of Greater Bernese Mountain dogs on our walk the other day, 2 yo and 4 month old. Miles was sort of pushy playing with the puppy and as soon as miles nose even touched/came within a hair of the pup he would cry bloody murder, so Miles backed off. DId it a few times, then when pup felt more comfortable he instigated play and they had fun (until Miles rolled him and he cried again lol).

Anyway, just killing time till I leave Very Happy

Dannigirl said it best at NILF.

Rosko · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject:

We've backed off on the 'hands on' stuff with Rosko a lot (i.e. grabbing scruff, holding down, etc.). Particularly around the head/muzzle area.

The reason was simple: We didn't want him to 'fear' our hands around his head. The last thing we want is a dog that 'crinches' when he sees peoples hands coming, or worse yet, lashes out or nips.

Instead, we keep a leash on him a lot of the time (just let him drag it around if it's 'practical and safe' in your home. That way all control is levied through the leash but not via direct human intervention.

It's been working really well.

We also use favorite toys, treats, etc. to encourage the behavior we want. 'Off' was particularly challenging (he loved the couch) but with treats and toys he will now get down with just the hand signal (don't even need to say it half the time) and, no, we don't use treats or toys any more and he's only 20 weeks old.

'Come' has been more challenging, mostly because we got so caught up in how fast he was learning 'parlor tricks' (as I call them) that we didn't drill this into him enough while he was younger, so now that's all I like to do with him. Sit/stay on one end of the yard then walk across and do the recall... over and over and over using treat. If he does a perfect 'formal' recall (i.e. comes and sits next to or in front of us) he gets a 'jackpot' reward.

Latest challenge is trying to get him to balance on top of a tire for no apparent reason other than my girlfriend seems to find it entertaining. Whatever. I prefer that I can make a fist and say 'keep it real' and he'll raise paw and tap my fist hipster style.

My point is, though a lot of it is 'parlor tricks' they helped to engage him in the process so now we can literally teach him a basic trick in minutes and he'll just know it (the 'keep it real' took three tries and he nails it every time now). By doing this we made it 100000x easier to teach him the things that matter most, i.e. 'Off', 'No biting', 'Leave it', etc.

Good luck. Cool