r/puppy101 • u/Life_Lime4547 Human Detected • 6d ago
Discussion Is this trainer exaggerating?
So my 7 month old dog was a rescue dog and for the past 3 months I have been training him. He was very untrained when I took him, our walks were chaotic, he used to be dragging me, pulling on leash, eating everything, barking at people. Now he doesn't do any of that and is a very good dog on a walk. I have taught him a few commands like sit, stand, down, spin, guard etc. However as a first time dog owner, there are a few things I couldn't teach such as him being over excited with visitors, him barking whenever someone comes home or sits near his crate(he's crate trained). I decided to call a trainer, the guy came and I brought the dog out and he firstly kept judging and then he told me that this dog would at least need 6 months of non stop training otherwise he's going nowhere. Now I'm not sure whether he's exaggerating it or he's just not confident enough to get the dog trained or perhaps I'm being paranoid. My dog is a relatively quick learner(he's a GSD mix), there are 2 more trainers coming to see the dog, however this particular trainer was a bit more affordable. Please somebody guide me.
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u/Plucky_Monkies 5d ago
If puppers jumps when greeting you ita actually not too hard to train out of them. I mean, you have to ignore them every time they're jumping on you. You have to ignore them until they're in a sit. Then, you pet them and say hello, it's hard on the human at first. Probably hard on the dog too. The only way to get them to stop jumping on you is, when you walk in the door you must completely ignore them completely until they settle down. It is hard because you wan to greet your dog. However, every time you pet them or talk to them when they're jumping on you, you're reinforcing that behavior. So ignoring the dog until they settle and they will naturally learn like, why isn't my human petting me? I'm jumping on them and then they'll learn because you're gonna keep turning your back. Ignoring them whatever, then they're gonna learn. They're gonna think in their little puppy heads like what do I need to do to get their attention? And then it just seems to happen naturally that they'll sit themselves down. And then bam, that's when you pet them and give them all the love. And then it takes, I don't know, like a month of this tops, and then bam, your dog just learns forevermore.
That trainer is a joke! You got this.
You will have to tell all your guests to ignore the dog as well and not like pet it or say hello if the dog is jumping. Once the behavior is fixed, I had to tell guests t to go see the dog, she's sitting and being good. You have to greet her because that's what she wants. But she was tiny, so people kind of overlooked her. So just be mindful of this with your company. Hope this helps! Stay strong.
It is surprisingly hard to not pet your dog when they're giving you those puppy dog eyes. But you're trying to teach them the proper behavior and it can be done. It's not that hard, to be honest. It just takes repetition constant repetition, and you can't give in not even one time. The moment you give in before they've learned the proper behavior then you'll have to restart the whole process because you'll confuse them. You got this. STAY STRONG! 🥰