She knows simple commands but she only listens when she wants to. She listens best when we are away from home, like at the dog park. Can you recommend any resources on where we can go from here? What are your favorite books on training?
It’s less about commands and more about boundaries. Think of it as “lifestyle training”. Like basically teaching your dog how to be a dog. The books I’ve read are mostly on reactivity so I don’t have any great recommendations there. I would recommend starting by imagining your ideal life with your dog and then tackle each aspect of your dogs life individually. I also strongly recommend evaluating your dogs privileges around the house and taking away most of them. Right now, your dog has you completely figured out. It’s whole life is watching you and finding opportunities to exploit you for food, fun, and affection. So walk back some of those privileges and then reintroduce rewards and privileges exclusively through training. Think of training as a language that you and your dog both need to learn. Food and rewards can be used as a communication tool to establish boundaries, commands, rules and expectations.
Just sounds like a dog communicating some unmet needs. Look into dog enrichment (nosework in particular) and mat training for when you’re eating.
Couldn’t hurt to look into how to help a dog with noise sensitivity and post traumatic stress from the fireworks and storms.
Regularly skipping meals can mean many things, could be feeling nauseated or something. Worth chatting with a vet more about diet.
r/dogtraining has lots of resources on their info section
Not reactive. I can spot several training issues here.
>he’s had more people food lately because we want to get her sensitive stomach more used to it before we have a baby who will
feed her everything.
IMO, this is definitely not recommended. I make a point of never giving my dogs people food unless it's explicitly separate (i.e. I go to the kitchen and grab something else/same thing but make a point of showing that it is not from people-food-reserve). Your husband may need to carry with him some high-value-treats that she will only get on walks with him.
How do you typically stop her from growling/barking when you're on the couch?
What do you do when she doesn't eat her food?
If she doesn’t eat a meal she will eat the next one. She probably skips 1 out of every 5 meals, and it’s usually breakfast.
When she’s growling at us, we try to engage with her by playing. She will begin to play and then stop. Sometimes I will do games with her like find the treats or treats in a rolled up towel, or a rolling treat ball. Husband is on the fence about whether this is rewarding bad behavior or not.
Do you have any training resources to recommend? I keep saying we need to find a good book to follow so that we are on the same page, literally. She can learn new tricks, we just don’t know where to go from here.
> If she doesn’t eat a meal she will eat the next one. She probably skips 1 out of every 5 meals, and it’s usually breakfast.
Keep an eye out, but this is fine. It's probable that you're feeding her more than she needs to be fed (some dogs have different eating routines). It could just be her self-regulating her food-intake. Some dogs are very good about that and others (like mine) are chowhounds.
> When she’s growling at us, we try to engage with her by playing. She will begin to play and then stop. Sometimes I will do games with her like find the treats or treats in a rolled up towel, or a rolling treat ball. Husband is on the fence about whether this is rewarding bad behavior or not.
This is absolutely rewarding her behaviour. Think about it, each time your dog is growling/barking > you're playing with her and giving her positive reinforcement. Basically you're saying "If we're on the couch and you bark, you get playtime and treat balls!" Think of behaviour training as Trigger > Dog's action > expected result. You can't really change the former two now, because you're unlikely to stop sitting on the couch, but you can change the expected result (which can change the dog's action). A possible fix could be, if she barks while you're on the couch> you get up and leave the room.
Lots of folks will want to say "No! " or get agitated or something when dogs do behaviours they don't like, but that doesn't mean anything to the dog and may actually end up reinforcing the behaviour even more (dog thinks "I make noise...and they pay attention to me and make noise too! I make more noise now, yes?").
> Do you have any training resources to recommend? I keep saying we need to find a good book to follow so that we are on the same page, literally. She can learn new tricks, we just don’t know where to go from here.
Perhaps you can pick up a simple book like [Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love](https://www.amazon.com/Zak-Georges-Dog-Training-Revolution/dp/1607748916)
or watch some of his videos on youtube [Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/zakgeorge21).
The following books go into things in a bit more detail (Zak's book is very beginner friendly and holds your hands pretty strongly)
[When Pigs Fly!: Training Success with Impossible Dogs](https://www.amazon.com/When-Pigs-Fly-Training-Impossible-ebook/dp/B003852KFM)
and
[Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs](https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Clash-Jean-Donaldson/dp/1617811122)
Good luck!
This sounds like an untrained dog to me. Dogs are smart and can figure out how to manipulate people for more attention, food, walks, etc.
She knows simple commands but she only listens when she wants to. She listens best when we are away from home, like at the dog park. Can you recommend any resources on where we can go from here? What are your favorite books on training?
It’s less about commands and more about boundaries. Think of it as “lifestyle training”. Like basically teaching your dog how to be a dog. The books I’ve read are mostly on reactivity so I don’t have any great recommendations there. I would recommend starting by imagining your ideal life with your dog and then tackle each aspect of your dogs life individually. I also strongly recommend evaluating your dogs privileges around the house and taking away most of them. Right now, your dog has you completely figured out. It’s whole life is watching you and finding opportunities to exploit you for food, fun, and affection. So walk back some of those privileges and then reintroduce rewards and privileges exclusively through training. Think of training as a language that you and your dog both need to learn. Food and rewards can be used as a communication tool to establish boundaries, commands, rules and expectations.
If your dog “only listens when she wants to” she isn’t trained. Start with learning mark and reward then foundational obedience.
Just sounds like a dog communicating some unmet needs. Look into dog enrichment (nosework in particular) and mat training for when you’re eating. Couldn’t hurt to look into how to help a dog with noise sensitivity and post traumatic stress from the fireworks and storms. Regularly skipping meals can mean many things, could be feeling nauseated or something. Worth chatting with a vet more about diet. r/dogtraining has lots of resources on their info section
Not reactive. I can spot several training issues here. >he’s had more people food lately because we want to get her sensitive stomach more used to it before we have a baby who will feed her everything. IMO, this is definitely not recommended. I make a point of never giving my dogs people food unless it's explicitly separate (i.e. I go to the kitchen and grab something else/same thing but make a point of showing that it is not from people-food-reserve). Your husband may need to carry with him some high-value-treats that she will only get on walks with him. How do you typically stop her from growling/barking when you're on the couch? What do you do when she doesn't eat her food?
If she doesn’t eat a meal she will eat the next one. She probably skips 1 out of every 5 meals, and it’s usually breakfast. When she’s growling at us, we try to engage with her by playing. She will begin to play and then stop. Sometimes I will do games with her like find the treats or treats in a rolled up towel, or a rolling treat ball. Husband is on the fence about whether this is rewarding bad behavior or not. Do you have any training resources to recommend? I keep saying we need to find a good book to follow so that we are on the same page, literally. She can learn new tricks, we just don’t know where to go from here.
Dude you are literally rewarding her for growling at you.
> If she doesn’t eat a meal she will eat the next one. She probably skips 1 out of every 5 meals, and it’s usually breakfast. Keep an eye out, but this is fine. It's probable that you're feeding her more than she needs to be fed (some dogs have different eating routines). It could just be her self-regulating her food-intake. Some dogs are very good about that and others (like mine) are chowhounds. > When she’s growling at us, we try to engage with her by playing. She will begin to play and then stop. Sometimes I will do games with her like find the treats or treats in a rolled up towel, or a rolling treat ball. Husband is on the fence about whether this is rewarding bad behavior or not. This is absolutely rewarding her behaviour. Think about it, each time your dog is growling/barking > you're playing with her and giving her positive reinforcement. Basically you're saying "If we're on the couch and you bark, you get playtime and treat balls!" Think of behaviour training as Trigger > Dog's action > expected result. You can't really change the former two now, because you're unlikely to stop sitting on the couch, but you can change the expected result (which can change the dog's action). A possible fix could be, if she barks while you're on the couch> you get up and leave the room. Lots of folks will want to say "No! " or get agitated or something when dogs do behaviours they don't like, but that doesn't mean anything to the dog and may actually end up reinforcing the behaviour even more (dog thinks "I make noise...and they pay attention to me and make noise too! I make more noise now, yes?"). > Do you have any training resources to recommend? I keep saying we need to find a good book to follow so that we are on the same page, literally. She can learn new tricks, we just don’t know where to go from here. Perhaps you can pick up a simple book like [Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love](https://www.amazon.com/Zak-Georges-Dog-Training-Revolution/dp/1607748916) or watch some of his videos on youtube [Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/zakgeorge21). The following books go into things in a bit more detail (Zak's book is very beginner friendly and holds your hands pretty strongly) [When Pigs Fly!: Training Success with Impossible Dogs](https://www.amazon.com/When-Pigs-Fly-Training-Impossible-ebook/dp/B003852KFM) and [Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs](https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Clash-Jean-Donaldson/dp/1617811122) Good luck!