[thompson]

I have a 16 week old Australian Shepherd/Lab mix. How do I teach him to settle on command (He get's really riled up sometimes during play or when he's bored) and how do I teach him watch (Make him give me his attention on command)?

[terryjeanne]

Well, I can tell you how I was taught " settle".

When you want to stop playtime, stand up straight, tell dog to "settle" then "Sit". I think when pup was first learning, I lured her into a sit and she was to stay in a sit. I could treat her every few seconds of her sit until she sat for about 10 -15 seconds. THen I released her from the sit.
I don't practice it much anymore, but I notice I can just say " settle" and she still sits on her own

[TooneyDogs]

Have you looked into puppy classes? They teach several exercises for attention, quiet and settle and cover other important basic obedience.

[thompson]

I wanted to teach him a settle for when he gets into playing, and if you try petting him or picking him up, or taking something out of his mouth, he starts biting you. I want to just say "Settle" and know he will become calm and not bite anymore. I don't want to teach "No bite" because I'm teaching him bite inhibition. So is there a way to do this, excluding puppy classes?

[TooneyDogs]

You have a number of challenges. Usually you teach the dog to give the item to you...not take it out of their mouth which escalates the resource guarding. Settle won't resolve that training issue.
The other challenge is ending the playtime/biting. Continuing to interact by petting, picking up or keeping your hands there to be nipped at makes this difficult. (Your words may say Settle but your actions say lets play some more). An easier approach is to just walk away...playtime is over. You can start to teach the STOP command or THAT'S ENOUGH command by holding out your hand in stop sign fashion and then walking away.
You don't have to put a word or command on this...infact, your dog will learn much faster if you don't say anything...just use the hand motion as you walk away (don't look over your shoulder as you leave....that's a dog whisperer tactic that says follow me.)

[KaseyT]

You can get him to watch your face by dropping treats (bits of hot dog or cheese) from your mouth.

[thompson]

Originally Posted by TooneyDogs

You have a number of challenges. Usually you teach the dog to give the item to you...not take it out of their mouth which escalates the resource guarding. Settle won't resolve that training issue.
The other challenge is ending the playtime/biting. Continuing to interact by petting, picking up or keeping your hands there to be nipped at makes this difficult. (Your words may say Settle but your actions say lets play some more). An easier approach is to just walk away...playtime is over. You can start to teach the STOP command or THAT'S ENOUGH command by holding out your hand in stop sign fashion and then walking away.
You don't have to put a word or command on this...infact, your dog will learn much faster if you don't say anything...just use the hand motion as you walk away (don't look over your shoulder as you leave....that's a dog whisperer tactic that says follow me.)

And how would I go about teaching him to give the thing to me?

And when he gets too rowdy, at first, I tried to walk away and ignore him, to teach him the fun stops there. But since then, he's discovered that if I walk away to ignore him, he can have more fun by chewing on things he isn't supposed to, or roughly playing with my older dog. the walking away does nothing for him anymore.

Another challenge I have is that he doesn't want to play with me anymore. Recently, he's been ignoring my come calls, or whenever i try to play with him, he walks away. The dog is training me, and I don't know what to do about it. It seems like he hates me, the way he disregards me or refuses to play with me. When I come over and start playing with him by petting him, or by holding a toy out for him, he will either start nipping at me or if I throw the toy, he will run to get it, then run away from me. How can I fix this?