[pbody]

Usually teaching a dog to sit is second nature to me, usually treats work perfectly. Well with this dog I rescued and I am attempting to train he shows dramatic signs of having little trust, which I can hardly blame him. His neck is missing a huge chunk due to the fact he was left outside chained for nearly a year. He is very submissive shows no signs of aggression. Obsesses over my female Jack Russel. He is a year and a half old Doberman Pincer, he heels for me did so within the first 10 minutes. He stays once he is in the sitting position. It has been five days and he does not sit I cannot do the treat over the head with him, he does not follow it. I can only work with him in short 2 minute sessions before his mind wanders. He does not play with any conventional toys. When I first got him he did not respond to his name in no way what so ever. no ear perk no head twist no signs of knowledgeable. The real reason why I am probably posting is because my wife called me useless because it has been five days and the dog doesn't sit and I am using every trick in my arsenal. It is aggravating I mean she is. I feel though if I keep doing what I am doing it will click but being her emotional punching bag put me in a slump.

 

[Amaryllis]

5 days? I couldn't get kabota off the couch at 5 days.

All rescues take some time to settle in, even rescues from good homes take 6 weeks. An abused/neglected dog can take much longer. I didn't start seeing Kabota's true nature (playful and crazy) until 6 months. That was 2 months ago and he's still surprising me regularly.

So calm down. Work on building a relationship. Click and treat small things like responding to his name or looking at you. Start and end training sessions with something you know he can do, even if it's just responding to his name. Keep sessions short.

Look outside the session, too. He sits, right? Click and treat when he does it on his own. Eventually, you can add in the word. This is essentially how I taught kabota to retrieve. Yesterday, he started playing fetch of his own accord. Today, he invited me to play. I'd given up on fetch months ago.

As for your wife, I'm much better with dogs than with people. Dogs make sense.

 

[pbody]

Amaryllis,

Thank you I know its going to take time, I just don't understand her imposition I agree with you Dogs do make sense compared to people, I actually think he is doing great under the circumstances hearing he is aggressive I.E. and getting along with both my dogs myself and my child. Thank you for the invaluable information perhaps me sharing this with my wife she will come to terms.

 

[PatchworkRobot]

Tell your wife to calm the eff down, lol. You mentioned that he has some trust issues and I"m not surprised as it sounds like he came from a bad situation. You need to give this dog time to start to feel comfortable in your home and to trust you - five days is not enough.

Also, not all dogs learn the same. My doberman was fairly easy. He picked up quick and he's super willing to please. If I ask him for a behavior and he doesn't do it all I have to do is give him "the look" and say his name sternly. I know many dogs who only need that if they don't behave. On the other hand my Icie is COMPLETELY different. The slightest look or stern word will completely shut her down. She learned to heel in less than half an hour (not kidding) and it took me all of a day or two to teach her that furniture was not for dogs in my home. However, getting her to sit or lay down was a whole different story and those took me a few weeks. Like Amaryllis, I also suggest you look into clicker training - most dogs thrive with it.

 

[oldhounddog]

You will need to take it slow and work on getting the dog to trust you and focus using calm consistent positive training methods. Try working on the watch me command with lots of praise and rewards until you get your dog to look you in the eyes. From this point I would work on all commands that come easy to your dog and build trust and keep things fun. I would not push the sit command for now b/c there may be past abuse issues associated , and , you have plenty of time to come back to this later.

It is going to be very important to get the wife on board with compassion and understanding that work with an abused dog. may require a little extra time.

oldhounddog

 

[Analogdog]

I work at a shelter, and dogs like yours need lots of tasty treats, toys, cuddle time and love before you start to train them. Heck many of them will not go for their walks without enormous emotional support. Spend your time loving this dog, and he will be your best friend in time. And only do positive reinforcement (clicker) training with him, it will work wonders for your bond with him.

 

[dagwall]

Haha yep you need to give it time. I've had my foster dog now for 6 weeks as of tomorrow. While I've made great progress on his confidence and overcoming some fears in the home and allowing me to handle him I've made almost zero progress on any obedience training with him. Granted I've focused much more effort on the other things but I have put a decent amount of work into getting him to learn 'down' with zero luck. After 6 weeks I'm just getting to the point where I think I can shift my focus much more towards obedience basics. Really all he knows is sit and he will rarely do that without a treat and a loose grasp on "off" to stop jumping up on people.

Tell your wife 5 days is nothing and she needs to relax.