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Hi, I recently adopted a three-year-old female German Shorthaired Pointer/Australian Cattle Dog mix. She has a nice temperment, but has a few rough edges that I'd like to try to work on and will address here.
She is excitable around other dogs. Never aggressive, but very curious as she has inherited the pointer nose. When she meets them, she sniffs them. I do find that given a minute or so to "explore" a new dog, her excitement will go down a little. I'm curious what might help this..I'm thinking a combination of socialization with other dogs via group obediance classes and general discipline in the sense of making sure I can get her to sit and stay around other dogs.
She also has the tendency to jump up and is quite mouthy, though I know the mouthiness is the Heeler in her. I've tried a technique of turning around and saying "OFF", then telling her to sit. It has been SOMEWHAT effective, but I'm curious about perhaps a more efficient method. The mouthiness is something I tend to give no praise to, though if she actually BITES, I say "NO!". She rarely actually clamps her mouth down, it's mostly a playful thing that I know isn't AGGRESSIVE but certainly don't want her to be in the habit of doing, especially with strangers.
She is extremely food oriented and will grab food out of my hand if I'm not watchful. I would very much like to use food as a reward and motivation for conditioning her but her concentration on the food is so high it's hard to get her to focus on anything except the food. I've thought that hiding the treat until she obeys a command and THEN revealing it and giving it to her MAY help.
In general, she is a very distractible dog to her senses and am curious as to how I can gain her attention more, such as around other dogs, around food, when she's off-leash, etc. She doesn't completely know "COME", only doing it when she chooses.
I know she will be tough to work with, but I see definite potential in her, and am willing to work with her provided I feel I can really make a difference. I know she is old, and thus will be harder to train, but as long as I can have assurance that I CAN train her, I will stick with it.
ANY advice or tips on ANY of the above comments would be greatly appreciated. I am relatively new and am looking forward to seeing what people have to say. So far, I have had a mantra of classical conditioning with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. Any advice on what you have known to work would be great. Thanks
She is excitable around other dogs. Never aggressive, but very curious as she has inherited the pointer nose. When she meets them, she sniffs them. I do find that given a minute or so to "explore" a new dog, her excitement will go down a little. I'm curious what might help this..I'm thinking a combination of socialization with other dogs via group obediance classes and general discipline in the sense of making sure I can get her to sit and stay around other dogs.
She also has the tendency to jump up and is quite mouthy, though I know the mouthiness is the Heeler in her. I've tried a technique of turning around and saying "OFF", then telling her to sit. It has been SOMEWHAT effective, but I'm curious about perhaps a more efficient method. The mouthiness is something I tend to give no praise to, though if she actually BITES, I say "NO!". She rarely actually clamps her mouth down, it's mostly a playful thing that I know isn't AGGRESSIVE but certainly don't want her to be in the habit of doing, especially with strangers.
She is extremely food oriented and will grab food out of my hand if I'm not watchful. I would very much like to use food as a reward and motivation for conditioning her but her concentration on the food is so high it's hard to get her to focus on anything except the food. I've thought that hiding the treat until she obeys a command and THEN revealing it and giving it to her MAY help.
In general, she is a very distractible dog to her senses and am curious as to how I can gain her attention more, such as around other dogs, around food, when she's off-leash, etc. She doesn't completely know "COME", only doing it when she chooses.
I know she will be tough to work with, but I see definite potential in her, and am willing to work with her provided I feel I can really make a difference. I know she is old, and thus will be harder to train, but as long as I can have assurance that I CAN train her, I will stick with it.
ANY advice or tips on ANY of the above comments would be greatly appreciated. I am relatively new and am looking forward to seeing what people have to say. So far, I have had a mantra of classical conditioning with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. Any advice on what you have known to work would be great. Thanks