as you may know, brute is a wonderful dog... should i say, was...
We moved into our new house about 4-5 months ago. Since then, life with him has been, to say the least, horrible...
i have cried more occasions dealing with him than not. Let me start from the beginning.
Before we moved to this house from the previous, Brutus was a very attentive sweet dog. Listened quite well and enjoyed his training sessions with me, which were and still are about 2 hours a day. Along with Going for long walks once an evening. He had the occasional brain fart and did the typical Ridgeback attitude stuff with slight, on his own time, command refusal. Never a bad attitude, never a bad anything.
Now fast forward to today. We have moved in, and he seems, i know this may seem wrong, but, stupid. Period. Since we have been here, it has become impossible for me to walk him. So bad in fact that i have to spend even more time away from work to make him run in the back yard while playing fetch to get some worked up tension out of him. Which im fine with spending time with him. But im talking almost 4 hours of solid throwing a ball across the yard and hoping he cares enough to fetch. On top of training for an hour.
He absolutely, dead, refuses to complete any command. During training for treats or just general around the house active time with me. He is so bad when it comes to walking that i can't control him without having a collar, halti and a harness hooked to him. that's three leashes. The first walk i took with him, he didn't listen at all. We didn't move far at all. Down the road a bit. Where we walk to is still the same park. He runs, lunges and nearly breaks me in half. Not to get at people/cars or even animals... but to get where he wants to be, that is normally wherever the wind carries a smell.
At home, he refuses to listen to a regular sit command when i tell him to sit and stay. Example. I tell him to sit when i have to use the restroom and say "Stay" before i walk away. Something about him being in the bathroom with me, weirds me out.. Anyway. He paces around, never wanting to sit, and then runs down the hallways after me, even though i turn around and tell him sternly, but never yelling, to sit. He looks at me and just turns around and walks away.
Our commands are very simple and very known to him, they always have been. They have never changed except for the one the trainer taught us about "All the way" which makes him lay onto his side after laying down. We use it at the vet for them to check his feet sometimes.
He knows his commands, i know he does. He is actively choosing to not obey them. I have contacted a few RR breeders who tell me unless i've given up on training him, there is no reason for him to act this way. I am thinking about doing solid one on one with a very expensive trainer for 6 weeks to see if i can find any reason why he'd be doing this.
For information, he's fully clicker trained, fully recall trained and obedience training.. was there.
Like i said, he is fully trained. We even were told previously he's one of the most behaved dogs a trainer we know has seen. But now i can't even get him to listen to me, or my husband.
He doesn't even listen to a command for a treat, i try to do clicker training for an hour each day, but he just stares at me or walks away. Even if i have the treats out. I have tried changing them up as well for variety. Nothing seems to work.
We moved into a house that shares a fenced yard with a neighbor who tore down the old security fence on the side towards their house and put up a chain-link 6' fence. They have a basset hound who is wonderful. Also 3 small dogs who insist on barking at everything, including leaves that blow by. There are two dogs in a yard behind them, also chain-link which bark at brute with the most, evil bark I've heard, the growl-bark-snarl sound. They regularly fight through the fence with the three small dogs on the neighbors side.
Is there any reason you can think of that could cause this change? I didn't notice this change until we moved in with the dogs next door and back behind. Is there such a thing as doggy bad influences?
I am so upset over all of this. He used to be my happy listening dog, but he seems to have turned into almost... a cat. He wants attention.. but only on his terms, with no recourse to whatever he does.
He's been trained with a very firm clicker.. as i like to say, but i can't do anything that would seem to influence him to listen.
Any ideas?
We have had him checked and he can hear/see and has no apparent health issues or problems. He is not neutered if that makes any difference. I have already set out and got cost options laid out from several vet's offices to see which would be better. Breeder isn't happy about it, but they advised i do it if i feel it is necessary.
Sorry for all the length, i'm breaking over here. I just want my good puppy back D:
We moved into our new house about 4-5 months ago. Since then, life with him has been, to say the least, horrible...
i have cried more occasions dealing with him than not. Let me start from the beginning.
Before we moved to this house from the previous, Brutus was a very attentive sweet dog. Listened quite well and enjoyed his training sessions with me, which were and still are about 2 hours a day. Along with Going for long walks once an evening. He had the occasional brain fart and did the typical Ridgeback attitude stuff with slight, on his own time, command refusal. Never a bad attitude, never a bad anything.
Now fast forward to today. We have moved in, and he seems, i know this may seem wrong, but, stupid. Period. Since we have been here, it has become impossible for me to walk him. So bad in fact that i have to spend even more time away from work to make him run in the back yard while playing fetch to get some worked up tension out of him. Which im fine with spending time with him. But im talking almost 4 hours of solid throwing a ball across the yard and hoping he cares enough to fetch. On top of training for an hour.
He absolutely, dead, refuses to complete any command. During training for treats or just general around the house active time with me. He is so bad when it comes to walking that i can't control him without having a collar, halti and a harness hooked to him. that's three leashes. The first walk i took with him, he didn't listen at all. We didn't move far at all. Down the road a bit. Where we walk to is still the same park. He runs, lunges and nearly breaks me in half. Not to get at people/cars or even animals... but to get where he wants to be, that is normally wherever the wind carries a smell.
At home, he refuses to listen to a regular sit command when i tell him to sit and stay. Example. I tell him to sit when i have to use the restroom and say "Stay" before i walk away. Something about him being in the bathroom with me, weirds me out.. Anyway. He paces around, never wanting to sit, and then runs down the hallways after me, even though i turn around and tell him sternly, but never yelling, to sit. He looks at me and just turns around and walks away.
Our commands are very simple and very known to him, they always have been. They have never changed except for the one the trainer taught us about "All the way" which makes him lay onto his side after laying down. We use it at the vet for them to check his feet sometimes.
He knows his commands, i know he does. He is actively choosing to not obey them. I have contacted a few RR breeders who tell me unless i've given up on training him, there is no reason for him to act this way. I am thinking about doing solid one on one with a very expensive trainer for 6 weeks to see if i can find any reason why he'd be doing this.
For information, he's fully clicker trained, fully recall trained and obedience training.. was there.
Like i said, he is fully trained. We even were told previously he's one of the most behaved dogs a trainer we know has seen. But now i can't even get him to listen to me, or my husband.
He doesn't even listen to a command for a treat, i try to do clicker training for an hour each day, but he just stares at me or walks away. Even if i have the treats out. I have tried changing them up as well for variety. Nothing seems to work.
We moved into a house that shares a fenced yard with a neighbor who tore down the old security fence on the side towards their house and put up a chain-link 6' fence. They have a basset hound who is wonderful. Also 3 small dogs who insist on barking at everything, including leaves that blow by. There are two dogs in a yard behind them, also chain-link which bark at brute with the most, evil bark I've heard, the growl-bark-snarl sound. They regularly fight through the fence with the three small dogs on the neighbors side.
Is there any reason you can think of that could cause this change? I didn't notice this change until we moved in with the dogs next door and back behind. Is there such a thing as doggy bad influences?
I am so upset over all of this. He used to be my happy listening dog, but he seems to have turned into almost... a cat. He wants attention.. but only on his terms, with no recourse to whatever he does.
He's been trained with a very firm clicker.. as i like to say, but i can't do anything that would seem to influence him to listen.
Any ideas?
We have had him checked and he can hear/see and has no apparent health issues or problems. He is not neutered if that makes any difference. I have already set out and got cost options laid out from several vet's offices to see which would be better. Breeder isn't happy about it, but they advised i do it if i feel it is necessary.
Sorry for all the length, i'm breaking over here. I just want my good puppy back D:
The best tip I've got is to never work with Brutus when you're upset or frustrated, and do not try to force him or push him. Fozzie is as stubborn as a mule by nature, and pushing him only makes him more stubborn, and worse he loses trust in me.
