training and dog ages.....your experience

[Marble]

hey, i've been wondering two things......

first, have a lot of you felt like you spent so much energy just keeping your 12-18 month puppy in line that you were not able to accomplish much in the way of serious training? like more challenging things than sit, down, short stays, tricks and stuff along those lines?

second, when your dog reached 18-24 months did you feel like training went more easily and your dog caught on faster?

just curious, dresden is going through another one of her many challenging stages.....just curious what your experiences have been like with your dogs :) THANKS!!!!!!

[ellieangel]

The teenage months are the hardest,you are right it is a difficult age to train :-?

[slim86]

I started my GSD at 8 weeks. He had no problem learning. He hated the training collar so he learned everything without a training collar. I was very surprised at how fast he learned and how young he was. I was just bored and started working with him at 8 weeks. I dindn't really expect him to learn much at that age. Boy, was I surprised. He was very food motivated. I'm sure that helped out quite a bit. He learned all the basic stuff by the time he was ten weeks old. He's 8 mo. old now and he's still really easy to teach.

I hope he doesn't get to the point where it's hard for him to pay attention. He really likes training because he gets so much attention. I think it's really fun for him and I have no problems keeping him focused on what he's supposed to be doing.

I hope things don't change when he hit's that 12 - 18 mo. old stage. We shall see.

Slim

[mouseatthebusstop]

PADDY AND GLADIS ARE JUST COMING UP TO 18 MONTHS HOUSE TRAINING FANTASTIC THEY DO NOT CHEW, THEY HAVE BEEN TOILET TRAINED SINCE 3 AND A HALF MONTHS THE WORST THING THEY DO IS PULL ALL THE CUSHIONS ON TO THE FLOOR WHEN THEY ARE ALONE
OUT-SIDE THEY PULL ON THE LEADS I KEEP TELLING THEM WALK NICELY
:oops:

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

Mouse, Rowie pulls on the lead, too! Not always, but sometimes. ESPECIALLY if there are other dogs around! :oops:

*Shame on me....!!* :oops:

[DogPaddle]

My boys have been going through phases but they are still only 18 months and 9 months. Kavik (the older of the two) has always been quick to pick up on things but until 14-16months his reliability was sortof poor, now he does seem to be getting much better at doing what he's suppossed to even when I'm not home - still chases the cats upstairs (out of bounds) right in front of me though. Zaphod is also pretty quick to pick up but his reliability is . . . well . . . he's working on it :oops: He finds it difficult to stay in a stay or do other tricky things like not steal a slice of pizza off my plate even while I'm watching him. I sure hope this is an age related thing.

[nadooshkinz]

mouseatthebusstop napisał(a):

OUT-SIDE THEY PULL ON THE LEADS I KEEP TELLING THEM WALK NICELY
:oops:

That has ALWAYS been a prob for me in the past!

[courtnek]

I have found that if you start them really early, like 8-10 weeks, they are easy to train...at three to 6 months, they get stubborn and it's harder..

after 8 months to a year they get easier again, maye it's the whole puberty thing, they act kinda like teenagers.

:lol:

[Marble]

maybe a big part of dresden's issue is that i did not adopt her till she was already four months, and she had been at the pound for two weeks......i have no idea where she was before that but i saw her the day after the pound picked her up and she was your typical healthy, active puppy. or maybe it's the dobie/acd mix.........who knows. she's coming but she has these stages where she won't do anything i tell her unless i'm standing over her........and we do practice.

my dogs (i've always had labs previous to my current two) for some reason have always been hard for me to train, i know before it was because i did not know much but i know a lot more now and am doing a lot of things right......

i was just curious what your experieces had been like with your dogs.....i was hoping i was not the only one with a difficult dog......slim made me jealous........

[bk_blue]

Marble napisał(a):

maybe it's the dobie/acd mix..............i was hoping i was not the only one with a difficult dog...........

Being an ACD x doesn't help LOL. Their teenage years are ten times worse than any other dog!!! (a lot of acd people will tell you this, and their teenage years go for a VERY long time.) Have a read of this link http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/breeds/acd.html and this one http://members.cox.net/markabbott/ACDfaq/acdman.html (if you haven't already) and this should let you know what you're in for with Dresden. 8) You have probably heard some of my ahem "difficulties with BK", but he is just a typical heeler with perhaps not enough training during the early months/years (partly our fault, partly the fault of the people who had him before us). But there is light at the end of the tunnel... I think you're doing a great job with Dresden, hang in there!

[Marble]

here we go, from the great links bk posted.......thanks bk, i really enjoyed reading over them, it is good to see in depth, detailed information instead of the usual shallow articles that just touch on issues. she really has inproved in many ways compared to where she was when i first got her but she also has a long way to go still........she's still growing too......here are some comments from the first site that i thought were really good, i especially like the first one :)

I agree some time should be allowed while the dog's nervous energy matures before serious training begins.

And heelers tend to be very dominance-oriented. Many domesticated dogs, while they display the standard dominance-submission behaviors of wild dogs, do so sort of lackadaisically and it isn't all that important to them. Many heelers find this posturing an essential part of meeting any new dog.

Mine only mouths me, as a greeting. And, with training and maturity, the behavior is slowly diminishing