 Barked: Sun Jan 24, '10 7:20am PST |
 | |  | | wow what an amazing breed combo! bol. Ok first, you will get much better training responses if you go to the forums page under puppies or behavior training . This one just doesn't get hit as much by the trainers we have here. I will tell you that puppyhood is challenging for all dogs and owners so just stay patient and hang in there. Now on to suggestions.
Make sure you are getting in plenty plenty plenty of excercise every day. You have 2 high energy breeds in that package so it needs an outlet. While yours is still too young for forced running outside because of the growth plates being open still, it still needs to be wore out on a daily basis with a bit of easy terrain fetch, etc. My Heeler mix gets at least 2 hours of high outlet running a day between chasing the puppy and chasing the tennis ball. It sounds to me like you need to focus a lot of attention on letting it know that you are boss so consistancy with constant calm direction, and training training training, this is the best time for you to bond and teach your dog that you mean what you say when you say it. The training will help to wear it out mentally too. The most knowledgable people on the site suggest the book 'the power of positive training' a lot so if I were you I would get it. I bet if you really focus on getting in the required amount of excersice and mental stimulation you can get rid of that terrible bark collar. As far as the potty training goes, start over from scratch, taking your dog out within every hour, when it potties outside everytime say the word you choose for 'potty' we just say 'good potty' that cues them to what they are doing is the word potty, so when I take my dogs out I say 'go potty' and they get right down to business if they need to and don't mess around. That makes potty breaks a little more efficient. If you take the time to immerse yourself in the puppy now in its training and excercise you will be making a great adult dog and making good lifelong habits for yourself. I do a few 20 minute sessions with Kai (our 11 week old ACD/ BC mix) a day to work on her training. She already knows 'come, sit, shake, lie down rollover and out (to leave a room) with pretty good consistancy. I suggest a variety of toys to see what gets yours motivated, with Holly our almost 2 year old it is tennis balls but I would get what they call a ...flirt stick I think it is, it is a stick with a lure on it, you can probably find out more about it in the hunting dogs groups and get some suggestions on how to use it. Other things to keep them busy is to learn 'scent tracking' it helps them to learn to use thier nose and gives you some good interaction time, look it up on the computer or go to the behavior/ training forum and ask about it and I am sure Shane or Tucker will come along and give you a great e mail explanation of it. As I said before the puppy phase is tough but it is the time you are building a lifelong relationship with your pup so teach it you have its best interest at heart and it will give you its heart. My Holly is the best dog in the world, very well behaved, whip smart and responsive to my direction and all my family but that takes a daily dose of training still a total of an hour with her 2 -1/2 hour sessions, and wearing her out so that she can be calm enough to focus. Hopefully this helps with suggestions to get yours wore out enough for bed so that when it comes time the crate is a welcome rest for your bundle of energy. Also put some treats in the crate randomly so it is a friendly good place to come to for your dog. And a good sturdy chew toy that is interactive like a Kong with treats inside of it so that there is something to do in the crate besides wishing it were with you. I hope all this helps but like I said check out the training/behavior forum and the puppy forum, there are some great people (channdler, nick, asher, tucker ,lilith ,and a few more) that have infinite knowledge of training and information sources like books and dvd's |  |  | |  |
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