Need Some Help With My 1.5 Year Old Pitbull Annoying Habits

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ATB18 A she's mostly a great dog but there's 2 things she does that drive me nuts 1)she loves to steal stuff like socks and credit cards and then never wants to drop it and wants me to chase her all around the house and grab from her mouth 2)I can't get her to come to me off leash outside the house. When I have her in backyard, it's total torture to get her to come to me. I go to her and she keeps running away and running away. She does this sometimes inside the house also but not always and not nearly as horrible as outside any ideas on how to train these things out? how to get her to always be by me outside and off leash and stuff? #1 · May 19, 2021 she's mostly a great dog but there's 2 things she does that drive me nuts 1)she loves to steal stuff like socks and credit cards and then never wants to drop it and wants me to chase her all around the house and grab from her mouth 2)I can't get her to come to me off leash outside the house. When I have her in backyard, it's total torture to get her to come to me. I go to her and she keeps running away and running away. She does this sometimes inside the house also but not always and not nearly as horrible as outside any ideas on how to train these things out? how to get her to always be by me outside and off leash and stuff? Sort by Oldest first Oldest first Newest first Most reactions #2 · May 20, 2021 For #1, she is playing keep away. It's great fun. You have to teach her that sharing is even more fun. First, put her on a short leash so she is right with you. Then give her a favorite toy and let her enjoy it for a bit. After several minutes, just take hold of the toy - do not pull on it or try to pry her mouth off it - just hold onto it and say "let me see it". She will try to pull it away from you, don't let go, but don't pull back, and repeat "let me see it". At some point, she will loosen her hold to get a better grip. When she does that, take it. Hold it up and say how pretty it is, make it squeak, etc. As long as she is standing, jumping, trying to get it back, keep it. As soon as she sits, give it back and praise her (you can also give her a treat). Keep doing this until she gives up the toy willingly and automatically sits to get it back. Practice with different toys. Once she gets that down, you can intersperse giving the toy back with a "no more" command as you put the toy out of reach and out of sight. With this the treat can be handy as you are exchanging the toy for a treat. Sometimes, give her a different toy in exchange for the one she had. All that gets her used to giving you what is in her mouth. She will learn this very quickly. When you give her treats or her meal, have her sit for it. No jumping up. She must be in the sit to get what she wants. This will teach her to "ask politely" for what she wants. 2. For this, you need to first break the habit of chasing her. The above will help. Start with her on a leash. Have her sit, take a step away and call her to you. If she comes, give her a treat and praise. Be happy and energetic when she comes - you want her to see coming to you as a positive thing. Practice with just taking that one step away and calling her to you. Just say "Belle Come" (using her name) but say it in a happy tone of voice. When she routinely comes to you, take a few steps away and call her. If she doesn't come, go back to the beginning. Once she routinely comes at that distance, add more steps, and so on. If she fails to come at any distance, go back to the prior distance. You are teaching her that coming to you is worth doing. NEVER call your dog and give her a negative reaction. That means ALWAYS praise your dog for coming to you. Whether it's with a good scratch behind the ear, a treat, a toy, or simply "good girl", you MUST always make coming to you positive with praise/reward. Do not call her and then reprimand her - even if she doesn't come to you. Once you say "Belle come", your reaction must be positive regardless of anything else going on or what she is doing. Otherwise she connects the negative action to the recall. Once she has come and you have praised her, you can then say "let me see it" and get the shoe, credit card, etc. #4 · May 20, 2021

toedtoes said: just take hold of the toy - do not pull on it or try to pry her mouth off it - just hold onto it and say "let me see it". She will try to pull it away from you, don't let go, but don't pull back, and repeat "let me see it". At some point, she will loosen her hold to get a better grip. When she does that, take it. Hold it up and say how pretty it is, make it squeak, etc. As long as she is standing, jumping, trying to get it back, keep it. Click to expand...

toedtoes said: Keep doing this until she gives up the toy willingly and automatically sits to get it back. Practice with different toys. Click to expand...

Actually, this is outdated advice and can make resource guarding worse, not better.

toedtoes said: All that gets her used to giving you what is in her mouth. She will learn this very quickly. Click to expand...

Or, she'll learn that whatever's in her mouth is likely to be taken off her. OP, I'd teach Drop It by making it into a game: Show more replies 0 Reply #3 · May 20, 2021 1. Keep things she wants to steal in places she can't get to. When she has something, don't chase her- that makes it a game. Work on a "drop it" command. AMke sure she has access to acceptable toys. 2. Don't start off-leash yet. Dogs should not be given that kind of freedom until they are past their teenage stage. For now, try buying a long lead. Depending on your area, you may want anything from 20 to 100 feet (My dog has a 100 for up in the farm fields, but a 20 for hiking on trails) Focus on rewarding her for every time she voluntarily looks at you or is close to you- ideally, an off-leash dog is allowed to go at a distance and have freedom, but is constantly checking in with the owner. Give huge, amazing rewards for recall, every time. Dog treats or praise simply won't cut it, because the fun smells are more interesting. Try something like boiled chicken, and give several pieces in rapid succession. Make the rewards, varied, too. Try rewarding with a game of tug or other play, too. Also, don't call her just to take her home or to bring her inside. Call her, reward her, release her, repeat a few times. The release becomes part of the reward (after a long time, when she's more trained, it can become the main part of the reward). If a recall signals the end of fun, it is essentially being punished, no matter how good your treat is. NEVER call her to scold her or do something not-fun, like a bath. NEVER scold her for taking too long to come. if you do, she'll think the scolding is for coming, not for being slow. Don't call her unless you are sure of, or can gently enforce, a response. (this is where the long leash comes in) Otherwise she self-rewards for ignoring you by continuing to have fun. Don't chase her. Then it becomes a game to ignore your call. Instead, try to get her to chase you, which makes it a game to listen to you. Practice it often, and use fun games to practice. These include hide-and-seek, restrained recalls, and "catch me if you can" But don't practice it too much during one walk, or she'll start to get bored of the games and the reward, and annoyed by the repetition. With my dog, if she doesn't come inside, I just go in without her. I leave her alone for a little bit, then try again. She starts to realize that I'm serious about the command, and that it gets boring to be outside if she ignores the call. Be sure not to use going inside as a punishment Hide and seek is jut like the children's game. Have your dog stay, or ask someone to hold her, somewhere out of sight and hide, then call her. Start out easy, and progress to harder hiding places. As she gets better, you can start using it randomly. While on an off-leash walk, hide behind a tree (or similar), and call her. This will help her learn not only to have fun with recall but also to keep checking on where you are in case you hide. Restrained recalls are where someone holds your dog, and you, without using your recall command, act very excited and try to entice the dog to come. /when she starts to pull excitedly, use your word, and allow the person to release her This game helps build up excitement and speed for recalls. Catch me if you can is when you allow your dog to chase you as part of the reward. These help build up speed and excitement as well. To start, you act very excited and run away from your dog while she's minimally distracted. When she starts to chase you, use your recall word and continue running away. When she catches you, reward. You can slowly begin to use the recall word before starting to run as she gets more used to the game, eventually progressing to the point where you don't start running until she's within a few yards. #5 · May 20, 2021 For the backyard not recalling, I would guess that it is based on the fun of being out isn't worth giving up for whatever 'reward' or benefit she gets for coming back to you - and that reward could be psychological or material. So, you don't want her to learn that coming to you means end of fun. So practice recall, reward, release. The reward could be a fun game with you, so it means that her fun doesn't just continue - it gets even better; or the reward could be a treat. Then she gets released again so the reward isn't a ”price” she pays for coming indoors. Do that several times, then give a ”last time” cue so she knows that it is coming indoors time, but again reward when she comes in with more play or a treat. #8 · May 20, 2021 I use "drop it" for items I KNOW the dog should not have - like when I catch them eating cat poop in the yard. I use "let me see it" in play and if I don't know what the dog has so I can see what it is and if it's safe. Cat-dog doesn't play with toys or any other objects. So I've never done "let me see it" with her. Every dog of mine who plays with toys has learned "let me see it". Having done kitten recsue for years, it was imperative that the dog hand over anything that squeaked and never jumped or tried to grab at a squeaking object in my hand. #9 · May 20, 2021 Don't know if this is counter productive, but it works great for me and my pups. I have always chased them around (or let them run around and be chased) with their toys. That way they get to play the way they want to and don't have to take my socks or anything else they could get a handle of that they are not supposed to have. When they did go to check out my shoes or whatever, I make it really boring and direct their attention to something else like a toy and play tug or whatever for a bit. I will get a storage bench for my shoes, but atm they are out on a boot mat at the door and he never goes for them (or my keys) even if we are out. I also do the 'drop it' periodically when we are playing tug, reward and then say "ok get it" and we resume our game of tug. Most of the time my current pup is more ramped up to play after a short "drop it". When he gets a hold of something he shouldn't like a piece of styrofoam or something, I use the "can I see it?" Everytime he backs away to let me see. If I have to take it away, I always trade for a treat or something better. #10 · May 20, 2021 When I had kittens or might have kittens at any moment, tug of war was off limits. At that point I never played that game because I didn't want to risk having to "play" to get a kitten. My dogs weren't big tug of war fans anyway so it worked well. With Tornado-dog, he really liked tug of war at first, so I played like you do, with a "let me see it" intermixed to make sure he learned that if I stopped pulling, the game was stopped for a moment. Now, he doesn't really want to play tug of war at all and will quit within a few moments and be off doing other things. If he had a choice, he would play with the hose all day every day. But that game is limited because Cat-dog tries to play with him and he tells her to back off. Her dog communication skills are a bit rough, so I find it important to have them have more together play time than separate play time. #11 · May 20, 2021 I have always been very, very specific with tug games. there is only one tug toy and we never tug with anything but that toy. this makes it clear to the dog that other things are not to be tugged, ever. I also control carefully when the dog can start and when the dog should stop tugging with cues I train them to know. By being very specific with these things, I create tug as a completely safe game that doesn't ever bleed into other activities. And the best part is that when we are tugging, both dog and I know that it's OK for it to be a free-for-all and we can really get into it. I had one border collie female who was wild about tugging. She never wanted any other dog to get to tug....if anyone was tugging she wanted it to be only her. At first, she would grab the tug toy from another dog, so I put a stop to that, and trained her that she couldn't grab that toy until I said her name. Actually, it was great. I would even show it to people because it was so fun to watch. She would wait....wait.....wait, never taking her eyes off that toy while I played with the other dog(s). When I whispered her name, she would come in and grab that toy like a shark! Dang, she was fast, and strong. I never, even once, won at tug with that dog. She always wore me out - I could never wear her out. And when she was tugging she would half close her eyes, and get this absolutely ecstatic expression on her face. And yet, she would let go the instant I asked her to. Some people say that teaching tug to a dog is a bad idea. No one has ever been able to tell me that tugging is not appropriate to do with a dog or that it causes problems. Like almost everything else with dogs, if it is handled properly and the dog understands the rules there's not going to be a problem. #12 · May 20, 2021 I agree with all that completely. I just never wanted it to be a question of "did I train him well enough" to guarantee the safety of the kittens. It's why I will never leave Tornado-dog in the same room as the cats while I go out - ever. I don't want to put my training skills to that sort of test. Insert Quotes Post Reply

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