Everyone wants a good dog as a pet. You don’t want Wade Blasingame knocking on your door because of a misbehaving dog. Hoss was a little hellion as a pup. When my wife and I realized we had no idea how to train him, we hired a trainer. Deb, the dog trainer, came over once every two weeks for about an hour and showed us how to train Hoss. She only had to come over about four or five times before Hoss was behaving like the little angel we now all know and love.
To stop him from jumping on the counters and furniture, we used mousetraps covered with newspaper or dish towels. When he jumped up, the traps sprung, the noise scared him and he jumped down. (The traps never touched him because they were covered.) To stop him from chewing on his leash, we coated it with Tabasco sauce. To stop him from begging for people food, we gave him lemons or jalapenos off our plate. We even taught him to let us know he had to go out by ringing a bell we hung at nose level next to the back door. (That worked really well at our house but when we took him to our friend’s house that did not have a bell, the results were less than desirable.) He is five now and still uses the bell.
I really think consistency and positive reinforcement are the keys to good training. If that doesn’t work, you could always try Dave Sturtevant’s technique.
Tags: dogs
oh, will ferrell. you kill me!
I didn’t know about the Jalepeno’s! When Roxy was little, she liked to chew on the 100 year old millwork in the house. I painted it with red peppers and she would walk over and lick it off.
wow! Hoss eventually developed a tolerance to Tabasco. We did not really have a problem training Pepper because she had such a good role model.
P.S. Be sure to clink the names in the post. They are links to some very funny Will Ferrel skits from Saturday Night Live.