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Originally Posted by SirTeddykins  Telling a dog off after it has gone potty somewhere and you didn't catch it in the act is against any training advice that I have ever come across since 1970s. The current advice is that you must catch the dog in the act and THEN tell it off as they do not understand why you're telling them off afterwards. Their memories, intentions and metacognition is supremely different than a humans. Telling a human child off about something they did in the past, or warning them to not do something in the future, works because of the way our minds have evolved. This is not true for dogs. Therefore, that is the first error and I would suggest that when someone can't be with the dog, supervising him just as if he were a puppy, then he be tethered to someone on a leash. When the house is empty, the dog should either be put in an exercise pen or a crate. For a crate, time should be limited to no more than six hours. When everyone is home, the dog (tethered or not) should be taken to the appropriate potty spot every 2 hours and access to the room where he goes where he is not supposed to go should be taken away either by closing doors or using a gate.
When he climbs up to the work surface (again, he would not do this if he were supervised so that is the first call you should make), he should be told DOWN and you will probably need to pick him up and put him down for the first few times so he understands what that word means if he doesn't already. When he is DOWN you should give him a very nice treat which trumps the taste of chicken or turkey so that he understands there is a nicer award than the turkey he's after.
It's good that he is given a firm NO when he is doing something that he is not supposed to do but when he stops the behavior he should be rewarded not punished by ostracism in my opinion. I'm not sure what the rationale is behind giving a dog a time out on his own. This may work for hyper behavior but not for training him in general. Again, he's not a child so time out is not going to work as he will not understand why he's been sent away.
POSITIVE reinforcement is key. I work in neuropsychology and can give you access to all sorts of animal studies whereby it is consistently shown that PUNISHMENT is not effective for learning but positive reinforcement is, i.e. treats when behaved, petting, or just saying "Good dog" in a nice voice.
As far as recall, or the dog coming to you, I am not sure that is something that you can achieve until the right discipline above has been managed appropriately and a stronger bond, which will result from training, has developed. I am very close to my dog and he doesn't come to me when called all the time even though he is over 1 year old. I'm sure this part of his behavior wouldn't bother you as much, though, if you managed to overcome some of the above issues. |
I understand completely what you are saying about him being supervised all the time but at the same time aren't dogs meant to enrich our lives? I'm not sure how having him on a leash all day in the house is going to gain anything from him or is a practical way of dealing with the situation. Dogs cannot be supervised at ALL times, be it yes most of the time, but not ALL the time as that just isn't realistic. Yes granddad is in most of the time and he keeps the dog in the same room as him when he is there but sometimes you've got to pop out. He is always taken to go to the toilet (even though he now refuses to go outside for one) but he is still taken out. It's as if he has gone back in his behaviour to when he was a puppy even though nothing in his life has changed or has any reason to make him stressed, he lives like a king and has more room to play than any dog would want or need.
When we find him on the work surface we don't have time to say down and as soon as he see's us he's off there quicker than anything.
He gets positive reinforcement constantly when he does something good (which is not very often ) but he does do sit so he is always rewarded after doing that or at the moment if he wees outside he's getting fussed which he does love. He's a naturally needy dog but he is just so stubborn that's the problem,, he will come to you if he wants too for cuddles but if you call him over or ask him to move he will not do it for love nor money lol.