Bad Dog!

[Stressmagnet]

Okay.

Let me preface this with I love love Ernie. He is the happiest goofiest puppy ever. And he's one of the best behaved 9.5 month pups I ever seen - let alone owned, and I've owned 4 dogs since I was 20. I get complimentss all the time when I'm out.

So I have an odd oroblem. I will NOT smack or hit my dog when he misbehaves. .For discipline in our house, I use my terror inducing voice, which has my kids scurrying for cover and buying me flowers to make up for whatever wrong doing has occurred. The girls call it my 'Napalm Voice' because the sound and tone can make plants wither and die.

Not Ernie. He can jump on the couch; surf the kitchen counter; tear up a pillow - and wag his tail and jump for joy at the 'Napalm Voice'. The boy does NOT get that I'm Unhappy with him.

Short of using a megaphone and muppet angry brows, I'm not sure how to let him know he's just messed up. He's just happy happy happy all the time. No sense of shame, no awareness that he might possibly have messed up his manners.

I've tried ignoring him as well - but he just wags and licks and smiles the most endearing grin NO MATTER WHAT.

What to do folks?

Edited January 30, 2015 by Stressmagnet

[Kirislin]

Okay.

Let me preface this with I love love Ernie. He is the happiest goofiest puppy ever. And he's one of the best behaved 9.5 month pups I ever seen - let alone owned, and I've owned 4 dogs since I was 20. I get complimentss all the time when I'm out.

So I have an odd oroblem. I will NOT smack or hit my dog when he misbehaves. .For discipline in our house, I use my terror inducing voice, which has my kids scurrying for cover and buying me flowers to make up for whatever wrong doing has occurred. The girls call it my 'Napalm Voice' because the sound and tone can make plants wither and die.

Not Ernie. He can jump on the couch; surf the kitchen counter; tear up a pillow - and wag his tail and jump for joy at the 'Napalm Voice'. The boy does NOT get that I'm Unhappy with him.

Short of using a megaphone and muppet angry brows, I'm not sure how to let him know he's just messed up. He's just happy happy happy all the time. No sense of shame, no awareness that he might possibly have messed up his manners.

I've tried ignoring him as well - but he just wags and licks and smiles the most endearing grin NO MATTER WHAT.

What to do folks?

Tag used to want to sleep on my bed in the middle of the night. No amount of stern voice, telling him to go away worked until finally I did my best impersonation of a growling dog. It worked.

[silentchild]

Yup, going very still, showing the whites of my eyes, curling a lip to show teeth, whilst emanating a very low growl works for me. (wow I really felt like a dog writing that) Tho my girl is an angel so I have really only busted it out about three times in my life when she is insistently trying to lick the insides of my nose at 5am in the morning.

At other times a simple annoyed "Tsk' with the tongue is enough.

Edited January 30, 2015 by silentchild

[Stressmagnet]

Ernie gets 'uh-uh' and will immediately stop whatever he's about to do but that doesn't cut it when he's sitting in the middle of 4 feather pillows (and yes yes my fault, should have supervised better but didn't realise how FAST he can get up to mischief!)

I'll try growling. My kids already reckon I'm certifiable - they'll be rubbing their hands with glee.

[raineth]

Haha! Your napalm voice sounds awesome! I wish I had that as my super power!

What is he typically doing that is naughty?

You could do time-outs in the bathroom (10 seconds or so) where you with no eye contact or words just matter of fact escort him to the bathroom.

For Del, if she doesn't listen, I tend to just take her by the collar (not in an angry way) and get her to do what I want. But I have also conditioned her to be happy about having her collar grabbed.

have you taught him 'leave it'? That could help depending on your problem.

Eta: oh I see, pillow ruining! I would use your 'uhuh' and if he ignores take him by the collar and into time-out :)

Edited January 30, 2015 by raineth

[Pjrt]

yep I would just silently grab the collar with a very indifferent attitude and lead him swiftly to a time out area, be it another room, crate, outdoors etc. let go of collar and shut door, turn and strut off. This usually speaks a million times louder to most dogs than the best napalm voice.

[The Spotted Devil]

I find it much easier to teach and reward an alternative behaviour - can't be bothered growling and it's so much less stressful. For example my dogs race to the door to go out and Em is literally shaking from excitement to go chase birds. When I put my hand on the door they sit, open the door, still sitting, OK! completely crazy running. A nice calm way not to get bowled over. I do lots of "choice" games and pushed the envelope a few nights ago. Em was curled up on my feet whilst I was chopping veggies....I started dropping pieces of carrot etc "accidentally" - some even bounced off her head! Without a word she looked at the treats, wagged her tail, looked up at me but didn't grab them. She's an absolute guts so that was quite an achievement. She was rewarded admirably for that effort!

Don't want the dog on the couch - teach and reward heavily for lying on a mat. Start with standing. Then only reward sitting. Then only reward lying. Then only reward lying but forgetting about the treats. You can do it whilst you watch TV.

I wouldn't leave a 9.5 month old with cushions - just waaaay too much fun.

[Stressmagnet]

He has his 'place' which he runs to and lies down. Reward. During the night, if he's on his place and chewing his bone or being quiet, I drop the odd reward from the sky.

Couch: knows 'up', knows 'off'. Rewarded.

Knows Leave It. Will iignore a meatball purposely dropped. Will not nose around snacks on coffee table near his place.

But. Ermahgawd when he's in his puppy mood - 10 secs is all it takes to destroy something or run around the house with knickers or toilet paper the whole house. At that point, he's not listening and just bring a silly pup.

I might try growling and a time out - not crate tho, cos he loves his crate and will go in there happily.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Stressmagnet

[Steph M]

I was always taught there isn't much point telling off a dog after the fact, if I come in and Gus has shredded a pillow and is asleep in the ruins I just pop him out so I can clean it.

Not sure if that's the best approach but he very very rarely wrecks things anyway, only the odd bin bag with delicious things inside. :laugh:

[The Spotted Devil]

Baby gate is another useful one.

You don't give a 14 year old the keys to your car. So don't give the adolescent dog free access to the house. All he gets to do is practice inappropriate behaviours which are HUGELY rewarding. I have my living area gated off and it is the perfect puppy (or Emmy!) zone. As a collector of cat toys, socks, anything leather etc she doesn't access the bedrooms etc until it's actually time for bed. She's bred to retrieve, trained to retrieve and rewarded for retrieving.

[The Spotted Devil]

I was always taught there isn't much point telling off a dog after the fact, if I come in and Gus has shredded a pillow and is asleep in the ruins I just pop him out so I can clean it.

Not sure if that's the best approach but he very very rarely wrecks things anyway, only the odd bin bag with delicious things inside. :laugh:

Yep. But I usually get a camera first so we can laugh about it later. Time outs are for the owner to calm down I reckon! Science tells us that we have TWO seconds to reward or punish. And then you need to ensure the dog can work out which behaviour it was. No wonder we get it wrong!

[HazyWal]

Stan waits until I go out to destroy things and then gives himself up by hiding in my bed when I open the front door, he'll be 7 in April and showing no signs of growing up. If they're doing something they shouldn't be letting loose with my Shazza from Bogan Hunters voice has them ducking for cover.

[Steph M]

I was always taught there isn't much point telling off a dog after the fact, if I come in and Gus has shredded a pillow and is asleep in the ruins I just pop him out so I can clean it.

Not sure if that's the best approach but he very very rarely wrecks things anyway, only the odd bin bag with delicious things inside. :laugh:

Yep. But I usually get a camera first so we can laugh about it later. Time outs are for the owner to calm down I reckon! Science tells us that we have TWO seconds to reward or punish. And then you need to ensure the dog can work out which behaviour it was. No wonder we get it wrong!

Yeaaaaaaah, there isn't a lot of things I can do in two seconds. Haha. No wonder Gus is a loon.

[Kajirin]

Stern voice doesn't always work on Sarge, nor does imitating growling...makes him more excited. I just hold a pillow up and tell him the pillow is watching and he backs off. Tempted to be silly and draw eyes on a white pillow so the pillow really can watch him lol.

[The Spotted Devil]

Yeh seeing as I growl fiercely at the dogs when we play wild tug games together I can't see that being very effective for me :laugh:

[Loving my Oldies]

I think you have "one of those dogs" StressMagnet. :laugh: :laugh:

Ernie sounds a true delight and if what he is doing that is "naughty" doesn't really create real problems for you (although I do understand that having a shredded pillow decorating a house might be a problem), I think just rejoice in having such a fun dog.

My "weapon" is a rolled up newspaper, taped around so it doesn't disintegrate, and which lives on top of the frig. I haven't used it in yonks, but my dogs are all getting old. All I'd do with that is to give it a good hard whack on the table or on the deck railing and dogs would stop whatever it was they were doing and come to me.

Ernie sounds delicious :laugh: :laugh:

[JulesP]

If he listens to the 'uh uh' but not the napalm voice I would check that the napalm voice is suitably low pitched. Ladies tend to get high pitched which dogs think is fun.

[aussielover]

I think most labs don't take punishment seriously. Especially if the reward is worth it (that usually means food). You could kick, whack, scream etc at my dog but if she had a hamburger in her mouth she'd just wag her tail at you and still be delighted with herself.

Can be difficult if you're used to a more sensitive breed.

Teaching them an alternate behaviour is much more useful.

And I find prevention is also key, once they self reward with the undesirable behaviour it can be difficult to get their attention back on you.

Definitely not a breed for those without a sense of humor!!!

Edited January 31, 2015 by aussielover

[Taliecat]

I do a bit of a lip curl and a growl when Dozer is being a terror.

Works probably 90% of the time when I'm really annoyed. It's got to be a pretty dire situation though, one thought about giggling at him stealing my undies/socks/eating my latest novel and all credibility is gone and the growl does nothing.

Edit :damn you autocorrect

Edited January 31, 2015 by Taliecat

[Mumsie]

I understand that some people are against physical punishment for their dogs however we use rolled up catalogues (junk mail) and tap them on the bum. They soon learn that the rolled up paper in my hand means stop it right now, don't often do this only when they are persistently being naughty. They have shown no fear when I carry the junk mail inside, only when I roll it a particular way.