I have a 1 year old male Saint Bernard. In the house he is great, except sometimes he will chew the odd thing but you can expect that. He will be calm and do his thing in the house which is sleeping and seeing how everyone is. When it comes to taking out for a walk he goes completely different. He will pull on the lead, when he sees another dog he will run towards the dog, and you cannot stop him because of his strength, sometimes he can start running when you don’t expect it and hurts your hand. Iv tried to train him by taking food out but it doesn’t really work, Iv stayed calm in situation but he still pulls and runs after dogs, you can tell him to sit, he will sit, and when a dog walks by, he will watch for a while then run towards the dog. Could anyone give me any advice please? Thank you.
Asaraf2020-12-21T18:46:45Z
Reward training (which is sometimes also called lure training) is a very effective training technique for teaching dogs a number of desired behaviors. And, in addition to being highly effective, reward training is an easy, fun method to use.
This particular training technique provides much quicker, more dependable results than methods that rely heavily on scolding, corrections, or punishment, and it does it in a way that's much more positive for both you and your dog. Because reward training is so effective, it's currently one of the most popular dog training techniques. At its heart, reward training works because you reward your dog with a treat or tidbit of food whenever he does what you ask. Most owners accompany the food reward with verbal praise. The food and praise are positive reinforcement which helps your dog learn to associate the action he performed with good things (food and praise) and encourages him to repeat that behavior again.
That was supposed to END with your MAIN QUESTION. But your 4 words don't ASK us anything. As there was no ❓ at the end, a Yahoo script written by an unthinking programmer added one without realising that it ISN'T a question.
I've also looked at all 20 "questions" you've "asked" during the 3 years you've been in Y!A - and NOT ONCE have you awarded the BEST aka Favourite Answer points to anyone. Stop being so SELF-CENTRED, kid. (I am at least 4 times your age; my grandsons are about double your age.)
Your oldest 8 questions have now been "locked off" so that you cannot reward anyone, cannot get refunded 24 of the 40 points those 8 questions "cost" you. And so you are down to just 48 points LEFT - enough for only 9 more questions!
You need to REALISE that each question you ask "costs" you 5 points. BUT - as soon as you award a BEST aka Favourite Answer, THREE of those 5 points get "refunded" to you.
• "I have a 1 year old male Saint Bernard. In the house he is great, except sometimes he will chew the odd thing but you can expect that."
YOU might, but I DON'T expect it from my GSDs. Your pooch is obviously BORED and UNSUPERVISED. So... 💥Q1: On your busiest day, how long is he "home alone" - and WHERE is he during those hours? 💥Q2: Is he fertile or a neuter? How LONG have you had him? 💥Q3: Is he registered with your nation's ONE official kennel club? (If you're a Yank or Reb, only the AKC counts.) 💥Q4: What functions were you wanting him to perform for you once he is trained? (He is obviously NOWHERE NEAR "trained" yet. And I doubt that you want him to carry flasks of reviving fluids around [to let people trapped in snow-falls regain some energy], the way St.Bernards used to until GSDs - German Shepherd Dogs - took over most Search-&-Rescue tasks.) 💥Q5: What are the names of - and distances to - the 2 nearest weekly training groups? WHY haven't you contacted either of them? (You should have been coached for about a year, starting when he was 18-to-22 weeks old - which he probably WAS before CoViD-19 left Wuhan City in China. Interestingly, SARS, a version of CoViD-19, attacked several humans there before CoViD-19 began attacking dogs!) 💥Q6: Do you have transport to get you & your St.Bernard to & from either of those training groups?
If you don't know how to include that information with YOUR question, LEARN: ⛧a: Click the [Edit] under your question, then ⛧b: click the [Add Update] that will appear, followed by ⛧c: typing the information into the clear area that will appear. ⛧d: Then CHECK and CORRECT your typing (especially WHAT or WHO each pronoun actually stands for) before clicking [Submit].
Be aware that the St.Bernard is ranked down at 123rd of the 138 breeds ranked by at least 100 obedience judges in North America last century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligence_of_Dogs Which doesn't make it "stupid" (there are at least 600 breeds scattered around the world, but most of them are never seen in Canadian & USA obedience rings), but DOES mean that you are going to have to WORK at training, with LOTS of repetition spread across each day, seeing as you DIDN'T start getting COACHED when Pup was the proper 18-to-22 weeks old. Except that they are intelligent enough to train their owners if the owner is "a bit thick", the easiest breeds to train are the herders, the retrievers, the spaniels.
• "He will be calm and do his thing in the house which is sleeping and seeing how everyone is. When it comes to taking out for a walk he goes completely different. He will pull on the lead, when he sees another dog he will run towards the dog, and you cannot stop him because of his strength, sometimes he can start running when you don’t expect it and hurts your hand."
I would HOPE that I CAN stop him. But if YOU can't, you should NOT have him.
TRAINING starts the instant you get home with a new dog. My retention from my litters is trained to NOT pull, starting the first fine day that arrives 2 weeks after Pup's first CORE vaccination (which I seek at 8 weeks old). Because I live with a very steep hill up to the shopping centre, once my GSD reaches about 18 months old I encourage her to pull a little bit uphill, to help me up - but when we are on the level (or downhill) she is NOT allowed to pull.
• "Iv tried to train him by taking food out but it doesn’t really work, Iv stayed calm in situation but he still pulls and runs after dogs,"
Who is this "Iv" ? (Ivan? Ivana? Ivar? Ives? Ivo? Ivor? Ivy?) He/She obviously knows nothing worthwhile about GETTING COACHED on how to train a dog.
• "you can tell him to sit, he will sit,"
He should NOT sit when _I_ command him to, unless he is used to _me_ coaching YOU. But within 3 or 4 weeks of [Dylan] getting him (ideally at 7½-to-9½ weeks old) he SHOULD HAVE sat when [Dylan] used the right words + voice-tone + hand-signal. "Come" (or "Come here" or "Come on" - but only ONE of that trio), "NO!!!", "Sit" are usually the first 3 commands taught, although "Heel" is likely to be used if this is an owner's first time in the training class.
• "and when a dog walks by, he will watch for a while then run towards the dog. Could anyone give me any advice please? Thank you."
Start with WATCHING your dog, and being ready to INSTANTLY move the lead to whichever side - left or right - moves him at a w-i-d-e angle compared with where the dog is that he's been "admiring". Walk him in circles; distract him with pats/rubs until you KNOW what his intention is and what the OTHER dog's intention is.
St.Bernards are not noted for aggression (but I don't know whether yours is an exception) - and YOU don't know what the OTHER dog's attitude is.
In a TRAINING GROUP, the dogs are NOT allowed to interact until the trainer and owners know what each pooch's attitude is. Caesar: https://lesp90.wixsite.com/lorelei-gsd-kennels/caesar my first GSD, couldn't understand why a Staffordshire Bull Terrier didn't want to play with him.
Your "he will watch for a while then run towards the dog" doesn't suggest that your lad is aggressive - but you might be one of the many people in Yahoo who use words VERY sloppily - and as you FAILED to socialise him others' dogs when he was VERY young and it was easy to PHYSICALLY control him, you are going to have to be VERY cautious. Make sure that you know where every pole and every rail-fence is, so that at first sight of another dog you GRASP that pole or rail in a death-grip with your arm that is NOT holding the leash, so that he can NOT haul you off your feet. That way you can OBSERVE the other dog's attitude, and decide whether to encourage its owner to quietly bring his/her pet just out of reach for a while, and NOT come any closer until both owners are CONFIDENT that their pet is curious but NOT anxious or aggressive.
You NEED to identify 2 dogs in your walking range who are VERY friendly and have friendly owners, so that you can phone each other and arrange places & times where 2 of you can meet (the owners keeping at least 6 feet apart until all humans in your area have been immunised for at least 2 weeks) - but your dogs can get close enough to sniff-&-greet each other. Once your pet is WELL socialised you can start looking for other canike friends for him.
👽: The only people who recommend any of a 👹HALTI, a 👹HEAD COLLAR, a 👹NOSE LEASH are those who care about themselves but not about their dog. The correct neck-wear for most dogs is a straight-links slip-chain. Dogs with a tender neck (and a violent owner!) need a flat leather collar.
NEVER consider a 👹retractable lead. You want a thick woven-nylon leash 6 feet long.
I'm hoping to see your responses to my 6 questions before this answer is 20 hours old - I am up MUCH too late this morning!
Kreaky Kiwi - first pup in 1950, GSD trainer & breeder as of Easter 1968
You absolutely MUST get into training with this dog. It is a danger to you, other people, other animals and passers by. You simply cannot have a dog that size that is not trained.
You need CLASSES and PRACTICE. Dogs aren't born trained and they don't train themselves. Look for POSITIVE training classes, if you don't know what that means look it up. If you have a PetSmart in your area they have an EXCELLENT program and it's reasonably priced.
It takes work to train and dog and you must work them every single day, preferably in short bursts of 5-15 mintues, Taking treats out with you doesn't solve your problem, your dog and you need to learn to communicate. Ah, for a couple minutes there I forgot about COVID. You clearly have a computer. Get on it and find some POSITIVE dog training videos. Start with the basics, even if he already knows them, and move on from there. Go at the dogs pace, do several short sessions a day.
I've been training my current dogs since they were puppies, they are now 6 and 8 years old. They still get put through the basic training plus their tricks all the time - for treats - which makes it really fun for all of us. It is super fun to be out training them and be surrounded by admirers as I run them through their circus tricks...
Lots of novice trainers have a problem with recall. You can do some more training using a long line or you can switch to a head harness/head collar. Also know as Halti collar. You just need to learn what you need to know about dogs forging ahead & not coming when called. Work on the recall. Lots of information online about how to do this training.