Biggest Mistake You (or others) Make With a Dog?

I think the biggest mistake people make with puppies is under socializing! Socialization is SO important!

People do not realize HOW MUCH socialization puppies actually need:

http://www.dogscouts1.com/How_to_socialize.html

Originally Posted by Nekochan

I think the biggest mistake people make with puppies is under socializing! Socialization is SO important!

People do not realize HOW MUCH socialization puppies actually need:

http://www.dogscouts1.com/How_to_socialize.html

Click to expand...

That's a really good point, and a good article.

I would say that my number one mistake would be not knowing enough about the breed. But to be fair to myself, both my dogs are mixes. Shadow is a black lab mix. I found out later that he has some sort of husky-type mix in there as well. So I have the best of both worlds...a dog that sheds constantly, AND blows coat twice a year! Oh, and he loved to jump fences and run away a lot as a youngster...

We got JD from puppy rescue (a group goes around and rescues puppies from around the state who are about to be euthanized.) We were told he was a lab mix. (and he did look it...) But he is a Border Collie (cross) through and through. At least I recognized it and worked with him on his herding behavior, but I probably wouldn't have CHOSEN that breed.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Yeah its a yellow lab puppy. We have a yellow lab. They say the yellows shed the most out of all the colors (black, chocolate, yellow). I think they are right!

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Ahh well, at least they're cute!

For me, personally, the worst I did was that I applied the wrong training method (correction type) to my dog. He's sensitive, slightly skittish, and thinks too much, and using corrections, like yelling, snapping the leash, using intimidation, etc., was too much for him. Even little things would be too much for him. So it's no wonder he was a nut-head when he was, I think, 6 years old and was starting to nip at everyone and lose his temper of the drop of a hat. So I switched to positive-only and there was an immediately turnaround. Now, he nips very rarely (because of fear-based reactions, which was the deal before, too, but now he just gets nippy when you're leaning over him, tense, while readying yourself to clip his nails, which he already hates. He's sensitive, so he picks up on your body language SO EASILY!). He's now 10 years old and grumpiness is making an appearance again, all due to his age. No nipping at people, but sometimes his "trigger" goes off sooner than usual and he'll lunge at one of the cats, trying to get her to move so he can do something rather than just stare at her. He's also warty and bumpy and I don't think he likes it when I'm playing around with them. But yeah, we used fear-based training and intimidation in his early years and it messed him up. I remember our puppy obedience instructor advocated the scruff-shake, but in a more intense way. See, when the dog is getting into a bad mood or bad behaviour (and Jake was the bad kid of the class, always trying to walk around and meet the other pups, getting into trouble, growling and tugging the leash all through the lesson, etc. Not evil, just distracted and a normal puppy). So Jake was the guinea pig when the instructor demonstrated the reprimand. What she'd do is grab his scruff on both sides, lift him up so his eyes were level with yours, then shake him and yell at him ("No! Bad dog! I'm the boss!"). Jake was TERRIFIED and would snarl some more, showing his teeth, all with his little tail tucked tight between his legs. Is it any wonder that it took years before I got it into my head that him showing his lips if you even touched his collar wasn't normal (it was quickly solved and now he doesn't have a problem being touched around the neck). He's also afraid of heights and will completely freak out if you try to pick him up (including using his teeth; he got mom in the lip in that last year before I made a change to go positive-only, and early in his life, I remember he somehow gave me a goose-egg in the BACK of my head. I'm still not sure how he managed that). He's also supersensitive to yelling, and even if the yelling isn't aimed at him, he'll slink and find a small, dark place to curl up. Unless he sees the yeller looking at him, and he'll assume the yelling is about him and he'll slink and crawl up to the person, ears down, tail tucked, calming signals screaming out of his body. Yeah, that one lady and that one training method messed Jake up good, but I've worked on him and I'm satisfied with where he's at now. I can deal with not picking him up (55lbs isn't fun to pick up anyway, lol), so I work around it by training him to reach higher ground himself (he was fearful of the bathtub for a while, but now it's easy to get him to jump in there by himself rather than having someone heave him up and put him in there)

I'm not sure exactly where this lies, but I wish people who get dogs would actually make an effort to get to understand him. Figure out his likes and dislikes, and how he operates, and then apply it to his training. It makes things so much easier for you and the dog, rather than picking some random and easy method to training a certain trick. Part of the reason I couldn't get Jake to learn rollover until he was 6 (and he's a Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix, so the brain is there) was because I was going about it the wrong way. I tried everything, from manually pushing him over (he hates that kind of thing, he'll even freeze and not move when you command him to sit and you've got your hand on his shoulder), and guiding his head with a treat and hoping gravity would roll him over. See, Jake's the kind of dog that learns through experience. He has to figure it out himself, and if you push him over, he doesn't associate that with the word "roll over." To him, you just pushed him over and then said "good boy." It confuses this old man. I did eventually teach him roll over, and it was all becaue of a fluke. We were out in the front yard with bits of cheese slices (he loves cheese) practicing random tricks. He was in a liedown at one point, and I told him to "roll over". I can't remember if he was at the point where he was getting frustrated (not understanding what rollover meant, so trying different tricks until he picked the right one), and eventually went into play-dead, or if he just did it. But anyway, he was in a lie down and went into the play-dead mode (laying sort of on his back with his forelegs lifted in the air). As it was, the whole fluke thing, he was laying on a sort of hill, so when he lifted his legs (and probably arched his back), gravity rolled him over. I started leaping up and down, squealing, and all but forcing cheese down his throat, and I saw the lightbulb go off in his head. He was grinning, and I could just see his head working. I brought him back to the exact same spot, commanded a rollover again, and he immediately went right into a roll over. I kept repeating it, giving him praise, a few times before I tried a different spot that was level, not a hill, and he rolled over perfectly each time. He's been flawless ever since. Nowadays, he'll only roll over on random days, due to his age. He has arthritic hips (which don't even affect him in day-to-day life, he doesn't even need glucosamine anymore), and he needs soft ground, and just general comfort. Otherwise, when he tries and feels hard ground, he'll get back up and won't attempt it. He's an old guy, so I just go with the flow and do something else. He's my first dog, so I've done a lot of experiments on him (including the corrections method of training for years), so he deserves some flexibility at this point.

Yeah, the training of sensitive dogs is one of my bigger issues, if you can't tell, lol. Most of those training methods out there just don't work on the more sensitive dogs and can just make things worse. But nearly any positive-only training method works with them, and that method is becoming more and more popular these days.

Aussie_Dog that was a great post. I hear you about the sensitive doggy things since I have one who was a rescue from a puppymill. You reminded me of one more "big mistake" that dog owners make:

- Assuming that there is a 'one-size fits all' solution to dog training.

Dogs have different temperaments and their human owners have different strengths and weaknesses. Put those two together and what happens is that what works for one dog/owner situation may be totally wrong for the other. The scruff-shake that freaked out Jake (there are still instructors doing that? might have been just the right thing to get the attention of a much less sensitive dog.

The thing to do is like Aussie_Dog said, figure out what makes your dog tick and then make use of that when training. Read everything you can, get different opinions, think about it and decide what works best for you and your dog.

I loved your post, Aussie Dog. My Border Collie cross acts the exact same way both with "harsher" training methods, and with trying to teach him a trick. (When I say harsher, I mean we can't even raise our voices to him. You would think he'd been abused or something, but we've had him all his life.)

I think I'll try your roll over trick with JD. He definitely doesn't like being pushed over, and that's how we trained the lab to do it!

That is a priceless story, Aussie Dog!

I'm pretty sure my mixed-breed dog has some Border Collie in her too, and she's very sensitive as well. She cringes at a raised voice too. I had assumed it was because of her unknown shelter-dog background, but I wonder how common that is as a natural trait in BC crosses?

Borders ARE a more sensitive dog, but alot of it has to do with the fact that they were bred to have such an intuitive nature (to be an ultimate shepard's dog); they had to be able to work a flock on their own, or a long way away from their shepard...that takes smarts. So when you take a dog with that kind of mental capacity, it makes for a sensitive fast learning dog.

I have a Vizlsa Lab mix. His name is Jake. He is NOT a dog. He is a human with fur (at least he thinks so )

The biggest mistake I made with Jake is human food.
I know, I know. Bad mommy! He is very food motivated and always has been. The papers from the SPCA even said it
Yes, he begs, but he waits patiently for anything you have to offer
But it does get annoying when he sits IN the chair at the dining room table

But with 2 kids in the house who constantly feed him, it's almost impossible to keep him from getting some kind of food.

I didn't seek out a Vizsla X. Matter of fact, I didn't even know what one was!
He's going to be 3 yrs old on Sept 28th and honestly, I couldn't ask for a better breed!

He's very loyal, listens well, and protective when he needs to be. He loves all the kitties, and will protect HIS cats if he thinks they're in harms way.
Same with my children.
Right now, he's asleep in the bed with Duke, and Blaze. I think Brandon might have 2 feet of room to sleep in a queen bed.

I never put him through obediance school or anything like that. For whatever reason, Jake and I just.... communicate.. I can't explain it but I have a closeness with him that I can't explain.
He goes to friends houses, my parents and to stores with me at night.

Sorry to ramble but, I love my Jake... I couldn't ask for a better human (dog)

The biggest mistake (even though I would have done it all over again) was I had no idea what getting a border collie/Aussie mix would mean. He was a cute puppy that was marked down 3 times at a pet store. I felt sorry for him 7 years ago and bought him the next day. Who turned out to be one of the craziest dogs I have ever seen. No one told me he wouldn't be a good apartment dog. The damage alone ran me into the thousands.

Halo was the first puppy I ever had. I did not socialize him enough, I didn't leave him alone enough. For about two month from the day I brought him home I spent every single minute with him which led to his seperation anxiety. This was all corrected when he was about two. Still he is scare of some people.

I take him to work with me at the animal shelter this has greatly improved his social skills, with the exception he growls at the Animal Control Officers. But I say "Smart dog". lol.

Those were the two biggest mistakes I made with him. I love him and would do anything in the world for him if it would make him happy.

My dog does get fed once a day and that's in the morning. I don't eat breakfast so I don't know how the feed yourself 1st theory would work.

Our current dog is a family pet and I was eight years old when we got her. Looking back on it, I'm actually really impressed with how my parents went about getting her (most of what they did is how I'd go about getting my own dog now that it's twelve years later)... They researched a lot. We went to a farm that had tons of breeds of dogs; my parents didn't want to buy from there because they had too many breeds. We went to another breeder; their puppies didn't look like Bichons so we left there, too. The breeder we ended up going to was really nice.

The only mistake wasn't really mine or my mom's even. I went to one of the obedience classes with my mom and watched. Candy (our dog) was being a bit of a brat (purposely, you could tell by her body language). The trainer came over and literally yanked on my dog's neck, her feet came off the ground and my dog started yelping. This was to get her to lie down. I started crying, too, and my mom told me when we got in the car that she didn't want to take Candy back to the class (who would?!).

That one incident has very much shaped my opinion of dog training (I'm very much a supporter of clicker training/operant conditioning/positive reinforcement). I don't believe in any "pack leader" crap, or that I need to be the "alpha". I'm not a dog. My dog's not a human, but I'm going to treat her with respect because I am human. Respect doesn't mean she gets the run of the house. It means she'll do what I ask her not because she fears me, but because she truly wants to please me.

I think the biggest mistake dog owners make, in general, is lack of knowledge -- about everything to do with their dog -- but the one that frustrates me the most is not having them fixed. This is terribly judgmental of me, but I look down on any dog owner that doesn't have their dog fixed when the dog is more than a year old. I have a firm belief that a dog should be altered unless it's being shown.

When growing up we never altered the male dogs. But I know a lot more now, and would alter male or female dogs and cats. I did my share of cat breeding (show/pedigree) and don't have the time/money to do it again. I'll just show altered cats

Originally Posted by Nekochan

I think the biggest mistake people make with puppies is under socializing! Socialization is SO important!

People do not realize HOW MUCH socialization puppies actually need:

http://www.dogscouts1.com/How_to_socialize.html

Click to expand...

I wish that I would have done this more with my dachshund. As it is, people will pet her and she'll be growling at them the whole time. My boyfriends mom went to pet her once while I was holding her (apparently she's protective of me) and she snapped at her. I warn people not to pet her when she's in my arms now. She never growls at the vet's office though or has tried to bite any of the vets or vet techs. She even gets an attitude with me sometimes and the boyfriend. If she's laying on my lap and comftorable and I go to move her she gets an attitude. And I've never seen her do it, but my mom claims that she chases my 5 year old nephew around and tries to bite his heels. My sister hates my dog because of that. He's the first child that was ever in the family and my dog is 6 years old now so I really didn't have anyone to socialize her around, child-wise. This is because she was already around a year old when my nephew was adopted and probably too late to socialize her especially since he was a baby then. I usually get people to give her a treat when they're at my house to show her that they're not there to hurt her. That usually makes her a little more friendly. She remembers some of my friends sometimes and just loves them to death, but other people she just isn't sure of. I've noticed that she's a little more unfriendly to men though, not sure why.

Our biggest mistake with lulu is not enough excercise.

That and getting a puppy in the first place... neither of us were prepared to raise a puppy... not enough hours in the day.

I knew this... roomie did not. (sigh).

She's well socialized and well-mannered, though, just gets a little hyper at times and forgets to be obedient.

The biggest mistakes Fergus owners made (and I'm guessing since I never met them):

Letting him weight 62 lbs, he's now 48 lbs and all muscle from exercise and a good diet.

Putting him in a crate constantly.

Opening a day care and then being upset because the dog barked at the kids.

Doing whatever it was that made him mistrust women, thanks, I had to work twice as hard to win his trust.

The best thing they ever did was to recognize he wasn't working out for them and to put him up for adoption through a Springer rescue group. It's been a year and a half and he's becoming the dog he was meant to be.