Do y'all have any suggestions on how to stimulate an unruly puppy? - eviltoast

I have a very smart 4 month old goldendoodle who loves getting into everything. She has no interest in her toys or chews. I’m at my wits end. She won’t respond to any correction or redirection. I puppy proofed tf out of my house but she still finds shit to get into. Idek where she gets some of the stuff she finds.

I can’t give her super flavorful bones because my beagle tries to fight her over them. That’s the only thing that has held her attention recently, but my beagle is a dick when it comes to bones.

I brought home like a dozen new toys yesterday but she doesn’t want them. She also doesn’t really care for treats when training. She’d just rather be called a good girl and get head pats.

My beagle isn’t nearly as smart as her, so it didn’t take much to stimulate him. Now he just wants to nap all the time lol.

  • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    Yeah, that’s kinda what happens with GDs. My shrink has one that’s 2yo that still does that stuff despite a ton of training and such. They eventually had to resort to a shock collar which kinda works for some things like barking, but she’ll still destroy stuff. .

    If you have a fenced in back yard, I’d put her out there for a few hours to see if that helps things. Does she play fetch, because if so you can get an automatic ball launcher that they can drop the balls into. That was my suggestion that my shrink is trying out now.

    But, in all honesty, every single person I’ve met who has a GD has deeply regretted their decision.

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh wow that’s very extreme. Shock collars are terrible when the shock setting is what is used. I’ve seen people use the collars that make a beep and use that for training, but I am not one for that either. I tried the beep with my beagle and he didn’t care.

      My yard isn’t fenced, but I plan on getting it fenced as soon as I can. Both my goldendoodle and beagle will benefit greatly from it. They have nice and sturdy tie outs right now, but those only let them do so much playing outside.

      I do not regret my decision to get her or my beagle despite my goldendoodle being a menace andy beagle being the loudest and neediest creature on the face of the planet. They’re my babies. I’m never having human children, so my dogs and other critters (2 cats and 11 ducks) are my kids.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        E-collars can be used but only as part of a specific training regimen, and only on lowest setting the dog responds to. They shouldn’t just be left on all the time and used whenever the dog is doing something bad. Positive reinforcement works way better than negative reinforcement, but sometimes a bit of negative is needed along with the positive.

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          The only negative stuff I do is tell my dogs no in a stern voice. My beagle has bad anxiety and was clearly abused in the past, so I don’t want him to regress to the state he was in when I got him. That wouldn’t be good for me or the rest of my critters.

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            That’s totally reasonable. Negative reinforcement is almost never necessary. I was just pointing out that it can be helpful if used sparingly. Just be aware though, attention is reinforcement, so if you are ignoring your dog when it wants attention, then it acts out and damages something, then you come over to scold it, your dog has learned that acting out will get your attention.

            As a dog trainer I worked with previously put it: “the opposite of ‘reward’ is not ‘punishment’, it is ‘no reward’”

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I’m glad they haven’t used that feature. The beep feature is honestly not that bad in my opinion of used as a kind of command. Idk what word would work best. My mom used the beep function with her great Dane/german shepherd to get her attention when she wouldn’t recall. It’d get her to focus enough to listen to commands. My mom didn’t even have to use it for more than 3 months.