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Hello,
I am new here but have already found discussion on this site extremely helpful. I am in need of some help/suggestions/encouragement. I have a very strong willed puppy! My dog Koda is a 6 month old Norwegian Elkhound that I have had for 3 months. I adopted her from a rescue where a breeder who could no longer care for his dogs dropped of the puppies and parents. Koda and a couple of her siblings were very malnourished and barely surviving, so she is on the smaller side at only 25 pounds currently.
I have taken her to puppy kindergarten and puppy agility and she does excellent in a training environment. However the struggle is real at home and other places. She does things on her own time and when she wants to. I have just this week switched up her training routine at home and it is much more "strict" and consistent. She knows sit, come, down, crawl, stay, leave it and look. She sits and waits for her food holding eye contact with me until I release her. She is VERY food motivated. She could care less about toys or praise but she will work for food. She is also not eager to please. To give an example of just how strong willed she is last night I was making her sit before I opened the door and stay after it is open until I give the release (just like when I feed her) and we had done this several times before. I said sit like usual and she didn't do anything so I said sit again in a more stern voice and what does she do... she looks at me and then turns and look at the wall.
I had to laugh otherwise I would have been frustrated. And I know she needed to go out. So I waited in the mudroom with the door closed and finally after about 5 minutes of her looking at me ans walking around she decided to sit- and I did praise her for sitting and took her outside. Another example is if I call her name she will look when she wants to, even if I am 5 feet from her... and I am calling her in a happy voice. I am looking for advice, suggestions or just people who have experienced a strong willed dog. It is hard because no one close to me has dealt with anything like a strong willed dog.
One of the bigger issues is she seems to not care at all when I correct her.. I say a stern no and she will generally stop whatever she is doing-- not all the time but most of the time. But she just looks at me, and I think the bigger issue is the behavior isn't changing. It takes probably 10-15 stern no's before she will stop for good. Is this normal? Should I be doing something different?
She is a great puppy. We are having issues but overall she is awesome and the perfect addition to my family. She isn't a biter or chewer does awesome with children and will let kids give her hugs and won't budge. She has never snapped, or growled at anyone. She gets plenty of exercise as we live on land and she goes on lots of walks and the occasional trip to the dog park.
Sorry if this is a really long post I wanted to give as much information as possible!
I am new here but have already found discussion on this site extremely helpful. I am in need of some help/suggestions/encouragement. I have a very strong willed puppy! My dog Koda is a 6 month old Norwegian Elkhound that I have had for 3 months. I adopted her from a rescue where a breeder who could no longer care for his dogs dropped of the puppies and parents. Koda and a couple of her siblings were very malnourished and barely surviving, so she is on the smaller side at only 25 pounds currently.
I have taken her to puppy kindergarten and puppy agility and she does excellent in a training environment. However the struggle is real at home and other places. She does things on her own time and when she wants to. I have just this week switched up her training routine at home and it is much more "strict" and consistent. She knows sit, come, down, crawl, stay, leave it and look. She sits and waits for her food holding eye contact with me until I release her. She is VERY food motivated. She could care less about toys or praise but she will work for food. She is also not eager to please. To give an example of just how strong willed she is last night I was making her sit before I opened the door and stay after it is open until I give the release (just like when I feed her) and we had done this several times before. I said sit like usual and she didn't do anything so I said sit again in a more stern voice and what does she do... she looks at me and then turns and look at the wall.
One of the bigger issues is she seems to not care at all when I correct her.. I say a stern no and she will generally stop whatever she is doing-- not all the time but most of the time. But she just looks at me, and I think the bigger issue is the behavior isn't changing. It takes probably 10-15 stern no's before she will stop for good. Is this normal? Should I be doing something different?
She is a great puppy. We are having issues but overall she is awesome and the perfect addition to my family. She isn't a biter or chewer does awesome with children and will let kids give her hugs and won't budge. She has never snapped, or growled at anyone. She gets plenty of exercise as we live on land and she goes on lots of walks and the occasional trip to the dog park.
Sorry if this is a really long post I wanted to give as much information as possible!
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