HELP.. Ignoring No and doing what he likes.

[puppywithattitude]

New puppy (vizsla) ignoring No command, especially when tugging on clothes or curtains etc.
Have tried distraction to get him off whoever/whatever he is chewing but that's not working, and he bites if you physically try and remove him.
Don't know what to do?

I’ve nothing to add , I’ve got a very stubborn 7 yo patterdale x who spends much of the time pretending he doesn’t know his name , we had to take a very creative view to training and he is very well behaved on the whole . I just needed to ask if your dp was ok after the crotch incident ?

With our puppy we’re training hard on ‘leave it’ so when playing with toys with her, we’ll play for a couple of minutes then use the command, leave it, take the toy from her if she doesn’t drop it, and have her go to sit or down. When she’s in position and she is waiting patiently she gets the toy back and a big fuss. If it’s something she’s not supposed to have we do the same thing, take it away, and sit or down, and she gets a treat when she’s in position. Then offer her a toy, or a chew, or take her out of the situation, whichever is best at the time.

We also do it with food, at mealtimes the food goes in front of her with a command to leave it, and she eats when she’s sitting or lying patiently. We must say it dozens of times a day but it is working, she now doesn’t eat without permission and if we take a toy away she sits and waits immediately. She’s not perfect, she has a thing for running off with slippers at the moment, but she’s only six months or so, so has a lot of learning to do. We try and be consistent and direct her to things she can chew, and give her plenty of interesting things she’s allowed to play with, and that seems to help.

Check out Steve Mann Dog Training videos on Youtube.

Magnetaria, you’re about 15 years out of date I’m afraid. Pack theory was debunked years ago. Dogs understand perfectly well that they are dogs and we are humans and you can have control without always eating a biscuit before you feed your dog.

OP, your puppy needs to learn that this behaviour has undesirable consequences - that the fun stops as soon as it begins. When he nips, move away from him and completely ignore him so he learns that this behaviour means the fun stops. If he has hold of something he shouldn’t (your dh’s crotch!) gently squeezing his lower jaw will make him let go. Then you move away and ignore as above. You have to do it every time so he sees the consequence.

Aaaghhhh, not bloody pack theory again! I wish people would stop offering 'helpful' advice based on out of date codswallop. FWIW there are times when I want poodle boy to go through a door first as otherwise he's in the way! Doesn't seem to have caused any problems .
OP we had similar issues with our poodle when he was younger - any biting of clothing resulted in us turning our backs on him and folding arms. If he persisted, we left the room or put him out. Ours was also a guarder of things! - not so much toys but never wanted to give balls back and if he got anything of ours (socks, shoes etc) would growl and then snap if we tried to take it away. Same thing when we wanted to move him off the sofa or our beds. Our trainer advised training him to do a swop either for one of his toys, another ball or a food reward (you need something quite high value) and using a clicker with this to reward him giving something up. It didn't lead to him guarding things to get a treat - although he does still occasionally refuse to get off my bed without being bribed . It is sadly true though that they forget it all when they hit the teenage years and become rather delinquent for a while - that's when you need the gin!!