I know some people prefer to use positive reinforcement training to encourage good behaviors & weed out undesired ones, but how do YOU handle situations where your dog ignores you? I've heard huskies operate very strongly on smell, hearing and lastly sight. How do you all work around this?

I prefer a mix of positive reinforcement and physicality. I train him in certain situations (sitting when I grab the door knob, his crate latches, food, bones, etc.) for a higher chance of future control, but certain situations like an unexpected visitor, noisy get together, smell of food creeping under/through an opening door provide quite the challenge. In those situations, I grab his collar or block/push him back while saying a firm "No." or "Move". If he shows an unbroken interest in something, a firm nudge or tug at his collar tends to get his attention briefly. Some days he gets really rebellious, and I have to flip him on his side to take him out of that state of mind & discipline less aggressively afterwards. I don't want to gain obedience by way of fear, but out of respect. The more I shock him with a method of discipline, the better my results. A flip+any strange noise I use typically works (animal noises too). He is still young so his attention span is quite low, and it takes more to gain his attention than an older dog. I don't like hard nibbling, crucial play-biting, or attacking a valuable of mine so I have to check him in ways he'll respond to. In order to keep his confidence from being hurt, I then do simple obedience training with over the top praises or jackpot treats or his addiction: belly rubs. Maybe a good toss of his favorite ball or toy works too.

*Note: I don't flip him daily lol. This only happens in extremes. Yesterday, he met a toddler for the first time and began to bark intensely at her, as he was confused. It only took a scruff grab with nails touching skin (not dug in), check chain tug, and a slight shake to stop that. He isn't allowed to bark at people we accept, so my correction set a boundary for the toddler. Afterwards, he was allowing her to pet him & snuck a few licks in here and there.

Koda is an angel and I seriously never have to discipline him, most I ever have to do is just say no normally and he listens. Rogue is only 15 weeks so she doesn't fully listen yet but most things with her are done by saying no, ignoring bad behaviors, and giving attention/treats for desired behaviors. The only time I ever put a hand on her is when she growls and tries to nip us (when chewing a bone or something). USUALLY I can baby talk her and then get her all lovey and then pick her up. Or bring out a treat and switch it. But sometimes she'll do it when asleep by the trash can (don't ask, she loves being nexto the trash can..) and I just automatically pick her up by the scruff keeping her mouth away from me and make her lay on her side til she calms down. Everything else I try to do positive reinforcement.

Lol I wish our Koda's were more alike =p This dude here has a tendency to believe it's playtime when he gets told no or will come up, get sassy & push my hand and continue the action. Today was just a really bad day for the two of us. He's been misbehaving all day and can't seem to catch a break. I'll know next time not to put him in a situation to where he can mess up. Poor guy lol.

Kale had this tendency to snap at my face when he was frustrated. what i did was grab him by the scruff, roll him into a submissive position and make him stay there till hes calm. i gentle let him up and hes fine. he usually goes and finds a toy and brings it over to me so that we can play lol that is the only thing that broke him of the snapping. no positive reinforcement helped. He had a tendency to always test his boundaries lol thankfully im past all that now

When it comes down to these kinds of situations I usually grab him by the collar/neck and hold his face so he's staring right at me and give him a very firm "NO" with my manliest gruffiest voice I can muster. There has only been one time when I didn't dare do that; he was being super food aggressive with another dogs food. We walked out a cabin's front door and there was the other dog eating it's food, I had no idea she was there. Appa got nasty and went for her food with a whole bunch of ugly sounds coming from both dogs. Luckily he had on his Ruffwear harness, I grabbed the handle of his harness, picked him up, and pinned him against the cabin with a very firm NO! The shock of the whole incident snapped him out of it really fast. I really think that's usually what it takes, not necessarily the physicalness of it, but the shock. The extra drama usually is all it takes to get Appa to realize we mean business.

rileyflorence wrote:

with my manliest gruffiest voice I can muster.

hypers987 wrote:

what i did was grab him by the scruff, roll him into a submissive position and make him stay there till hes calm.

My husband tried doing this to Kody the other day and he really DID NOT like that! He was crying like he was killing him! I told him no more of that! I know it works and totally doesn't hurt them, but my poor baby. I'm sure after doing it a few times Kody would get the point, but still

I tried that with Appa, it was horrible. It only made things worse. When Appa is frustrated he stops learning. I don't intend on ever doing that again.

Some ashole at a dog park alpha rolled Nikolai when he was trying to play with his vocally escalating (and still on lead) small dog. I've never been so upset in all my life. Never.

I'm 100% committed to using positive techniques with Nikolai. He listens, he responds, he's a fabulous dog 99.9% of the time. The worst I've ever done is a loud, sort of obnoxious "Eeeh ehh..." to break him out of a focus on something he shouldn't do, or a gentle tug on the harness on the direction he should be going, etc. If he ignores me, I turn my back, do something else for a few seconds, give him a break, and come back to it a few minutes later. I think the key to keeping him on behaviors he SHOULD be doing and away from ones he shouldn't is the art of redirection and distraction. Get him to focus on you before he zeros in on something inappropriate, trade him something appropriate for things that are not appropriate, etc.

Edited to add: Our training mantra around our house is Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF). He works for EVERYTHING. All good things come from us, he knows that, he respects us. We don't generally ever have to discipline him because he just doesn't get what he wants unless he does something we want.

rileyflorence wrote:

When it comes down to these kinds of situations I usually grab him by the collar/neck and hold his face so he's staring right at me and give him a very firm "NO" with my manliest gruffiest voice I can muster. There has only been one time when I didn't dare do that; he was being super food aggressive with another dogs food. We walked out a cabin's front door and there was the other dog eating it's food, I had no idea she was there. Appa got nasty and went for her food with a whole bunch of ugly sounds coming from both dogs. Luckily he had on his Ruffwear harness, I grabbed the handle of his harness, picked him up, and pinned him against the cabin with a very firm NO! The shock of the whole incident snapped him out of it really fast. I really think that's usually what it takes, not necessarily the physicalness of it, but the shock. The extra drama usually is all it takes to get Appa to realize we mean business.

Same thing for us - it's something to "shock" them out of their zone - some people also suggested pennies in a metal can to shake around. I usually just yell "Hey!" super loud to get them out of their zone. No alpha rolling here - we don't discipline in a physical way because we don't want the dogs thinking it's acceptable for them to get physical back. No tug of war, either. Nothing that escalates aggression...

We also do the NILIF, and also praise good behavior like crazy!

I don't agree with alpha rolling and would neither do it with any dog nor would I advise anyone else do it. I am a huge fan of positive reinforcement and NILIF training. When it comes to disciplining my dogs, a simple vocal or noise correction is almost always all that is necessary...I'd say that works for us 99% of the time.

I will admit that when the dogs are newly introduced in the household and their isn't a bond/relationship yet, that more physical measures have been necessary such as stopping a behavior by grabbing a collar/harness or lead depending on the situation and knowing how a particular dog is likely to react. For example, I would never grab a dog displaying signs of aggression by the collar, however I would grab the same dog by the collar if it was tackling a child out of over-excitement and was not responding to verbal corrections/commands.

And then because each dog is an individual I issue corrections/discipline differently for each dog...which is why I can't say there's one particular way I discipline. Really, my training and discipline is individually tailored to each of my dogs based on their personalities.

Everyone has there own methods of disciplinary action. I also use NILIF and positive reinforcement, but this one issue was beyond that; especially since when he was doing it i had a cat on my lap. i had him in that position for 2 mins MAYBE! lol very torturous... lol thats the only time that I had ever done it and im guessing it will be the last since he is an angel. He was going through his toddler tantrum stage and he needed to know that was unacceptable behavior, Especially when the cats are involved.

Him now... haha

I can't lie. For the first few months I had Frankie we did ALOT of correction training and alpha rolling (NEVER done out of anger). I also did all of it while working very closely with a knowledgable trainer since I was in way over my head with this dog. Frankie was a HOT MESS when I got him. My trainer even said that while Frankie was very sweet, he was by far the most stubborn husky he ever worked with. He had no bond, trust, or respect for any human. Not to mention he had severe anxiety. I have no idea what his life was like before he entered my home, but it didn't matter because he was with me now. He was sweet and loved everyone but wanted to play/mount/nip everyone as if they were another dog, including my son who was only 5 at the time. Being a single mom, it was tough to keep them separate since they both required constant supervision. Frankie would spit treats out if he didn't feel like doing what I was asking him to do, so that was not effective in the beginning. Toys worked about 50% of the time. I kind of felt like he was like a foster child who didn't want to bond thinking he was going to go somewhere else soon enough. And he tested my patience every chance he had.

After about 6 months, Frankie started trusting me and we began to bond and I hardly had to use any corrections. Now I can just simply tell him no or make a sound and he will stop whatever it is, if not then he gets a mini time out by being removed from the situation. He will also do just about anything for a treat now (even look away from a squirrel). Now everything is pretty much done with positive reinforcement. I am a strong believer in + reinforcement, I work with kids with autism and use it every day.

Like I said, I worked with a professional and was trained myself how to do it properly for my dog. Every dog is different. I would have never imagined that this would have been the route I would have taken with a dog. But it worked for Frankie, look at him now.

Kate- I would NEVER even think to do that to someone elses dog and would have been pissed off if someone else did that to mine. I might have alpha rolled his ass.

ETA: this approach doesn't work with Bruiser since he is generally a more fearful dog. I think he will always be a work in progress

Dee&Frankie wrote:

After about 6 months, Frankie started trusting me and we began to bond and I hardly had to use any corrections. Now I can just simply tell him no or make a sound and he will stop whatever it is, if not then he gets a mini time out by being removed from the situation. He will also do just about anything for a treat now (even look away from a squirrel). Now everything is pretty much done with positive reinforcement. I am a strong believer in + reinforcement, I work with kids with autism and use it every day.

All I have to do now is tell him to leave it or no with the "mom glare" and he always obeys. If its something really tempting like his HOT cookies right out of the oven i usually call him away (he reluctantly comes) and i give him a piece or cheese or lunch meat lol i utilize baby gates too, to keep him out of the kitchen when there is food on the counters lol since Kale is a counter surfer
(still working on it lol) thankfully he has never even tried to jump over them

I'm not even gonna weigh in on this... When Sabaka turned 9 months old a switch flipped in his head and there are times I have no idea how to correct him. We're trying positive, consistent training with an occasional "shock" thrown in for redirection.

His problem right now is that he is trying to demand whatever (mostly attention) he wants. Where he used to bring his ball and drop it in your lap, now he barks and hurls himself at us. It's most annoying and very hard to be positive during times like that. So, actually, that usually requires a short time-out. At the end of each day I will be giving him rubs and love before he goes to bed and I say in my sweetest, sing-song voice, "Awwww, you're such a good boy I hardly thought about rehoming you at all today." Just joking....

When we have it figured out, I'll post advice... ...

About 11, 12 years ago when I was doing my doggie research I had learned that the best way to potty train was if you caught them about to go in the house then clap your hands really loudly or say no in a loud voice to "shock" them into stopping and then immediately take them outside. So I figured if this worked for potty training, it would work for stopping their other bad behaviors. With Dakota, it was all I ever needed and I can't even tell you the last time i have had to discipline him. He really is the best dog I could ever ask for. Willow, on the other hand, is much, much more stubborn. The loud noise never worked. I even tried the penny in the can and she didn't bat an eye. I was worried she was deaf in the beginning. I even did little tests to make sure she could hear. Nope, she is just stubborn. Since the sound never worked I learned that I could step in front of her and just stare down at her calmly until she drops whatever it is she isn't suppose to have. It took awhile in the beginning for her to get it, but now she drops the item pretty much right away. A few times in the beginning I did put her on her side until she calmed down but it was always when her prey drive kicked in with my cats. She still chases them but she isn't intense about it like she was in the beginning and I can easily re-direct her now.

Depending on my location with Adobo & Biko, I'll swear like a drunken sailor looking for a fight. Thats my shock they calm right down and then do the right thing(s).

SabakaMom wrote:

I'm not even gonna weigh in on this... When Sabaka turned 9 months old a switch flipped in his head and there are times I have no idea how to correct him. We're trying positive, consistent training with an occasional "shock" thrown in for redirection.

His problem right now is that he is trying to demand whatever (mostly attention) he wants. Where he used to bring his ball and drop it in your lap, now he barks and hurls himself at us. It's most annoying and very hard to be positive during times like that. So, actually, that usually requires a short time-out. At the end of each day I will be giving him rubs and love before he goes to bed and I say in my sweetest, sing-song voice, "Awwww, you're such a good boy I hardly thought about rehoming you at all today." Just joking....

When we have it figured out, I'll post advice... ...

Wow, Sabaka and Kody are exactly alike!!! He does the exact same thing EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and I really loose my patience with him. I just recently starting doing the time out thing in the bathroom, but so far it's not working. I need to give it time since I just started 3 days ago..LOL. Once he calms down I feel bad and go give him lots of hugs and kisses and tell him he's a good boy.

In all honesty though...I was just about to leave the house and leave hubby here with them a few minutes ago. They got a 20min walk, but it's been raining ever since and they are used to going in the yard several times throughout the night. Kody is driving me up the wall. It's like I can't sit down without him jumping on me, barking, crying, trying to bite me. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Here4thePics wrote:

Depending on my location with Adobo & Biko, I'll swear like a drunken sailor looking for a fight. Thats my shock they calm right down and then do the right thing(s).

I have been there a few times.

Frankie and Bruiser do NOT listen to my mom whatsoever! Just a little while ago they were getting into something and my mom sits there and screams at them and neither of them pay her any mind. They pay her no mind no matter what she does. I walk into the room and look at both of them and they both stop and walk over to me. Frankie has absolutely NO respect for her. She can't even walk him without him pulling her down the street and he is trained to walk properly on a leash.

Between my son and my dogs, my mom gets walked all over. They all take total advantage of her kindness.

MelissaI wrote:

In all honesty though...I was just about to leave the house and leave hubby here with them a few minutes ago. They got a 20min walk, but it's been raining ever since and they are used to going in the yard several times throughout the night. Kody is driving me up the wall. It's like I can't sit down without him jumping on me, barking, crying, trying to bite me. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Have you tried long lasting chews, nylabones, or interactive and treat dispensing toys? When the weather is bad I usually bust out the treat dispensing toys and let Kale have at it. I have a Bristle Bone, a Kong Wobbler (which doesn't last long since its pretty easy to get kibble out), a Tug-A-Jug, and my personal favorite the Tricky Treat Ball. You can also make a makeshift one too. I used an old soda bottle, poked some holes in it and put some kibble in it. Works great! When there's more then one person home we sometimes play hide and seek. that's always fun

I must be your "mom" in this household Dee..LOL!!! They semi listen to my husband, but me...nope....not so much. Well, Mya listens to him more than me. Kody listens to me more than Mya does...if that makes any sense. I'm seriously stepping it up with Kody as of a few days ago. He's absolutely INSANE! As I type he's in timeout in the bathroom for the 6th time in the past 3hrs I tell him "you're going in timeout" and he starts running away from me. I literally had to pick him up just and carry him to the bathroom.

How long would you guys say I should leave him in there? I've been leaving him for 5min because I'm afraid that he'll do some damage!

hypers987 wrote:

Have you tried long lasting chews, nylabones, or interactive and treat dispensing toys? When the weather is bad I usually bust out the treat dispensing toys and let Kale have at it. I have a Bristle Bone, a Kong Wobbler (which doesn't last long since its pretty easy to get kibble out), a Tug-A-Jug, and my personal favorite the Tricky Treat Ball. You can also make a makeshift one too. I used an old soda bottle, poked some holes in it and put some kibble in it. Works great! When there's more then one person home we sometimes play hide and seek. that's always fun

Oddly enough Sabaka ignores almost all chew bones unless he's alone in his crate. Occasionally I see him chewing his split antler in my presence. I had to take the Tug-A-Jug away because he was chewing so hard on the bottom edges he was cracking the hard plastic and I was afraid of injury. The soda bottle used to work well until he learned how to quickly flatten them.

Another weird thing is that I am home with him almost all day and some days I am home with him all day. We play often and walk at least a mile before evening, but along about 4:00 - 5:00pm, he starts his crazy antics. Tonight Bob took him to the sports complex across the street. He has been running him on the fields there to avoid pavement and damage to his joints. It appears that youth football is now in full swing, so not only did he get tons of running, some exploration in the woods but also lots of visiting with kids! They were over there about an hour and a half!

....he's still a hyper mess....less barking and jumping... but still a mess!

Melissa, we usually only leave him in our bathroom time-outs for about 5 minutes as well.

Smdh. I just had the WORST walk in a LONG time. I had loads of chem homework to do so he didn't get his usual attention and LOST his little mind. Jumping on my desk, on me, on my bed, etc. for NO reason at all. After each correction, he'd reengage in the activity. I did a scruff grab and "NO!" to no avail. I figured it'd be time for a walk right? It turned into a check-chain fest the entire time. I was yanking him left to right the whole time. He was so stubborn from his training that he wouldn't look me in the face nor pay me any attention while he obeyed my command. EVERYTHING else in the world was more interesting than his owner giving him commands. Jumping on strangers, bolting towards them, and pulling with all his little might darn near wore my arm out. I will be the strongest right-armed individual on campus if this keeps up. In the height of his craziness I had to shock-flip him smh. I'm seriously trying to cut that out, but I easily get SO frustrated with him lately (I guess yesterday's antics built up x.x) I tend to go for what I know works. I've got to do better, and hopefully he will too.

Never scruff grab out of anger. If you have a fenced in yard or a place you can go that's enclosed, I recommend just letting him run off all that pent up energy. Me and Kale play chase where I chase him and get his zoomies out, and then he chases me. After our hardcore run/play sesh is the "walk". He is always more in-tune with me after I get out his zoomies lol

hypers987 wrote:

Never scruff grab out of anger. If you have a fenced in yard or a place you can go that's enclosed, I recommend just letting him run off all that pent up energy. Me and Kale play chase where I chase him and get his zoomies out, and then he chases me. After our hardcore run/play sesh is the "walk". He is always more in-tune with me after I get out his zoomies lol

Agreed. We even chase inside house. My youngest child named our chase game "Monster", since we make scary faces and monster noises and walk heavy (like Frankenstein) to get the fun going. If he's in the mood for it, it's great fun! If not, well, you know huskies, he'll look at us like we're crazy and go back to whatever annoying thing he was previously doing...