I need some help with blu's obediance training (how to walk on a leash, the leave it command, and teaching him to not jump, among some other things.) so far i've managed to teach him, sit, shake, shake with the other paw, and to shake with both paws, drop it, and lay down, also been working on his bikejoring commands for when he is older and we can do those types of things, but he picked up those commands really quick. However anything else im not really sure how i go about starting to train him... seeing as i've never trained a dog before.

I tried obediance class, but unfortunetly i've been kicked out of two of them so far and been told "blu is too much husky and impossible to train", so i decided to take it on myself and do it, i've found his two motivators and been using positive reinforcement... but some stuff im not sure how to even go about training.

Anyway any suggestions or tips or advice you guys know of that i could try im all ears. I'm willing to try just about anything.

Sheba had a very bad problem with jumping. DON'T put your knee up into the dog like a lot of sites suggest. You can really hurt your dog. My boyfriend did that on accident because I was trying to give him a hug and Sheba jumped up the same time and somehow he kneed her in the chest and she fell to the ground crying and whinning. It seriously broke my heart. The best thing to do is completely ignore him. Don't push him down, don't tell him no. Walk past him and ignore him until he is good and calmed down. When you push him down or give him negative attention (ie saying "get down!"), you are giving him attention. He doesn't care that it's negative. Attention is attention.

Leash manners..eh. That's different for everyone. With Sheba, I get her attention by saying her name really low and really strict to get her attention, and then I tell her to "walk nice". If she still doesn't listen we stop walking. She will try to pull at me to get going again, and I don't move until she has settled down. Once she stops jumping around and crying and what not, then we start to walk. I have also started to teach her to heel. I use "heel" when she sees a squirrel or another dog or a cat or what have you. I say "heel" before she gets fixated on whatever has her attention. Once she gets fixated, she is gone until the point of her fixation is gone. For the heeling, I also use positive reinforcement (clicker + treats) to get her attention on me and when she is walking loosely I click and treat and tell her good girl.

For leave it, what I have done is put something on the ground in front of the dog, and say "leave it". I will start out putting my hand or whatever over the object. Once the dog stops trying to move my hand with her nose or dig with her paws, I click and treat. Then I just work my way up from there.

There are a lot of positive reinforcement training articles on the web. Remember, google is your best friend. I also have bought a lot of books and magazines along the way. I have like 5 magazines (some husky specific some general dog stuff) and I have 3-4 books. I am very picky as to what book/magazine I read. The latest I just picked up is called "The Dog Whisperer Presents: Good Habits for Great Dogs." It is an AMAZING read so far. And NO, this is NOT Cesear Millan crap. There are lots of resources out there available for you, you just have to dig a little. I have done all my training on my own as well, and we all have to start somewhere. I have a lot of FB groups I am apart of as well. The internet is one of your best friends!

hmm interesting i'll have to give it a shot. i have a few dog training magazines that i've picked up randomly at petsmart... mainly for reading material, some stuff in them doesn't really make much sense to me (particuarly the stuff about walking on a leash). I've also read some dog training blogs and watched tons of video's (thats how i figured out how to train him the other stuff) but the leave ti and the leash stuff and not jumping etc has had me stumped for awhile.

is the clicker a necessity? does it offer some kind of special benefit with training that im unaware of? im assumeing it's just a tool to make a quick sound to get their attention... so then wouldn't snapping my fingers do the same thing? my aunt was telling me to startr "clicker training" with him when i first got him, but i never really looked into it that much, suppose i'll just add that to my list of thing's to resarch.

thanks kelsey, i'll be trying some of the thing's you mentioned over the next few days and see how it goes.

I'm pretty sure the clicker is used to associate the action with a good thing. You use it at first to associate with with a treat. Then after a while click=treat in the dog's mind. And treats are good things. With the click add to say, sit, he'll hear sit, do it, hear a click knowing sitting(the act of sitting when "sit" is said) is a good thing and he gets a treat. You keep going with that and eventually he'll know that along with click=treat that also sit(act of sitting not just the word)=treat and you can get rid of the click.

I hope that was explained correctly...

Leash manners / loose leash walking is something we are working in obediance class. What we have learned is get your dog to sit besides you (they call this resetting) then take one step sit treat take another step sit treat until you can build up to two step treat etc etc. Making sure you keep the dogs attention if he wanders to sniff or lunged at passing leaf reset your dog and ty again. Loki is lot better then he was a month ago but still needs more work. But so much better at keeping his attention when other dogs are near. That is bs that you were kicked out because he is too much of a husky. My trainers have a special class for dogs who have issues with other dogs it is called rowdy rovers and I was surprised we weren't put on there. Not all trainers see huskies has lost causes.

eander83 wrote:

Leash manners / loose leash walking is something we are working in obediance class. What we have learned is get your dog to sit besides you (they call this resetting) then take one step sit treat take another step sit treat until you can build up to two step treat etc etc. Making sure you keep the dogs attention if he wanders to sniff or lunged at passing leaf reset your dog and ty again. Loki is lot better then he was a month ago but still needs more work. But so much better at keeping his attention when other dogs are near. That is bs that you were kicked out because he is too much of a husky. My trainers have a special class for dogs who have issues with other dogs it is called rowdy rovers and I was surprised we weren't put on there. Not all trainers see huskies has lost causes.

Oh that sounds simple enough, i'll definately make a note to do that when i take out blu for walks or where doing training outside on the nice days.

And yeah sucks he was kicked out, but what i find funny is before signing up i talked to the trainer and she assured me "she can train any dog" i guess she got me hook line and sinker with that load of bs lol.

Edit: btw thanks a lot for all these tips you guys(and girls) are giving me, alot of things are actually making sense to me now... really appreciate it.

Yes that explanation was very spot on. Clicker training isn't really to get their attention. Like how you (a general you) would maybe say "good dog!" and then treat. Some dogs don't really make the association between the praise and treat, or the praise just isn't enough for that dog.

With Sheba, praising and treating wasn't cutting it. Clicker training is like a reinforcement. You "load" up the clicker, meaning you click and treat, click and treat. Then you say the command; like sit, the dog sits, you click and treat. It's not for everybody. A lot of people think it is too much of a hassle, and that is just fine. That's just what works for me. But no, a clicker is not an attention graber.

I started out training Sheba with a head halter for leash manners, so we have a background established already. I also started leash training when she was a little baby, so that helps a lot.

It also depends how you want your dog to walk. I don't mind Sheba and Kennedy being out in front of me, but some people believe the proper place for walking is either behind or beside you. So you will need to train according to how you prefer your dog to walk!

If you have been training without a clicker you may want to continue that route. We started training Loki at home without one and when we started to go to obediance class he didn't really respond to the clicker. He knew that if he did what we asked he got something yummy. Make sure you use a high value treat too. We use hotdogs. Loki will do anything for hotdogs, he attention is at an all time high as soon as he smells them. Took us about week of training at home and classes to get Loki yo loose leash walk about 5 steps before he got distracted. Now he can walk around the training room with a few treats and doesn't get distracted unless the pit bull in the coat catches his eye. I think it is the clothes that gets him. Any dog is trainable you just need patience and time and it sounds like your trainer didn't have that. I hope you got a refund at least.

I found Varu caught on much faster when I started using a clicker so I definitly rexcomebd going that route.

Here are some excellent training videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tab289