Selective hearing or just being a brat?

[Luvs]

Keil has recently started to ignore my daughter when she is trying to work with him. She will give him a command and he will look at her and then look away. He refuses to look at her sometimes even when she just says his name. When she gives him a command, such as sit, and he looks away she will physically make him sit. She makes sure that he is within reach when she gives him the command so that if he ignores her she can correct him.

Keil used to be very good about paying attention to my daughter when she would tell him to "watch" her. He now looks away when she tells him this and will only look if she has food or if she makes him look at her. He doesn't always do this but it is happening more often.

What can she do to get him to stop ignoring her? Is he just going through a bratty stage and will it pass if we deal with it properly? How should we deal with this new behavior? I know my daughter has to be frustrated because I get frustrated watching them;) Thank goodness Akasha isn't doing this and I am hoping that she won't follow in her brothers footsteps.

[lblax]

Selective hearing or just being a brat? they are the same thing

[Judi W]

As I recall, your daughter is very young. It is my recommendation that young children keep their "training" with a large dog, to teaching tricks and motivational things only, not attempting true obedience. Carol Benjamin has an excellent book on tricks you should buy her. That and a bowl of cookies and they can be best friends.

As your dog matures he knows she doesn't have strong enough status to be "master". As long as he treats her courtesly, and she the same, they can have a wonderful relationship.

And yes, I have raised children and Rottweilers.

[Luvs]

How old should someone be before they train obedience? She is 18 and will be moving out sometime in the near future (she hopes) and taking him with her so she needs to be able to get him to listen to her. He doesn't do this just with her, he does it to me also.

Should we continue to correct him and make him do what we ask when he ignores us?

[Luvs]

Originally posted by lblax
Selective hearing or just being a brat? they are the same thing

Yeah I guess you are right they are the same thing lol. :D

[Sharon Marples]

If she is 18, then she is old enough to make him listen to her.

Are they taking obedience classes together? If not, this should be a MUST before she moves out with him. It seems to me that he is testing her, seeing if he can get his own way and she needs to nip that in the butt before he gets worse. I think he is trying to establish himself as alpha over her by testing her authority when she gives him a command.

I would also suggest that whenever she give him a command, that she do it while training which means that he has a leash on and that she can give him a good correction immediately if he does not heed the command immediately.

She should not be giving him commands off leash until she knows that he knows them and does them on leash.

Sharon

[Luvs]

Sharon, thank you for your response. Yes, they are currently in classes together although Saturday is our last class until August. There are several members of the club who are talking about getting together several times a week during the summer so we can all continue our training. We did not get a chance to discuss this problem with our instructor yet since he started this within the past few days.

I agree with you that he is testing her and I will suggest to her keeping the leash on him when she tells him to do something and have her enforce her command immediately if he doesn't comply.

Thank you:)

[Judi W]

Oops, oops, oops!!!!!!!!

Soooo sorry, I had you confused with someone else who had a fairly young daughter. Forgive me.

Well, guess it is time for some bootcamp huh? Sounds like he is blowing you both off which means the training has not been as meaningful as it should. Make sure you differentiate between informal and formal as often times informal situations around the house are not followed up on properly and that teaches them sometimes the command is meant and sometimes not. I would save the formal commands for training (collar and leash) for a while yet. Takes time for that to generalize for the dog.

[Luvs]

Originally posted by Judi W
Oops, oops, oops!!!!!!!!

Soooo sorry, I had you confused with someone else who had a fairly young daughter. Forgive me.

Well, guess it is time for some bootcamp huh? Sounds like he is blowing you both off which means the training has not been as meaningful as it should. Make sure you differentiate between informal and formal as often times informal situations around the house are not followed up on properly and that teaches them sometimes the command is meant and sometimes not. I would save the formal commands for training (collar and leash) for a while yet. Takes time for that to generalize for the dog.

Judi, I appreciate the fact that you took the time to respond to my post. As far as getting me confused with someone else, with as many members as we have here at Rottweiler.net I know that there is no way I personally could keep track of everyone so I surely don't expect anyone else to ;) The fact that you even took the time to respond in the first place is greatly appreciated. BTW I totally agree with you about young children and training.

I also agree with you that Keil is blowing us off and it is definately time for boot camp! I do think that our informal training around the house has not been followed up on correctly like you mentioned but that will quickly be rectified.;)