This dog is trying to drive me nuts

[karenjean]

I alternate laughing and crying with her. She is so funny but such a brat at times. She is just the funniest little ham and LOVES to go for car rides. If I leave and do not tell her stay, she darts out the door and runs for the car. Now if I am not absentminded and remember to tell her stay she does fine. Does it ever become automatic? We open the door and she stays without my telling her to? We have worked hard on the stay command and she is great at it. We work on opening the door and her staying, and as long as the command is there...

Then today I got in the shower, and I KNOW I locked her crate. I get out of the shower, she has climbed on top of her crate then jumped on to my dresser, and is growling at the dog in the mirror. I altenated between utter shock (oh help me if she can get out of the crate by unlatching the door) and laughing as apparently her reflection, that she has seen 100s of times, is threatening today.

And to top this off, we go to class today. The trainer decides to use her as a class demo dog. Harley looks at her, turns around, and comes and sits under my chair as if to say, "This does not interest me, Find another test dummy."

I am in soooo much trouble with this dog LOL!

But on her plus, she is such a love and a great water dog and absolutely adores her children (my two boys are her world. She already knows to find them and we can tell her "wake them up" and she will kiss their fingers) Now if I can keep her from finding the shoes I leave out by accident we are all set! I love having a Rottie and every day I learn patience and get a new laugh line.

[gnwhite]

The way we learned to be consistent, Having a dominant male. If we did not stay on top of our game with obedience, He would run us. No couch, no getting on our bed, No going out of a door before us etc. NILIF Has been invaluable in turning the worst puppy i have ever delt with to a great joy and inpressive companion who understands what is expected of him.

[hokisteph5]

Then today I got in the shower, and I KNOW I locked her crate. I get out of the shower, she has climbed on top of her crate then jumped on to my dresser, and is growling at the dog in the mirror. I altenated between utter shock (oh help me if she can get out of the crate by unlatching the door) and laughing as apparently her reflection, that she has seen 100s of times, is threatening today.

This reminds me of something similar with Gretchen. I left her and Samson one evening in the living room that was gated off on two sides and had french glass doors on a third side. I made a quick trip to the grocery store and came home to find both of them wandering the main floor because the french glass doors were ajar. I thought "oh, I must not have latched the door all the way."

Fast forward a few days and the dogs were left in the living room again. This time extra care was taken to ensure the door was shut. Same result so an experiment was done while I was at home. Sure enough, little Miss Gretchen had been observing how the door worked and figured out, at all of 4 months old, that if she stood on her back legs and pawed at the door handle she could get it to unlatch. After that both dogs were crated.

[TrishB]

"Stay" is the wrong command for this situation.

"Stay" means stay in place until I release you.

That isn't what you're asking her to do here. You're asking her not to run at the door. You're going out - maybe for hours. You obviously don't expect her to stay there until you come home now do you? And if she does walk away later, after you've left - you're not there to correct her. You've just ruined your "stay" command.

I would use a different word / phrase for this situation. Give her a stuffed kong, put her in the crate and leave quietly. You're not asking her to do anything - you're not going to be there to monitor her. It will become "automatic" when you create a situation that is low-key, matter of fact and not a "situation" where she feels that she needs she must participate in.

[Canadianrotti]

I second what Trish is saying. In our class we taught our dogs 2 commands, wait and stay. Stay is a formal command where the dog MUST stay in the current position (sit, down, stand etc) until I am back in starting position (her at my left side), and I release her with ok.
Wait is a non-formal command and usally means that something more is comming. As an example, i would tell her to wait in a sit, and then cross the room and tell her down. Or use the wait to get her to stay put while I move out and tell her to come.

Stay always meant freeze until I am in starting position and I tell you to move.

Other than that, sounds like you have a normal puppy on your hands!

[TrishB]

Personally - I wouldn't use "wait" either.

"Wait" means stay there until I tell you what do to next.

Example:

"Stay" is used during the stay exercises in obedience. You tell them to stay when you don't want them to move until you release them.

"Wait" is used during the recall, moving stand, etc. where you want them to wait there until your next command (typically some sort of movement).

Subtle differences, but different all the same.

The point is that you should use a word that won't ruin the command for other things. When I leave the house, I say "See ya Buddy" and I go. It's not a command, I don't expect anything from him than to accept that I'm leaving and not to react. I'll never say "See ya Buddy" in the ring.

Think carefully about what word you want to use and what you really intend for it to mean. It cannot mean several different things. The word doesn't even have to make sense in the situation, as long as you always use the same word for the same expectation. "Spagetti" can be the word for all we care - as long as it's always "Spagetti" and it always means the same thing.

[Canadianrotti]

Sorry for the confusion, I did not mean to imply that she shoudl use the wait command either to "tell" her dog to say in the house while she leaves. I was just trying to show the difference between the 2 commands.

I don't say anything to Raelin, I just leave and don't even look at her, I feel to guuilty if I look at that sad face when I am leaving the house!

[zorro13]

Before I go thru a door with my dog, he must first sit/stay. With doors in general, as in crowding around a door or if someone knocks on the door or if I'm leaving and the dog shouldn't be running out the door, I teach a dog to physically 'back' or 'back up', this gets him away from the door, and hopefully over time, if I go get the mail or someone knocks, he isn't crowding the door. But I do teach a back or back up command which means to the dog, get the heck away from the door.

To teach this: leash the dog, start with sit/stays at the door, which lets the dog know he will be going thru the door, as he must do this first. When he knows that well, teaching back is a lot easier. The dog can be either sitting or standing, doesn't matter, with leash on, standing in front of the dog, say back, then walk towards the dog like you will walk into him all the while you are gently tugging the leash back towards his butt, when you see the dog show movement in reverse, stop, reward, praise. repeat process. When you repeat after a couple of days, just stand in front of the dog, still leashed and say back and see if he moves in reverse without tugging on the leash a bit, then praise, reward. Keep repeating until you see instant response on back command, then again off leash, then the final test, have someone knock on the door or something that would make the dog want to crowd the door, give the back command. Just one thing here, when you teach back at first, you can't open the door, the dog can't get confused that first he backs then he gets to go thru the door. Backing from the door must mean to the dog that he isn't permitted to go thru the door, that he must get away from the door. If you want the dog to go thru the door, teach a sit/stay first so there is no confusion. A back command/cue, once learned, can be used for anything, backing up from something the dog shouldn't have, a food bowl if you want to add a treat, crowding doors, barrelling thru doors when a door is opened things like that. This is something simple to teach, but hard for me to describe, it's probably making sure I get the correct meaning here. As when the pizza delivery guy comes, knocks on the door, the dog of course is at the door barking away, before I open up the door, the dog is told to back it up, the dog backs up, then I can still keep the door open and not have to worry about the dog coming back to the door (at first, you may have to reinforce a back command with no, that is, if the dog backs up, yet will still then want to go thru the door, to which you tell the dog no, then back him up again). Hopefully this wasn't too confusing, I re-wrote so many sentences, I hope it made sense.