Need some help urgent!!!! - Page 4

And Brian needs the puppy; no one said that training a puppy would be easy, hopefully with our help and a good trainer Brian can accomplish what he wants and needs to accomplish with this puppy. Makes perfect sense to me. Best of luck Brian, Nan

i have just finished 'forming' my 2 boys into nice 2y oconfident and affectionate youngsters...

i am not a trainer or adviser, but if this dog meant to be for u , i would reccommend the following:

by ur description of the situation, this puppy istimid. please, no command to him now... u need to bond first. he needs to become 'ur' puppy. play with him, carry him around with u everywhere u go, take him shopping, always talk to him, pet him on the back, head, tell him he is a good boy, give him food. Give him all his meals from ir hands, and talk in a salm voice, even though it is 'deep'. it is not 'depth' that scares him, it is theway u use ur voice, volume. No commandertone, no orders.

u need to build,trust, affection and friendship first,-i.e. BOND, and only THEN u can expect pup to learn commands and react on them accordingly.

u overwhelm the pup, u scare him, -that is why the little thing pees....

fall in love with ur puppy and ur voice will change, trust me.

good luck. u can do it. just fall in love.

Disagree; this pup is no where near ready to go shopping. All else mentioned above sounds OK, but to take a service dog into a store, PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT WITH THIS PUPPY until he is ready which may be quite a while or even maybe not at all. Stores are very intimidating and until Brian gains this puppies confidence, I would not stress him like that, you want to take him places where you can build his confidence before proceeding ahead; again find a trainer that is familiar with teaching/training service dogs for your specific challenge. Best of luck NAn

Sorry for the long delay on an update guys!

Gunner is doing much better, I can actually pick him up, hold him and he will come to me. She has backed away for a good amount unless she first comes home and things of that nature at night he sits by me and only me. I show him and only him the affection needed to gain more trust. I have impliented his good for treats and use for gaining his trust again. He has had ZERO accidents in the house since, I am usually the first home and he comes right to me. He's coming along but still needs work, again he isn't even 4 months old.

I disagree, I know many Veterans he have certified PTSD service dogs that the Army recognizies as so, they have been rescued from abusive homes, adopted from previous families or received already fully trained. If he was a 2-3 year old or more with these fear issues absolutely he wouldn't be able to go through the the training process but I have 2 years before he can go to become fully certified ( 2 years is the minimum age the program will take)

Our Pitbull has never bitten him or gone after him, often when he messes up I separate the 2 dogs and give the commands and discipline our 3 year old away from the puppy as to not frighten him with my deeper voice and German commands. This has worked well, often times Gunner will sit and gnaw and bite on Jax (Pitbull) as they play and not once has he hurt him in anyway. Jax and Gunner play rough already and sometimes we have to stop them as Jax forgets he is just a pup and tosses his weight into him or steps on him. It is all just play fighting, both tails wagging and then smelling and licking each other.


We have made some great progress with introducing the crate as his "safe place" he gets frightened he goes into his crate, when I leave for work I keep him in his crate and a few hours later come home let him out and play for a while until I have to return to work. It's not easy, were far from done, but we've been able to break a small barrier with whatever issues he has had from his past or just from being a puppy and scared of the world. I won't give up on him, he's my little guy, if the people I have around me had given up on me during my worst times coming home from war, honestly I wouldn't be here. I am doing great and I appreciate all of your help and any continued support or advice is greatly appreciated.


Thanks and have a blessed day!!

Brian

And remember Brian; Gunner will be a work in progress for the rest of his life; this is not training you are going to achieve in a few months, he will WANT to learn and move forward with you for the rest of his life, a special advantage service dogs have to offer just for you...he sounds like a special guy...Good luck with him... Nan

 

PS:  Wanted you to know that these young males do go through some "fear" stages at different times in the growing up puppy stages and at different ages;  that continues until the puppy is probably between 2 and 2 l/2 years old;  just be prepared and check with  your trainer on what, where, and when to handle these different stages.  But do please seek professional help for your puppies sake and of course, your sake also.  Nan