Dog advice please...

[baymule]

A friend of mine lived outside of Houston, in the flight path of Bush Intercontinental Airport. They had 2 Great Pyrenees, the male would start barking, run off in the woods, then come back and lay down. He did this over and over. They finally realized that he was lying in wait, scanning the sky for airplanes. When one came over the house, he chased it away and came back to wait for the next one. LOL LOL

 

[seedcorn]

Don’t you love it when you finally figure out the thoughts of your dog? Kind of scary as well......

 

[Prairie Rose]

That's hilarious, and something I could easily see Boone doing. We have had a lot of wet weather the past few nights, and he has decided he wants to stay inside until the weather settles. Somebody has to get up with him a couple of times so he can go out to pee, but he isn't wandering the house barking once a minute like he was before.

We were trimming the tips of the longest hairs off his belly and legs because he was bringing in mudballs on them (it took me three weeks to get all the burrs and matts out so he could even be washed), but we decided to let him go natural this winter for the extra bit of insulation. When I got up this morning he was standing outside in the rain, next to a tree with no leaves on it like it was going to shelter him. He was about five feet from his doghouse...it wasn't raining hard enough for him to pick his feet up over that door ledge, lol. He looks like a big furry lion at the moment!

 

[baymule]

You nailed it, big white lion! Sometimes the way Trip walks reminds me of a lion.

 

[ducks4you]

You can practice having him come to you. I would recommend buying the longest lunge line you can find locally. They are found with horse supplies. They are very soft, and, as I have training Eva to NOT go run off and explore, she has often been tied to one of my 20ft lunge lines, which don't hurt her like a chain would. Hook Boone to it--they have bull snaps or other snaps at the end--let him run out, and call him to you. Use some cheese if you wish to start, but when he comes back to you, push his hind end down and tell him to "sit." Then, make the biggest fuss you can over him. Repeat, repeat, repeat. No matter WHAT the breed, we love dogs bc they want to please us. (So do horses, btw.) I don't think "come", "sit", "stay" are commands that will confuse this breed of dog. They are Basic obediences.

 

[Prairie Rose]

You can practice having him come to you. I would recommend buying the longest lunge line you can find locally. They are found with horse supplies. They are very soft, and, as I have training Eva to NOT go run off and explore, she has often been tied to one of my 20ft lunge lines, which don't hurt her like a chain would. Hook Boone to it--they have bull snaps or other snaps at the end--let him run out, and call him to you. Use some cheese if you wish to start, but when he comes back to you, push his hind end down and tell him to "sit." Then, make the biggest fuss you can over him. Repeat, repeat, repeat. No matter WHAT the breed, we love dogs bc they want to please us. (So do horses, btw.) I don't think "come", "sit", "stay" are commands that will confuse this breed of dog. They are Basic obediences.

We have a fairly good come, sit, and a decent stay already. My old akita loved to do tricks and was very obedient, but her one quirk as a dog was that if she got outside off leash, that was it. It would take days to catch her again. Confused the heck out of the couple of dog trainers we paid for help with that. Inside? No problem at all. Outside and off leash? What a joke. I was so pleased to realize that Boone will come to me when I call. Right now I am distraction-proofing my pay-attention command, and working on sit and come outdoors. It is slow going, but we are making progress! I do have a twenty five foot retractable leash when I am working on the come command. it doesn't have the same 'feel' as a lunge line, but i don't trip over it either.

I think I have an old lunge line in the barn somewhere, but I'm pretty sure the snap is rusted closed. I had horses as a teenager, and took care of other horses for years to pay for the care of mine. I still do stall and pasture checks for a friend daily, actually

 

[ducks4you]

Nobody has a dog certification for trainers. My older dog, Pyg, never wanders an ALWAYS stays close to me and the property. She operates on voice command only. You NEED Boone to do the same. Repetition is the key and I know you can do that. If Boone runs off not listening to you calling and gets hit by a car, you will be in shock and pain. My dog, Clark was hit by a car in front of us, on our street bc I didn't train her to come reliably. We lived in town with a fence that Clark couldn't jump, and didn't train her to listen to voice commands. I have to fix Eva's training, and she now KNOWS when she has been naughty. I use the lunge line leash, my mare's stall and my grain room to punish her, never any beatings, but she will now run into the stall or the grain room immediately when she knows she didn't listen. I know that you can do it!!!

 

[Prairie Rose]

It is slow and I am working on it, but we will get there!

 

[Beekissed]

You nailed it, big white lion! Sometimes the way Trip walks reminds me of a lion.

Ben and Blue look like that too....that hip wiggle walk they do that is distinctive.

 

[AMKuska]

I'm currently reading a book called, "When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs." The book is specifically geared towards training dogs who have been bred for independent thinking. Terriers, Basenjis, Akitas, basically any dog who isn't panting at your feet begging you to give them something to do.

The book is amazing, and I'd highly recommend it since a Pyr was definitely bred to think for himself.