missys mum

Hi i am the proud owner of a 15 week old basset named missy.
She is wonderful albeit very very temperamental and stubborn so i will be looking for tips and tricks on training.
Especially potty training and unwanted nipping, she really seems to like nipping my children and it is a habit that i would love to break but i am struggling greatly with this and potty training :-(
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

oliwa

My girl is temperamental as well, but I don't find her that stubborn. Before you call your girl stubborn are you sure she understands what you want? If you say "sit" and she doesn't listen it's likely she doesn't understand what "sit" means...especially at 15 weeks.

I suggest you read the book "The Power of Positive Dog Training" by Pat Miller. It is a FABULOUS book that really taught me a lot about how to train Snickers. You can pick up from Amazon under $15 and they have used copies for under $10.

Also, get yourself a clicker and start to clicker train Missy. It is really easy once you realize the click is a marker and is used to mark a behavior and not elicit a behavior. For example, a click means "good girl here is a treat" and NOT "sit". Make sure you "charge" the clicker first. I can't access YouTube from here, but there are some real good videos by "The Amazing Dog Training Man" on how to do clicker training.

http://www.clickerlessons.com

If you get Animal Planet watch It's Me or the Dog.

The key is never scold, be patient, and be consistent. There are several sources for potty training on the web and you would train Missy the same way it just takes a bit longer. Give her treats when she eliminates outside and if she has an accident in the house hit yourself (it's your fault, nit hers) in the head with the newspaper and silently clean up the mess.

House Training How Tos
House Training Your Puppy by Perfect Paws Dog and Puppy Training
Puppy House Training

Good luck!

__________________
My Basset is smarter than your honor student.
YouTube: Snickers Is Smarter Than A 5th Grader
'Dog Whisperer' Training Approach More Harmful Than Helpful

Basset Momma

Snickers is just adorable and very well trained! Mine have trained me I'm afraid...

__________________
-Wendy
Mom to Samantha, Jake, Cuddy, Frodo, & Indy

oliwa

I'll tell her tonight, but I think she already knows she's adorable because everywhere we go there is a line waiting to rub her belly and she rolls over and kicks her feet up in excitement!

__________________
My Basset is smarter than your honor student.
YouTube: Snickers Is Smarter Than A 5th Grader
'Dog Whisperer' Training Approach More Harmful Than Helpful

Mikey T

you don't mention the age of the kids or the dog. with a young pup you do not want to train them not to nip but rather not to bite hard. This is known as bite inhibition. It goes a long way in creating a "safe" dog. Any dog under the right circumstances will bite. how hard it bite and the damage or lack there of is quite different. If bite inhibition is not taught when the pups are young they likely never to acquire it.

Bite Inhibition - How to Teach It

When the dog acts different with one individual or a particular set of individual there is a need to look at the individuals as oposed to the dog. When this happen it is general because the humans involved act differently to the same situation hence to dog does as well. When young kids get nipped the yell , scream push the dog and turn it into a game , great fun for the dog. Adult and othe dogs in the same situation do nearly the oposite they my scream in pain but they stop interacting with the dog. Teach the kids to do this or stricktly supervise the activity of dog and kids and when it gets out of hand seperate the two.

Nipping and bitting is something most puppies out grow so over timeeven if you do everything wrong it is likely the mouthing will subside that said you still have to surrvive the teething stage that involve nipping and distructive chewing as a means of releaviing teathing pain. So youi need plenty of appropriate chew toys. However it often seams that dogs are never interest in the towy the owners buy. IMHO part of the reason for this is most pups have a prefference for the tecture and resistence of the material they chew. A dog that knaws on the kitchen table leg would be bettersuited to have toys that are more in keeping with the resitance of wood than say a plush toy.

There is not a single stubborn basset hound just stubborn owners. Are you stubborn because you do not do everything the dog wants you too the minute the dog requests it.? The internet and the dog world are littered with list on which dogs are easy to train and which are hard. And the Ussual suspects can be found at bost ends of these list. Thing is these list in no way reflect reality when it comes to how hard or difficult it is to train a dog. The do not reflect intellegence, willing ness to work etc. The do howver very accurate reflect on singular trait known as biddability, or willingness to please. Those on the top of the List like Boarder Collies and Golden Retriever have it in spaed, The hounds at the bottom of the list could not care less about your happiness. Traditional training methods are more effective with dogs that are biddable than thiose that are not. It is notthat vertain breeds of dogs are hard or easy to train but that certain methodologies are more effect with different perosnality type.

Another aspect of why bassets are often labeled stubborn is how they react to stress, they do not run, act anxious or hyper, no they shut down. they stop moving. ie they classic "flat basset: that on a walk colapses and refuse to move. NOt stuborn but a reaction to stress, i.e. being jerk around at the end of a leash.

for more on the mind set of the "hard to train" breed I suggest Hard to Train? by by Suzanne Clothier A look at "difficult-to-train" breeds and the reality of what shapes these canine minds.

If you do not have one you will need to set up an account to read the article but the account is free, and the list is not sold etc, rather Suzanne is very protecticve of her copyright and the log in account procedure is just another way to protect it

Basical with hound is you have to make it in their best interest to listen to you. When you try and enforece this through coersion or force they shut down. Leaving the only viable option the use of a reward for compliance. In order for this to be effective the dog must have the expectation that a reward will occur, and understand what is being asked of it. The latter not being as straight forward as one might think. To a Dog ask it to sit before being fed, is different than asking for a Sit before it goes outside, or in the living room, etc. Each of these thing need to be taught seperately it is not until many many such senerios befor a dog will "general" the behavior to all situations. unlike humand dofs are very good at discrimination (finding difference between situation) and poor generalizers 9 applying what is learn in on situation to other situations that may be similar) humans tend to be just the opposite great generalizers but poor discriminators. What is often misconstruded as defince or stubornness is simply the dog simply does not understand what is being ask of it in that particular context even though it does in other contexts.

The Sit Test
Generalization versus Discrimination

Houstrain. isa compsed of three critical parts,

1 elimination of accidents to creat a substrate prefference for the surface you want the dog to go on, for most this is grass.

2. Training the dog to hold it when it does not have the option of going out

3. Teach the dog a clear signal to use to let you know it needs to go out.

I have never known of a basset truely housetrained before the age of 6 month and that is exceptional typical i one year or longer. Achieving the first step while a great accomplishment doesn not make the dog housetrained. Many problems occur when the owner assumes that a dog is not having accidents means it housetrained when it is not.

One of the most usefull tools in getting step one is a ridiged schedual. Which includes meals, access to water. play time and sleep. When a dog is on a schedual it needs become predictable. When itd needs are predictable you can anticipate them and prevent accident.

2. a crate is a very usefull tool for teaching the dog to hold it. It becomes more in the dogs self interest to do so when in a confines space. One must be careful not to ask to much of the dog however in this area because everone has a limit you do not want to exceed this as it violates the first premis and creats difficulties later on.

3. This is perhaps the most neglected step of house training. Most thing the dog will find something on its own. That is mere wishfully thinking and often never happens. Being proactive and training a signal is a safer route. see:
House Training: Ring My Bell!

My favorite House training article on the web
Housetraining Your Puppy
Note. the ages in this article reflect the "average' dog hoewever bassets tend to be much slowere maturing in this area than the average dog so the age vs. time must be reduce when applied to the basset hound.