Do you remember my blogs about Otis, the French Bulldog, back in March 2017. Well after I stopped writing about Otis’s LACK of following through on training, he got even worse. I was embarrassed and disappointed in myself. I felt like I was a fraud and a failure to my family, myself and this little guy (Otis Redding). He continually went to the bathroom in the house and nothing was stopping him. My wife and I were at the end of our rope. You can just say, “he’s ONLY a puppy so many times.”
Then we went to the vet and they thought he might have a urinary tract infection. That was the case and after taking the meds for a couple of days, we took Otis in our New AirStream RV for a couple of day trip. No accidents at all. NONE. He came home and the issue was almost non-existent from that point forward. Now for the bigger issues with this dog nick named “Crazy Eyes”.
Walking on a loose leash, coming back to you when you say “Come”, sitting before a walk instead of scratching the paint off the door. The secret here is that his training will NEVER end. This dog is so smart, if you give him an inch, he will take a foot. The second secret is only ONE person can train the dog and what they train needs to be brutally consistent. I became that person in my family by default. Now my job is to maintain the training and start training the humans whom are the REAL problem.
My new approach towards training Otis was far less complicated then when he was a new puppy. What I did was choose a YouTube dog trainer I could relate too and watched their video on an activity, like loose leash walks. I watch the same video every day. Did what they said to do and Otis showed progress a little at a time. I did not move on to other things until I felt Otis got the point and could continue to improve. What others did in the past was change up approaches to often, went on to new stuff to soon and it literally confused me, the dog and was not sustainable. I am now in total control of training the dog. The progress is more then encouraging but as time goes on, this will absolutely be the best trained dog my wife and I have ever had.
Here is an interesting little story I remember. My wife and I had my daughters dog Cooper (A 40 lbs. English Bulldog) for most of his early years. We took him to several trainers and the standard PetSmart training class for puppies. Of the several trainers we took Cooper to see, one particular trainer had a huge training area. The trainer said, “Just let Cooper go so I can observe him.” We did and Cooper never looked back at us for approval, not once. The trainer said that our sweet Cooper, thought he was the boss and we were his pack. This was easy to believe because that is how my children treat my wife and I. Sorry if that strikes a cord with some of us.
When I train Otis now to loose leash, he is right next to my right side and looks up at me at least twice every minute or less for approval. I give him a treat, a click (with my clicker) to re-enforce that behavior. He gets it and likes the praise. He is still a bulldog, with a mind of his own and if a serious distraction happen; his mind goes to the “Crazy Eyes Zone”. However, he is learning and will continue to learn, as long as, I am consistent with what I teach and my method.
The issue in training is rarely the dog. It is almost always the humans. Hope this short blog helps you. Remember, “there are no bad dogs. There are humans that need to learn how dogs think.