Dog Obedience Training Info

Hello all! I have a dog who is about to be 1 year old in two weeks. I’m not really sure of his breed as he is a rescue and his parents were not around when he was found.

I’ve had him about 10 months now and can’t seem to train him. I’ve tried several methods of training him (treats, praise…) but he’s still quite a handful, and it’s not just the puppy in him.

As it stands, he will occasionally sit on command (although he usually goes straight to the "down" position when I tell him to sit) and bites a LOT! He will sometimes get his entire mouth around my hand, arm, or ankle. When he does this, I try to grab his snout and close it (not too hard but tight enough so that he can’t open his mouth), make him look me in the eye, and tell him "NO BITE!" in a firm, low, calm voice. He usulaay goes right back to it though. I’ve tried making a whistling noise through my teeth when he bites and he doesn’t seem to hear this. I’ve tried yelping as a litter mate would when he plays too rough and he only looks at me for a second like "was that you?" and then goes right back to biting. I’ve also tried growling and barking like his mother would but he doesn’t seem to notice that either. With each of these cases, as soon as I have done something to let him know I’m not pleased with the biting (the growling or yelping), I’ve taken away attention from him and turned to something else but he just follows me. If I continue to ignore him, he bites harder until he gets some kind of attention. Now that he’s older and stronger, it’s really starting to hurt! I’ve also been using time out but that doesn’t seem to deter the biting on a regular basis.

I live about 50 miles away from the nearest dog trainer so obedience school is not really a possibility for me, so I was wondering if anyone knew anything about Don Sullivan’s "The Perfect Dog" training system (http://www.dogfather.tv/index.php). Does it work? Does it provide what I need to know in order to properly train my dog?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Also, here is a link to a picture of my dog in case looking at him helps to get a better idea of what I’m working with (as I have already said, I’m not really sure what breed he is, but some of you might be able to make and educated guess by looking at him!). http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq320/HerdMU/First%20Half%20Birthday/CIMG2704.jpg http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq320/HerdMU/Toby/IMG_0122.jpg
I know there is no "quick fix" but since the methods I’ve been using haven’t worked, I need some sort of help. I was thinking that training videos would help me understand how to better train my dog.

And to Anne - I also think he has at least some BC in him. When anyone leaves a room, he follows them and nudges thier feet until he gets them back where he wants them, haha!

One Response to “The Dogfatehr’s “The Perfect Dog” Training Video?”