Aggression?

[Whimsy]

Thanks so much guys. You're right--I am confused too! XD

I was reading some other threads and have also started, as of yesterday, making him sit before he receives pets. He's a goofball, but yeah, he is very intelligent and I can see that he wants something to do.

Previously when I'd go outside I'd keep repeating a litany of "No!" even though it outwardly seemed to do nothing. I'd really almost given up on working on it; I just didn't know what to do any more. I'll start in on this when I get home from work today.

I grew up with irish setters, golden retrievers and american eskies--pretty mild dogs. I'm one of those people who, unfortunately, picked up the dog without first knowing the breed and the right way to train him. I figured, hey, I've grown up with dogs and helping to train and potty train them! Germans are a whole other ball-part, and I guess it's as much retraining myself as Odin.

Hopefully within a few months I'll be able to come back on here and boast about my progress.

[shepgirl]

Stick with the advice you were given and you should be fine in a few months and on your way to a good relationship with this dog.
I think if you could handle Irish Setters, this one should be easy...lol.

[Whimsy]

Stick with the advice you were given and you should be fine in a few months and on your way to a good relationship with this dog.
I think if you could handle Irish Setters, this one should be easy...lol.

>.> If I was smart I would have specified the setters in question were mixed. . .the one we owned was mixed with a golden retriever and gentle as a butterfly. Endured all sorts of 'play' from myself and my sister when we were kids. The other setters were owned by neighbors and loved to be visited.

I thought about specifying, but thought to myself nahhhh. Shows what I get, eh?

My folks were huge into Goldens, and we had a sort of Golden club growing up. A few of our neighbors owned goldens too, and we learned all sorts of useful things about the breed and training in general (especially after the old guy across the street lost his sweet old lady and got two energetic young puppies. I still remember him yelling after them. . ."DAISY! KENNA! GET OVER HERE!" and seeing two streaks of Golden racing by hehehe) Only after our golden died did we switch to American Eskies. The potty training was hard, but the dogs were easy-going and rarely needed to be corrected.

So here comes Odin with all his intelligence and stubbornness and I was scratching my head thinking, "I've never trained a dog like this one!" Delved into the books and found all these things about how Germans aren't meant for everyone and how they just need more than most other 'family' dogs. So I will learn how to properly train Odin and, well, stop being so stubborn myself in my preconceptions.

[Ginger's Mom]

It sounds like you are determined to make Odin a nice boy, and one everyone will enjoy having around, and I am sure you will succeed.

The potty training was hard, but the dogs were easy-going and rarely needed to be corrected.

Potty training and teaching them that it is never okay to nip at someone are the hardest things to teach an Eskie. But you are right once they get that down, they are very easy-going and instinctively smart dogs.

[ntep2019]

Here is a suggestion that has helped me out alot, this book "Cesear Way" by Cesear Milian, helped me out so much you would not believe, they walk beside me or sometimes behind me, they lay next to me without any issues, they sit, high five, stay, etc when I want them too, they walk with me without a leash in the yard. They now sleep in the living room with no gate to block them to the room. Day one when I used his ideas, i saw the change quickly. This is a must have book.

[shepgirl]

Give it time and let us know how you make out.