BANDIT
We got Bandit as a 6 week old puppy. He is a mixed breed of Border Collie and Catahoula. As you can imagine, he is full of energy. We pretty much let him have run of the house and yard. My husband and I both work so he stays in a pen outside during the day and in the house at night.
He was potty trained in no time and very smart. We enrolled him in an obedience class when he was about 5 months old. He responded well to the commands with the exception of give and take. He started stealing goodies throughout the house. I noticed when I would go and try to take the object from him; he would growl and sometimes nip. As he got older, this grew worse, but it was mostly things that he would grab, never his toys or food. When he was about 7 months old and around 55 pounds, I was afraid to take anything in fear of getting bit and he was more than I could handle when trying to take it from him. One day when I walked toward him to take a sock away, he actually lunged at me. I knew I had to get this under control. I called Jim Durrance to help us understand what I was doing wrong.
Jim came and observed Bandit’s behavior. He questioned the amount of exercise he got and how disciplined we were with him. He walked with him on leash and did most of the basic commands. He responded well. Then we gave him a pig ear. Jim was able to take it with no incident as well as my husband. I approached him and saw “the look”. I could tell he was not going to let me have it without a fight. As I got closer, he bared his teeth and started growling. Jim got him and told him very firmly “no” - he could not act that way. I guess I had never been stern enough for him so he was taking advantage of me. Jim suggested we give him more structured exercise, instead of just letting him run loose. We started walking him on the leash and making him sit for everything he got – food, toys, going in and out of the house. He was beginning to understand, he was not in control, we were.
It didn’t happen overnight, but his behavior has improved 95%. He will automatically sit at the door when he has to go out, before he gets his meals and before I toss him the ball when we play in the yard. There have been fewer incidents with his object aggression. He is not stealing paper towels, socks or tissues; it’s almost as if he knows what will happen if he does. Overall, he is a better behaved dog now and it was just simple things that we did to correct both of our behaviors.
He is almost 10 months old now and still very rambunctious but he is much more obedient than before. When he does get something we would rather him not have, we say drop it and more often than not, he does!
Thanks to you, Jim for giving us the advice we needed to get Bandit back on track.
Susan and Troy Metz
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