Bichon Frise puppy completely ignores my commands!

Lor1978

I have very little experience with dogs,however over the past few months I have purchased a bichon frise puppy(now 7 months) -8 weeks when we got him and a samoyed(now 10 months)-5 months when we got him.I adore the two of them!However we live in the country up a bohereen and every time a tractor passes and they are outside the house the bichon goes nuts and runs after the tractor and the samoyed follows him.They rarely come home of their own accord and I usually have to follow in the car as they completely ignore my calls to come back.The samoyed is fine if the bichon is inside.Is getting a radio fence my only option-I hate the thought of putting a shock collar on the little fella, but I'm terrified he'll be killed on the road!

perri winkles

DO NOT use a shock collar on your dog. They are inhumane and completely unnecessary.

My dogs do this and we so far have not come up with anything to stop them. My advice would be to bring your dogs to a training class, they are still young so this habit can be broken. There are plenty available that you could try.

Small dogs like bichon's and terriers do have a habit of being stubborn and have the instinct to chase (My two do anyway!) The samoyed is learning these habit from the Bichon and it will only get worse.

Nip it in the bud and bring them to training classes.

greensleep

NOT use a shock collar on your dog. They are inhumane and completely unnecessary.

My dogs do this and we so far have not come up with anything to stop them.
I am sorry but I had to laugh at this one. Many people use radio fences, be it right or wrong.I would have suggested build them a pen, until you find a suitable trainer. You can't train a dead dog ! If a radio fence is called for in the mean time, then so be it.

crotalus667

Lor1978 wrote: »

, but I'm terrified he'll be killed on the road!

dont let them run lose and they wont go on the road

greensleep

How do you do that quote thing ?

CoalBucket

greensleep wrote: »

How do you do that quote thing ?

Dunno

seamus

greensleep wrote: »

My dogs do this and we so far have not come up with anything to stop them.
I am sorry but I had to laugh at this one. Many people use radio fences, be it right or wrong.I would have suggested build them a pen, until you find a suitable trainer. You can't train a dead dog ! If a radio fence is called for in the mean time, then so be it.

Not all radio fences use electric shocks.

Radio fences aren't invisible tethers for your dogs. If they see/hear a tractor and make a good sprint for it, they will run through the fence boundary and continue on up the road. Expensive radio fences have "run-through protection", which detect when this happens and shut down so that your dog doesn't get shocked when he tries to get back onto the property.

The obvious way to sort this is to not let the dogs roam free and put a gate up so the dogs can't get out.

You can train this out of the dog using simple distraction techniques. When the dog is in the house and starts barking at tractors or whatever, call him over, let him see that you have food, get him to focus on you (ignoring the distraction outside) and then praise him and give him the treat. Continue to do this every time he gets worked up by something.
It's important that you don't just give the treat to the dog as then he will think he's being rewarded for barking. You need to get him to come over and ignore the distraction, focus on you and then he gets rewarded.

Obviously, you may not have food on you at all times, so you may need to leave a little tub of treats in "problem" areas, where the dog usually starts barking or misbehaving. Hot dogs are cheap and if you chop them up small, you'll get hundreds of treats from a €2 packet.

If you've never done reward-based training before, be aware that this isn't something he'll pick up in 2 days. More like 2 months. But after that, he won't be bothered by these things, and may even see them as a trigger to come inside to you looking for a treat.

perri winkles

greensleep wrote: »

NOT use a shock collar on your dog. They are inhumane and completely unnecessary.

My dogs do this and we so far have not come up with anything to stop them.
I am sorry but I had to laugh at this one. Many people use radio fences, be it right or wrong.I would have suggested build them a pen, until you find a suitable trainer. You can't train a dead dog ! If a radio fence is called for in the mean time, then so be it.

I don't see what you find funny about it. My dogs do it when they are let out the front gate, which is very rare, and are only out the front when they are getting into the car. So therefore, its not a big issue for us.

It clearly is a big issue for the OP. I would have thought the OP would have more sense then to rush into getting 2 dogs without any experience and without even thinking about what would happen if they got out. It's just pure ignorance.

I believe there are other ways of stopping your dog from doing this, not just throwing up a radio fence.

If the OP has decided to commit to 2 dogs, then he needs to get them properly trained. I would have thought this was a basic requirement especially if he lives in the country.

andreac

Lor1978 wrote: »

I have very little experience with dogs,however over the past few months I have purchased a bichon frise puppy(now 7 months) -8 weeks when we got him and a samoyed(now 10 months)-5 months when we got him.I adore the two of them!However we live in the country up a bohereen and every time a tractor passes and they are outside the house the bichon goes nuts and runs after the tractor and the samoyed follows him.They rarely come home of their own accord and I usually have to follow in the car as they completely ignore my calls to come back.The samoyed is fine if the bichon is inside.Is getting a radio fence my only option-I hate the thought of putting a shock collar on the little fella, but I'm terrified he'll be killed on the road!

Just put up proper fencing or build a dog run, its much safer and more secure and reliable than radio fencing which i absol detest anyway and would never put one on my dog.