Susa
Posted : 6/14/2006 9:05:03 PM
Looks like your dog really needs a job. Just physical excercise is not enough, specially for borders/mixes.
Maybe you can try clicker-training and teach him tricks. I wouldn`t use a water bottle but if you do, you shouldn`t let him know that it is you that squirts him. By that he only learns not to do such things when you`re there and that he can do it when you`re not around. By now it`s probably too late for this method.
An other way is to teach him to bark by command. You can also try that with the clicker. That way he learns just to bark when you want him to not whenever he has nothing else to do.
BTW a walk for one mile or maybe two walks for one mile don`t seem to be long enough to me, that`s just a walk for maybe 30min. max? Far too short for most of the dogs I know and that doesn`t really exhausts a dog.
Give him something he has to "think" about, new tricks, agility and stuff, make his walks more interesting, let him jump on things, play games where he has to find treats or your key or something like that.
That makes my dogs much more tired than just plain walks. And even games when he has to fetch a ball will not make him really tired I suppose cause that distance your dog has to walk is just "peanuts" for him.