Any advice on my two dogs not getting along would be appreciated.

I would start making both dogs drag short leashes around. Go to the pet store and buy a couple of 3' or 4' leashes and make them drag them around the house. The purpose of this is so that you can keep them off the furniture without getting bit yourself. Furthermore, I would keep them out of your kitchen. This has nothing to do with your boyfriend. It has to do with perceived resources. Recources abound in the kitchen, including you. It's a nice smelly place where food drops and so forth. You can teach them their boundary pretty easily. At this point you need to control ALL resources and their access to them. That includes the space around your feet, the couch, the bed, etc. Don't even invite them up at this point.

How much training did your original dog get when it was growing up?

For a private training consultation in your house, you can expect to pay anywhere from $90 on the low end to $145 or so on the high end. These are the going rates in my state. It may vary a little where you are at but I can't imagine it would be by much.

I wrote an email to two separate trainers, I will wait and see what I hear back. Should I just have one crated at all times, and alternate which dog is allowed out of the crate? The younger dog was trained by me, house training, sit, stay, come, and for the most part he is pretty well behaved. I'm not sure how to keep them out of the kitchen, there is no way to put a gate up or anything, and like I said the newer one does not listen/ or understand the word "Go" and when I take him out and ask him to sit and stay, or lay down and stay it only last a short period of time, then he is back. I was also told not to use the crate as punishment, so I don't want to crate him for not listening. I'm not sure how to do all of this at once, I guess. It seems there are a lot of levels to what needs to be done, and I'm just not sure how to do it all. Waiting for information from the trainers. I'm going to crate them both now so I can get some sleep before working tonight.

You're right. Fixing something like this takes many levels of training and often many years. Unfortunately, it is not an easy undertaking with a simple one trick fix. I certainly wish it was! If you are up for it then that's wonderful. You just need to know going in that you have a bumpy road ahead of you. I'm not saying it can't be fixed or that it won't be worth your time though.

For your kitchen, you can teach a boundary by laying a sheet across the floor in a position so that it makes a physical line that the dog can easily see. If the dog crosses it you can use the leash to move him out then tell him no or ahah then say out or go or whatever word you want to use to mean stay out of the kitchen. Then if he stays on the other side of the sheet give praise and a tiny morsel of a treat. Work on both dogs individually first, not together.

You can also put 2 blankets out, one for each dog and train each dog to go to its blanket when you are in the kitchen. Youtube search go to your mat for examples of how to train that.

I think both dogs will require alone time when one is crated and the other is not. Its hard to say how much of this without seeing the true situation. Can you walk them both together nicely on leash?

I got a reply from Superdog.com It is a program that supposably covers all aspects of training, for 1200 dollars for up to 3 dogs with a lifetime guarantee? Anyone know if this is a good price, or have had experience?

I checked out their website and have some major concerns. First, they are extremely gimmicky. They say a whole lot of nothing about how they actually train. They just say, look at the happy faces, we train to build relationships. They never actually say what methods they use. Second, they don't say anything, that I saw about actual behavior modification, what it takes and so forth. Yes, they throw the word around but again, in a gimmick like manner with nothing concrete. Third, good trainers know when to admit they are out of their league and aren't afraid to give you a reference to someone else. If you shell out $1200 what other options will you get? I would never in a million years trust anyone who wants to charge me that much money then says guaranteed for life. There are no guarantees with dog training. So, if it were me, I would continue looking. Find a trainer who talks about their experience with behavior mod, what techniques they believe in and so forth.

Most franchise based training facilities do not have highly qualified trainers above and beyond your average household manners lessons. You need someone who has years and years of study and working with behavior problems.

 You might want to check out APDT.com for trainers also. I also tried reading through the superdog website, and really, I got pretty far and I really couldn't figure out in their method what their training technique actually is. They teach the dog to respect you, but  they don't actually say how they make that happen (just that they don't teach things people traditionally teach).

These are some dog training videos you can access for free

http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup

She shows how to teach a lot of tricks which can be fun later one, but has lots of basic training stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/my_subscriptions?feature=mhee&s=gAgTe90WEFqAJ5IE9BHm2n55galliTDjOeWpDSo614s

This person also has good training videos

You can't expect a dog to just be able to do things for a long time, or in a new place right away. Dogs often have trouble with something called generalizing (which basically means they have trouble doing things they know how to do in one situation in a new situation). The dog may know how to sit in the living room, but right outside the kitchen is a totally different situation. This is why you have to teach them in different places. Once they get some more training, and start to learn that what they learn in one place applies everywhere they go, it tends to take less and less practice to get other new things in new situations. For example, one of our dogs has a beautiful recall around home, and in the dog park even. Last week we took her for her first day of fly ball class. She basically acted like she had no recall at all. She went to check out every other person before she finally came to me. 

When you want to teach a dog to stay, you need to build up the time gradually. You can't expect a dog all of a sudden will know because he can sit, that he should keep doing it for a long time (and the same things about practicing in different situations apply). I'm teaching one of my dogs to sit and stay for up to 3 minutes (he will be taking something called the CGC test, and failed the supervised separation, which is where I must leave him for 3 minutes with someone else). I'm going to try to get him to pass by teaching him to sit and stay for the time I am gone, instead of crying and trying to pull towards where I exited from. We started with 15 seconds, which is a little less time  than he would initially keep sitting if I just told him to sit, and didn't tell him to stay. I kept increasing the time he had to stay before he got his treat. We did 15 seconds, then 30 seconds, and we're now working on a minute. I work on it in the basement, I work on it by both bathrooms when I brush my teeth. I close the door, you can leave it open and do this with your guy. I work it when I go in the kitchen. Basically, any time I don't want my dog following me somewhere, we're practicing it. Then I take him out places and practice there. Right now, he gets his food while we're training for various things (CGC stuff and I am teaching him tricks aimed at strengthening his control of his back legs). He's almost 3, and his behavior is pretty good, and I am still doing this with him (he'd get fat if I used treats for all of this). Whatever I don't give him during the day, I dump in his bowl at night. He still has sit, or go in his crate to get his food (feeding in the crate can help dogs really like their crates).

Jewlieee

I would never in a million years trust anyone who wants to charge me that much money then says guaranteed for life. There are no guarantees with dog training. So, if it were me, I would continue looking. Find a trainer who talks about their experience with behavior mod, what techniques they believe in and so forth. Most franchise based training facilities do not have highly qualified trainers above and beyond your average household manners lessons. You need someone who has years and years of study and working with behavior problems.

I agree with all of the above and would add that you can end up with an even bigger problem if you go with the wrong trainer.   Run as fast as you can away from any trainer who suggest using punishment to stop the fighting. 

The crate is never used as punishment, as you mentioned.  You don't wait until one of the dogs has misbehaved to put the dog in the crate.  Make the crate a great place to be and the dog will be happy to hang out in it.  Provide a long lasting chew of some sort to relieve boredom.

Where abouts do you live? Maybe one of us knows a good trainer near you. I couldn't really get a good idea from that website, since they go all over the place. I don't think you live near me, but if you did, I know who I'd recommend. Perhaps someone else does live near you though, and knows someone who is good at working with this type of issue.

I'm currently in orange county, California. I've contacted a few places but with the holidays I haven't had much response. I got a response from a veterinary behaviorist, which quoted about 500 for 3 hours. I'm going to do some more research, we have been doing the NILIF free for two days now, and honestly I think it's harder for us than it is the dogs. I really enjoy the cuddling when I sleep haha. Anyways, they sleep in their crates now, and are now allowed on the furniture for now. They have been doing really well and we have seen a big improvement in just the two days so far, but I know it's not nearly long enough to tell.

The 500 for the vet behaviorist for 3 hrs is not unusual. I think i paid 300. They are on a different level though. At this point i dont think you need a vet behaviorist. The vet is there to focus on mental issues that manifests into behavior problems, such as ocd, anxiety and so forth. There are a bunch of folks here from CA and hopefully they can jump in with some recommendations. To give you an idea on what to look for google brenda aloff. She is near me but i would use it as a baseline on what info you should see on a legit trainer who has experience dealing with dog dog aggression, resource guarding and so forth

Also hit up youtube. Theres a lot of short training videos about resource guarding, counter conditioning, training go to your crate/mat, etc.

I'm glad that the nilif is helping. Just keep it up and it will pay off in the long run.

blur411

I'm currently in orange county, California. I've contacted a few places but with the holidays I haven't had much response. I got a response from a veterinary behaviorist, which quoted about 500 for 3 hours. I'm going to do some more research, we have been doing the NILIF free for two days now, and honestly I think it's harder for us than it is the dogs. I really enjoy the cuddling when I sleep haha. Anyways, they sleep in their crates now, and are now allowed on the furniture for now. They have been doing really well and we have seen a big improvement in just the two days so far, but I know it's not nearly long enough to tell.

 

I know it's tough not to spoil your babies, but keep up the good work. My dog got a bed for the holidays, and has been choosing to sleep their often times, rather than in my bed with me. I want to take it away from him to make him sleep with me again, but I know it's better for me  (allergies) if he sleeps on his own bed.

I used a zip code in Orange County and did a search for trainers 

http://apdt.com/petowners/ts/us/results/default.aspx?zip=92630&dist=25&cert=0

The people listed as professional members have some sort of certification.  Certification doesn't necessarily mean someone is any good, but it generally indicates they have acquired some minimum level of education as required for that type of certificate. 

 

 

Update: It has been a few weeks now that we have been doing the NILIF, and it has been working out great. Not even ONE fight since we started. Overall, their behavior has improved on many levels. We still have some other behavior issues we want to work on (Walking on the leash better, barking at noises, and other small things) but for now, the lack of fighting and over all better manners that they have had at home has helped. We tried to let them back up on the furniture (when asked, and they would get down when asked) for a day, and then the next day they started to have some set backs (no fighting, just seemed to be acting out more). So, we think we need to go longer before even allowing them small privileges such as short times on the furniture just yet. Thanks for all the advice!