hi everyone,

a little advice would be most welcome :)

we brought home our fantastic DDB pup (6 month old girl) from her breeders just over a week ago, and although i have experience in the past with other breeds including bulls & mastiffs, this is our first Bordeaux.  Ruby is still very much settling into our routine and i understand this completely, but i'm beginning to dispare that she is perhaps the worlds most stubborn dog :D

she sits, hunches over with legs braced looking miserable and generally refuses to budge (or occasionally runs away into another room) when i'm trying to get her to go outside, come inside, go upstairs, come downstairs, get off the settee..etc etc...! pretty much anything requiring co-operation and motion on her part! she isn't yet lead trained (she digs her feet in and freezes when i try to get her to move, so thats a seperate issue we are working on), i'm embarrassed to say we have actually resorted to picking her up and carrying her if we need to shift her (aside from the fantastic visual that creates for you all, i physically can't do *that* for much longer!!)

...as far as motivators, i've tried praising enthusiastically (no response from her, not even eye contact), squeaky toys to encourage movement (*yawn*), treats like cheese and chicken (food is surprisingly NOT a motivator for her)...and as i said, putting the lead on her is a nightmare, she just freezes up. i certainly don't want to tug on her or anything, but to even put my hand under her collar and try to "guide" her causes her to dig in even harder and fight against me.

any ideas? typical "teen angst" already at 6 mos? confused puppy that i'm not being clear enough with? where should i start?

thanks :)
~jenn

I note that you say she is 6 months old and that you have just got her from her breeders; if she was not very well socialised by them, and has possibly not even been anywhere else, nor had any form of training, she may be very confused. One of the 4 ways of dealing with fear is to use "freeze" and it may be she is doing this; or, she may be simply using a form of passive resistance because she is not sure what you want of her.

I would start off by using her dinner,  and calling " Come" as she moves towards her bowl. That will be a start at least. I suspect she has never been used to any kind of training and it will take time, but you will get there. I've also PM'd you.

Lindsay
X

Hi
try putting a lead on her and letting it hang.She will eventually decide she has better things to do than stay in one spot and will move around(maybe a bit nervously at first) and will get used to it. You must keep an eye on her while doing this though for obvious reasons but I always 'pretend' that I'm not watching if you know what I mean.
When she is used to that ...you might have to do it 3/4 times a day for a couple of days you can start picking up the lead and letting her lead you ....then progress from there .

Archer

hi,
thanks for the ideas - Lindsay, i think what you point out is correct - although she mixed with the breeders family and other dogs freely, i suspect she didn't socialise beyond that...i have signed up for puppy socialisation classes with her which start soon, so hopefully it will improve the situation.  it's not too late is it??
i do think fear plays a big part, judging by her body language...i am admittedly nervous that the fear could overwhelm her and cause her to bite, so i'm really anxious to get this under control if possible! she is generally very sweet natured, she just needs to build her confidence maybe?
 
Archer i have tried hanging the lead off her collar, but need to go back to that and stick with it i think - i just didn't wait long enough for her to get comfortable with it. so back to square one we go!  ;)

cheers!
jenn & ruby

No its not too late but it will take a little longer at this age. Have you considered Tellington Touch? It is ideal for building self confidence and is completely non-confrontational. You can go on a short course or contact a local practitioner (see http://www.ttouchtteam.co.uk/ for a list) or you can do it yourself (there are books, videos etc).

Good luck
Janet

I was in the same situation a while ago. I also bought one at six months old, and she was frightend of everything at first, she was absolutly petrified out on the lead. She took lots and lots of encouragment, being a ddb you will already know that they are a very very stubborn bread and will only do things at there own pace. You will have to have plenty of patiants with her. When we got my girl i don't think she had seen much of anything, she had been safe in her own little world mixing with the other dogs and family at the kennels where i got her from, but this different world was so big and frightening to her. I promise you if you do things very slowly with her, she will come round. My girl is know 14 months and she is fantastic, she is still a little bit nervy with some things but that is normal. Just out of interest which breeder did you get her from?

thanks claudia!
it's nice to hear somebody else's story that sounds so similiar (and who made it out the other side ;)  she is such a good girl - i know she has fabulous potential, it's just getting there! "stubborn" doesn't even begin to describe the breed does it? :D :D
oh, she came from Alan Hall's kennels (Alanancy affix)...where did you get your girl from?
cheers,
jenn

Hi Janet,
great idea :)
i've heard of TT some time ago, but don't know very much about it..i'll have a look at the website and read up a bit on it - have you used it before?
~jenn

Yes - I have done a couple of weeks training with the aim of eventually becoming a practitioner but am not there yet (about a year and a half to go!) But there are likely to be qualified people around you who could help point you in the right direction if you'd like some help.

I have used it on quite a few animals in training (dogs, cats. birds, snakes!) as well as on my own dogs and some friends' dogs and cats. One of mine is 8 and very nervous but she has improved tremendously through regular TTouch - it is like she now engages her brain when something happens rather than just reacting.

Best of luck with her
Janet

On reading your post another thought occured to me - is she deaf or does she have vision problems? 

hi Kerioak - her vision is just fine, and her hearing is normal, just a bit of "selective deafness" on her part methinks  ;)

thanks for the idea, though....i tried hanging the lead off her collar in the house today a few times and she was actually carrying it around in her mouth by this evening - much improvement! my daughter and i also played catch between us with one of her squeaky toys and managed to lure her into the game so we were able to use "come" each time she ran between us, and she seemed quite pleased with herself (as we were with her!!)
cheers,
jenn