The mighty Yama (Elkhound/Pyr mix) Training

Discussion in 'Norwegian Elkhound' started by YamaMama, Oct 2, 2020.

  1. YamaMama

    YamaMama New Member

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    YamaMama

    The mighty Yama (Elkhound/Pyr mix)

    So I'm not new to dogs, and I'm not new to stubborn...the combo however of Pyrenees and Elkhound has created one of the best dogs I've ever owned-and the most frustrating. I go into this with the expectation that she won't be a 'grown dog' as far as self control and obedience until she's over 3. This is lovely and expected. This is a dog that has put itself between members of my family and a bear on more than one occasion since she's come home to us (we are pretty rural). I love and adore her.

    We've had Yama for a little over 2 months now-and she's officially a year old, we got her when she was 10 months old and as far as we were told she didn't care for collars, or leashes and had resided in an apartment with a maybe 20'x20' patch of grass and concrete. The gentleman who was rehoming her clearly loved her dearly, but wasn't able to take him with her when he moved. She had been trained to jump up on folks to 'hug' them when she met new people, and that's about as much as we know about where she came from.

    Because we have kids (not little shavers mind you-but elementary school through high school), and she spends some time around older (60+) folks...and because we can't have her tackling everyone she meets (I really can't afford to pay for someone elses broken hip)-we've been working with her diligently on sitting when she meets someone and waiting to get pets-rather than mauling them with all 65lbs of her floppy eared glory. She's not 100% on this, but we're at about 70% (which is a huge improvement from the 0% we were at when she came home with us). I know this is going to just take time, and consistency to work through...

    She has some other eccentric behaviors that are part of puppyhood and just require teaching her a more desirable behavior and rewarding the snot out of her when she follows through. This I accept...and even adore.

    The problem I'm trying to work through is her total and complete lack of recall. We didn't change her name when we brought her home because we didn't want to add further confusion to what was going on in hopes that it would help-but she's gone from having a tinsy tiny fenced area to relieve herself in-to having 20 acres to roam. It's killing me that we're having to keep her leashed all the time when we're outside-but the reality is on these back roads people won't see her and she'll get hit...I have neighbors with sheep and chickens...there's just too much that can go wrong for her future if we can't get some sort of recall down.

    Any sort of help is much sought after.

    Kind Regards
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  3. who owns who

    who owns who Member

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    Marc
    CaroleC likes this.
    I have 2 Akita’s and I keep them fenced. Takes away all the worry. Now if I’m not within the fenced area one of them will dig and squirm his way under while the other one stays in the fence with a look of what about me. A good fence makes for a good dog and a good neighbor

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