We have a handsome young lad names Brian who is now around 6 and a half months. He is nearly house trained - he is a nuisance for marking our bed if he can and he will sit and fetch on command. But that's it. He seems to be beyond defiant. We have tried with repetition of 'no', pretending to be hurt when bitten, time out in the kitchen, staying calm and positive...Just a about everything we can think of. But he still repeats the same defiant behaviour. Jumping on the sofa, hand and arm biting/mouthing, jumping up, stealing food, stealing anything that's in reach on surfaces, opening the bin (very clever!) and eating what he can find. Most of it seems to be extreme attention seeking. Embarrassingly, he will also only drink from the toilet. He has regularly changed and always accessible water but he will my drink it. He just waits till he can sneak into the toilet. Sometimes he is good with other dogs and other times beyond aggressive. I've experience of strong characters having owned 4 staffies...the death of the last one broke my heart so I thought I'd switch breed. Yes I did my research, but wasn't expecting the force that is Brian! Help anyone??
Sounds like he’s got you well and truly under his paw. Dogs don’t do defiant behaviour he’s just being disobedient, at six and a half months he should really be house trained, If he’s marking the bed shut the door and don’t allow him on the bed, same for drinking out the toilet just shut the lid/door but you have to be consistent with your actions. I would find a good training class and take him along, give him lots of mental stimulation to tire him out to’ as well as physical.
Oh dear the film Beethoven comes to mind! Lol..I agree with @GsdSlave, he's being a disobedient child at the moment. I hope he starts to behave himself! Btw Brian's a brilliant name
Brian sounds a real character. Dalmatians are not an easy breed to train, they are bred for endurance and you can't tire them out. As youngsters, they seem to have rather a short attention span, and added to that your puppy is at the naughty teenager stage of development. I would suggest that you find a training club which teaches the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme, so he can learn the ground rules while he is still at an impressionable age. Details of the scheme, and the location of host clubs can be found on the Kennel Club website. (The site has been down this weekend, but should be up and running again shortly). I agree with Gsd Slave, that the easiest way to correct his soiling and drinking habits is to close the doors to those rooms. From my experience of Beagles you may never completely cure the counter and bin surfing - they do learn to, 'Leave!', but only while you are watching, the easiest way is push everything to the back, and keep the bin in a cupboard!
