What were your first time mistakes?

[ladyfreckles]

For those of you that aren't perfect ( ), what kind of mistakes did you make the first time you raised a puppy/had a dog? I'm sure all of us started out somewhere. When you first began, what were the mistakes that you made?

I'll add mine soon.

[MustLoveGSDs]

-Giving rawhides
-Not continuing obedience

[Razzle J.Dazzle]

Letting my dachshunds sleep in the bed with me

[TaZoR]

My first gsd george, i was 18 at the time. He was leery and barked at ppl from a very young age. Ppl backed up and i pulled him back. It continued his whole life. I had to keep him away from everyone. He was a timebomb and i was always on my toes. He was great with animals, my babies, and the family, but i regret my ignorance to the importance of socialization.

[Good_Karma]

Not making socialization outings FUN FUN FUN! I didn't pay close enough attention to how Niko was feeling when we were out, or else I was not as good at reading him as I am now. I think a lot of our outings were too stressful for him.

I think I was too harsh with Niko in the beginning. I thought I had to be the Alpha so I was very hard on him and doubly so because he was a male and I knew he'd be a big strong dog, and we were also told by our breeder that he was a dominant dog and would we would need to be very authoritative with him. I mean I didn't beat him or anything, lol but I also did not ensure that his experiences in the beginning were positive ones and I also took it personally when he did not obey me (which I now realize was stupid).

So I think he grew up underconfident and reactive at least partly based on those first few months before I realized that I did not want to train in a harsh manner like that. Just based on the progress he has made since we really started working with him makes me believe that he has room to grow and that his current temperament is not set in stone, and someday we can get him to a point where he would accept another dog into the household.

Niko has not had the opportunity to be with other dogs, other than Rosa. We did the puppy social hour, and aside from a few tiny play sessions with much smaller puppies, he mostly hated every second of it, and would hide behind us. At that point the trainer had us leave the room (leaving Niko behind, terrified) in hopes that without us there he would play. It didn't work, and he learned very quickly that the rowdy lab puppies (there were four of them!) would leave him alone if he put on a big display.

And on top of that, we've had a dozen or so times when Niko has been on leash and charged by off-leash dogs, though thankfully he has never gotten hurt. But was well-reinforced in his aggressive displays that successfully warded off the unwanted dog.

We did work with a local trainer in private lessons but felt we made no progress in the dog aggression. We went from Niko choosing avoidance tactics to Niko being the aggressor. We had a very discouraging session where Niko and a non-reactive dog were allowed off lead in a fenced in area, and Niko was a complete bully, nipping the dog's tail even when the poor dog was laying down as far away from Niko as possible. I think we need to undo a lot of stuff he learned before we can make any kind of progress in that area.

So I guess one of the biggest mistakes we've made is trusting trainers 100% to know what is best. I'm not sure what the trainer was thinking in that situation. We'd been making good progress with on-leash dog interactions and I think she wanted to see what he would do, but I think the timing was bad as he'd just had a bad "dog charging him" incident a couple days beforehand. So he was keyed up already (all of this is realized in hindsight, unfortunately) and not in a good mindset. His trainer wanted to see what kind of choice Niko would make on his own without one of us there to tell him how to behave. I think this was a HUGE mistake and I have been learning that having my dog look to me to see how to behave is EXACTLY what I want him to do for a very long time before I can trust him to make a wise choice on his own. We were very much not ready for any off-leash interaction. And we called Niko away from the dog and he came willingly enough, but it was a bad thing to have happen at all.

There are probably about a thousand more mistakes I made with Niko but those are probably the worst ones. I still occasionally lose my temper with him and I really hate how I do that.

[Courtney]

When mine was a puppy I thought socialization meant every Tom, **** & Harry could pet my puppy and there dogs could greet him. We were at a leashed park with hiking trails and a lady with a adult lab stopped so our dogs could meet, the lab snapped at my boy...no injuries but he CRIED. I felt so bad, thought that my puppy was ruined forever. Called the breeder and had a lengthy conversation with her.

At the end of this conversation socialization had a new meaning to me, it no longer meant that my dog was treated like he was in a petting zoo but that he would be introduced to new situations, places, people to build his confidence, sometimes I would allow him to be petted sometimes not, but it was always under MY terms, because he's my dog and it's my job to protect him. He would never again (I mean this literally) greet/play with an unknown dog to me.

[JakodaCD OA]

I"ve always made a mistake with each dog I've had Im sure, and I've had GSD's for a very long time.

My last mistake was taking Masi to a purely positive puppy class that was a purely negative experience.

[kennajo]

Thanks for this post! It helps seeing that I'm not the only one making mistakes...lol If I'm reading this right I'm getting that even when a "bad" experience happens any negative reactions or behaviors are not "set in stone" and can be changed, right? Right now at 1 year he is reacting when startled. I have been redirecting his attention back to me ,standing between him and what ever buggar he saw lol but I'm not sure that is correct. I want him to be confident and not react unless necessary to protect himself which I want him to know I will. He is still a baby. This is a work in progress!

[onyx'girl]

My first few dogs were great temperaments and a breeze to own/train. Crates weren't needed for very long.
Onyx came along and I had to step up because of her temperament. I took her to a pet/family obedience trainer that I had heard from several people/great reputation.
After a few sessions I could see she was very 'old school' compulsion based and not fair to the dogs.
Prongs on small breeds, why?? Drag around a couple filled milk jugs on a line instead of teaching a recall, were just two of her methods. I didn't do these things but the trainer had people in our class doing them.

It didn't set Onyx on a good path. I sure wish I started her elsewhere.

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Using compulsion for sure. 1990's style. Probably better than 1970's style, but still not effective or helpful for the long term. Classes I went to were largely Volhard/motivational but the supplemental teaching was more compulsive and since it was so fast and easy (to shut the dog down) I used it at home.