Stubborn Boxerness! Ignoring Parents!

[Animommy]

I already have another post up about my 5 year old Brindle Boxer, Bentley.

He's the epitome of stubborn Boxers at their finest! Lol!

My Husband & I use hand signals in conjunction with the commands we give. While our other four dogs will (typically) obey the commands, Bentley does the classical "Im not looking at you so I dont have to listen to you" move, despite that we are SHOWING him the hand signal! I can be pretty patient & stubborn myself when i want him to listen! (e.g. I dont give in, i wait til he listens!)

However, more often than not anymore, he will stand there once he decides im not giving in, stare at me & start to whimper, & that turns into the LOUDEST bark! He will NOT back down! I can walk away, come back & try it again, & usually he then gets the hint & obeys, however, there are times that he just will NOT give in .

Ill admit that we've spoiled him too much in the past & just gave in, but now we've gotten to a point where we realize where we went wrong & how we must be a bit more firm. We've thought about re-implementing clicker training or going back to basics.

Perhaps im giving up too soon? Any suggestions are more than appreciated! He is SUCH a great dog! But boy, he's hardheaded! Haha!

 

[boxerdale]

what your describing isnt him being stubborn, but calming signals. try looking more into canine body language instead of expecting them to learn and live by human communication. so very few people actually give this some thought as dogs are now a domesticated animal but they still have their own ways of communicating once you work out their natural body language you'll find problems like this very easy to deal with. there is a wealth of information online. hope this helps

 

[TwoDogs]

what your describing isnt him being stubborn, but calming signals.

Yes, the initial looking away/averting gaze/breaking eye contact behavior could be interpreted as a calming signal. If that is the case, then it could be caused by confusion or frustration. Perhaps he doesn't know his verbal and/or visual cues as well as you think he does. A back-to-basics approach to training will definitely help with that.

However, the stare/direct eye contact and loud barking in your face are NOT calming signals at all. That sounds more like what I call "back talk"--also usually caused by frustration, but of a different kind. Alot of times I see it from dogs who know their basic behaviors just fine, but don't see a point in performing them and don't mind telling you that. They see no good reason for doing the behaviors because the owners never gave them a good enough reason.

For these dogs training is training and real-life--well, that's something else. The good news is a back-to-basics approach works for these dogs too. The key though is that you have start making the behaviors have real-life meaning for the dog. That means utilizing more real-life rewards in your training. If performing the behaviors in all contexts is the key to the dog getting everything that he wants, then he'll give you a "sit" as soon as you ask for a "sit" no matter when or where.