Zen and the art of being stubborn

[Flobo]

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I am looking after a dog at the moment who I have walked since she was 17months old, she is now 10. I absolutly adore her, love her to bits, but she is the most stubborn, willfull dog I know, to the point where she will stop in the middle of a road sometimes and when I try all my usual tricks of getting her to cross she'll just sit down! Over the years I have developed a variety of techniques, like making her moving in to a game ie; ready, steady, go! or actually telling her to sit(even if she is already) then stay, then come! All with high value treats..sometimes it works, sometimes she just carries on sitting.. which is fine, sometimes...

She has been with me a week and yesterday our first walk of the day had a road sitting incident, luckily a quiet side road, but still. I had to get behind her, lift her bum up and push her forwards and then she walked. Our late afternoon walk I drove her up the hill, she got 5 steps from the van, (it was now raining too) and then refused to go forwards to hill, to turn around and go to football field behind us or to just go 5 steps back to the van and go home. I am an incredibly patient person but I am ashamed to say I actually swore at her in frustration at that point(it wasn't a barrage by any means, just a 'FFS!!' moment!).

She eventually decided the football field was the way to go, so we went there, she had a wee, then we sat in the rain for 10minutes, where I gave her a hug and said I was sorry for swearing at her, then we went home... She then totally ignored me until after the ferrets had been out this morning!! We both had a crap nights sleep as I could feel her actively ignoring me all through the night!
Anyhow today has been a good day, phew! 2 good walks with managable stops and even some compromising with direction with relative ease! She is spark out, quietly snoring as I type. Deep breath, I have regained my Zen and the art of being patient and 1 week to go!

Can anyone guess what breed of dog she is?? A few other clues;

She is incredibly loyal to the few she deigns to love
She'll pretty much ignore everyone else quite blatently
Some dogs she likes, some she doesn't, she'll make her mind up in the last second
She is the largest of her breed type.
She is a lot of fun, quite silly and affectionate in her own way with those she loves, otherwise she gives nothing away.
Training has to be done cleverley otherwise she just won't bother interacting!

 

[JoanneF]

I was convinced Shar Pei until this

She is the largest of her breed type.

But I had a coffee/keyboard interface moment at

I could feel her actively ignoring me all through the night!

 

[Tinytom]

Schnauzer or Airedale

 

[JudyN]

I was convinced Shar Pei until this


But I had a coffee/keyboard interface moment at
Flobo said: ↑
I could feel her actively ignoring me all through the night!

Me too!

My thought was greyhound - they can be choosy with their affection. Though they're not prone to sitting, so maybe not. Lifting her bum and shoving wouldn't be guaranteed to work either.

 

[Richard & Patsy]

Standard poodle?

 

[Flobo]

one of you have got it right...

She's my favourite fruitloop, nutball, Airdale!! Queen of the terriers and doesn't she know it!!

 

[Finsky]

one of you have got it right...

She's my favourite fruitloop, nutball, Airdale!! Queen of the terriers and doesn't she know it!!

Brilliant....she sounds like 'fun' How about taking one of your ferrets for a walk too? Would she be more incline to follow you up where ever you and your ferret are heading? Would ferret be happy staying inside you jacket (pocket)?

 

[Flobo]

How about taking one of your ferrets for a walk too?

That wouldn't work for sure, she is way too interested in them and I don't think it's a 'you're interesting can I be your friend?' type of interest!! I reckon it would be bedlem from start to finish ( as well as the fact that Sid is petrified of outside as he was found as a stray, Goose is way too nosey to be even vaguely controllable and Iggy, um he may be up for it but only if his brother came too!)
She's the only dog I have ever had stay that walks in and the first thing she does is remove the cover from the stair gate seperating the ferrets from rest of hall. She'll then sit and watch through the gate with a bit of whining before she gets bored and wanders off, generally because they are sleeping and not entertaining her!

 

[JoanneF]

How about taking one of your ferrets for a walk too?

Not so Zen if that happened!

 

[Ari_RR]

Love this story! She is a ridgeback!

 

[Finsky]

That wouldn't work for sure, she is way too interested in them and I don't think it's a 'you're interesting can I be your friend?' type of interest!! I reckon it would be bedlem from start to finish ( as well as the fact that Sid is petrified of outside as he was found as a stray, Goose is way too nosey to be even vaguely controllable and Iggy, um he may be up for it but only if his brother came too!)
She's the only dog I have ever had stay that walks in and the first thing she does is remove the cover from the stair gate seperating the ferrets from rest of hall. She'll then sit and watch through the gate with a bit of whining before she gets bored and wanders off, generally because they are sleeping and not entertaining her!

Ah...that's that bonkers idea out of window then. Though it would make 'interesting' walk for sure...'bedlem' is kind of 'interesting'

 

[Flobo]

Thought I'd give a little update on my favourite fruitloop. As you know her walks can at times be , um, challenging to say the least!
I walk her 4 times a week and she has been getting more and more regularly obstinate and I had almost exhausted all of my ideas of how to encourage her to walk. I was having to walk her a shorter distance purely because I knew the minute she felt we were heading back, (even trying to lead her in a subtle loop generally didn't work), it would take us forever. Mostly because she'd sit and refuse to budge! My last tactic was to throw a small treat ahead and tell her to find it, sometimes we'd cover a bit of ground that way and I could trick her to walk a bit further than the treat she'd just missed!
Anyhow we had a really difficult week recently and I was racking my brains at the weekend and thought I'll try a squeaky toy... Unfortunately the ferrets have stolen and stashed them all, but whilst I was searching for them I came across my clicker.
Now, either my lovely Airdale was swapped over that same weekend with an alien pod dog or this clicker is magic!
From the very first click she responded like a super trained, well behaved, model dog
I'm doing nothing different other than using a click to reinforce whatever it is I'm saying to her, come, leave, this way etc.. I actually can't believe it, her walks have become a real joy again, purely because we're doing just that, walking!! We now have 6 good walks in a row under our belt, which is unheard of, nothing short of a miracle!( Though there is still apart of me that is a bit unnerved by it all, after all these years, why is this working so well??......)
Any ideas??

 

[JudyN]

Have you or anyone else ever used a clicker with her before? How well does she walk when with her owner(s)?

 

[Flobo]

Her owners had a clicker but didn't use it to any degree or consistency when she was young, as far as I know. (I only know because on relaying the wonder of using mine, she told me she'd only thrown hers away a few weeks ago!) When I first started walking her it was never used. I've walked her since she was 17months and have never used a clicker with her. She can be random and stubborn with her family also, the husband had to phone his wife not so long ago to come and pick them up as she had taken root and flatly refused to move!!

 

[Hemlock]

Thinking outside the box - might she have a hearing problem? Has she had her sight checked? The latter wouldn't be affected by the clicker, but hearing issues don't necessarily mean a world of silence - we get tinnitus, which can get very noisy at times, and would be enough to make a dog fearful outside the home. Eye issues can come and go and be worrying too.

Underpinning every act interpreted as "stubborn" is often a health issue.

 

[Flobo]

@Hemlock I had wondered about her hearing...The tone of the click does get an instant response with her looking at me, maybe if her hearing is not quite what it used to be the click is a distinct sound/tone she can hear clearly, locate and respond to.
Though saying that, she's staying with me at the moment and has been snoozing behind me, I just whispered her name and on the 2nd whisper she lifted her head and looked straight at me as if to say 'What?!'