bitter apple wouldn't work for my pup, she seems to like the flavor.
I understand that a puppy needs to mouth in order to test the water and learn what is, and is not, acceptable behavior. My question on a previous post concerning agression was what do I do when my dog bites down on my hand and won't let go? When this happened to me a few days ago, I tried talking calmly to her, trying to get her to let go. I figured wrestling my hand out of her mouth would cause more damage for me and more excitment for her. I guess I need to work with her on the let go or release command. She's 5 months and I probably should have started working with her on that command months ago. Honestly though, my training with Rosie has been going really slow and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have another dog in the house and they both have a high play drive. I can't seem to get either to pay attention when they are together.
Any good pointers on teaching her how to release. I know there's more than one way to do it. I'm interested in what some of you have done that was sucessful in the past. I know offering treats would work but I have tried to stay away from training Rosie with food treats for the most part. I trained my other dog using treats and I still get the feeling sometimes that he won't do a thing I ask unless I have a treat in my hand. When I first started with Rosie I thought that I would try it another way, as in a way to insure that she would do what I requested of her to do because she knew that was what she was suppose to do. I would hate to be in a situation with her where she really needed to sit and stay yet wouldn't because I was out of treats at that moment. I have managed to train her with praise and toys so far, very little food.
By no means am I trying to say that training with treats is a bad thing though. I don't know enough about dog training to say what is, or is not, the best. I only started training dogs as a hobby about three years ago when I realized that dogs were the true love of my life, and I needed to help them adjust to living in my house by my rules. Before then I had dogs that stayed outside for the most part. I considered them trained if they didn't poop in the house.
I'm open to all suggestions and opinions. I wouldn't be here if I didn't need the advice of others.