My 6 month old Malinois won't listen o me unless I give her a treat

[belle13]

So I have this malinois. I taught her how to sit down and give me her paws (separately), and also to take treats while sitting down instead of jumping from them. I then started training her to jump on command and now she refuses to do anything unless I give her a treat. I'm not sure what happened, because she used to do tricks even if I didn'd give her anything. Anyone knows what's going on?

 

[inhissight]

@belle13 Usually when I teach a dog a behavior, I give him a treat every time at first, because he is still learning. I want to make sure he understands exactly what to do.

After he understands what to do, I start to fade the treats out. For example, I might ask the dog to sit three times in a row, but only give treats for the first and the last time. The second time, maybe I just give verbal praise. After we practice like that for a while, then he only gets treats randomly for behaviors he already knows. That way, he always obeys because there might be goodies.

Don't show her the treat until after she obeys you. Just keep them in your pocket, and then the treat will be a surprise for her. If she sees the treat before she does what you say, then she's learning to only listen after she sees treats.

Malinois are very smart working dogs. The more she learns, the better. Have you considered obedience classes with her? Smart dogs like to learn. Some good beginning things to teach are sit, down, stay, come, and watch me. After she gets those basics, you can teach her other things also.

Take a look at the kikopup youtube link in the sidebar. That trainer uses food very effectively.

 

[srividhya]

@belle13 Bear in mind that you're teaching a 6 month old puppy to paw you and jump. A six month old puppy that will get a lot bigger. These probably aren't the commands you should be working on right now and they can easily lead to ingrained, bad habits. Also, your pup is onto you and is bored. Keep training sessions really short and focus on things like recall and leave it, even short down stays. You need to mix it up to keep her attention. (I'd lose the paw and jumping tricks altogether, but that's just me. I have a gsd and I sure don't want him to think that pawing for what he wants is ok.)

 

[belle13]

@srividhya What are the things that I should be ideally teaching her how to do?

 

[srividhya]

@belle13 Sit, down, stay, come, leave it. The basics, things that will bond her to you and, most importantly, keep her safe. Recall is really important, tricks aren't. You can do that later if you want to but she needs kindergarten skills first. And socialize her--other dogs, kids, lots of people and places. All of that will help her develop coping skills, confidence, etc. those are important because she's going to be a big girl and you want to expose her to as much as possible. This is a critical time to do that. Make it fun and positive, keep sessions very short (ten minutes) and always end on an up note.

Edit: sorry, replied in wrong place!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@belle13 6 months means that she's hitting her bratty adolescent stage. Your dog is acting like a teenager. Keep training and fade out the treats.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@belle13 If you're still rewarding her when she jumps, even though you gave a different command, then she is learning that jump = treat no matter what, so why do anything else? And jumping is fun. Or, she could be confused and think that's what you want.

now she refuses to do anything unless I give her a treat.

That right there sounds like you're giving her a treat, otherwise she wouldn't "refuse" to offer you a different behavior for the treat. Don't give in to her! Correct her when she jumps and you don't give the command. Don't let her get away with not listening to you. And when you give her a command, follow through with it and make her listen.