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Originally Posted by MatthewT
Hello.
So my family have had a black labrador named Bradley for about a year now.
When we first got him, he was as you'd expect, going to the toilet everywhere, whining constantly, always wanting attention, etc.
We took him to a session of training classes around October time. He learned to sit, heel, the basics really but would only ever do it if treats were held right in front of its face, which is not really abnormal I think.
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What you have done is the classic mistake of confusing reward with bribery.
The reward should depend on the cue being obeyed, rather than the action being reliant on a treat being in sight.
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We've been trying on and off to train him ever since the classes,
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Training isn't something you can do on and off - especially when you're trying to teach something new. Even commands a dog "knows" need to be practised, even when they've been generalised and proofed in loads of different locations/places/circumstances.
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We've been told the usual things, like making sure that we eat first at mealtimes, only feed him so much, walk through doors first, etc. but they don't really seem to be working.
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No, they won't work because these sorts of rank reduction things mean nothing to the dog. You need to teach him what you DO want him to do, rather than concentrating on what you DON'T.
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He also seems to enjoy jumping up and biting. He's a very big dog, even if he was fully grown (my friend has adult labs and they are quite a bit smaller, as are other labs nearby). He's been doing it for a while and we've been trying to train him out of it by shouting NO!, stopping play, leaving and then coming back a few minutes later with a completely changed attitude, which seems to work sometimes, but very often his mood will completely change within a second, eg. he'll start to bite during play/petting, for example.
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Do a search on here for bite inhibition/jumping up and/or Google for training articles. Shouting won't work because again, it teaches the dog nothing - other than that when he jumps up all excited, YOU get all excited too; which will make the problem worse.
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We don't want to wait until its too late, but at the same time don't want to just give up on the dog and get rid of him too soon without trying to stop this behaviour.
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There is no need to "get rid of him" if you are serious about wanting to learn how to train him. There is LOADS on the net about how to teach him to behave in the way you want him to - there is also loads about clicker training.