My brother bought a Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppy over the summer. He and his girlfriend took the pup to "puppy kindergarten" and say they are going to continue training. I don't have much knowledge on the breed. I was hoping to find information on here. I know the pup listens very well when it comes to my brother, but not so much with his live in girlfriend. I have explained (ad nauseam) that this isn't cute behavior and that it needs to be addressed. I know they want kids in their future. Any tips on how to tackle this problem? Any tips on raising a Chessie are truly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
A lot of stuff with puppies isn't breed specific but you indicate there is a problem that needs to be addressed but I don't think it's clear what, exactly, the problem might be.
Nothing about the "problem" sounds breed specific.... if the puppy listens to one person better than the other, the question is who's doing what amount of training/work?
We say it all the time here, every person needs to work with the puppy/dog during training. If the girlfriend isn't doing any training with the puppy then it goes to figure the puppy won't listen to her much.
I am aware that this isn't a breed specific problem. However, some puppies are much more difficult than others and it would be nice to hear from someone who has experience with this particular breed. Not every breed has the same needs. I enjoy this forum very much because we are all able to discuss our Dobermans. Many of us have plenty of experience with the breed. I was hoping to find something similar for my brother.
As for the girlfriend not doing much of the training with the puppy.. I was told that they were both working with her, but it does seem pretty clear who is doing most of the training. Thanks for the replies!
If it's just that the puppy seems to respond better to your brother than to the girl friend it may have something to do with training methods. My experiece with various sporting dogs is that (in general) unlike Dobes, who don't do well with training by drilling (repeating exercises over and over) retrievers, setters, spaniels seem to require a certain amount of rote drill to "get" things.
But if I was trying to get a more definitive answer I'd probably go to the AKC website's section on Chesapeake Retrievers and look for either a local club contact or a breed information contact for the parent club.
The thing that is repeated a lot (because it's accurate but often forgotten) is that dogs (including puppies) don't generalize well. This is true of issues that involve more than one person asking for a "trained" behavior--my trained dogs will work for anyone who knows the commands--but it does take some time for a different person to get all of the same reponses that I do from the dog.
Sounds like the girl friend isn't putting much work into whatever the specific issues are--so whatever these issues are that you describe as "not cute" are being allowed by the girl friend and not being corrected and they continue.
What Dobebug had to say...
Anyway, my brother has owned several Chessies. My only experience comes from being around his. I would say they are very hard headed breed living for the work they were bred to do. Seem to be one man dogs. Can be excellent guard dogs and quick to act.
Perhaps your brothers girlfriend doesn't exert a lot of authority? Just a guess. This type of dog only respects an authority figure. Different lines in the breed may react differently.
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