How to break bad behavior

Question
My son bought a Great Dane puppy (Tessie) about two months ago. She is almost five months old.  Overall, she is a very good dog.  He recently started taking her to obedience classes, and she is doing very well in the class.  One of her bad habits is that she likes to eat wet dirt from the yard.  No matter how much you tell her no, she will continue to eat the dirt in various spots.  She knows that it's bad, but will wait until you get about 3 feet from her before she runs away from the spot.  Another one of her bad habits is that she likes to jump up and nip at your hands.  My son will tell her "NO!" and lay her down on her side until she calms down (he saw this on one of Cesar Millan's shows), but as soon as he gets up she jumps up on him and tries to nip his hand again.  What techniques do you suggest he use to stop this bad behavior?

Answer
First, many professional trainers feel Cesar Milan often has bad advice and the show is edited for TV. see www.4pawsu.com. I know, I've been in broadcasting over 45 years. You can cure nipping in 5 minutes or less using lemon juice or other vile tasting food. I show this on our DVD where the dog learns in 60 seconds not to nip.  Pour the lemon juice on your hand. Put a small treat in your hand so the dog has only a tiny place to take the treat without touching your hand. When the dog nips it gets the bad taste of lemon juice or vinegar, etc. If it takes only the treat it gets the good taste. Works on anything the dog likes to nip or chew. Putting the dog on its side teaches it nothing and is a dominance/submissive technique that should only be used on unruly dogs. Saying NO has a little effect, I prefer NO NIP so it retains relationship with the behavior vs NO associated with a dozen or more behaviors. LEAVE IT, TAKE IT are companion commands to take or not take an item. No Nip, no bark, no whatever.

As for dirt, dogs eat dirt, grass, cat poop and other stuff just because. Get the dog on lead, it is not trained to obey off lead at this point. Walk the dog. When it tried to eat dirt, tell it LEAVE IT and pull the dog away or make an abrupt turn while heeling.

LEAVE IT, TAKE IT is taught with a small treat. Part of leader training involves making the dog "work" for its food, water, treats, toys. Work means obey a command. SIT.  When the dog complies, tell it WAIT, then put the food, toy etc on the floor. When the object is on the floor and you are standing, tell the dog TAKE IT.  We don't use the work OK, as that is a general release command after a training command is completed and the exercise is over.

When you are teaching the dog TAKE IT/LEAVE IT, you are teaching the dog you are leader and WIIFM (whats in it for me) the answer is, obey and you get food, attention, affection, toys, treats, etc. The dog learns everything good [reward] is obtained by obeying the commands. The opposite of reward is no reward. This is fully explained in our book.

The WAIT command tells the dog that it has to stay in the SIT or DOWN position until you are ready to release the object of desire. When doing this, you lower the [food-reward] very slowly. Think 6 Million Dollar Man slow. If the dog breaks the SIT command, you stop lowering the item. Tell the dog SIT. When it does repeat WAIT, and then continue to lower the reward item to the floor. Do not pull the reward away, that is teasing. The dog will quickly learn to sit and wait while you provide it with what it wants or needs. This should be part of the regular obedience training, if not, get another trainer. This is an essential part of obedience training that makes you the leader and teacher.

Regards,
Henry Ruhwiedel
www.dogkennel.org