snapping at air and pawing

Question
Hello,we got a 7 month old male Dobe about a month ago,and have been working with him,very food driven,knows the sit,down,stay Command but will only come sometimes but my big concern is he gets in a what I call (play mode)and wont listen to NO,If he is doing something he shouldn't he wont stop until I give him a good jerk on his collar,he will look at me,I point at him at tell him no again and he will snap the air,reminds me of a kid stomping his feet when they are told they cant do something.He will also paw me,for example,when him watching TV he will come over and just start pawing me as if he wants attention and if i tell him NO and push him away he comes right back even more excited as if I'm playing with him.I know he basically lived in a crate until we got him at 6 months old,we keep him in one when we are gone during the day but is let out as soon as we get home.Everything is a toy to him,he will pick up a shoe 2 seconds after taking it from him and telling him NO,I just don't know how to get threw to him when he wants to play.Any advice would be greatly appreciated,he is a very sweet boy most of the time and I just want to do right by him,I had 2 Dobes that were with us for 10 years until they passed and I never had to deal with these types of problems.Thanks for your time.

Answer
Your dog is not convinced you are the leader and thinks he is. The pawing is getting you to react to him, and when you do, he wins, then he comes back and when you pay attention to him he wins again.

Dobs are very person oriented dogs. I've had 5 and two now. They also have some bad habits that are very hard to deal with, chewing bedding has been our biggest issue to deal with. They love to chew. Their high intellect needs to be fed.

So here's what to do. 1.  Complete a full obedience class series including socialization. Sit stay down are only simple commands and are not training. The dog needs to be able to execute a series of moves to a single command:  sit stay, come, sit, finish  as an example. sit stay, wait, [walk away, return] heel [stop] sit  reward. A trained dog has 40-50 commands mastered.

the dog needs mind puzzles to occupy its brain. There are many types out there, and since the dog is food oriented, get the kind that hide food and make the dog work at getting it out. Kong toys are the easiest, and there are much better dog puzzle toys on the market. The gumball machine with the bone handle is not a puzzle, most dogs get it in a few minutes and then just feed themselves too much.

you need to play games that are non competitive. you want a win win, not a I win you lose. So no tug of war. Frisbie, fetch, hide and seek, and other games that reward the dog for working and brain power.

Put the dog on a lead indoors so it can share a room with you but not paw you. When its quiet, walk over and give it attention and a reward. After a few times, try it with the dog off lead and see if he has learned all good things come from you and not the other way. This is partof NILIF nothing in life is free. The dog has to work [follow a command] before it gets anything. That meas food, treat, toy, affection. After a while the dog learns to wait for a command or invite before it comes. The dos is always learning, so you need to always be teaching and leading. We teach this and its in our book and DVD available through our website.

Lastly, the opposite of reward is no reward, not punishment.

regards,
Henry Ruhwiedel
Westwind Kennels LLC
www.dogkennel.org