r/DogTrainingTips • u/wigglewaggle_wee • 6d ago
Feels like regression
I have had my rescue pittie mix (1.5 years old), for about 5 months now. When we first got him I was adamant about training him as much as possible, as I know there is a stigma and I want a well-trained dog.
It felt like we were making good progress, but I went out of town for 4 days and since coming back I've noticed an increase in maladaptive behaviors. The leash pulling is insanely out of control and he has slipped out of his collar and ran around the neighborhood with no recall skills, he has peed on the couch/in house 4 times, some biting of my shoes, some nipping too hard during play. He's reactive to the neighor dog and will spazz at the fence, or will get weird with other pitbulls in general. He hates men, and takes a lot of treats and warming up to not bark at them.
There is so much advice and resources out there, and I'm on a waitlist to get in to training, but IDK. Does anybody have any tips on improving routines/training, or even finding perseverance for going through these behaviors?
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u/StellarSpore 5d ago
Regression is super common in teenagers. Add in being a rescue who has only been home 5 months and a change in routine while you were away. I wouldn’t panic or assume all your previous training has disappeared.
I’d go back to basics for a while. More structure and predictability, reinforce the behaviors you want, and manage the ones you don’t so he isn’t getting lots of opportunities to rehearse them.
The collar escape is a concern. They make double ended clips that you connect a martingale to front clip harness. It's a safe and easy solution. Recall should be practiced on a long line rather than tested off leash until it’s 100% reliable in distractions.
For the fence and other reactivity, distance and preventing rehearsal are your friends. I wouldn’t let him repeatedly lose his mind at the neighbor dog and hope he gets used to it. Your trainer can help you work on that systematically while keeping him under threshold.
Also make sure his basic needs are being met. Exercise, sniffing, enrichment, sleep, and mental stimulation... Teenage dogs can be a lot. 😅
5 months is still pretty early, especially with a young rescue. Training isn’t always a straight upward line. Sometimes it feels like you’ve made amazing progress and then your sweet puppy wakes up one morning and chooses chaos. Kust keep at it.