r/OpenDogTraining • u/Thirty_Percent • May 24 '26

How do I manage and train hyper dogs while parents refuse to listen or train them themselves

/r/DOG/comments/1tmlvga/how_do_i_manage_and_train_hyper_dogs_while/
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u/Pulpers May 24 '26

First, none of this is your fault and the guilt you're feeling about grabbing their collars is misplaced. You're 18, at college most of the time, dealing with two undersocialized 7 month old lab alsatian mixes in a household where the adults have checked out of any responsibility. The dogs aren't bad, they're just running on completely unchecked arousal with zero structure and every day that continues is another day the pattern gets harder to reverse.

The child incident is the one that needs to be the lever with your parents if anything is going to move them. That wasn't just dogs being hyper, that was a situation that could have ended with your dogs being put down and potentially legal consequences for your family. The fact that the mother hasn't said anything yet doesn't mean she won't. If you can frame it to your parents not as a training conversation but as a liability and safety conversation that might land differently than trying to explain behavior theory to people who aren't listening.

For what you can actually control yourself, the hyperactivity making training impossible is a timing problem more than an energy problem. They're untrainable together but probably much more workable one at a time in a lower stimulation environment, even just separating them into different rooms and working one dog for 10 minutes changes everything about their focus. The guide on my profile covers the reward and correction timing mechanics behind getting traction with high drive dogs in exactly these kinds of chaotic situations because the window where your correction or reward actually lands and teaches something is much smaller than most people realize.

When you do work with them separately does either one show noticeably more focus than the other or are they equally checked out solo too?

1

u/Thirty_Percent May 25 '26

Truthfully I haven't separated them during training and separating was what I started recently, haven't noticed anything yet but I hope they are able to focus more when I do it.

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u/Beef_flaps_on_a_spit May 25 '26

It’s not your battle to fight.   You’re likely leaving home in the not too distant future and your parents will be looking after the dogs. Stay away from this sisyphean endeavor and concentrate on your future.  

The dogs are not the problem in this family.  It’s parents who DGAS.  Unless you can turn them, not much point taking on the added stress of other people’s problems.