Well, I feed him - 95% of the time. I take him to obedience classes, and I have been for months since he was 10 weeks old (puppy school) - that's 100% me. I take him for walks - 100%... I put out ticks from when we go camping... I come home every lunch hour to play fetch and pee. I've taught him all the silly commands, like Play dead - just to keep him occupied, he does very well in school so I have to think of something else to teach him. When we let him out of the crate, we sleep next to each other - he licks my feet and then he crushes at the bottom... He doesn't sleep on my husbands side... my OH gets annoyed with him and just puts hi on the floor. And as I said on a different post, he tries to wake *me* up not my husband in the mornings.
It was my idea getting a dog, so I told my husband that I take all the responsibility, etc. Funny, but my OH says that he is VERY happy that we got a dog, and that he loves Jack. Jack acts very submissively toward him - ears pulled back, looking in his eyes for a sign that something that he's doing is OK. He hardly ever snaps at him, loves to play ball, and pays attention.
To be honest, I am positive that Jack sees me as his servant of sorts. He thinks that he is a vice president of the house , after my OH.
What does my husband do that is different? He doesn't believe in positive training - he is not 100% convinced. When Jack was a pup and would try to bite him, he'd take his muzzle and hold it shut and say 'No bite!'. I told him that it's bad, he said - he's just a dog. I, on the other hand, tried 'OUCH!' which made Jack even more crazy and hyper. I tried leaving and ignoring him, trading for a bone, etc.
Is he actually scared of you a little?
No way! No and no.
Was he accidentally hurt during one of these sessions and he associates it with pain?
God no!
I'm just trying to see things through Jacks eyes and perhaps get to the bottom of why your husband gets respect and yet he misbehaves and bites you?
Me too! I bought and read all the books you're recommended me in the forum in the topic about lose leash walking. I am going crazy in trying to understand him. I even got reports on wolf studies in Minnesota (we and Canada have a lot of them), and I am reading those too, trying to figure it out for myself, without a trainer. Some think dogs came from scavenging dogs, not hunting wolfs, so we can't apply theories of pack/ dominance on them, so who the hack knows! I don't . But you can see that I have a lot of free time on my hands...
I grew up with GermanSRDS - my dad was a dog trainer - trained them for border patrol in Russia. He was very old fashioned trainer - you would take him to pieces in this forum. The dogs I've lived with were super good... they wouldn't take a nice juicy steak out of stranger's hand, until my dad would give them a command.
I am realistic in my expectations, and I am not comparing GermanSheps to Cockers or Greyhounds - they are all different, breed for different purposes, and are cool on their own right! And I don't want a German Shep, I want to figure out why Jacks snaps at me.
At this point, I am just trying to figure out how to communicate with dogs.
Ah. thanks for your suggestions about grooming. I'll need some whisky to calm down next time.
i do worry about your comments about your pup - your references to him as a 'bustard' and now the fact you wonder if you've done the right thing by getting him.
PS. "Bustard" - Sorry, I have to say that I call that my OH lovingly. And Jack too. I don't mean it in a nasty way. I would never give Jack away - but still, I like to complain about him in this forum