If you feel Neil is not doing it right, then tell him to leave it to you. If you are doing it one way and Neil another, Woody will be confused.

And "calm assertive" sounds good to me

Ah Pidge I feel for you. We are a bit 2 steps forward & one back - and that is all down to patience I guess - but then you look back after a few weeks & think actually, things are getting better.
It is a bit like having kids - the only thing me & OH argue about is the kids - he's too strict & I'm too soft which = to the kids get mixed messages & confused about boundaries, but we try to work it out together to put on a united front & be consistent.

Keep your chin up xx

He's stormed off to bed because I've just shown him how to do it. Woody is now lying on his blanket fast asleep but our night is ruined!

Ramble, I know what you mean about doing tooo much and Cheeky, you're right I am too hard on myself but these are things we've been advised to try so I want to make sure we're giving it the best shot.

I just don't know what else to do.

I want to be able to work with Neil and for us both to be a team but I'm resenting him lately and he cannot take any shape or form of criticism. He'll deny it and then just do it his own way so I get cross and then I'm the bad guy because I've lost my temper/cried.

Poor Woody, he must think he's living in a freak house.

Maybe I should suggest Neil moves out for now while I work on Woody's issues?

I do understand Pidge...but you also need to cut yourself a bit of slack.

Would it help if you and Neil decide who is responsible for training Woody in the main? I am the one that does the training in our house...but my OH does (well he used to actually nowadays its equal...hmmm) most of the free runs. I do training/feeding/grooming 98% of the time. That works for us. Perhaps you could do that with Woody? Our dogs seem to like the consistency it offers.

I do think the more you try to cram into a dogs day the more it wants and needs...plus the more you expect a dog to be hyper..the more likely it is to be hyper.


Take a breath....take a step back..have a good heart to heart with Neil tomorrow and perhaps divide up the dog responsibilities so you all knwo where you stand?

Hey come on hun ((((((((((Hugs))))))) don't beat yourself up, Patrick is always singing from a different song sheet.....I even put up a thread once....how to train the OH. How about a class/training once a week, and get Neil to do the handling, he won't want to show himself up there so he's bound to get it right. Men hate thier OH/wives to prove a point, Pat leaves me to do all the training....we go out and he takes all the credit
Pity your not nearer i would have him for a hour or two(Woody I mean)....he could run around with the gang now go and and make up........

Oh boy; been there, done that and got the picture. My Lab was, to put it quite bluntly, a real $hit for the first 18 months of life. I love him dearly, but my word he was hard work. All the issues you have with Woody, plus obsessive poo eating (resulting in him being sick and having diarrhea all the time), food stealing, recall issues and obsessive humping. I can safely say that the bad points outweighed the good ones at time. But, I can also safely say that 6 years down the line he is generally a fantastic dog. That isn't to say he doesn't still poo eat (he does, but not as obsessively), steal food (he does), hump (he does) and be a pain in the ****, but he is a million times better. Like a totally different dog.

If my then-terror-on-four-legs can become a good dog, I am sure Woody can. In the words of Take That..."have a little paaaaaatience, yeah!"

Pidge

Hang on in there! Don't do anything rash in your hyper distressed state. We'll speak tomorrow about practical stuff. In the meantime go and give Neil a big cuddle and think positive!

Max

OK. Tomorrow is another day after all. We start pre-bronze tomorrow just me and Woody so maybe that would be a good time to broach it. I just know Neil wants to be involved and do everything too, which is great but I need him to be able to communicate with me about what he thinks/feels and take constructive criticism as just that, not me having a go.

Tempted to sleep on the sofa tonight with Woody and let Neil have a good night's sleep but then wont that mess up the ''consistency'' of crate in the bedroom?

I'm just going to go make sure I took my pill today! There is no way I'm having kids!!!

;o)