My dog ignores my commands & prefers others. How to get him to listen?

The absolute best way to handle this is with a trainer to work with you and Bear. I would recommend a trainer that comes to your home to work with him. They will be able to really show you exactly what you can do to have Bear listen so you do not have to repeat yourself. Your veterinarian would be the best one to give you information on who is good in your area. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Dogs are situational learners and just because he behaves for you does not mean he will behave for others. The only thing you can do is continue your own training and work with anyone else who has contact with him to train him as well. That’s the only way he will learn to behave for others is if they make him. If they do the same things you do, it will be easier for Groot to understand. Each new person represents a new situation to Groot as well so they all must do it. It does usually get easier as he gets older. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Dogs need to build a relationship with people and the stronger the relationship, the more likely they are to listen to you. I would recommend your mom start working with Bandit in general/basic training. This will help him with his obedience, but also help to build that rapport between them and in turn, he will start to listen better. She just needs to work with him and it will come. If she can, I think some basic training class would really help them both.

I would recommend increasing physical and mental stimulation for Bear. Aim for working up to an hour of walking and 3-6 ten minute sessions of training/mind work during the day. By mind work, I mean finding hidden treats in the house, working on eating a frozen kong, or working on another food toy. You can actually feed him all his meals in a food toy if he's highly food motivated. Secondly, I would encourage you to think very specifically about what a well mannered dog means to you and work on actively encouraging those behaviors and ignoring/redirecting bad behaviors. If a he's not listening, he either doesn't understand what you want, can't (due to fear or physical pain), or isn't sufficiently motivated (ie you want him to "come" and then give him a piece of lettuce as a reward - he's going to be less likely to do it in the future, unless he's a dog who is super motivated by praise from you. But many dogs need the food motivation for a long time as well). I hope that helps! I know it's a difficult time.

Great news that Sky is so friendly with new people! Dogs will have favourites in the same way that we will and there is very little you can do to discourage this. Try to spend quality time playing with her and doing some reward training and this may help to refocus her attentions!

Consistency is key. I would also use treats and/or a clicker to elk with training. You could also get a training to come in just a couple of times to help pin point what is keeping him from listening. It sounds like he is young and probably has a lot of energy therefore, doesn’t want to listen and sit still. You can also try a calmin chew like composure or composure pro. Keep working on training everyday. I would try to take 10-20 minutes everyday to work on commands without any distractions. Use small chewy training treats so he doesn’t get distracted by the process it takes to chew up a large crunchy treat. I hope this helps.

It's normal for puppies to become more independent and less focused on you as they reach adolescence. The best way to handle this is by simply "going back to basics" and reminding Bear of what you want him to do. Make sure to reward generously when he does what you ask. I agree that getting some hands-on help from a trainer would also be a good idea, so I would get started with this as soon as you can. You can search for a qualified trainer or obedience class instructor in your area here: www.ccpdt.org