Gonna just sit here and type out quite the rant lol

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Ive been trying to train my dog, Finn, for what feels like forever now. He's about a year old and I've had him since august of 2022. Obviously I'm not expecting him to train up perfectly and be like pro at everything, but training him has proven difficult. My parents live ridiculously close which isn't a bad thing at all. But it's my siblings that cause problems. Finn is an INCREDIBLY distractable dog. Due to that he is incredibly hard to walk because when he sees a butterfly, he's distracted, shadow? He's distracted. Everything else under the sun? Distracted. Now my parents are coming over with my siblings more often and my sister is trying to 'train' Finn and it's affected what I've already taught him. She has successfully caused him to be confused as hell when asked to stay because she uses different movements, words, everything. He is becoming more disobedient and confused. And he is a bit notorious for jumping up for food in your hand, and if he does that with her she gives him the treats to get down. What happens then? He's successfully unlearned that it's bad to jump and instead jumping up at you to snag any and any food in your hand. Then, trying to patiently teach my sister how I teach him and my brother comes into my training space. He brings food in with him and Finn has a huge appetite for ice, especially in the heat so my brother purposefully shakes his glass of water to make the ice rattle and distract Finn, and my brother does it on purpose because he knows it pisses me off. I've had such a rough time training him I hired a trainer. She smacked the crap out off Finn because he jumped up when she was waving treats in the air right above his face and when he jumped he scratched her. I got rid of her, no more trainers for Finn, and to make it all worse any time anyone's hand is up he cowers, and I was previously throwing things such as paper airplanes to try to keep him from being distracted by birds flying over his head on walks. It is not fun to walk a 93lb dog in the heat as he is distracted by a bird shadow and tries to plow after it. I know I need to be better as his trainer myself but all of this is a lot, and it's hard to keep a puppy trained when he is distracted by everything. And I understand in training he should only focus on his owner but he is so food motivated, even with treats it is hard to keep his focus. The only basic command he hasn't unlearned is sit. Stay is a work in progress but since he was previously taught it but got confused with it, he is doing well. I just need advice 🥲

Do i prevent my siblings from going near him? Do I ask them to stop coming over so often? I'm not going to give up because of inconveniences in training, he isn't perfect and never will be and I dont expect him to be, I'm just feeling like I'm stuck in a spot with him

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Thank you for reading my ramble 😂

That is so furstrating. I too have a dog that was difficult to train. We took group classes from a training facility and did e-collar training. My dog is 1 1/2 now and I can now say the putting in all the effort was worth it. Don't give up! Don't give up on trainers either. There are good ones and bad ones. Google reviews are really helpful! Maybe take group classes because they tend to be cheaper, but can still be effective.

If your dog is uncontrollable on a leash I would honestly look into using a prong collar. I used one on my dog and they are not cruel so long as you use them correctly. I was eventually able to wean my dog off it, but it sure got his attention and helped him realize that is not how we behave on walks.

When it comes to your siblings I would be very firm and tell them not to interact with Finn. Don't bother trying to teach them how you train Finn because it sounds like they really don't care about your methods. If they don't listen then I wouldn't hesitate to tell them that they need to respect you and your dog or don't come over. If possible, maybe put Finn in a different room so he doesn't tempt them into teasing him when they come over.

You have every right to be frustrated! It sounds like you are going through a tough spot with training and the people you could normally trust are causing you trouble.

If you are looking for any dog training trips I would be happy to share what I learned in my classes. Just shoot me a PM.

Oooo I probably will PM lol, my only issue with group training classes around me is that some of the dogs can act... wacky. I had a friend and her dog was attacked by another one in a group class. Finn is really well socialized and has never attacked another dog, but if a dog ever attacked him it's a pretty fair chance finn would win being as big as he is and I'd rather not be held accountable for vet bills. I'm a bit paranoid about everything that could possibly go wrong, especially considering I've noticed people are failing miserably with socializing their dogs now

Gosh, that is really frustrating - I'm sorry that's happening!

I showed dogs for a while and I have one boy that was highly distractable. Every dog that walked past he wanted to meet. With a lot of baby-step training, he eventually became a bomb-proof show dog who easily finished his CH and attended one of the largest shows in the country.

Start small with your dog, in an area that he knows and has very few distractions. For example, a bedroom. Work all of your commands in there until he has them down.

Then add in a distraction, it can be a toy laying on the ground, food on top of a dresser. Basically whatever will work as long as its fairly minimal, but at the same time distracting.

Work your commands again until he's totally good.

Keep slowly ramping up level of distractions. Perhaps move into the kitchen, a living room with the TV going.

The key is small baby steps that are easily accomplished, slowly increasing in difficulty. For my boy, he always got discouraged if the distraction was too much and he would just give up. Realize when/if your boy is getting upset and either take a baby step back to something more manageable or perhaps make your training lessons shorter. Always end on a success.

EDIT: Follow the same process when moving training outdoors. Start in a quiet, familiar area, and then once he's successful there, move up into areas that are slightly more distracting. Planning out your baby steps in advance can help as a roadmap.

Thank you so much willow! Will definitely try this <3