My dog is a fighter.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

put a stop to the licking. take her by the muzzle EVERY time she licks and tell he the 'NO' command. If she fights clamp down tighter. This does two things. Shows your ABSOLUTE DOMINANCE & disassociates the dogs lickmother for milk response.
pups lick the mothers face for milk, it actuall triggers a response in the mother hormones that drops her milk.
But once those milk teeth get sharp what happens? Mom puts a stop to the lickin by runnin them pups off. at this point (weening) you become mother.

Makes sense, I’ll work on it.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

try the foot stomp w/ a no command. the vibration of the floor foot stomp really seems to work for me. I dont know how tight you and the dog are but she shouldnt be timid of you to the point that she hides. I know shes a handfull, shes a teenager, FIRM BUT FAIR.
remember those last 3 words always and shell come out of it in a year.

Yea, I’ve been doing the foot stomp with a sharp “NO!”
When we got her she had scars all over her head. The vet put it off to puppies in a big litter fighting for food but I think there may be more to it.
One day she was just milling around next to Mrs. Radar and when Mrs. Radar put her hands up to fix her hair Rhetta dropped to the ground and started shaking. I’m pretty sure she was beat on before we got her.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

i use 'drop' for a release command.

The way I’ve always trained my bird dogs is to put my hand under their mouth and say “drop” while I give them a short chop to the back of the neck with the edge of my other hand. Not enough to be painful, just a short chop to cause the reflex of relaxing their jaw muscles. Keep working that and pretty soon they’ll drop a bird on command.
Problem is, when I did this to Rhetta she coward away from me and stopped playing fetch. I haven’t done it again.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

sounds like you got a banger use caution. FIRM BUT FAIR.
hope you two make a good run at it.

I think we’ll be all right. I just need to learn to accept some of these character traits and not necessarily seek to stop it but maybe redirect it a little. She’s a different breed from anything I’ve had before so my learning curve is steep. Hell, I’d never even heard of a Catahoula until we got her.
Thanks for the help, MO. I appreciate it.