r/GiantSchnauzers

What does your daily routine or day to day schedule look like with your GS? And how old are they? I’m going through it working from home with my four month old male and I’m super interested and curious to see how everyone else is managing 😂

Hi everyone,

I have two working line giant schnauzers. One of which is 11 months old and has always had amazing prey drive for bitework. However, his obedience work is very difficult. He knows sit, down, recall, out/drop it, and place but doesn’t want to hold any of those for more than a few seconds. He doesn’t want treats no matter what we offer (turkey, dried liver, you name it), we have tried toys too and instead he just gets distracted and will go find something to pee on. He isn’t neutered which could explain why he gets distracted so easily and why he marks everywhere but it doesn’t explain why we can’t keep him engaged. He loves to play in our house, on our property, and in our backyard but when we take him anywhere else it’s like crickets. We have tried lots of movement to keep him interested in what we have similar to how the decoy’s movement in bitework works. We have tried different toys and treats as mentioned above with the only thing coming close to being interesting enough for him is a toy baboon octopus thing that squeaks. But after 5 minutes he is just done and wants to do his own thing. When playing fetch (to build engagement or test a toy so he thinks it’s a game) he will wander off and drop the toy to do his own thing after one or two throws.

We work with trainers with each dog (we have 3) every week who are amazing, never had any issues with my other giant who is 15 months old training for the same sport. She is motivated and constantly engaged with me and at his age she knew sit, down, place, recall, recall to heel, out/drop it, focus heel (with a toy/reward and we are still refining it so she isn’t “crabbing”), center heel, watch, and bite (decoy). But my husband cannot seem to get his giant engaged enough to go beyond sit, down, recall, and place. I’ve tried and he does ok with me, whenever we use a toy in obedience he is so excited that his teeth literally chatter. But after a few throws of the toy and some tug as a reward he is just done, especially in new spaces. The trainers say it could be a maturity thing but if my husband can’t keep him engaged with him then everything at trials will be based purely on luck as to if he feels like working with his handler (my husband) or not that given day.

We have spoken with his breeder who is also a dog trainer. He has said to focus on bitework for now and work on obedience later.

An unrelated issue to the title but he also pees constantly in his crate with no warning. He will just lay in it until it bothers him and then will start scratching at the crate door. We take him out every 1.5-2 hours to try and avoid this but if he hears us walking across the landing at the top of the stairs, he will pee and then start barking. If we walk in front of his crate when prepping dog food, he will pee. If we let another dog outside, he pees even if he was just out. Every time he goes outside he pees 5-6 times in various places and then will come inside and still pee in his crate. It’s not like he is in his crate all day, it’s just when the other dogs are eating or we are rotating the dogs outside because he doesn’t know how to play with them without harassing them resulting in being corrected by our oldest dog. My husband and I work from home, so it’s not like he is ignored all day or doesn’t get to go out frequently to be worked or played with. He just isn’t interested in anything except for peeing on everything outside of the house or outside of his crate. He won’t pee in the house or on the furniture. It’s exclusive to his crate and outside.

We know giants are hard to potty train and that there is a relapse in house breaking around this age (went through it with my female too), but that combined with the constant peeing on everything else and the lack of interest in any toy or treat we try has been frustrating. He isn’t where he needs to be obedience training wise at this point and we don’t know what to do. Any advice is greatly appreciated. TYIA!

TLDR: 11mo male (intact) working-line giant schnauzer falling behind in obedience work because we cannot find anything that will keep him engaged beyond bitework. His priority is peeing on everything outside and in his crate even when we take him outside every 1.5-2 hours. My husband is at his wits end with trying to figure out what *will* work. We have spent thousands on working with trainers every week, board & trains, toys, and various foods/treats to try and find what works to no avail. Any advice on how to get him more engaged with us for obedience training so he can get to where he needs to be training wise before trials is greatly appreciated!

hi everyone! i keep seeing an influx of white gs on tiktok and have been doing lots of research regarding the legitimacy of the color, and keep going back to the lack of evidence of the sp/sp gene creating white dogs. any genetics nerds wanna help me figure out a solid way to prove/disprove pb white gs?