Male puppies vs female puppies

Selena Wohlslagel said:
He sounds like my son as a child. My son is now 53 and a wonderful man. Just hang in there. Your pup is still a little boy and needs consistent, firm, but gentle reinforcement of the rules. My son grew up finally and now works for Salvation Army. There he applies his paramedic skills to incoming addicted persons working hard to break free of their illness. Hope and. Time will be the same for your young puppy. And Faith.
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Scout’s Mom said:
Scout is the only male puppy I have ever had in my family. We adopted Ginger as a puppy, but she is a female. All the other dogs in my life, since I was a child, were female adult rescues. None of them were easy to train, but all of the them were easier than Scout.
I totally love Scout, when he is behaving and when he is not. However, he is very stubborn and is always testing my authority. I am a huge proponent of positive reinforcement and have used this kind of training with him since we adopted him seven weeks ago. But his personality is very different from every other dog I have ever had in my life. His training is going well and he is exceptionally smart, but when he is bound and determined to not obey and have the worst tantrum I have ever witnessed in a dog, I always lose the battle. I am wondering if this behavior is because he is a male or because of his breed.
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Although typically Shelties have some traits that are kind of standard for the breed, every dog is different. My Laddie has some behaviors that I have never run into before in all the Shelties I have been blessed to have...and I have had to adjust to some degree both how I work with him and my expectations of him. As others have said this has nothing to do with the breed or with gender...it is just Scout's unique personality and how he deals with the world around him as he searches for his place in all of it. Deep bonding and respect take time. Stick with the training, ignore his tantrums and in time he will accept that tantrums don't get the results he wants and the boundaries you set are not going away. And kudos for your only doing positive training...dogs that are trained with negative training may behave but they do so out of fear not out of respect.
Trini
 
Growing up our pets were always female, including my sheltie, because my mom didn't want a dog who lifted his leg everywhere.

When it came time where I wanted to add a dog to the house, I opted for a male and am now on my 4th. While I feel there are SOME character traits that I can say, well she's a girl, he's a boy, I agree with what's said here that you are most likely dealing with a different personality.

I feel girls are more likely to have a special person that they feel is 'it' in the household. Boys may do as well, but to a lesser degree. I think you can get moodiness with girls more. With boys, I think they tend to be playful goofballs more where girls are take charge. I do feel girls catch on quicker to things, be it potty training, obedience, I see it all the time in classes. Brodie went through classes with a few girls, they just blew him away. It may be they are smarter, but I think it's more they are just SO eager to please their person. Brodie had Willow here on SN and she was just so much further ahead than he was. Deacon and Blueberry are the same ages, just a few days apart, and she too blew my boy away - catching on to things way faster than he. I do think the boys are just big fluffy goofballs, a tad slower and might take a tad more work because they aren't quite as interested in pleasing you - the maturity that takes comes really slowly with a boy where it seems many girls are just born that way.

Having all boys, though, you still can't compare. We had our first doxie who was dominant, easy to train so we got a second doxie. He literally took 5 years to be reliable in the house and still looks at us like we are nuts if we ask him to do something. His stubbornness is a sight to see! We got our first sheltie, Brodie, and now have 2nd sheltie, Deacon. They have similarities but again, each has their own personality. Deacon, too, has quite a stubborn streak and is quite opinionated. Same breed, same sex, way different personalities. They are both fun, both loving, both awesome parts of our family. Each dog is different just like us humans, we are all similar but different, and you can't be looking at something you have and compare to something you had because they just aren't going to be the same.

My husband wants a female some day. He had fallen in love with Brodie's sister when we picked out Brodie but she was being kept. She flirted with him SO bad! Deacon is her pup from her first litter. I'm sort of frightened of a female dog and the hormones and stuff I am no longer used to. Brings into mind memories of my daughter as a teenager - haha!!! Some day!

PS - while Brodie may occasionally lift his leg on something, he was 2 before I ever saw it; it was outside training class and I was shocked! My boys have always squatted, Brodie squats then towards the end lifts his left rear leg, but not on something. I think leg lifting is more of a dominate personality thing than a sex thing since females can mark as well. The things you learn as you age!
 
I have had all girls until Elijah. Now Meadow is my 7th Sheltie and we knew we wanted another girl. Which doesn't mean Elijah isn't an awesome dog, he really is, and he does not mark or lift his leg so that was my main concern about boys. Meadow is more of the independent persuasion. We have consistently rewarded her recalls, but she will still sometimes just stand there and look at us and not move. Last potty run at night, she takes her sweet time, then runs onto the lawn and has to patrol everywhere. Meanwhile others are done and waiting by the door. I call her - she lifts her head and looks, but no intention of coming. I've resorted to squeaking a toy or saying "Go get your Dad" which always gets a reaction. She is 18 months old.

It is annoying and discouraging, she's a SUPER smart little girl. I just grit my teeth and tell myself she's a teenager!

All this to say, I think like others here, it is Scout's personality. He really is very young yet. Be patient, consistent and ignore the tantrums. It will all come in time.
 
Sandy in CT said:
Growing up our pets were always female, including my sheltie, because my mom didn't want a dog who lifted his leg everywhere.

When it came time where I wanted to add a dog to the house, I opted for a male and am now on my 4th. While I feel there are SOME character traits that I can say, well she's a girl, he's a boy, I agree with what's said here that you are most likely dealing with a different personality.

I feel girls are more likely to have a special person that they feel is 'it' in the household. Boys may do as well, but to a lesser degree. I think you can get moodiness with girls more. With boys, I think they tend to be playful goofballs more where girls are take charge. I do feel girls catch on quicker to things, be it potty training, obedience, I see it all the time in classes. Brodie went through classes with a few girls, they just blew him away. It may be they are smarter, but I think it's more they are just SO eager to please their person. Brodie had Willow here on SN and she was just so much further ahead than he was. Deacon and Blueberry are the same ages, just a few days apart, and she too blew my boy away - catching on to things way faster than he. I do think the boys are just big fluffy goofballs, a tad slower and might take a tad more work because they aren't quite as interested in pleasing you - the maturity that takes comes really slowly with a boy where it seems many girls are just born that way.

Having all boys, though, you still can't compare. We had our first doxie who was dominant, easy to train so we got a second doxie. He literally took 5 years to be reliable in the house and still looks at us like we are nuts if we ask him to do something. His stubbornness is a sight to see! We got our first sheltie, Brodie, and now have 2nd sheltie, Deacon. They have similarities but again, each has their own personality. Deacon, too, has quite a stubborn streak and is quite opinionated. Same breed, same sex, way different personalities. They are both fun, both loving, both awesome parts of our family. Each dog is different just like us humans, we are all similar but different, and you can't be looking at something you have and compare to something you had because they just aren't going to be the same.

My husband wants a female some day. He had fallen in love with Brodie's sister when we picked out Brodie but she was being kept. She flirted with him SO bad! Deacon is her pup from her first litter. I'm sort of frightened of a female dog and the hormones and stuff I am no longer used to. Brings into mind memories of my daughter as a teenager - haha!!! Some day!

PS - while Brodie may occasionally lift his leg on something, he was 2 before I ever saw it; it was outside training class and I was shocked! My boys have always squatted, Brodie squats then towards the end lifts his left rear leg, but not on something. I think leg lifting is more of a dominate personality thing than a sex thing since females can mark as well. The things you learn as you age!
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Thanks for a very thoughtful reply. I do believe that dogs have different personalities. I also think the smarter they are, the harder it is to figure out what they are thinking! Scout learns things so quickly it amazes me, but just because he knows how to do something doesn’t mean he wants to do it. I think I am expecting too much from him too soon. He just turned 4 months! He can be very obstinate, but he can also be so loving that I know one day soon he will want to please me more than anything else. Patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement are all things I need to concentrate on. After all, the goal is to enjoy him at every stage of his life.
 
I agree that it’s not a gender thing. Kip is my first boy puppy and I would say he was/is easy to live with and highly intelligent. He was almost potty trained by 10 weeks, and completely potty trained by 12 weeks (of course I didn’t completely trust him until much later). He was not particularly destructive as a pup and most training was very easy.

The only maybe “boy” issue we’ve had was he had the attention span of a fruit fly around 11 to 14 months. But I also know lots of girl dogs who have had this issue, so it may just be a teenage puppy thing.
 
Selena Wohlslagel said:
The attention span is a problem for Little Luke too. So I completely understand what you mean about that. And for Luke maturing hasn't changed that.
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How old is Luke now? He still might outgrow it. Kip slowly improved, with some setbacks. Now at 23 months his focus is excellent even with lots of other dogs and people around. 1 of Kip’s brothers had this same issue, and 1 did not at all! So funny, but they’re all individuals.
 
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