Mutt's obedience goes down VERY quickly... am I bugged or what?

[Keld Rhygar]

So I just got Mutt, and my houndmaster skill is at 1 because I paid for some training.
This dog's obedience goes down VERY fast to the point that it's almost unusable. By the time I go from the miller to the tavern in rattay, the dog's already lost about 20 obedience. I feed him/praise him and it goes back up a good amount but then it just drops again, and soon enough the rate of obedience decay is actually faster than I can actively bring it up by feeding/praising due to diminishing returns! WTF!

Then comes the problem of actually raising houndmaster XP. I went out hunting, and each fetch gives GARBAGE XP. I don't have the "hunt" command available, so all I can do is have him fetch to gain xp but its not like I can keep hunting all day, unless I want to leave precious meat behind. I've been skimming posts online about the dog, and from what I gather people just "feed him twice a day or something and it's fine" and they get xp for houndmaster "crazy fast". If only!

So.... am I bugged or am I actually doing something wrong here? How do I fix this?

PS: No I'm not feeding him spoiled meat, I've been feeding him smoked sausages, dried meat, and rabbit meat at 80%+ condition.

[AfLIcTeD]

A good way to get houndmaster xp is to just spam praise. Also be careful on horseback with him. He doesn't like it when you run him over. Sometimes you can't help it as he will teleport in front of you.
I think it is normal with low houndmaster. Once you get to around 10 his obedience will stay high. When he runs off and comes back he will have 90+ obedience too. So just get houndmaster up.

[Keld Rhygar]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

A good way to get houndmaster xp is to just spam praise. Also be careful on horseback with him. He doesn't like it when you run him over. Sometimes you can't help it as he will teleport in front of you.
I think it is normal with low houndmaster. Once you get to around 10 his obedience will stay high. When he runs off and comes back he will have 90+ obedience too. So just get houndmaster up.

Thank you kind sir. I will try to tough it out until 10, and hopefully spamming praise will get me there in good time.