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Fraction posted:Pretty crappy situation, but if your brother isn't willing to meet her needs (and you can't because of other commitments - after all, she isn't your dog) then she would be better being rehomed to someone who can burn off all that energy. Oh, he does- he takes her to the dog park for an hour most days a week (I get the other days), weather permitting. But she's just so energetic that running around and playing for so long still doesn't wear her out! It's amazing. I'm wondering if it isn't paradoxically just winding her up more and we should cut it down to only a few times a week and do long walks instead? I will have to try out the tracking stuff though! She's always very curious and sniffing everywhere so it's worth a try. There are also agility classes nearby I want to look into.  She's really a sweet dog so I want to try what I can to keep her around.Regarding calmness- unless she's in her crate, she goes a little nuts when I enter the room. I want to ignore her and only pay attention when she's calm, but it's really hard to do when she's jumping on me and nipping. If I tell her to sit she does, mostly, but I worry I'm rewarding the crazy behavior by acknowledging her at all.
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Aug 31, 2011 14:55
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Customer Service posted:Regarding calmness- unless she's in her crate, she goes a little nuts when I enter the room. I want to ignore her and only pay attention when she's calm, but it's really hard to do when she's jumping on me and nipping. If I tell her to sit she does, mostly, but I worry I'm rewarding the crazy behavior by acknowledging her at all. One way to deal with this is to teach your dog to Say Please by reinforcing that sitting (or some other behavior) is necessary before getting attention. It ties in nicely with NILIF. Start by doing it in a calm environment, like when you are watching tv. If dog comes up to you, before she gets petting or attention, she needs to sit. You can definitely ask for the sit at first so you show her what needs to be done and use treats as well. Then, as she starts to get it, only give her attention when she sits first (reminders are fine), no matter what you're doing. I used to play games with my dog because she would come jump on me when I was working at the computer. So while I was working, I would wait for her to sit or lay down, and then throw a treat across the room. She would run for it, then come back and sit/lay down again and get rewarded. It taught her that jumping gets her ignored and sitting gets attention/rewards. If you work on this in calm situations and are consistent with it, then it will come a lot easier for the dog in OMG EXCITED situations like you entering a room. Also, I really don't think that calmer walks will help out with her energy problem. Definitely keep bringing her to the dog park if that's where she gets the most exercise, but consider that maybe she needs other sorts of exercise, like mental stimulation (i.e. more training or the tracking!). Also, the game I mentioned before had the added bonus of teaching my dog that being calm while I was sitting around would be rewarded (I wouldn't always throw the treat, sometimes just reward her for sitting quietly). Rewarding your dog for laying quietly or playing quietly with a toy or chew in certain situations like when you are watching tv or at your desk can show your dog what you expect her to do and set up habits.
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Aug 31, 2011 15:36
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Customer Service posted:Oh, he does- he takes her to the dog park for an hour most days a week (I get the other days), weather permitting. But she's just so energetic that running around and playing for so long still doesn't wear her out! It's amazing. I'm wondering if it isn't paradoxically just winding her up more and we should cut it down to only a few times a week and do long walks instead? An hour at the park each obviously isn't enough. As well as mental exercise, which would be covered by tracking, she needs to run all that energy out. Do either of you have time to add in another hour at the park? Or could either of you go jogging or running with her for an hour (bonus - everyone gets fit)? Could you give her an hour's walk, jog or run on top of the dog park time she gets on the days when your brother takes her out? Lately, I've upped my pup's exercise from one hour of pure outdoors running, basically (constant back and throw fetch), to minimum two, average three hours. For two days (first whilst she wasn't feeling so good, second whilst I spent the entire day cleaning) she only got around an hour of exercise - and I realised just how much of a better, calmer dog she is when she has two-three hours each day. I can't believe how much crazy poo poo she used to do - bouncing up and down, pestering a lot to play, being obnoxious to my other dog when Jess just wanted to stretch on the floor, and so on. Urgh. More exercise can only ever be good. I think I asked before but I'm not sure: do you feed her from bowls, or from food dispensing toys/by hand for tricks? If you feed from bowls, I'd really advise to pop her food in a kong or similar if you're strapped for time at feeding times - it'll work her a lot more than just bowl eating.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:05
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I'm pretty sure I've scolded my dogs, if they've been too "hands on", when I come home. Can't really recall what I've done, but I'm pretty sure it's been mostly ignorance and even giving Naru a toy at the worst times, so I wouldn't have to verbally acknowledge them. Currently they'll stay on my bed, where they sleep while I'm away, when I arrive. I can go to the kitchen to put away my groceries etc. and they won't move too many muscles. On the other hand now that Serene is here and Naru is at Serene's home, Naru does put up a show, when they come home. She'll grab a toy and run around and jump on the couch and even bark :oKiri koli posted:Also, I really don't think that calmer walks will help out with her energy problem. Definitely keep bringing her to the dog park if that's where she gets the most exercise, but consider that maybe she needs other sorts of exercise, like mental stimulation (i.e. more training or the tracking!).
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Aug 31, 2011 16:24
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My dog is kind of weird and I could use some advice. George is a rescue. We got him about a year ago, and the humane society figured he was about five or so. He seemed mostly house-trained - he had a few accidents at first, but I think he was just marking where the previous home owner's dog had probably already marked. I wanted to not crate him because growing up, my family never crated dogs. During the day, George is fine. I assume he just chills out and plays with his toys. At night, though, he would wander around and pee/poop everywhere. I could walk him in the evening until his little bladder was bone-dry, but I'd still wake up to a puddle and maybe a turd somewhere in the house. So my wife and I agreed that he needed to be crated at night. No big deal. We bought a crate and he obviously understood what it was, because when it was bedtime we'd say something like, "Bedtime George!" and he'd walk right in. That lasted for, oh, three weeks. Then, he began to all but refuse to go in his crate. It took several treats to coax him in there (we don't force him in as that would set the wrong tone). We gave lots of positive reinforcement when he finally did go in. Even that wasn't too big a deal because once he was in, he stayed quiet and went to sleep. About two months ago, that all changed. We still have to coax him in, but he doesn't just lay down now. He'll bang against the crate, trying to get out. We used to keep the crate in the dining room, but his banging was keeping us up and we thought maybe he was doing it because he saw the light from our bedroom and wanted to hang out with us. So we moved the crate to a back bedroom where he can't see any light from us, but he's still doing it. And now he's taken to walking the crate all over the room. This morning I walked in and found it rotated 270 degrees from where it was when I put him in it, around the corner of a bed. Even that wouldn't be so bad, but now we've started noticing little droplets of dried blood on his cover and bed, so we know he's hurting himself doing this stuff. We've ordered a very expensive, very heavy wooden crate and plan on reinforcing the door so it doesn't give at all when he pushes it, hoping the weight and sturdiness will discourage him from knocking about all night, but that doesn't address the underlying problem of why he no longer wants anything to do with his crate. So I guess my question is, is there anything I can do about my dog hating his crate? My wife and I have been doing all the recommended steps for crate training a puppy, but it isn't working. It's obvious he was crate trained at some point and again he was fine with it at first, but now he just won't stand for it. (wow that was long)
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Aug 31, 2011 16:28
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^ Dog is a pack animal. I'd guess it's the separation he's learned to protest. Fraction posted:More exercise can only ever be good.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:41
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Riiseli posted:If a park isn't too large or one doesn't cover the whole area, a long calmer walk through ideally warying environment could work, too. My experience with brittanys has taught me how little there can be to see in an area for dogs, even if I think they should find stuff to do for hours (well not quite). Brittanys will run (looking for game) for hours, if you keep moving with them, but if you stop they'll come to you before five minutes are up and start looking bored. They've covered the area (I'd guestimate it's about 5 acres) closest to you, won't leave to go further alone and don't see a need to check out a place they've already seen again. Of course they are very selective, when running free, ie. it's game they are looking for after all. But their behaviour gives one an idea of how boring hanging around in one place can be to a dog's senses. My non-hunting dogs will sniff around for at least good fifteen minutes in the same area, checking the mail from the neighbourhood dogs etc., before they appear bored. Based on these experiences I wouldn't want underestimate the amount of mental stimulation dogs can get from being able to calmly browse through the mail etc. while on a walk in the forest. And if you can let them run free the whole time or a part of it, even better. Yeah, this is true. I assumed that at the dog park, the dog was either engaged with other dogs or engaged with the owner, not just left to her own devices. We can't take Psyche to dog parks obviously, but when we just have time to take her around our yard, we play tag, where she runs back and forth between me and my husband doing Touch. It turns a boring location into a fun place. If we leave her on her own, she gets bored in three seconds. Otherwise, we take her for long walks through the forest where everything is exciting and she can sniff and interact. I always assumed an off-leash dog in a park would get more exercise through chasing or playing fetch though than taking an on-leash walk. I forget people can take off-leash walks. I wish I had that option.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:49
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Fraction posted:Lately, I've upped my pup's exercise from one hour of pure outdoors running, basically (constant back and throw fetch), to minimum two, average three hours. ... More exercise can only ever be good. Try it yourself - if you get daily vigorous exercise, you'll soon go stir crazy in a day if you don't get it. Most dogs do not need to be fit like professional athletes and even the ones that do usually have half of the year "off". Sure every dog needs 1-3h of exercise a day, but it doesn't need to be high impact. If the dog still has unspent energy after hours of exercise I'd also recommend nosewor. It teaches the dog to concentrate and additionally lowers stress by providing a species specific activity that comes naturally for a lot of dogs. Working for their food via teaching tricks or just working to find their dinner hidden in small portions around the house are great ways to tire a dog out.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:50
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Hurley is such a quick learner! I followed some leash walking advice from this thread and a few Youtube videos, and he has responded very well so far. It tells you that if he pulls on his leash, you stop, and call him over to you. Then you continue on. He only pulled three times, then something clicked in his brain. He walked right next to me for the rest of our 4 block walk. I still give him little sniffing breaks every now and again, but he's doing MUCH better now.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:52
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Riiseli posted:Until the dog has built such great stamina, it'll need more exercise a day than you can provide, to stay calm. This isn't to say three hours of exercise is exessive, but I do believe three hours of pure running is pure madness or will result in pure madness. We do two hours of fetch, one hour of hard walking (or half an hour of jogging/walking, which we are v-e-r-y slowly building up to since Lola's now eleven months old). If the OP implemented another hour of walking, and slowly increased that to half an hour walking/half an hour at dog park, then a full hour at dog park (or doing something like the couch to 5k plan for starting jogging), that'd tire it out a lot more. Rixatrix posted:I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one a bit. It's absolutely true most people under-exercise their dogs, but you definitely *can* overdo it. Especially with a needy, hyper dog, I would never ever play fetch daily. Sure it's exercise and tires them out, but it also feeds their neediness and increases their stress levels. Of course bad things don't always happen, but active, hyper dogs are naturally that way, you should work to build their ability to chill out when nothing is happening instead of feeding their ADHD type of lifestyle. I dunno, I might be talking out my rear end but I've only had experience personally with one fairly high energy dog, sooo. One hour of fetch + around three hours of indoor play, mental stimulation, etc = crazy Lola. Two hours of fetch (just Lola) + an hour of speed-walking (with both dogs) + up to an hour of mental stimulation indoors = really chilled out, much less reactive Lola. I can't even imagine not playing fetch daily with my pup. She spends the entire time we aren't out just sleeping, whereas if she has limited outdoors exercise and more indoors stuff she pesters me a lot more. If I didn't play fetch while we were out, all Lola would do is wander around about one-three metres away from me, and it'd take a few hours of that to tire her out to the same level as a single hour of fetch so. Rixatrix posted:Try it yourself - if you get daily vigorous exercise, you'll soon go stir crazy in a day if you don't get it. Most dogs do not need to be fit like professional athletes and even the ones that do usually have half of the year "off". Sure every dog needs 1-3h of exercise a day, but it doesn't need to be high impact. If the dog still has unspent energy after hours of exercise I'd also recommend nosework. I interpreted the OP's posts as saying the dog got about an hour at the dog park a day, with flirt pole outside of that. Since the dog is still crazy, I thought that doubling the exercise if possible on a longterm basis and adding in a lot more mental stimulation would tire it out completely. Tired dog is good dog.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:04
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Rixatrix posted:I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one a bit. It's absolutely true most people under-exercise their dogs, but you definitely *can* overdo it. Especially with a needy, hyper dog, I would never ever play fetch daily. Sure it's exercise and tires them out, but it also feeds their neediness and increases their stress levels. Of course bad things don't always happen, but active, hyper dogs are naturally that way, you should work to build their ability to chill out when nothing is happening instead of feeding their ADHD type of lifestyle. Generally I would agree, but with Fraction specifically she was dealing with dog and human reactivity. She found that increasing her terrier's exercise made her significantly less reactive than she was previously, allowing for more progress being made on her other issues. Once the reactivity becomes less of an issue I think it would be wise to bring the exercise back down to sane, manageable levels. Perhaps it's better to say to find more creative outlets for a dog's energy instead of saying "exercise more". But Joe Dogowner often isn't interested in training, classes, or other games. Walking the dog is pretty accessible to everyone.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:10
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Kiri koli posted:Yeah, this is true. I assumed that at the dog park, the dog was either engaged with other dogs or engaged with the owner, not just left to her own devices. ... I always assumed an off-leash dog in a park would get more exercise through chasing or playing fetch though than taking an on-leash walk. I forget people can take off-leash walks. I wish I had that option.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:10
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Fraction posted:We do two hours of fetch, one hour of hard walking (or half an hour of jogging/walking, which we are v-e-r-y slowly building up to since Lola's now eleven months old). If the OP implemented another hour of walking, and slowly increased that to half an hour walking/half an hour at dog park, then a full hour at dog park (or doing something like the couch to 5k plan for starting jogging), that'd tire it out a lot more. If you have an opportunity to let the dog swim, fetch or no fetch, I'd definately recommend that. And maybe you could hide a few fetch toys (tennis balls?) in taller grass, toss an extra one in there so that the dog sees the throw, turn the dog around once and release her to search for the toys. It depends on the dog how much he/she needs to see to understand, that there are more toys than one, but this is a great exercise with combines nosework with a bit of physical exercise.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:52
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So Hurley has taken to losing his mind in his crate when we go somewhere. We can hear him whining and crying from the driveway. Do I ignore this? Are we doing something wrong to make him do this? He also does it sometimes when we have him tethered and he can't see us.
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Sep 1, 2011 22:24
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So I've just adopted my 4 year old yellow lab mix from my mother and he was pretty much used to being ignored all day, so going from a sedentary lifestyle to two walks a day and plenty of potty breaks has him pretty active, happy and in shape. problem is, he's still somewhat nervous around other dogs since he wasn't socialized at all really with other dogs. the neighborhood he grew up in was pretty sketchy, mostly unleashed, mean dogs running around. Since I live in an apt complex with lots of dogs, we run into dogs a lot on our walks. I've been taking treats with me and when he sees another dog, I have him look back at me, and sometimes to sit when he gets too excited. He's improved massively (from being freaked out just seeing a dog) to being excited, but mostly looking at me for the treats. we've had some meetings with other friendly dogs, but he doesn't like when they go to sniff his rear, and he starts shying away and avoiding the dog. Today, a big German Shepard ran up to us, off the leash to check him out, and Rocky was a little iffy, but it was mostly ok until the dog wanted to sniff his rear, and my dog just let out a big yelp. It didn't help that the bigger dog kept following Rocky when he was trying to get away from the other dog. The other dog wasn't being aggressive, but a bit too much in Rocky's face. or is that aggressive? I don't know. How can I work with my dog to make him more comfortable meeting other dogs?
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Sep 2, 2011 01:27
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Lava Lamp posted:So I've just adopted my 4 year old yellow lab mix from my mother and he was pretty much used to being ignored all day, so going from a sedentary lifestyle to two walks a day and plenty of potty breaks has him pretty active, happy and in shape. It sounds like your dog has a bit of anxiety and that you are handling it well. Definitely continue with the treats and that should help your dog become more socialized. A lot of dogs are uncomfortable with "rude" behavior from other dogs, which includes excessive sniffing or being in the other dog's face. This isn't aggressive behavior, but situations like this do sometimes escalate. If your dog was shying away by turning his head or his whole body, he was trying to signal the other dog that he didn't want an interaction, but a lot of dogs are bad at the signals if they were undersocialized as pups and will keep coming on strong anyway. At any rate, I don't have much personal experience with this, so please take the advice of others over mine if it's different. If you do clicker training, then my approach would be to click and treat whenever your dog's rear is sniffed by another dog in order to form a positive association. This approach is endorsed by one of my book, so I feel okay mentioning it, HOWEVER, a lot of people would say that introducing food during a dog-dog interaction is not a good idea and could bring on resource guarding. Ideally you would try to train this with a particular dog you know, having first established that the two dogs can eat in the presence of each other. Anyway, I sympathize, it's a hard thing to know how to deal with. We had an encounter with an off-leash dog who came running at us yesterday. Psyche gave him a warning nip (it was obvious she missed on purpose) and luckily he took the hint and went back to his yard. I practically ran in the other direction and just rewarded Psyche for coming with me. She's not ready for close-up interactions though.
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Sep 2, 2011 03:13
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Lava Lamp posted:So I've just adopted my 4 year old yellow lab mix from my mother. I'm glad to hear that it's possible to mess up socializing a lab. I put a lot of work into mine to get him around new people and new dogs and all I ever hear is "Oh, he's a lab, he loves everything". We had a husky who was shy like yours but she was aggressive as well. It didn't help that we would over-react because we didn't want to pay any vet bills for small dogs that came running at us off-leash. Eventually, my mom invited us over and we weren't going to come because she'd just gotten a new dog, coincidentally a yellow lab/husky mix. She said "No problem, my dog's bigger, they'll work it out". Our husky figured out pretty quickly that he wasn't going to bite her rear end in a top hat or anything and after a couple of growls, they were buddies. What was even better was that her aggression towards strange dogs disappeared very quickly. So I guess my advice is try to find your dog a calm dog buddy and go from there.
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Sep 2, 2011 05:44
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get out posted:So Hurley has taken to losing his mind in his crate when we go somewhere. We can hear him whining and crying from the driveway. Do I ignore this? Are we doing something wrong to make him do this? He also does it sometimes when we have him tethered and he can't see us. Sounds like some textbook mild separation anxiety. I would try to make being put in the crate and being left alone somewhat routine. Pop in and out of sight while he's in there, and give him a special crate-only treat like a frozen peanut butter kong while he's in there. Desensitizing him to you coming and going while having something delicious to occupy his time should help. Also ensure that before you leave he's well exercised so he's more likely to snooze. Watch this video, and play games like this with your pup. Lava Lamp posted:
I would do as Kiri Koli suggested and continue to use food to pair with the arrival of other dogs. There are two key things to remember however. One: It doesn't matter if your dog is behaving as you want him to or not. If he sees another dog it's time to feed. A lot of people feel like they have to wait for good behaviour to feed, but that's not how classical conditioning works. Two: Your dog doesn't have to be BFFs with every dog he meets, nor does he have to greet every dog he passes. Your goal should be for your dog to coexist with other dogs, and hopefully cope with the occasional polite greeting, because that's all you truly NEED. Anything above and beyond that is just gravy. Don't push your dog to be a social butterfly if he doesn't want to. Working within his comfort zone (and gradually expanding it) will be much more effective in the long run.
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Sep 2, 2011 14:47
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Are there any rules I should know about off leash dog parks? My 7 month old husky/chow is of course stubborn and doesn't really listen to a come command when she's busy smelling something else or if there is another animal in sight. So I'm just wondering if I take her to an off leash park and let her run around if it'll be 5 hours before she get's tired enough to come back to me again.
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Sep 2, 2011 18:35
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Hdip posted:Are there any rules I should know about off leash dog parks? My 7 month old husky/chow is of course stubborn and doesn't really listen to a come command when she's busy smelling something else or if there is another animal in sight. So I'm just wondering if I take her to an off leash park and let her run around if it'll be 5 hours before she get's tired enough to come back to me again. It's generally not a good idea to let your dog off-leash without a really solid recall and some would say that huskys should never be off-leash (being mixed with chow doesn't really help the situation). I would definitely not take your dog to a dog park where there will be a lot of commotion and you will need to be able to call your dog away from other dogs in the case of playing that gets out of hand. You can, however, take your dog to a more isolated, quiet spot and practice recalls off-leash. Get the yummiest treats and use a drag line at first if you need to. If you need help building your dog's recall, just ask and I'm sure there are several strategies floating around here.
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Sep 3, 2011 00:54
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Thanks. That's actually what I've felt so far and why I haven't taken her to an off leash park yet. I'll stick to skate board walks to tire her out.
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Sep 3, 2011 08:36
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a life less posted:Good advice Thanks for this. We've made crate time very uneventful, and he goes in all by himself now. He will whine for a bit if he can't see us, but it's getting less and less now. He also gives 0 fucks about anything if he has his peanut butter Kong. How often should I give that to him? Is too much peanut butter bad for dogs or anything? edit: Well, he pissed in the house again. He knows to go outside, what the hell? Is this normal for a 7 month old puppy who knows that outside = bathroom time? He really has no "signals" as far as i can tell. ugh. He was running around and playing and happy. epic Kingdom Hearts LP fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Sep 4, 2011 |
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Sep 3, 2011 19:40
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Help my dog is.... too chill? This is Brodie, a five year old akita I adopted a while ago. Any advice/ideas on training a dog seemingly not driven by ANYTHING? It's like the only thing he's stoked about is laying down near me or wearing his doggy hiking pack around the house. Which... I can't believe I am complaining about that. The previous owner did a fantastic job at socializing and obedience. He is a confident dog and has no behavior woes. Even though he doesn't show any signs of being bored, I want to prevent this from ever happening and have been trying to teach him new things. I figured I would try free-shaping. I thought it would be right up his ally. Well, I tried various times and he just gets really bored after the second step and walks away. I use a variety tub for this (liver, cheese, other meatsies, etc.) and it's just obviously not of value. I don't know how higher a value I can go, any thoughts? I have tried this before meal time, before exercise, after exercise, etc. Brodie just gets bored and goes lay down somewhere.  I try and do this in the most boring room so there are no distractions.Brodie is familiar with the clicker, I successfully used it for him to get used to my cats. But maybe I need to "charge" it again? I am still a novice with this clicker training biz  I know that akitas are known to be a little harder to cooperate with so that is no surprise but to not even be satisfied with real meat bits?? He doesn't even give a hoot about the ol' Kong + peanut butter!
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Sep 5, 2011 01:33
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RetroVirus posted:Any advice/ideas on training a dog seemingly not driven by ANYTHING? It's like the only thing he's stoked about is laying down near me or wearing his doggy hiking pack around the house. Which... I can't believe I am complaining about that. I don't have a whole heck of a lot of advice, but two things I would keep in mind before training sessions is 1. that he's hungry, skip/delay breakfast until after the training session, and 2. make sure the treats are extra smelly and therefor interesting (these are really really fishy smelly). "Re-charging" the clicker couldn't hurt, either! If he likes laying by you I'd think wanting to please you would be a similar drive, and he should understand the "figure out what the human wants me to do to make it happy" game. Also I would kill for a too chill dog. Jerk.
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Sep 5, 2011 05:20
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drat Bananas posted:I don't have a whole heck of a lot of advice, but two things I would keep in mind before training sessions is 1. that he's hungry, skip/delay breakfast until after the training session, and 2. make sure the treats are extra smelly and therefor interesting (these are really really fishy smelly). "Re-charging" the clicker couldn't hurt, either! If he likes laying by you I'd think wanting to please you would be a similar drive, and he should understand the "figure out what the human wants me to do to make it happy" game. I will have to pick some of those treats up when I go to Petsmart today. AND I'll try to just delay breakfast and see how that works. Thanks! I've noticed now that Brodie doesn't take meat treats when he does an awesome recall but will take duck jerky. And then when he's calm around cats he won't take duck jerky but will take meat treats.  So maybe adding a third type of stinky treat for shaping sessions will do the trick.
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Sep 5, 2011 17:17
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Sounds like it's outings with his backpack that really motivates him the most. Try getting out the backpack and leash, setting them aside in his view, and THEN doing an obedience session. Then getting to put on his pack and leash for going out is his ultimate reward (even if you decide to use treats within the session).
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Sep 6, 2011 00:45
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I just adopted a 2.5 year old already neutered shepherd mix from the pound and named him Sebastian. He had been there for over a month and was enrolled in a train-to-adopt program where he showed good progress and learned some basic obedience. When I first met him I was with my father (who I live with) and my friend (who is always over) and he reacted very well to them but seemed to attach to me the most. He showed pretty good manners - no jumping, barking, or mouthing - for a stressed out shelter dog, so we decided to get him! Due to a snag where they thought his testicles never descended we had to wait two days to bring him home. I was the one who picked him up and once again, he showed good car manners. He was obviously pretty excited to be in a new home and has yet to have an accident inside or chew anything he isn't supposed to. The night I brought him home my father had a friend over with his little poodle and I had my friend over as well (the one who came to the shelter with us). Things were fine, Sebastian was really happy to see everyone, interacted with the poodle fine. Then later on in the night he snapped and growled at the poodle while I was petting him, and also snapped several times at my friend who was sitting next to me on the couch. Both seemed to be sparked by him being possessive of me. He has not acted this way towards my father yet. The same thing happened when I brought him to Petsmart to get him a new collar. I had him sitting and waiting by my side and when people (oddly enough it was only women but I don't know if that has anything to do with it) would move towards me or be like "oh doggie!!!" he would growl and try to nip them. I think he's scared or possessive. To see what his deal was I had him sit by me again and held his leash close while people passed by, calming him and rewarding him when they passed. I don't know how much of this behavior is attributable to him being a shelter dog and still settling in to his environment because it has only been two days, but I want to know how I can fix this so that I can bring him out in public/to the dog park/to training classes. How do I teach him that people interacting with me and him is okay when I am afraid to have them give him treats because he might bite them? Is bringing him around people without interacting a good idea, if I pet him and just let him watch them? He is such a good dog otherwise and I don't want him to turn into some antisocial mess!
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Sep 7, 2011 22:00
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Schlaflosigkeit posted:I just adopted a 2.5 year old already neutered shepherd mix from the pound and named him Sebastian. He had been there for over a month and was enrolled in a train-to-adopt program where he showed good progress and learned some basic obedience. When I first met him I was with my father (who I live with) and my friend (who is always over) and he reacted very well to them but seemed to attach to me the most. He showed pretty good manners - no jumping, barking, or mouthing - for a stressed out shelter dog, so we decided to get him! It's not unusual for dogs to be stressed out by a move, even if they are moving from a high stress situation (a shelter) to a better one (a home). Since it's only been two days, I would wait it out a little, keep things low stress, and reward like crazy for just existing in potentially stressful situations (aka classical conditioning). If your dog was okay for while and then got snippy later in the night, you might have overwhelmed him by forcing him into a stressful situation for too long. We did a similar thing when we first got our dog, which ended with her biting our friend because we didn't understand her anxiety and forced her to be around strangers for hours because we thought she just needed time to get over it. Your dog is brand new to you, so you need to learn his signs of stress and triggers (if it's only women so far, that could mean women are a trigger, which is great to know!). If you have people over, have him out, but keep it short and put him away in his crate after a while. One of the things that will increase anxiety in dogs is being stared at or approached directly. A lot of dogs aren't actually okay with strangers coming up and fawning over them and reaching for their heads, which is probably why he didn't do well in Petsmart. So I would avoid those situations and opt instead for taking walks in places where you'll see some people but they will probably ignore you (sitting to the side and treating for seeing strangers is a good tactic). In your home, have your guests just randomly drop treats without looking at or directly interacting with your dog. He should start associating them with yummy treats and eventually seek their attention without being anxious. That way you can take things in little steps, moving up from just tossing treats and ignoring to handing off a treat while semi-ignoring to a little petting, etc. If your dog is possessive, then you need to desensitize him to your own interactions with others. Stage a conversation with a friend where you stand a bit apart and toss treats while you talk. Then move up to closer interactions, reaching, shaking hands, etc. You might see improvement soon if your dog just needs time to adjust to his new environment and you keep things low stress. Since you said you're afraid that your dog might bite (has he actually bitten? air snapping can be a warning like growling), you can do all of these things (minus the petting) without letting your dog within biting range. We have friends toss treats to my dog and worked up to hand feeding after several sessions. If things don't improve (or get worse) within a couple weeks, then your dog probably has a deeper problem that you'll need to keep addressing with a lot of counter-conditioning and desensitization. It's good at this point to seek a trainer who can help you form a plan of action tailored to your dog.
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Sep 7, 2011 23:19
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Update on Brodie! Your guys suggestions were a huge improvement, thank you so much DB/MoCookies. Haven't done anything too fancy with the shaping yet, but we mastered him putting one paw instead of two in a box... My only box was a little lady's shoebox and it is kind of ridiculous for two big ol' akita feet. 
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Sep 7, 2011 23:32
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Update on George: Our first attempt at keeping him in the wood crate didn't go so well because wood is chewable and he was attempting to gnaw his way out. So he's back in the wire crate for now. On the bright side, we've been leaving the door to the wood crate open and occasionally tossing treats in/toward it, and he's now taken to occasionally chilling in there during the day. We can even shut the door as long as we're in the room with him, but once we walk out he starts getting anxious and gnaws on the bars. I think he's just a really stubborn dog and it's going to take a while to convince him 100% that the crate is his home and that we will, in fact, still be there in the morning to let him out.
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Sep 9, 2011 19:28
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Ornamented Death posted:Update on George: Is there a reason you're not putting the crate in your bedroom? I feel like most dogs, especially rescues, will have a hard time being completely isolated overnight. Our rescue literally runs gleefully to his crate at bedtime, but I couldn't see that happening if we moved the crate to an isolated room.
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Sep 9, 2011 20:38
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Hi! I adopted my dog Jace from a shelter 2 weeks ago and I love him very much. But I am having one problem with something. Often times at home I need to do work. I always take him out for long periods of exercise before this to tire him out. For example, today I took him out for a little over 2 hours full of running and fetching and playing with other dogs. The thing is, when we get home, in time for me to do some work, he's not tired at all. He still wants to play. My question is, is there a really interactive dog toy he can play with to keep him occupied for a tiny bit so I can get some work done? I always promise him to take him back out if he lets me get a little work done but to no avail. Please help. It's my first dog!
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Sep 11, 2011 01:44
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Big Sal Graziano posted:Hi! I adopted my dog Jace from a shelter 2 weeks ago and I love him very much. But I am having one problem with something. It's not unusual for a new dog to keep begging for attention while settling into a new home. You can try getting him different toys (different dogs like different things, so I would just go to the pet store and pick up a few things to try), but that may not work if it's not really a play thing and more of just wanting attention from being over-excited/anxious. What you can do is teach your dog that you have an expectation of their behavior while you're doing certain things, like working or eating dinner. If he's jumping on you or being obnoxious in your face, you can teach him to 'Say Please', i.e. perform a behavior that isn't obnoxious (like sitting) before he gets any attention. In addition to this, I would grab some nice treats and have them at your desk and then reward him for laying around quietly (or playing with a toy). You can use a mat if you want, or just have him lay at your feet. You can ask for the behavior so he knows what you want, but eventually he should start anticipating it and then you can reward him for laying down spontaneously. You didn't mention how old your dog was. Unless he's an older, chill dog, it might take a while for this to sink in. My dog was so high strung (she has real anxiety problems, so this is not typical), it took 6 months for her to voluntarily be in a different room than us and for months, whenever my husband left, she would be anxious and not leave me alone for a second. I had to use short time-outs in addition to the above to get her over it, but now when I'm at my desk, she sleeps underneath or in one of her other favorite places around the house. She also goes off and plays by herself, which she never would have done before. So be patient and consistent and you'll get results.
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Sep 11, 2011 02:29
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Dogs are like toddlers. It's not uncommon for them to get kind of manic and hyper when they're tired. A bit of forced relaxation can be a good thing in these situations. Often this is a good time to pop your pup into the crate with a frozen peanut butter Kong or something similar. I also adore the Tricky Treat Ball. You can get them at just about any pet store. I feed my dog most of her meals in them since it makes what would be a 20 second ordeal into a 5-10 minute one. There are also toys by Nina Ottosson which are really great, but they're normally rather expensive unless you can find a good deal on them. Finally, if you need to tire your dog out in a hurry, tug is a great way to do it. Minute for minute, it's probably the best short term energy drain there is. Sometimes I'll go nuts with my dog for 10 minutes with the tug when she's really spastic to buy myself some peace and quiet for an hour. YMMV.
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Sep 11, 2011 11:13
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a life less posted:
QFT on these two points. The treat ball is Asa's default meal delivery system unless we are in a rush, then its food-in-bowl. It extends a 10-15 second vacuum of food into a 5'ish minute bout of happy rolling and gulping. And I've gotten her trained to go from that to her ginormous bone that she's been working on - if I give her the treat ball then sit down at the PC, I can get 2-3 hours of quiet. Until I stand up...then, yeah, a few minutes of tug and then I can get some more quiet :P
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Sep 11, 2011 16:41
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Big Sal Graziano posted:Hi! I adopted my dog Jace from a shelter 2 weeks ago and I love him very much. But I am having one problem with something. My favorite way to occupy and tire out my dogs (that doesn't involve me doing anything) is to give them a big raw bone instead of a meal. I'll sometimes just feed their kibble inside a puzzle toy, like a Tug-A-Jug or the Tricky Treat ball. I've met people with hyperactive labs that use them for all the dog's meals. It's especially handy during winter here when it's too cold for the dogs to be outside for 15+ minutes, and they're bouncing off the walls making me nuts. Other than distractions, I think tether training could be a great idea for teaching your new dog the rules of the household, especially what you want the dog to do while you're working. I spend a lot of my time at my computer, so it was pretty important to teach the dogs that their job is to sleep or play quietly nearby. Really, the only hard thing about it is remembering to stop working for a moment when the dog is being good and quiet so you can give them a treat and reward them for behaving well.
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Sep 11, 2011 16:53
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I have a 13 year old female English Mastiff. She does doggy daycare twice a week, and we are currently in an obedience class. However, we have still been having a lot of issues with biting. It doesn't seem aggressive, it happens mostly when we play but also sometimes when she wants attention. She regularly chews on the toys we have for her, but still at times seems to prefer human flesh. Our trainer has told us that when she bites, we need to place a gentle hand around her muzzle and tell her "no" in our regular tone of voice, then replace whatever she is biting with something appropriate. He said if this doesn't work, then we repeat the action while also gently holding the scruff of her neck. Sometimes, this works but we are still struggling with this issue almost constantly. I was wondering if anyone had any other tips or tricks that might help? For reference and adorableness, here is a picture of Clementine: 
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Sep 11, 2011 19:41
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Knerd posted:I have a 13 year old female English Mastiff. She does doggy daycare twice a week, and we are currently in an obedience class. I can't comment on your trainers advice, but we immediately ended a play session when our dogs teeth touched skin. She was pretty mouthy at 8 months but quickly realized that play biting or mouthing means the end of playtime. Practically that worked out to us either leaving the room or just standing still with our arms crossed. We also tied it to an "ouch" cue so it had some meaning. Eventually, if she mouthed and we ended play then a minute later went back to play we would put her in her "timeout" spot for 30-90s. 3 months later we are pretty much mouthing free. It was very effective as she learned quickly that mouthing has the negative consequence of play ending immediately. Also did you mean 13 weeks old? :P
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Sep 11, 2011 23:56
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Knerd posted:However, we have still been having a lot of issues with biting. It doesn't seem aggressive, it happens mostly when we play but also sometimes when she wants attention. She regularly chews on the toys we have for her, but still at times seems to prefer human flesh. Don't listen to your trainer. Using positive punishment (grabbing the muzzle or scruff, which is pretty aggressive in your dog's eyes) to stop mouthing is bad. I have a 'friend' who did this with her dog and he now growls and snaps at times if they touch him, and he still mouths constantly at about 18 months old. A far better idea is to do what puppies do - yelp like you've just been shot and withdraw all attention. This might mean just standing up and turning your back on her if she mouths, or it might mean leaving the room if she is the type to jump and persistently try to carry on the fun biting game. By the way if she's mouthing for attention too, you should have a look at and a think about putting her on 'nothing in life is free', or NILIF. I think she'd benefit a lot!
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Sep 12, 2011 00:05
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| # ? May 15, 2024 08:47 |
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^^^ Do this, but if your dog is like some, yelping may only excite them further, so just abruptly end play time without making a sound. Also get a new trainer.
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Sep 12, 2011 00:50
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