|
I encountered a person who had a springer spaniel and she was looking for a comfortable leash to pull her dog with ..was a bit confused, til I saw she was popping the leash on the dog ..pretty much every 5 seconds ..so she needed something that didn't hurt her hand. She was really demanding with the dog, yelling at him, popping the leash to make him sit and everything. It was really eye opening on what a negative experience it was for the dog - I've a lot of times gotten frustrated and acted the same way, though not to that extreme. Thing is, shes learning from a dog trainer on how to do this- I forget the name, I had wanted to look it up..but she paid 2k to train him for protection work?/guard dog type deal. And...its what they do. She kept going on about how she really needed to be dominant, otherwise he'd be all over the place, etc. I didnt see her praise him once for actually sitting or doing what she wanted. And no treats at all during training, 'so he doesnt learn to work just when theres food' I felt really bad for the dog after coming a long way in learning about dog training and R+. It was quite jarring to realize that old school dominance theory, etc. is still going on, I just never heard about it much because I am used to PI and work. I dont want to say, Yeah the dog didn't listen at all hurr hurr that training sux, because even with positive methods, she could have had the same extremely exciteable, pulling dog at that moment. It just felt very awkward and negative.
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2012 07:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 12:36 |
|
|
Not sure if this is the thread, but I couldn't find anything more appropriate and didn't want to start a new thread. Angus is my 7 month old Bernese Mountain Dog and currently have two issues with him that I need some help with. --Brushing-- As a puppy, he wasn't exactly calm when we brushed him, he was stupidly excited, treated it like a game and just wanted to eat the brush. To get around this I would stick food in one hand and let him lick it like crazy, slowly releasing it while I brushed with my other hand. Now he absolutely hates it. He freaks out whenever the brush comes near him and bares his teeth/snaps at me if it touches him. I have tried easing into into just giving him one or two brushes and praising/comforting him immediately after. This isn't giving me any progress. The brush is basically a small one sided hair brush that the breeder gave me. I have considered buying a Furminator or similar, tooth style brush but I am just wondering whether this will be a waste of time and not really help. Is it the particular brush I am using that he doesn't like or is it the act of brushing? --Sleeping-- We had one of those simple round dog beds with a base cushion. Naturally, being a puppy, he destroyed it. I replaced is with a Snooza D1000. A pretty drat expensive, high quality dog bed. He doesn't go/sleep on it. I have put the base of the old bed on top of it and included his small rug that was with his mum on the bed as well. He comes on the bed and relaxes on it if I have treats and I am trying to ensure that when he goes on the bed it is all positive experience. He does have an issue with being hot all the time, so we figure that being summer now, it is just cooler for him on the tiles so we let him stay there. But even on cold days he tends to stick to the floor. It is situated in the living room/kitchen where he sleeps, but he just tends to spend all night on the ceramic tiled floor instead. Should I not be too concerned about this or is it bad for him? Any tips/advice are greatly appreciated.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2012 14:16
|
|
|
xcore posted:--Brushing-- For brushing, you're going to have to start from the beginning really desensitizing him to a brush and then the act of brushing and making it a fun task. Getting a new brush should help. Dogs don't generalize well, so a new brush will trick him and allow you to start from scratch. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a different kind of brush...my dog hates her head halter and when it broke, I got her a new one and she didn't automatically hate the new one, even though the only difference was that it was a different color. For sleeping, I wouldn't worry about where your dog wants to sleep. Some dogs just don't care for beds. I put my dog's bed in our room where she sleeps at night. She sometimes ends up on it early in the morning, but she vastly prefers sleeping under MY bed on the carpet. The last two mornings I found her sleeping next to her bed, with just her head touching the edge and her butt half in the bottom of my hard wooden bookshelf. Dogs are weird. Sleeping on something soft isn't really better for health though, so it doesn't really matter.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2012 15:03
|
|
|
It took my dog months to learn that the dog bed was a comfy place to sleep. Now he goes there all the time (when the cat isn't in there already). I didn't push him on it- eventually he figured it out himself.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2012 15:35
|
|
|
I've got an ~80# Bernese Mountain Dog/GSD or Border Collie mix and a 20# Dachshund/some kind of Terrier mix. This thread has been tremendously useful for training both of them, and it's really gone well, but I've got two related issues that I can't figure out how to fix. The first issue is that the small dog has been getting more and more reactive to other dogs. He used to love playing with them at the park, and was a little worse on leash but not bad, but now he can't so much as see another dog while we're on leash without getting whiny/woofy/not paying attention to anything else. He will eat treats if he can do it absentmindedly. Off leash he's better as long as he is distracted with a ball or other toy, but it seems like if he decides to interact with another dog, its become this 'get up in its face lunging thing' that most other dogs really don't take kindly to. When they react badly, I'm pretty sure it reinforces the reactive behavior. Often the other owners interpret this as playing, because its not obviously reactive at this point, but its distinctly different from his previous playing behavior with strange dogs (and from the way he plays with my big dog. I really want to reward him for playing nice off leash, but again its hard to get his attention to do that. He also does not like small children approaching him, but is fine when they are just wondering around. Its surprisingly tough to convince people that "no seriously, I don't want your kid near the little dog, its the big dog that is the safe one". Any small kid advice? By the way, the dog is totally calm in the house and doesn't even bark at the mailman or doorbell, so I'm pretty sure its not general anxiety or boredom contributing to his reactivity to other dogs. The other issue is that when the little dog gets upset, the big dog sometimes follows suit, and this can lead to some kind of mob mentality feedback effect that is super frustrating! As am training away the reactivity of the small dog, is there a way I can reduce the likelihood of the big dog getting involved? The unfortunate perception of most folks seems to be that its the big dog's fault, when its almost always the small dog that gets everyone worked up!
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2012 01:59
|
|
|
We have a bit of an issue with Hurley. When my Wife tries to take him to go outside, he will nip at the back of her knees, jump up to her waist, and act insane the whole way up to the door. Once he is there he doesn't listen to her when she tells him to sit down and relax. This doesn't happen every single time, only when he has a lot of puppy energy. What can we do to stop this behavior? I tried having her use the clicker to have him sit at the entrance to the room and wait to be called over, but it hasn't worked out well so far. He also thinks it is play time when she tries to brush him. He play bites the brush, wants to mouth her, and doesn't listen very well. Once we exercise him, he is a lot better, but what can we do to ensure we don't encourage this type of behavior? He's 11 months old, and I know it's going to happen with his breed (cocker spaniel/poodle), but we just want to be on the right track. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2012 22:53
|
|
|
get out posted:We have a bit of an issue with Hurley. When my Wife tries to take him to go outside, he will nip at the back of her knees, jump up to her waist, and act insane the whole way up to the door. Once he is there he doesn't listen to her when she tells him to sit down and relax. This doesn't happen every single time, only when he has a lot of puppy energy. What can we do to stop this behavior? I tried having her use the clicker to have him sit at the entrance to the room and wait to be called over, but it hasn't worked out well so far. Have you considered trying time outs of some sort? I know its hard to do, especially when the dog figures out what you are doing! Basically if he starts being a douche, she walks away and isolates herself briefly, or depending on how difficult that is, maybe she could cross her arms and look away from him. Maybe 30 seconds or so. Of course if he's super hyper, then he needs more exercise or stimulation just in general. It seems like the answer is more exercise or finding a way to calm him. Maybe only bring the brush out when he's tired out from playing?
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 01:40
|
|
|
We're going to try the ignoring next. That worked with his normal play biting and completely stopped it. I'm sure this will work as well. We had a successful brushing today when he was tuckered out from playing tug of war in the house.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 01:48
|
|
|
get out posted:We're going to try the ignoring next. That worked with his normal play biting and completely stopped it. I'm sure this will work as well. We had a successful brushing today when he was tuckered out from playing tug of war in the house. Yeah, I just think you have a hyper crazy puppy and if its worked for other things it might work for this. Take my advice with a grain of salt though; my dog is older and basically has decided that he gives no fucks if I ignore him and he'll chase me into another room if I want to put him in time out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 01:57
|
|
|
He has his moments where he gets his zoomies and bounces off the couches. We encourage this and play along with him and he is just such a happy dog. We're really lucky because he doesn't do anything else wrong at all.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 02:08
|
|
|
Update on my dog: I learned that Corb is cat aggressive the other day. Whereas with dogs he's a lot more controllable around (just shortening the leash and a slight tug makes him turn away unless the dog is off-lead) but with cats? NOPE. E: to clarify he didn't attack anything but it was definitely a "LOOK, SQUIRREL" response. I've scheduled a behavior evaluation for later this month, but I would like to note he is doing better around small dogs. One came up to him (because the owner was dumb and didn't have it on a leash) and he just sat and turned his head away, even though the dog got all up in his face. I tried to shoo it away but the other owner was all "Don't touch my dog!" Yeah, because if Corbin decided that his dog were a snack, that would be the least of your worries. I feel like I'm learning more about Corbin the more he settles in to this new place. So far the only thing he's done that worried me was showing his teeth a bit when a rather loud/energetic visitor came over. I took him to do something else, and he was fine after they left. So all in all, I feel like I know enough now about Corb to start focusing on stuff I was putting off in favor of socialization, like a better recall and maybe some clicker training.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 03:03
|
|
|
Farrok posted:I've got an ~80# Bernese Mountain Dog/GSD or Border Collie mix and a 20# Dachshund/some kind of Terrier mix. This thread has been tremendously useful for training both of them, and it's really gone well, but I've got two related issues that I can't figure out how to fix. Hey small poo poo disturbing dog buddy!  It's not uncommon for terriers to be kind of lovely with strange dogs. That doesn't mean that he can't ever go up to them, but it means that you'll have to do a bit of extra work to get him to a socially acceptable level. It sounds like you've got a typical case of moderate reactivity. That he'll take treats is great, that he's chewing absentmindedly and barking means that you're too close to the stimulus. If he's getting overly aroused/focused at the other dog, he's too close. A lot of the finer points of dealing with reactivity is gauging distance and proper timing. You may benefit from attending a class with him to have someone show you the ropes as far as those two things are concerned. Beyond that, you want to work on his focus in increasingly distracting environments, you want to create an association between seeing a dog and getting awesome tasty treats, and you want to limit his interaction with strange dogs while you work on all of this - it'll take several months or more. Also get used to preempting distractions - if you see some kids coming down the street, pull off to the side and ask for some focus and basic obedience and reward often w/ high value treats. The more distracting the situation, the higher your rate of reinforcement should be for focus/attention. When your dogs start feeding off each other's excitement address the less intense/better trained dog first. If you work on your bigger dog's focus around distractions too he should be easier to calm down when your tinydog gets started. get out posted:We have a bit of an issue with Hurley. When my Wife tries to take him to go outside, he will nip at the back of her knees, jump up to her waist, and act insane the whole way up to the door. Once he is there he doesn't listen to her when she tells him to sit down and relax. This doesn't happen every single time, only when he has a lot of puppy energy. What can we do to stop this behavior? I tried having her use the clicker to have him sit at the entrance to the room and wait to be called over, but it hasn't worked out well so far. What about keeping a light leash on him so you can better grab hold of him and perhaps tether him to something when he gets inappropriately excited. Bear Rape posted:Update on my dog: I learned that Corb is cat aggressive the other day. Whereas with dogs he's a lot more controllable around (just shortening the leash and a slight tug makes him turn away unless the dog is off-lead) but with cats? NOPE. Yeah, cats & squirrels often fall firmly into "prey" territory for a lot of dogs. You should be able to get better focus as you progress with your training. It sounds like he dealt with the small dog really well. I would have praised the crap out of him for that. Good job!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 16:34
|
|
|
get out posted:We have a bit of an issue with Hurley. When my Wife tries to take him to go outside, he will nip at the back of her knees, jump up to her waist, and act insane the whole way up to the door. Once he is there he doesn't listen to her when she tells him to sit down and relax. This doesn't happen every single time, only when he has a lot of puppy energy. What can we do to stop this behavior? I tried having her use the clicker to have him sit at the entrance to the room and wait to be called over, but it hasn't worked out well so far. I really want to see some video of the dog acting out with your wife. I suspect that she's doing something to encourage this behavior without meaning to, making it a game, or she's repeating commands over and over and the dog is just ignoring her because it's white noise. I don't know how else to help with this issue. In regards to the brushing, I would recommend that you back up a few steps. Double-team the dog, and only brush when you are both around. One of you gets treats and machine-guns them into his mouth, the other brush. The order of operations is treat, treat, treat/brush, treat, repeat. Start off using something good like cheese and use just tiny bits of it. Dogs don't recognize volume so much as iterative quantity. 3 tiny bits is better than one large chunk. Slowly move towards treating with every brushing, but if it takes you 3 weeks to get there, that's fine. Eventually you'll move towards brush stroke followed by a treat, then multiple strokes, etc. This is precisely how you counter condition brushing to be a positive experience.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 17:06
|
|
|
a life less posted:Yeah, cats & squirrels often fall firmly into "prey" territory for a lot of dogs. You should be able to get better focus as you progress with your training. And yup, he got quite a few cheese cubes as soon as the guy got a hold of his dog. I think mayyybbee what happens when I see small dogs sometimes is that Corbin doesn't recognize they are dogs until they're up in his face, and so he assumes until then that they are indeed squirrels. That makes sense I think with what I've seen so far, but I'm still heading to the behaviorist on Friday.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 19:53
|
|
|
Shadow will sometimes confuse small dogs for prey from far off. Then when he actually gets closer and realizes it's a dog he's like, "Oh, pft..." and walks off. So it's possible.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 01:20
|
|
|
I need some advice on recent changes in Kaidan's behavior. I've never really thought he had separation anxiety but I think he might be developing it (?) but I'm not sure. The worst that's happened before is that he didn't do well in his crate for a couple weeks right after we moved to this house (over a year ago now), and of course if he doesn't get enough exercise which has only happened once because something came up and we had to leave the house on short notice so we have a hole in the carpet to show for that one. Recently (last couple weeks) he hasn't been doing as well in his crate. We keep both crates covered with sheets and I'll come home to most of his inside the crate, and lately I've noticed a new small hole in the carpet on the front edge of the crate, so he's sticking his paws over the pan and through the wires to scratch at the floor. He's been getting roughly the same amount of exercise as usual, but I've been slacking on training and mental stimulation lately so that could also be part of it. The other thing that's worrying me is that lately my girlfriend and I have gone from spending most of our time in the living room when we're home to being in the office for about half of it due to both of us being busy and needing to be in there. Kaidan hasn't been too happy about this. We have two couches in the living room so normally we sit on one and he goes and lays on the other (hip dysplasia, doesn't like laying next to people on soft surfaces). When we go in the office, after about 20 minutes he'll be sitting in the living room and he'll start whining and barking. He'll whine and bark a few times, then stop for a few minutes then do it again, etc. We haven't been doing anything to reinforce it but it hasn't stopped. At first I thought it was for attention but over the last couple days I would come back out after he stops for a while (treating it as I would letting a whining dog out of their crate, etc) and he doesn't seem to want attention. I'll come out and sit on the couch, paying no attention to him, and he jumps up and lays on the other end of the couch and falls asleep. It really seems like he's upset about us all (Eris typically comes in and lays down on one of the dog beds in the office) being in the office and not in the living room. I have his bed in there too and I'll call him in and have him lay down on it but after a few minutes he gets up, goes out to the living room and cries. I've tried bringing in the blanket he normally sleeps on as well but to no avail. All of this combined makes me feel like it's SA. What do you guys think? If it is, what is the PI recommended book for dealing with this? I can't remember anymore, and I'm guessing that book thread is long gone in the archives at this point. EDIT: He's also taken to running into the office to bark/yell at us for extended periods of time. I should also add that over the last week or so he's been more clingy around the house. If he's laying down, almost asleep, and I get up to do something around the house he gets up and follows me. That's very unusual for him. rivals fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Jan 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 01:58
|
|
|
rivals posted:(hip dysplasia, doesn't like laying next to people on soft surfaces)
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 02:49
|
|
|
His hips get a little worse when it's cold, such a now, but any day that we do above average walks he gets Rimadyl. Today, for example, we went to the park for about an hour, I gave him Rimadyl before, and he's been exhibiting all of these systems all day (not constantly, just when the situation arises that both my girlfriend and I are in the office). And also since it stops when we're out in the living room with him, I discounted the possibility of it being his hips a little. EDIT: For reference for anyone unfamiliar with me, he's a 6-7 year old Husky.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 02:59
|
|
|
I didn't want to make a new thread for this so I thought I'd ask the community here: I have two german shepard / lab mix female dogs from the same litter. They are two and a half years old now. They've always been pretty cool with each other if not that affectionate. One of them was the runt of the litter. The larger dog is usually pretty protective of her. Lately though some fights have been sparring up. The larger dog will get an intense look from across the room, run over, and start nipping at the scruff of her neck and forcing her to submit, pushing her to the ground. The instigating dog is still submissive towards us. When this happened last night I made her roll over and let her smaller sister sniff her belly, kind of forcing her to be less alpha. Do you guys think this is a good idea or should I try something else?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 16:03
|
|
|
BeavisNuke posted:I didn't want to make a new thread for this so I thought I'd ask the community here: Jesus christ did you bother reading anything else in the forum/ this thread? No one here is going to pat you on the back for alpha rolling your dog because its a bad idea. If the dog you rolled is acting out of fear, now you've basically showed her, "Yep! You should be afraid!" Pack theory is bullshit and the easiest, and safest way you are going to address these problems is through positive reinforcement. You might need to get a behaviorist involved if you think the dog would be dangerous or too hard to work with, but I think to start with you can do some training where you reward the "aggressor" with treats for relaxing, playing nicely, or maybe breaking off from a hard stare at her sister. Look at the first post of this thread and move on from there; you will find that people use positive reinforcement to condition their dogs to change their attitudes about things that scare or upset them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 16:26
|
|
|
Ok I have somethings I am a bit curious about. We have a nearly 6 month old Aussie mutt. There's a good chance he has a lot of border collie in him, or he's just a miniature - because he might not even be 30lbs yet. (Vet says he's healthy, and probably won't get too much bigger). He has not pooped in the house since the first month we had him.(3 months ago) He's been very good about ringing the little bell hanging from the back door that signifies 'let me out'. When he did poop in the house before, it was in rooms he never went in - so we figured that he was ok with going in there because he didn't consider it a part of his home. Regardless, he poo poo in the middle of the living room this morning. The living room is by far his most occupied place other than his crate in the bedroom. I was sleeping at the time, and m girlfriend swears he did not ring the bell. Should we be concerned over this? Is it probably just a fluke? Potty training went so well, and it seems like he'll go a month and then have a fluke accident. I don't understand what could have happened, he knows full well that ringing his bell = we go outside. I'm also curious what your opinions are on the petsmart classes. I don't think the general consensus in PI is approving of petsmart/petcos/etc. We had him enrolled in the puppy class for socialization and basics. I personally don't really like the trainer and feel as though we could do better on our own. The girlfriend thinks otherwise. An example I'll use is going from a down to a stay. I've been using luring to capture movement with and without treats in my hand. I started doing this because he likes sitting, he will go to a down when asked, but he won't go back to a sit unless you step into his personal space (like between his front legs) which forces him to want to sit up. This is what the trainer said to do and eventually he'll get it. I tried showing the girlfriend the luring (that I saw in a kikopup video) and she was upset that I was ruining the puppy training classes by confusing him with something different. Should I worry about confusing the dog like this and just bite my tongue and forget about it? Another training thing that the petsmart trainer does is saying 'anh anh' kind of like a buzzer whenever the dog does anything we don't want it to do. I've talked with my girlfriend about how I think it's pointless and kind of stupid to replace the word 'no' with a sound. Either way the dog doesn't get it. It's used both as a response if the dog doesn't do the desired behaviour. (e.g. 'Sit'... dog walks away 'anh anh') As well as to say no. (E.g. dog jumps on someone 'anh anh!') It's used all the time now. Puppy play bites, gets the noise. Puppy nips at our heels, gets scolded and told the noise. I guess I just want some clarification. To me, this seems no different than saying no - other than that it's annoying for me to listen to. I'm also curious if this will change or undermine any training I do with the puppy. Should I just bite my tongue and start using the noise? Should I bite my tongue and ignore it and hope my time spent with training the puppy renders the noise no longer relevant? I've explained that he's just after attention with the nipping and to ignore him. It works for me, eventually he leaves me alone. She swears he won't leave her alone unless she says something. One last question regarding training/commands. The petsmart trainer had a command for what I see to be multiple things. Door opens and you want the dog to not run out, you say wait. You want the dog to stay somewhere while you walk away, you say stay. You want the dog to sit until you break the sit you say sit. This all seems overly complicated and I'm wondering why sit can't just be used for everything. Ideally you want the dog to sit until you break the sit, so why the gently caress does it matter if it's called sit or stay or wait? I feel like this is confusing for the sake of clarity for the human. (and the trainer brought her dog in last time, which acted crazy. Responded to some commands, ignoring others, loved jumping on people and occasionally barked.) At one point it snapped at my dog because I was told 'It's ok, let them play'. I can see the signals her dog is giving that it very much did not want to play. It kept looking away, eventually its tail went between its legs, then its ears went back, then its lip started quivering, then I grabbed my leash and pulled my dog back while her barked and snapped its head towards mine.) During all of this the trainer is saying, they're fine. They're fine. Sorry for the wall of text. Moral of the story: puppy poops on floor and I think the petsmart trainer sucks rear end. Will me training the puppy with my spare time be undermined by petsmart nonsense/confuse the dog? (Edit: Regardless of me or petsmart, it's all clicker/positive training. One more question in that regard is that the trainer seems to think that we are not being strict/stern enough with our commands. When she issues commands it's almost like scolding the dog - harsh, clear and loud. I agree with clear, but I don't understand the point of saying commands so aggressively? She says it's so the dog knows we mean business - isn't this just intimidating the dog into doing stuff? E.g. Leave it, or down. The less the dog reacts the more stern we need to be. That seems like the dog is responding to the behavior of the human rather than the command. That seems to undermine the whole point of positive training?) Toxx fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jan 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 17:16
|
|
|
Toxx posted:Ok I have somethings I am a bit curious about. We have a nearly 6 month old Aussie mutt. There's a good chance he has a lot of border collie in him, or he's just a miniature - because he might not even be 30lbs yet. (Vet says he's healthy, and probably won't get too much bigger). He has not pooped in the house since the first month we had him.(3 months ago) He's been very good about ringing the little bell hanging from the back door that signifies 'let me out'. When he did poop in the house before, it was in rooms he never went in - so we figured that he was ok with going in there because he didn't consider it a part of his home. Regardless, he poo poo in the middle of the living room this morning. The living room is by far his most occupied place other than his crate in the bedroom. I was sleeping at the time, and m girlfriend swears he did not ring the bell. Should we be concerned over this? Is it probably just a fluke? Potty training went so well, and it seems like he'll go a month and then have a fluke accident. I don't understand what could have happened, he knows full well that ringing his bell = we go outside. My dog is almost 9 months old and hadn't had an accident in the house since he was 2 months old, but the other day he started whining like he was really surprised and we looked over and he was pooping in the living room. Obviously he didn't know it was going to happen and was upset about it, and we took him outside right away and everything was fine. It could be the same thing happened to your dog, but you weren't there to witness it. Accidents happen some times, even with potty trained dogs. If it's a one-off I really wouldn't worry about it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 17:58
|
|
|
That's a relief. Hopefully it just snuck up on him. I was worried that something was wrong, but that makes it sound like it was probably just an accident.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 18:08
|
|
|
Plus_Infinity posted:My dog is almost 9 months old and hadn't had an accident in the house since he was 2 months old, but the other day he started whining like he was really surprised and we looked over and he was pooping in the living room. Obviously he didn't know it was going to happen and was upset about it, and we took him outside right away and everything was fine. It could be the same thing happened to your dog, but you weren't there to witness it. Accidents happen some times, even with potty trained dogs. If it's a one-off I really wouldn't worry about it. This actually happened to Neige recently too. She was having her dinner in her wobbler, then all of a sudden she whimpered once and dropped a hard little nugget on the rug. Her face was kind of hilarious, so I cracked up, which probably kept her from getting all stressed about it. "Surprise!" poops are the most fun poops.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 19:00
|
|
|
ButWhatIf posted:This actually happened to Neige recently too. She was having her dinner in her wobbler, then all of a sudden she whimpered once and dropped a hard little nugget on the rug. Her face was kind of hilarious, so I cracked up, which probably kept her from getting all stressed about it. hah yeah Orbit had a hilarious look on his face like "where did this poop come from? how did it get in my butt? why is it trying to get out of my butt? i am so confused! help!" hahah
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 19:02
|
|
|
One of my goldens is being an rear end in a top hat. Usually when it's time to go upstairs/downstairs/outside he'll hop right up and go, but lately he just looks at me like "gently caress you man" and puts his head back down to sleep and then I have to go hoist his 90 pounds of dead weight to a standing position. How can I get this idiot to listen to me again? I'd rather not use "Weston do you want a treat?" every time, but I have a feeling that's what it is going to come down to. 
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 19:25
|
|
|
Wojtek posted:One of my goldens is being an rear end in a top hat. Usually when it's time to go upstairs/downstairs/outside he'll hop right up and go, but lately he just looks at me like "gently caress you man" and puts his head back down to sleep and then I have to go hoist his 90 pounds of dead weight to a standing position. Spend some time helping him to remember on/off cues by playing little games throughout the day. Keep a bag of kibble next to your bed or by the door and reward him every time he gets off the bed in the morning, then slowly put it on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. He could just be cold/lazy and not necessarily an rear end in a top hat though. My old lady dog is slow to rise sometimes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 19:29
|
|
|
Toxx posted:
I have never been to a petsmart/petco class, but I think like anything else, it's going to depend on location and who the trainer is. If your trainer sucks, then he/she sucks. There are multiple valid ways that a dog can be trained and some will pick up on one method faster than others. If what you're doing works, then yay, it works. You just need to keep in mind your end goal, like for example, you don't want to lure forever, so you need to fade the lure. But if luring at first gets you there, then that's great. quote:Another training thing that the petsmart trainer does is saying 'anh anh' kind of like a buzzer whenever the dog does anything we don't want it to do. I've talked with my girlfriend about how I think it's pointless and kind of stupid to replace the word 'no' with a sound. Either way the dog doesn't get it. It's used both as a response if the dog doesn't do the desired behaviour. (e.g. 'Sit'... dog walks away 'anh anh') As well as to say no. (E.g. dog jumps on someone 'anh anh!') It's used all the time now. Puppy play bites, gets the noise. Puppy nips at our heels, gets scolded and told the noise. I guess I just want some clarification. To me, this seems no different than saying no - other than that it's annoying for me to listen to. I'm also curious if this will change or undermine any training I do with the puppy. Should I just bite my tongue and start using the noise? Should I bite my tongue and ignore it and hope my time spent with training the puppy renders the noise no longer relevant? I've explained that he's just after attention with the nipping and to ignore him. It works for me, eventually he leaves me alone. She swears he won't leave her alone unless she says something. I think there are two things going on here that aren't being separated. First, you have a response to when your dog does something you don't want, like bites or steals something. Ideally, you shouldn't be responding to this but instead redirecting your dog to something he SHOULD be doing. However, a lot of people (including myself) use a word like 'no'. When my dog starts to investigate something on the table that I don't want her to, I say 'no' and she backs off. This is something you need to experiment with...your dog may get it in some situations or ignoring might be the way to go. The other thing is called a No Reward Mark (explained well in Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson). The NRM is meant to indicate to the dog that it did the wrong thing, i.e. sitting instead of a down, and that the dog should try again. It shouldn't be used as a punishment or to get the dog to stop doing something, but rather to get the dog to consider what you actually wanted and try to get it right. It isn't something that the dog will get intuitively, you need to build it up by doing training sessions (it explains in the book an exercise that you can do to build it up, but I forget at the moment). The NRM is not necessary, but it can be useful. You can use whatever sound you like, often people use cheerful things like 'Try again!' because it isn't meant to be a punishment. quote:One last question regarding training/commands. The petsmart trainer had a command for what I see to be multiple things. Door opens and you want the dog to not run out, you say wait. You want the dog to stay somewhere while you walk away, you say stay. You want the dog to sit until you break the sit you say sit. This all seems overly complicated and I'm wondering why sit can't just be used for everything. Ideally you want the dog to sit until you break the sit, so why the gently caress does it matter if it's called sit or stay or wait? I feel like this is confusing for the sake of clarity for the human. Sounds like the trainer sucks. You can definitely do your own training and try to ignore the things that you don't like that the trainer does if there are other positive things that you DO like. Just don't let the trainer boss you around and do things your own way. But if the trainer does everything wrong, time for a new trainer or just do it on your own. quote:(Edit: Regardless of me or petsmart, it's all clicker/positive training. One more question in that regard is that the trainer seems to think that we are not being strict/stern enough with our commands. When she issues commands it's almost like scolding the dog - harsh, clear and loud. I agree with clear, but I don't understand the point of saying commands so aggressively? She says it's so the dog knows we mean business - isn't this just intimidating the dog into doing stuff? E.g. Leave it, or down. The less the dog reacts the more stern we need to be. That seems like the dog is responding to the behavior of the human rather than the command. That seems to undermine the whole point of positive training?) Training is supposed to be fun for you and your dog! You aren't bossing your dog around, you are asking them for behaviors in exchange for rewards (food, toys, attention). To your dog, it's a game and the more they enjoy the game, the more consistently they will obey you. A stern tone does nothing except perhaps shut down the dog if they feel they are being punished.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 19:40
|
|
|
Malalol posted:I encountered a person who had a springer spaniel and she was looking for a comfortable leash to pull her dog with ..was a bit confused, til I saw she was popping the leash on the dog ..pretty much every 5 seconds ..so she needed something that didn't hurt her hand. She was really demanding with the dog, yelling at him, popping the leash to make him sit and everything. It was really eye opening on what a negative experience it was for the dog - I've a lot of times gotten frustrated and acted the same way, though not to that extreme. What is a Springer meant to be able to protect you from again? Jesus. I hope that dog does not protect her from being eaten by a passing bear.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 20:11
|
|
|
Filboid Studge posted:What is a Springer meant to be able to protect you from again? Jesus. I hope that dog does not protect her from being eaten by a passing bear. I bet she didn't want a "mean big dog" and so purchased a dog that's entirely unsuited to be a protection dog instead.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 20:20
|
|
|
I'd really appreciate some advice on how to deal with issues cropping up with my dog, I just got him on Friday. I feel really silly asking this because I feel like I should know what to do but I feel lost and confused. 1) While Oliver (dog) was sleeping, Dio (cat) sniffed him and woke him up. While still lying down he bared his teeth, then lunged at her. I was right there and grabbed his scruff, and he just went back to sleep like nothing happened. He's crated at night and when we're out of the apartment and I'm going to make sure she doesn't surprise him again. Until this incident, he'd always been super friendly with the cat, trying to get her to play and obviously not understanding her "gently caress off" body language. She's gotten used to him and approached him a couple times before with no bad reaction from him. 2) We've noticed he's freaked out by funny looking people (big hats/hoods with lots of fur) and weird machines like cherry pickers. His hackles go up and he's more defensive, sniffing, unsure and growling a little when he sees something like this. One guy actually barked back at him and lunged at him (he thought it was funny), which I'm sure made things worse. On walks if we pass someone I'll keep calm and keep him walking by, and praise him a whole bunch when we pass. On one walk we came to this weird concrete thing coming out of the ground with a bunch of graffiti on it. He was growling and unsure about it but after I approached it and climbed on it he was calm. Most people he simply wants to sniff and jump on, he's met my little cousins aged 3-9 and was totally fine with them. After seeing how he reacted after he was woken up by the cat I definitely won't let them approach him if he's sleeping or distracted, and stay right by them during any interactions. I'm disappointed in myself because I find myself unsure what to do. His intake papers at the shelter said he was fine with everyone new he meets, and described no issues. It also had some other information we've found to be false (said he gets carsick, he definitely doesn't). For the record he's been incredibly friendly and happy with my bf and I, never shown any aggression or uncertainty towards us. Edit: I just had him out for a walk to the park, he tried to lunge at and snarled at most people we passed, and seemed generally really intense and "on". How am I supposed to work on desensitizing him to the outside world when I still need to get him exercise during the day? Indoor tug and fetch only do so much. Fat Dio fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jan 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 21:06
|
|
|
Wojtek posted:One of my goldens is being an rear end in a top hat. Usually when it's time to go upstairs/downstairs/outside he'll hop right up and go, but lately he just looks at me like "gently caress you man" and puts his head back down to sleep and then I have to go hoist his 90 pounds of dead weight to a standing position. Perhaps he isn't feeling well or it is painful for him to get up for whatever reason?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 21:21
|
|
Topoisomerase posted:Perhaps he isn't feeling well or it is painful for him to get up for whatever reason? He doesn't always not get up, and it doesn't seem painful when he gets up on his own. My brother came over last night and as soon as they heard the lock pop they both got up immediately and went to the door. He's also very active at the park, no other differences in behavior except sometimes he just doesn't listen to me when it's time to go and he doesn't want to  He's 2 1/4 years old, so it's not old age either. He's just being a jerk.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 21:45
|
|
|
My dog is 11 months old, and he does the same thing Wojtek. I'll come home from work and open his crate up to let him outside, and he'll just lay there sometimes with a "gently caress you" look on his face. It will take him 3-5 minutes sometimes to decide he wants to get up and go take a poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 21:52
|
|
|
Apidae posted:Oliver How old is Oliver? Some people think that dogs can go through two fear imprinting stages where they become uncertain of things and can develop fears as a survival instinct. The first fear imprint probably happens around 8-11 weeks (not coincidentally when puppies need to be socialized the most) and it can possibly happen again between 6 and 11 months. So this may be a thing and/or it's a product of the move in with you. Dogs react to moving in different ways, but it's pretty stressful on them, even if they look like they are very happy with you. So after a move, I think they are particularly prone to developing reactivity if it's in their personality or something traumatic happens. So I would definitely be careful about this, start counter-conditioning while outside and start intense (but fun!) training and shaping exercises to develop your dog's confidence. Also, start socializing him to any and all friends you can get to participate (and if he likes your friends, then have them wear funny hats and whatnot). Don't push him too hard (learn his body language and finds his stress signs), but definitely don't let his outbursts drive people away. This is particularly important and really hard to do if you have neighbors around all the time. A dog that learns that posturing/acting reactive makes other people go away will be that much harder to fix. If your neighbors are around too much and he's just getting worse, than try walking him at less crowded times and also try to keep your distance from people. If you can find a distance where he feels good, then you can do a ton of counter-conditioning and then move closer over time. If he keeps going downhill, a veterinary behaviorist or trainer is a good idea.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 22:41
|
|
|
Kiri koli posted:How old is Oliver? Some people think that dogs can go through two fear imprinting stages where they become uncertain of things and can develop fears as a survival instinct. The first fear imprint probably happens around 8-11 weeks (not coincidentally when puppies need to be socialized the most) and it can possibly happen again between 6 and 11 months. Thanks for the reply, I was really upset after he snapped at Dio and started imagining worst case scenarios and that just got me even more upset  Hopefully this is just a result of the move, I don't blame him for being stressed out.He's three, so he's past those stages. He's a JRT mix so I knew getting into this he could some spazzy reactivity issues but his intake papers didn't say anything like that. We have/will continue to take him out when there aren't so many people around. On walks I've been gradually expanding the streets we go on, and I notice he's calmer in general on streets he's already pee'd all over. I'll stick to familiar areas and not expand so quickly, hopefully that will help a lot.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 23:05
|
|
|
Kiri koli posted:Thank you for that response. It did clear up a bit for me. I think I'll stick to using sit/down/stay but I don't think wait is a necessity. I'll try to convince the girlfriend that more classes with this lady probably won't be necessary after we are done with what we paid for. I just don't see it being worth it after watching the way her dog acts/she talks to her dog.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 23:11
|
|
|
We just adopted a second dog, a seven-year-old beagle named Burt. He and Ginny got along fabulously at the shelter; romping and playing in the exercise pen like old friends. I'm looking for some general advice towards making his transition into our home as smooth as possible. We have baby gates set up, and the dogs are never together unsupervised. They get along really well when excitement level is low, will lay together on the couch and don't seem at all bothered by each others presence. When either one of them gets riled up, it's a different story. It happened fast this morning-- both of them were jumping up and down to greet my mother, and suddenly they were a snarling tangle. We yanked them apart immediately, and Burt chomped my boyfriend on the finger before immediately settling down and running to his bed. Seconds after they were separated, both of them returned to normal body language, tails wagging loosely, no signs of stress. Obviously this was our fault for letting them get into a situation where they both got so excited. It seems that Burt gets nervous or threatened whenever Ginny displays a certain level of arousal, and he responds by snarling, and she then escalates due to that. We have been making an effort to keep things calm, and I have Ginny tethered so I can gently pull her back when I see her start to show signs of excitement. We have been bringing them together for short intervals and praising the hell out of them for positive body language, sniffs and tail wags, and then separating them again. Is there anything else that we should be doing/not doing?
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:36
|
|
|
Toxx posted:Thank you for that response. It did clear up a bit for me. I think I'll stick to using sit/down/stay but I don't think wait is a necessity. I'll try to convince the girlfriend that more classes with this lady probably won't be necessary after we are done with what we paid for. I just don't see it being worth it after watching the way her dog acts/she talks to her dog. The only reason I like to differentiate between wait and stay is so I won't poison my cue - my dog has a bit of a creeping start-line 'wait' in agility. I've found that wait (until I tell you you're free to go) is a bit trickier to reinforce and proof than stay (right there until I get back to you and release you).
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 12:36 |
|
|
Ugh, so Pomegranate, my 12-week-old Japanese Spitz, was due for his first puppy class yesterday but the trainer cancelled at the last minute. There were some things I really wanted to discuss with her but she won't respond to my email inquiries. I've got so many questions and I feel like time is slipping away. I've been going over the material she sent me again - Ian Dunbar's "After You Get Your Puppy", and am getting more and more depressed with each chapter. He seems to be insinuating that by this age my puppy is already irreversibly broken, and I don't know what to do. I loosely follow most of his methods in that I practice positive reward-based training and avoid physical corrections (and chose this particular puppy school because she does the same) but he's just so drat extreme. Truly 'error-less' training seems impossible to me, and the idea of bringing a puppy home and not expecting any accidents to happen is frankly ridiculous to me. In the three weeks I have had him Pomegranate has progressed steadily. He's as housebroken as his tiny bladder will allow, has learned a few basic commands, is getting used to his leash, and is able to entertain himself while I'm not around. He's met most of my friends and family and has got along swimmingly with all of them, but he's especially taken by my boyfriend, which I think is fantastic, as he's a giant 6'4" man. We've been carrying him around the neighbourhood to get him used to the sights and sounds of the area and he's been been nothing but a charmer each time, remaining calm even in the hustle and bustle of busy traffic and the circus that is the veterinarian's waiting room. However, in the past week he has been anything but charming, and I fear if I don't take action soon he will develop some serious behavioural issues (although my greater fear is that it's already too late). Basically, he seems to get over-excited very easily, especially during playtime or when we have visitors, but lately this excitement seems to be leaning more towards aggression, as well as being directed toward my housemate (who he previously adored). He would greet her excitedly whenever she entered the kitchen, and she'd always get him to sit and be calm before giving him any attention (a practice which I've made sure everyone in the household and all visitors follow). Now when he sees her he immediately starts barking and jumping at her, and any attempt to get him to sit or come to me is ignored. I've resorted to physically removing him from the area, but he growls and struggles the entire time and I fear I am only exacerbating things by doing so, but I don't think my housemates appreciate being jumped on, barked at and nipped while they're just trying to make a sandwich or hang out some washing. Jumping and biting also occurs during playtime, which I have attempted to combat by getting him to sit before resuming our play session, yelping whenever he bites too hard, as well as crossing my arms and turning away if either behaviour continues, up to ending the game completely if he is unable to settle down. Unfortunately, he seems to be getting worse rather than better, and ignoring him only gives him opportunity to find something else to play with. If anybody has any advice I'd be eternally grateful. Also, despite not ever physically correcting him, I have stepped on his feet about a dozen times in the past week, despite constantly checking to see if he's there. He seems to appear under my feet the moment I take a step. He yelps every time, and the past few times actually ran away from me, but I've always coaxed him back and all is usually forgiven in a few minutes. Still, I'm afraid repeated instances of this might cause him to fear people, and could be related to these recent issues.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 01:24
|
|
