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boboto posted:So, my plan is to reboot the training, work on the mat work someone posted above and move on to the protocol for relaxation and deference from Dr. Overall they posted, and once those are in place and he's starting to learn how to relax more in general start the desensitization again. Does that make sense? Our dog walker wants us to start correcting him (jabbing him at the hip joint, pressing him into a wall) for the barking but that seems like bad juju to me, and I haven't done it. Any suggestions on where we can consistently see dogs for desensitization but have good control over distance? We got frustrated with trying to do it on walks because it was so rare that you'd see a dog at a good distance for it (as opposed to dogs popping out of doors or around corners, which happens all the time and pretty much ruins the rest of the walk for any kind of training). Would working on obedience in general when he's outdoors/distracted help or be a waste of time? It's highly likely that your dog walker has already started doing this and has exacerbated the problem. I would not trust them anywhere near him anymore. Does he take treats outside? Does he take treats at 50 yards but before he's started barking? If you have an accommodating friend with a non-reactive dog and an open public area (maybe a track around a field, or a park), I would go during an off-hour and practice following the other dog for 15-20 minutes. Start 50 yards apart, ask your friend to walk a constant pace, follow 50 yards behind, give him a treat when he looks at the other dog and adjust your pace depending on his behavior. If he won't take treats, slow down. If he pulls, stares or tenses up excessively, slow down. If he wigs out, turn around and go the other way, get his head back with you then try again (this is anti-BAT, but it'll gain you ability to recover which is important on everyday walks; ideally he won't get in this state while you're training). If he's ok, close distance a bit. When I'm working with a dog-reactive dog at the shelter, I talk to them in a (sometimes strained) happy voice about what they're seeing and how they're reacting to keep myself from tensing up and inadvertently reinforcing their stress and frustration. So in a nutshell: Seeing the back end of a dog is less likely to provoke a fearful or aggressive reaction than the front end Being at a controlled walk is somewhat less likely to get a reaction, and is often easier to redirect because you can quickly change direction and increase distance Watch how you're reacting to your dog - they can pick up on you stressing about the situation
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Mar 12, 2013 22:09
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Thanks for the help, folks. Rufus does take treats if he's at his safe distance (and the treat is really high value, which for him means a cheese stick). I'll try the desensitization again. It's very hard to stay motivated with it because the progress is so glacial, but, it seems to be the only thing that stands a chance of working at all. It's also frustrating because the advice can be very contradictory, although what y'all are saying is very consistent (and in line with the trainers at the MSPCA). Back to work!
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Mar 12, 2013 22:18
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boboto posted:Thanks for the help, folks. Rufus does take treats if he's at his safe distance (and the treat is really high value, which for him means a cheese stick). I'll try the desensitization again. It's very hard to stay motivated with it because the progress is so glacial, but, it seems to be the only thing that stands a chance of working at all. It's also frustrating because the advice can be very contradictory, although what y'all are saying is very consistent (and in line with the trainers at the MSPCA). Back to work! Basically anyone who tells you to do harsh collar corrections, TSST at a dog, or hit/jab/punch them is probably safe to ignore. Counter conditioning is a pain in the rear end and slow, but it does work. I think the slowness of it puts people off, but really, just like with people, over coming fears, phobias and past bad experiences is very difficult and can take a while. While its not always wise to personify dogs like that, I think its fine to do that in this case.
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Mar 12, 2013 23:25
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I just want to mention that counter conditioning and desensitization are powerful tools in helping overcome reactivity. They help change the underlying emotional, non-thinking associations the dog has with stimuli. However, these classically conditioned responses will likely only be effective for a short period of time without regular booster sessions. The goal of classical conditioning a dog is to get the dog operant enough to be aware of its behaviour and how it effects its environment. These operant behaviours tend to be longer lasting than conditioned ones and can open the door for effectively treating the inappropriate behaviour. This is why we move from typical responses like "see dog -> get foot" to "see dog, offer calm eye contact/calm attention/BAT, reward". So, start slow and work on your dog's emotional reactions. When you're able to get the dog to a point where it can think in the presence of another dog, start asking for known behaviours to replace the inappropriate ones.
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Mar 13, 2013 03:55
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I've just recently fostered a beautiful pit bull mix. She's a great dog who is loving to people, but she seems to have a few problems. 1.) She pulls when we walk her. I looked online a bit, and read a training tip that whenever she pulls, I should stop, tell her not to pull, and wait for the leash to go slack. I've been doing this for a few days, and there is some slight improvement, but I'm just not sure if I'm getting to her. Sometimes she'll walk for almost half a block without pulling, but most of the time a walk ends up taking two hours just to go around the block. 2.) She lays down when she sees other dogs, and when they get close, sometimes she lunges at them. No growling, barking or displaying teeth, just lunging with her mouth open. I've been too afraid to just let it happen, so I'm not sure if she's attacking the dog or just trying to play. Either way, it's not exactly what I want from her. Sometimes a dog approaches and she'll sniff and kinda limply jump, which looks like just full on play, but generally this isn't the case, particularly with smaller dogs. The foster organization doesn't really know what her story is. She was found abandoned, tied up to a pole in the Bronx. She was well fed, and she's very well house trained, but she's not at all trained to walk outside or to interact positively with other dogs. I've been combing through the OP with my girlfriend, but was wondering if anyone else has had similar issues they've dealt with, and could suggest something to me. I'm considering taking her to dog school, but not until after she's spayed.
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Mar 14, 2013 02:35
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I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this question (I may need to create me own, I dunno), but my parents recently got a corgi/spaniel mix puppy (reportedly about 9 months old). She's apparently incredibly sweet and energetic, but it's clear her previous owners didn't bother socializing her because at night when my parents are hanging out on the sofa, the dog will jump up and repeatedly bite/mouth their hands and arms. She's apparently not, y'know, biting hard enough to break skin, but she's definitely putting pressure on the parts she's sticking in her mouth. Putting her outside doesn't help, and my dad apparently got so annoyed that he smacked the dog (I know, I know, no negative reinforcement, preaching to the choir) and she just got more aggressive about it. How would my parents go about training this mouthing habit out of her? They're almost at the end of their ropes and may return her, which they don't want to do (we just lost our previous amazing dog to complications resulting from a bad spinal disc, and with my brother and I both out of state with new careers they couldn't stand the silence).
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Mar 15, 2013 18:31
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Sounds like it's not aggressive, I would just follow the standard yelping protocol. Your dad's a dick. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3471773#post401439775 Edit: The dog has lots of energy and is probably trying to play so more exercise for that energetic puppy would probably help. Postess with the Mostest fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Mar 15, 2013 |
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Mar 15, 2013 19:58
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Penny does this to me still at 2 years old. The dog just wants to play and is soliciting play. Any attention it get's will be enough to keep the dog nipping at you. Getting up and leaving the room is the only thing that even helped slow down that behavior. Tiring her out helps. Training sessions help. Having a ball to throw down the hallway helps. You just have to find a way to channel the dogs excess energy. Frozen stuffed kong?
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Mar 15, 2013 21:01
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Polaron posted:(I know, I know, no negative reinforcement, preaching to the choir) That's not negative reinforcement, that's positive punishment. Details in the OP.
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Mar 15, 2013 22:02
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Polaron posted:I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this question (I may need to create me own, I dunno), but my parents recently got a corgi/spaniel mix puppy (reportedly about 9 months old). She's apparently incredibly sweet and energetic, but it's clear her previous owners didn't bother socializing her because at night when my parents are hanging out on the sofa, the dog will jump up and repeatedly bite/mouth their hands and arms. She's apparently not, y'know, biting hard enough to break skin, but she's definitely putting pressure on the parts she's sticking in her mouth. Putting her outside doesn't help, and my dad apparently got so annoyed that he smacked the dog (I know, I know, no negative reinforcement, preaching to the choir) and she just got more aggressive about it. If they're going to do something half-assed or smack the dog if they get frustrated, they should probably return the dog. High energy puppies are a handful. The lazy management option is to keep a basket of toys on the coffee table and preemptively stick a toy in her mouth every time she approaches.
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Mar 15, 2013 23:38
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Fraction posted:How do I train my dog to... stop scratching up the carpet/door when she's in another room in colder months? Jess takes herself willingly in there when it's warmer, but when it's cold she just wants to sit in front of the fire. If I go to the door to shout at her (the only way to get her to stop - when she first started doing it I ignored it, but we live in a rented house), she tries to slide past me out of the door, won't settle on her chair, and is just generally an rear end. Quoting myself to ask if anyone has any ideas? She doesn't do it 100% of the time, but definitely around 40-45%.
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Mar 16, 2013 00:07
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Fraction posted:Quoting myself to ask if anyone has any ideas? She doesn't do it 100% of the time, but definitely around 40-45%. You could try the cat options of 'upside down plastic office mat' or 'plug in a vacuum' to make it unpleasant to dig or startle her out of it.
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Mar 16, 2013 00:36
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What's the best way to teach "bark until I say stop, but definitely START BARKING if something's up"? I have a chihuahua/rat terrier/min-pin/something mutt and live in a not-great neighborhood. If she thinks something's not right she'll yap and get me, wake me up, whatever. This is great! I'm very happy about it. What I am not happy about is that when I check what the sound she heard was and it's just like, my roommate coming home, she doesn't accept that as a solution and continues yapping intermittently. I tried teaching her a 'quiet' command but I did something wrong because now she thinks "bark at the baby in her walker" = "TREATS YAY!" and is now yapping gleefully at the poor thing and then running to me looking very proud of herself. What I want ideally is for her to yap at anything she currently finds yap-worthy, come get me, wake me up, whatever, but then if I check what the problem is and tell her ok, that she accept that assessment and stop barking. Right now it's kind of a "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT THAT BABY IS CLEARLY OFFENSIVE AND MUST VACATE THE ROOM THIS INSTANT" no matter what my reaction is. She seems to think if I won't defend my room then she has to do it. Will a regular speak/quiet duo of training make her stop doing the alarm barks? Because like I said, I want her to keep doing those.
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Mar 18, 2013 04:55
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Bark/quiet sequences haven't kept Vecna from alarm barking but they did help tons on teaching him to be quiet on command. I want him to do pretty much the same thing as your dog: raise a warning and then be quiet when I ask him to. Besides bark/quiet sequences, the thing I've found really helpful is teaching the dog to check in with you if it finds something alarming. I pretty much just rewarded Vecna for looking at me or coming to me when he saw something he wants to yell at over the fence and it's been pretty effective in curbing the irritating, OH MY GOD WHY AREN'T YOU DOING SOMETHING barking. Start out rewarding her for small movements in your direction even if it's just a twitch and gradually increasing the criteria to head turns and eye contact. He still alarm barks but it's helped him learn to stop and thing a bit rather than just mindlessly reacting.
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Mar 18, 2013 20:01
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I just wanted to say thanks to who all who helped me with the "down" situation! Lily passed and ACED her CGC test! 
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Mar 18, 2013 20:03
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Engineer Lenk posted:You could try the cat options of 'upside down plastic office mat' or 'plug in a vacuum' to make it unpleasant to dig or startle her out of it. She doesn't care about vacuums, and the door is way to close to Lola's crate. If I left Lola in her crate and the vacuum on I'd probably come back to a dog passed out in her own terror and Jess still scratching at the door.  How does the upside down office mat work?
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Mar 18, 2013 20:12
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Fraction posted:She doesn't care about vacuums, and the door is way to close to Lola's crate. If I left Lola in her crate and the vacuum on I'd probably come back to a dog passed out in her own terror and Jess still scratching at the door. It has plastic nubs (the ones that hold it in place on carpet) that make it uncomfortable to walk on. It would have the side effect of protecting the carpet. I can't think of a good +R way of preventing this - just management strategies like crating Jess or +P aversives around the door. For the long game I'd start playing crate games with her so you have an easy containment strategy.
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Mar 18, 2013 21:25
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Dirty Job posted:I've just recently fostered a beautiful pit bull mix. She's a great dog who is loving to people, but she seems to have a few problems. Kikopup has a few videos on loose leash walking, such as this one: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sFgtqgiAKoQ Sorry for the mobile link. I cant offer much help with your second question, but I will say that a staffie at my work does the same exact thing, and she isnt allowed to mix in the pen with other dogs because she's aggressive with them. I try to manage it by shortening her leash and watching her, which is pretty lovely, but its not my dog, and I'm not a trainer. One time, when out on a walk, she saw a dog and went down. I focused on her and then see them approaching me in my peripherals (wth is wrong with people ask first or something  ). They got about 5 feet away and she jumped to her feet. Luckily that was enough to get them to stop approaching. I brought it up at work and they said its a fake submission thing. I would treat it as aggressive behavior, just to be safe. Unrelated, but since we're on the subject of lovely corrections, one of my coworkers was complaining about how our trainer (who is certified by the SSCS) uses clickers and positive reinforcement. Apparently he is of the belief that collar and leash corrections are better, and more positive. He said "yeah, you have them wear a pinch or a choke collar, and when they dont do what you want, you yank on it. It doesn't hurt them, if they yelp its probably because of shock or a pinched nerve." yeah whatever dude thanks for letting me know not to leave you alone with my (future) dog.
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Mar 19, 2013 00:33
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My fiance and I just adopted Dug, a sixteen month old neutered male Golden Retriever, from a shelter four days ago. We were told that the owners surrendered him because of aggression issues. We were led to believe they were minor, but that's not always the case. He is a perfectly normal Golden 99% of the time, but he has the following three problems that we want to fix: 1. He growls and bears his teeth if someone is in front of him and another person comes up behind and starts petting him. 2. If he has a toy in his mouth, he will growl and bare his teeth when touched. However, touching the toy to play tug-of-war does not elicit this response. 3. He is very food aggressive, particularly around our other dog (11 year old male Lab mix). He will not eat from his bowl all day until he is starving, but will guard his food against anyone coming near it if he is next to the bowl. This is the behavior that concerns me the most, because he bit my hand the other day and broke the skin on two fingers. It's something that we absolutely need to correct as quickly as possible. After reading the OP, I feel like we should be able to eliminate this aggression through counter-conditioning. Our vet recommended visiting a veterinary behavior specialist, but we'd really like to avoid paying $500 for an initial visit and $225 for follow-ups every few weeks if possible. My plan was to fix the first two behaviors by providing treats while petting Dug. The food aggression is where I'm a bit nervous. He's already a big dog, and weighs about 80lbs. If he really wanted to, he could hurt me pretty badly, so I want to make sure I take the necessary precautions while trying to get him over his defensive attitude while near his food. I've seen a lot of different suggestions on how to fix food aggression in dogs, but the one I'd like to try is feeding him by hand (he lets us do this already), then adding an empty food bowl and moving it closer with each feeding, until eventually I'm feeding him by hand directly over the bowl. At this point, I would work towards dropping the food in his bowl while he eats with me beside him until he's comfortable to the point where I can fill the bowl and have him eat with me right next to him. This is my first time training a dog, as our other dog belongs to my fiance and was seven when we first met, so he was already well-behaved. Is using positive reinforcement the correct way to eliminate his growling when surrounded and with toys? Does my plan for fixing his food aggression make any sense, or am I way out of my league here and need to be consulting the behavior specialist?
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Mar 20, 2013 00:11
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G.I. Jaw posted:My fiance and I just adopted Dug, a sixteen month old neutered male Golden Retriever, from a shelter four days ago. We were told that the owners surrendered him because of aggression issues. We were led to believe they were minor, but that's not always the case. He is a perfectly normal Golden 99% of the time, but he has the following three problems that we want to fix: Honestly, my advice to you as new owners without a lot of background here is to get help. I would not tackle these problems on your own. I'm also impressed that your vet recommended you seek a vet behaviorist. That is the best advice if you can afford it. If you can't, I would at least seek a good trainer. There are some links to help with this in the OP of the Puppy and New Dog Owner thread. You're right that this is something to counter condition, but you've described touch-sensitivity and resource guarding of both toys and food, as well as what could be fear. If there's been bite history in the home as well, my gut is that if this dog came into my shelter, he would not be an adoption candidate, even after behavior mod programs. That's not to say that these aren't fixable problems, but they are also not trivial -- I'm just trying to encourage you to seek appropriate assistance.
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Mar 20, 2013 00:26
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G.I. Jaw posted:1. He growls and bears his teeth if someone is in front of him and another person comes up behind and starts petting him.
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Mar 20, 2013 01:49
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Thanks for the advice so far, but we've actually become a bit more worried about him. He was sitting on the couch with my fiance just now while she was playing with her phone. They had been fine for about 20 minutes just sitting there like that and he began to growl and bare his teeth at her completely unprovoked. When I got up from the other end of the couch he ran towards me growling and snarling, but didn't actually do anything when he reached me. He basically flipped it off as quickly as it came on. We coaxed him into his room with some treats and got him to lay down on his bed to relax for now, because we're not quite sure what to expect from him at the moment. I've grown up with dogs my whole life, two of them were Golden Retrievers, and never seen one act this way. I'm worried that this may be more than just a fear/guarding issue.
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Mar 20, 2013 03:16
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G.I. Jaw posted:Thanks for the advice so far, but we've actually become a bit more worried about him. He was sitting on the couch with my fiance just now while she was playing with her phone. They had been fine for about 20 minutes just sitting there like that and he began to growl and bare his teeth at her completely unprovoked. When I got up from the other end of the couch he ran towards me growling and snarling, but didn't actually do anything when he reached me. He basically flipped it off as quickly as it came on. No one is going to be able to tell you what's going on with your dog over the internet. You need a pro to come watch the behavior. I can tell you though that my fearful dog acts like that all the time if we do something that startles her, even things that seem like nothing to us. She will bark, growl, or run at us in an attempt to get us to stop and doesn't actually do anything when she gets to us. Some dogs react to fear by moving into the pressure and posturing. We combat this by showing her it doesn't work (we don't stop what we were doing) and by having her practice good behavior while we do the thing. I have worked with a professional extensively, however, and know my dog well enough to be able to tell if she is just posturing out of fear or actually over threshold, in which case I don't do anything which might cause her to escalate her behavior. You did a good thing by counter-conditioning with some treats and removing him from that particular context. Now you need professional help learning to read and diagnose your dog's behavior so you can most efficiently manage and change it.
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Mar 20, 2013 03:27
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Yeah, the dog's already bitten you and if you're going to try to make it work with him, you need a professional and from my perspective, you should go to a veterinary behaviorist because they are also qualified to consider any type of non-behavioral causes that could be contributing to your dog's problem.
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Mar 20, 2013 08:34
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Topoisomerase posted:Yeah, the dog's already bitten you and if you're going to try to make it work with him, you need a professional and from my perspective, you should go to a veterinary behaviorist because they are also qualified to consider any type of non-behavioral causes that could be contributing to your dog's problem.
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Mar 20, 2013 09:28
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I'm looking for suggestions for more ways to help my dog learn how to relax. Vecna and I had a training consulation last weekend and the trainer basically said in my attempt to make sure he doesn't get bored, I've way overstimulated him and now he thinks he needs to be doing some sort of activity 24/7. I'm supposed to limit going to the beach or park to every other day and do mentally taxing but physically easy stuff the other days like searching for things around the house, recreational bones, and trick training. Right now I'm supposed to reward him for offering calming signals, reward heavily for choosing to relax, and reward him for being calm around stimulating things. What else should I be doing to help him chill out? We're starting private lessons next week to work on being calm, impulse control, and frustration tolerance. Triangulum fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Mar 20, 2013 |
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Mar 20, 2013 16:29
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Triangulum posted:I'm looking for suggestions for more ways to help my dog learn how to relax. Vecna and I had a training consulation last weekend and the trainer basically said in my attempt to make sure he doesn't get bored, I've way overstimulated him and now he thinks he needs to be doing some sort of activity 24/7. I'm supposed to limit going to the beach or park to every other day and do mentally taxing but physically easy stuff the other days like searching for things around the house, recreational bones, and trick training. Mat work. Links in the OP. Similar to what you're doing but it's context sensitive.
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Mar 20, 2013 16:38
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Triangulum posted:I'm looking for suggestions for more ways to help my dog learn how to relax. Vecna and I had a training consulation last weekend and the trainer basically said in my attempt to make sure he doesn't get bored, I've way overstimulated him and now he thinks he needs to be doing some sort of activity 24/7. I'm supposed to limit going to the beach or park to every other day and do mentally taxing but physically easy stuff the other days like searching for things around the house, recreational bones, and trick training. We have the same problem, except Psyche's inability to relax is anxiety-based (she learned that working is a great distraction from her anxiety and now won't stop working, basically). We have tried a number of things. In the beginning, we did mat work, rewarding for calming signals and Be Still cue from Brenda Aloff's books. All of these things were good, but they only got us halfways there because she still saw the mat as work and learned to act/be calm but not really relaxed when giving calming signals and during Be Still. We also tried body massage, which got us a little bit farther. What I am having success with right now is getting her ramped up with play or training and then asking her for a downstay (you could also do this on a mat) and rewarding for entering a more relaxed state than what she was in, which for her basically is her head down, her ears relaxed, and her breathing slows down. Be careful with this cuz some dogs can be tricksy and 'fake" relaxation. Like she pretends to be relaxed by being really still, but gives herself away cuz her ears are still listening for the neighbors so she can get all upset cuz they exist. She also switches to more "relaxed" positions, like kicking her leg out because once upon a time I thought that was good enough (and it was at the time, given the context) and rewarded it a lot. You really need to put it in the context of their entire body language if you are going for REALLY relaxed. Of course, you can decide how relaxed you really need him to be. This last method is basically a form of the switching games also in the Aloff books.
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Mar 20, 2013 17:10
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Thanks for the advice, I'll start him on mat work and the protocols today. I like that they've got a daily schedule, that's super helpful  Vecna does the same thing Psyche does and gets very intense about faking calmness so I've tried to be mindful of that. I've been trying not to reward him until his ears and eyes stop darting around, he seems to forget about the treats, his eyes soften, and/or his facial muscles relax. Otherwise he treats laying down like he's the sole person on earth who can keep the floor from flying off into space.
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Mar 20, 2013 17:25
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Triangulum posted:Otherwise he treats laying down like he's the sole person on earth who can keep the floor from flying off into space. Hahaha, yeah this. Psyche makes laying on the floor look like an EXTREME SPORT. I also started the relaxation protocols, but they were still too work-y for Psyche right now. She can do all the exercises, but wasn't getting the relax part (it's super obvious cuz she whines). I plan to go back to them later, but for now, she needs the contrast from the switching game and I need to be able wait her out without asking for anything else. Good luck!
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Mar 20, 2013 17:36
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Okay, confession time, I haven't bothered with the Protocols for Relaxation, though I'm sure Cohen would benefit from it. At home if she's annoying me (and she's already had her walk(s) that day) I'll tell her a) lay down, and if that doesn't work, b) go to her bed, then if still unsuccessful, c) I'll lock her in another room. I find that dogs will adapt to their daily schedule fairly well assuming you've given appropriate outlets already. If you give more, they expect more. I would see the Protocols coming in handier when dealing with crating dogs (or doing mat work, etc) while out and about, not at home. Perhaps it's my failure as a trainer, but Cohen clearly knows when I'm working her even when I'm trying to build a decent settle. And then it feeds into the cycle of her getting accustomed to me working her, and therefore expecting to be worked more often. I'd rather make it clear to her that she needs to settle and that I'm not interested in interacting with her at all at that point in time. I'll use a frozen bone or long lasting chew (like 1+hr long lasting) to supplement walks on nights I can't make it out, and it seems to work out alright. But Cohen is also a pain in the loving rear end when she's antsy and I'm bad and normally try to find a way to satiate her (within reason).
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Mar 20, 2013 17:47
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What kinds of chews do you give her? I've been having trouble finding anything that lasts Vecna more than 15-20 minutes. He eats braided bully sticks and frozen kongs in a couple of minutes and isn't very into antlers. Frozen marrow bones and frozen raw meat last a bit longer but are still gone in under 30 min.
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Mar 20, 2013 18:00
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I think the longest lasting items are frozen raw marrow bones and pork ribs. However, Cohen is 35 pounds, so what may be long lasting to her may not be so long lasting for Vecna.
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Mar 20, 2013 18:12
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a life less posted:At home if she's annoying me (and she's already had her walk(s) that day) I'll tell her a) lay down, and if that doesn't work, b) go to her bed, then if still unsuccessful, c) I'll lock her in another room. I find that dogs will adapt to their daily schedule fairly well assuming you've given appropriate outlets already. If you give more, they expect more. I do exactly this for most stuff during the day. Go lay down (which she somehow learned from me just yelling it at her while I was trying to work at home, oops), chew your bone, or she gets timeout in the bathroom. We use knuckle bones or a stuffed kong, that's the only thing she doesn't eat in two seconds or that I'm afraid will hurt her. The give more, expect more thing is so true. Psyche settles down and behaves so nicely for my husband and not me because I work her waaay more than he does, so she thinks she is entitled to my attention whenever she wants. It's really unfair. When something is going on (we're out or there are others in our house) though she has two modes, working or freaking out, so we've been trying to reinforce the idea that relaxing is good too. I hope that teaching her what relaxing IS (that was the hard part and most things didn't quite work) and pairing it with a lot of food will eventually create a preference in her for it. I think part of her preference for work is that it makes her feel better, anxiety-wise. I hope that she will eventually recognize relaxing as something that makes her feel better too and an option in addition to work for low-key situations.
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Mar 20, 2013 18:40
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Triangulum posted:What kinds of chews do you give her? I've been having trouble finding anything that lasts Vecna more than 15-20 minutes. He eats braided bully sticks and frozen kongs in a couple of minutes and isn't very into antlers. Frozen marrow bones and frozen raw meat last a bit longer but are still gone in under 30 min.
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Mar 21, 2013 08:09
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Triangulum posted:I'm looking for suggestions for more ways to help my dog learn how to relax. Vecna and I had a training consulation last weekend and the trainer basically said in my attempt to make sure he doesn't get bored, I've way overstimulated him and now he thinks he needs to be doing some sort of activity 24/7. I'm supposed to limit going to the beach or park to every other day and do mentally taxing but physically easy stuff the other days like searching for things around the house, recreational bones, and trick training.
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Mar 21, 2013 11:05
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Here's yet another great blog entry by Denise Fenzi. This one is on the nature of corrections. http://denisefenzi.com/2013/03/20/what-is-a-correction/ If a correction is designed to make the dog correct, why does it often look like the dog is being made sorry rather than being made right?
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Mar 21, 2013 18:10
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Kind of a  question but MrFurious, in the Protocols for Relaxation it says things like "sit for 5 sec, sit for 10 sec, sit for 10 sec, sit while you clap". Are these supposed to be separate sits and if so, should I be cuing him to get up? Or is that just how often I should be rewarding him? If he breaks a sit between "sit for 5 sec" and "sit for 10 sec", do I still immediately end the exercise?E: VV The sample sequence and the "reward process" section both say to treat from your hand so you can remove the reward if the dog breaks the sit Triangulum fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Mar 21, 2013 |
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Mar 21, 2013 22:04
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^^^AFAIK you're supposed to drop/throw the reward a little so that he breaks the sit to get it?
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Mar 21, 2013 22:18
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 21:42 |
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Whatever site I was reading when I started doing it said that they should basically stay in the same position the entire time (sit or down, whatever is comfy for the dog) without resetting. It's supposed to be a chill-out-while-poo poo-happens exercise, so it makes sense to me that the dog shouldn't be moving around a ton. Edit: Also, I wouldn't do things like jerk the treat back if the dog breaks the sit. If the dog breaks the sit then I would work on stay and leave it separately before starting the protocols again. The goal of the protocols is not just to have the dog hold the stay, but to be relaxed about it and the other things going on. If holding a basic stay is too hard then it's more like work than relaxation right? I mean some things may be hard for the dog, but if waiting patiently for a treat is one of them, I think the exercise isn't going to be very effective. Maybe I am way overthinking this though. Kiri koli fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Mar 21, 2013 |
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Mar 21, 2013 22:53
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