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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Lynne has been training dogs since 1985. She has worked as head trainer for two facilities, a studio trainer (print ads, commercials and television) and as a continuing ed and certification rep for what was then the largest dog training company in the US. Lynne is a member of the IACP and keeps her training techniques current by attending various seminars and reading books. She currently competes in the sport of schutzhund, has a registered therapy dog, and has started her young Papillion in agility. Lynne owns and runs Blazing Trails K9 Academy in Santa Clarita/Antelope valley California.
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[Edit]
5/1/2006
I am asking this question for my grandmother. She has a 7 month old sheltie who has always been a good dog with no behavior problem for the past dew day she has been barking and growling and just going crazy she is being violent with her toys and tearing them up as well as running a rampage on the house. She has never acted like this before and we were wondering if there was anything we could do to help her clam down again. They have tried the spray gun method but it doesn't work.(mj_25545, West Virginia)
There are many reasons why this sheltie could be
acting this way. My first guess would be a vet check
up if the dog were truly acting very different from
normal. If it were a medical problem, using the spray
gun wouldn't be fair. Generally behavior issues that
show up randomly and that are changes from the dogs
normal personality may have some medical underpinnings
and a vet check up would be in order.
Another reason might be the dogs age. At this point,
you're dealing with a young adolescent. Has anything
else in the household changed? Has any
one moved or
doing anything that might possibly stress the dog out?
If so, figuring that out might help.
Also, some obedience training is in order if you
haven't already started. One problem with just
correcting a behavior problem is that it doesn't teach
the dog HOW to behave. And if this IS a behavior
problem, then correcting it MAY get rid of the problem
behavior, or it may just turn into another bad
behavior. Therefore, it's important to determine how
you want the dog to behave, and then start training
for that. Once you've got that foundation underway,
then you can start correcting the problem. Examples
would be teaching a down stay with a chew toy, or
keeping a leash on the dog while in the house for
awhile until she calms down.
It's usually best to
teach an alternative behavior and/or prevent the
problem from happening in the first place BEFORE you
start correcting the dog for a bad behavior.
In this case though like I said, if it is a new
behavior that doesn't fall into her normal range of
personality traits, you might consider a visit to the
vet.
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