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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
When not coordinating trainers for MAGDRL (Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League), Tressa Everts has been saving dog owners from their dogs for thirteen years.
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10/15/2004
There have been several questions about dogs behaving badly when they see people or dogs.
Rather than answer each individually I'm going to address them as a whole.
Counter Conditioning is a method to change an animals perception of an unpleasant experience
to a pleasant experience. If you have a dog that reacts adversly to other dogs for example.
This would be the protocol. It is very important that you do this in a controlled environment.
Take your pet to a park or someplace where you know there will be other dogs. Start about 50
or so feet from the other dog. Gradually step closer and closer until your pet starts to react.
When you get to the point where the dog is acting up, take two steps back.
You want to be where your dog is aware of the other dog/s, but NOT reacting.
Start jackpotting the dog with food. By jackpotting I mean one treat per second.
I want your pet to learn that the very presence of other dogs means that food will rain from
the sky. When the other dog is no longer in site, stop offering food. It's best to do this with a
friend, and work out a hand signal well in advance that will tell them when to come closer and
when to disappear.
Ideally, what you want your pet to do is look at you when he sees another dog. This will take
some time and effort on your part. Once the dog looks to you for food at 50 feet, then you
SLOWLY decrease the distance of the other dog, until you can get to the point where you can
pass another dog at a distance of about 5 feet or so and have the dog not react.
This works with almost anything that gets a rise out of your dog, from the garbage truck to
strangers, to other dogs.
Hi everyone. I have a 9 year old Australian Blue Heeler that I've had since she was two
months old. I rescued her from a shelter and she's been with me almost every day of the last
nine years. I have a *serious* problem where in the last year or so she has started showing
agression to people for no apparent reason. One friend was petting her gently when all of a
sudden she snapped and bit his finger. She bit another friend on the nose when he was playing
ball with her. And yet another friend got bitten when he tried to take one of her toys from her.
When I say bitten I mean they were actually pinched as she doesn't bite hard. But she behaves
like she's in a dog fight and acts nuts. This has not happened for years and now all of a sudden
it's started. I am actually afraid to play with her or pet her as I never know when I will set her
off. This has been a very trying period so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks! (ghuliani, Outside the US)
My first suggestion would be a complete thyroid test on this dog. A dog doesn't change
personalities without a reason. It sounds to me like there is some other medical cause for
the behavior change. It is important to tell your veterinarian that you want a COMPLETE thyroid
test done, not just the T-4. That's where I would start. Quite often a low thyroid count will
cause behavior problems. Keep us posted.
Hi I have a mixed breed dog, mostly flat coated retriever and spaniel. Sh
e is just a few
months over two years old and I actually have had her since she was 7 weeks old. This is
actually a two part question too. When she was younger she was really friendly and bold
towards strangers and other dogs, but now she's very shy and reclusive. She will hide either
between my legs or behind me now whereas before she used to just go up and try to get
attention or play with the other dog or person. I know this is largely my fault for not socializing
her enough, but what exercises can we do to reverse this so that she's not so fearful like she
was when she was younger? Second question, well she's pretty territorial, so when she sees
people or cars drive by our house she starts barking at them like crazy. I've done some basic
obedience with her and she's a pretty smart and obedient dog overall except for this issue.
I can't get her to calm down and stop barking, even friends she hasn't seen in a while she will
bark at them for a good 10 minutes or so before she finally settles down. There are times if she
doesn't recognize that it's me coming home she'll initially bark at me too until I get closer and
she realizes it's me then she stops immediately. What can I do to get her to understand that
I acknowledge she sees a stranger but that she can stop alerting me? (Kadiya, Colorado)
If you haven't all ready done so, teach her to go to her place when you are home. That and the
Counter Conditioning protocol above should help. The next step would be to teach her to be
quiet on cue. You must first teach her to speak when you ask her to, and then you can
teach the quiet cue.
I have a Siberian Husky, his name is Mishka. He is almost six months old and is still
peeing in the home. Not as often as when we first got him. I would say he goes on average
once a week in the home. Also he has a habit of getting into the garbage, even when i put it up.
I put it up on the counter today and he jumped up and got into it. I dont know what to do.
Any info would be helpful. Also he is still jumping up on people when they walk in my house and
even after that too. Mishka went to puppy school and also puppy graduate school. And he is well
behaved but its just those things. Like i said any advice would be helpful.
thanks (Mishka, Ontario)
Urinating in the house - Go back to step one of house training. Limit the amount of fluid intake
and take the dog out more often that you think he needs to go. When he does urinate outside,
click immediately and reward.
Garbage - Believe it or not this is simply a management
issue. What you must remember is that dogs live in the moment. If there is something great in
the garbage can - the dog will try to get it. That's a simple dog fact. To make it less appealing,
before you leave the house , sprinkle the top of the trash liberally with Cayenne Pepper.
Dogs use their nose to tell them if they should go digging or not. When your pet puts his face
into the can and gets a nose full of the Cayenne Pepper - he will decide pretty quickly that it's
not worth the trouble. Of couse the simpler solution is to take the garbage with you when you
leave.
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