I had been sitting on their sofa for a couple of hours and had slowly made friends with him.
The little dog thought I was leaving. He changed in a flash into a snarling, barking, biting dervish.
The Jack Russell now has a lovely home with a lady who cares for him deeply, but he is highly stressed much of the time. Continue reading…
Five-and-a-half-month-old Harry leash wrestles; he tugs and bites it. It’s in one set of circumstances only. At the end of his walk, when they they get to the entrance of the park, Harry goes into some sort of frenzy. Flying about nipping, he attacks the lead and tugs at it as he swings about, growling.
Always excitable and a jumper, he has only started this ‘wild’ behaviour where he wrestles the lead in the last couple of weeks. The lady is actually scared. Harry suddenly changes character. She feels like he’s attacking her. Continue reading…
Nala ignores Come when called when she sees another dog to run up to and jump on! That’s their only problem really apart from some jumping up due to over-excitement.
Nala is an unusual-looking dog. Stunning, large and fluffy. She is a very friendly mix of Leonberger and Giant Poodle.
They have worked hard with training the two–year-old. The problem isn’t severe – yet. She has good recall mostly but she ignores Come when she’s called when they most need it. They are doing the right thing getting help before it escalates into anything more.
The smallest thing sets anxious Cas off. If he settles for a moment, just the intake of breath from someone is enough to cause him to leap to his feet again. Then he rushes about, mouth wide open, panting.
The Staffordshire Bull Terrier may settle again – briefly. Then a sound from outside starts him off again. When suddenly alarmed, his response may be to charge at somebody, mouth open, and jump on them – usually the young man.
Ollie won’t let anyone groom him. He absolutely hates it. The Border Collie has developed tangles inside his back legs and behind his ears which need to be cut out.
The only way a groomer can work on him is to muzzle him and then use force. The otherwise very friendly dog completely changes personality. He becomes aggressive, snarling and showing his teeth.
His last visit to a groomer was a year ago now.
Within a few minutes of being with them, I discovered two things that may be relevant. He had been jumping at me in a very friendly fashion. When his feet were on the floor I gently put my hand out to touch him behind his ears.
Immediately I saw his teeth. He growled, backing away.
Oh! I didn’t expect that.
When Beau leaped at the kitchen table she knocked the coffee mugs flying!
Seven-month-old Beau was chosen from the litter as the most bold and pushy puppy. She organised the others, I am told, by barging them and stirring up trouble – and then sitting back to enjoy the results!
She was a mouthy, nippy puppy. This wasn’t countered immediately or correctly. Hand games and chasing her for things she stole added fuel to her wild behaviour.
As she got bigger and things became more painful, they have had to use more physical force to push her off them, to remove her away from things and to extract things from her mouth. She will do nothing when simply asked.
They can’t have her in the lounge with them for more than a few minutes before she goes wild and has to be put in the kitchen. Her worst wild episodes as so often is the case happen where she has more space – out in the garden. There have been a couple of occasions when the little girl hasn’t been safe.
In the belief that the more exercise and interaction she has, the better behaved she will be, each day starts off with too much stimulation – a prolonged welcome fuss before breakfast followed by ball play in the garden, excitement before getting in the car to take the child to school and then a walk which is probably too long for a pup of seven months.
Anyway, as she got older puppy Beau became defiant when she didn’t get her own way.
The young dog may get angry when thwarted. Several times now she has snarled, showed her teeth and lunged. Her eyes ‘looked funny’.
This is the consequence of using methods of force on a determined and strong dog. How frustrating it is for a dog not to know what she should be doing. (Please take a look at my favourite video showing the power of Yes versus No).
I showed them how we would create a willing and happy dog exercising self-control by using the power of Yes, by keeping Beau as calm as possible, by giving her suitable mental stimulation and by removing opportunities for rehearsing the wild behaviour.
By motivating her.
Almost immediately Beau began to respond to reinforcement for the right behaviour. She was becoming a lot calmer than she had been for a long time, particularly with the little girl present.
This is a typical case of owners getting through the days by fielding everything the dog throws at them so it becomes No No NO Stop, push away, drag off, shut away … and so on, and ‘letting sleeping dogs lie’ when the dog is quiet.
Look at this wonderful face!
It’s just amazing just how quickly a dog responds to Yes Yes Yes and being ‘bigged up’ for each good thing she does so she knows what is required.
Each time the wild behaviour kicked off again we dealt with it by giving the big adolescent other, incompatible things to do instead, making it clear to her what we did want of her.
We soon had Beau coming to us, offering us certain behaviours with little prompting. We had her walking from one of the four of us to another when called gently. We had her responding to understandable instructions and she was loving it.
We used the clicker. The little girl also clicked Beau for sitting – with perfect timing.
It’s no good allowing the dog to rehearse jumping and biting by letting it happen even twice before reacting. It needs to be wiped out completely.
Immediately she jumps she must lose all communication with that person. Immediately she jumps at the table someone must get up, call her off, reward what she should be doing instead and move her onto a different behaviour that is incompatible with jumping at the table.
It takes a huge amount of effort.
Pre-empting and dealing with things before they happen is best of all.
Boosting her for every desirable thing she does must also be immediate – when she sits voluntarily, when she lies down, when she sighs and relaxes. A couple of times she looked at the table which had my smelly treats on it and resisted jumping up. A first! That deserved a jackpot but it must be immediate.
It could help greatly if the little girl didn’t arouse the dog quite so much as the wild behaviour is always far worse when the child is about. She could touch her less, try not to run into the room waving arms, dance around her or do handstands in Beau’s presence. These things quickly send the dog wild.
Even if the child can cut back a little on these things it will help and she will be clicker trained too! They will use the word ‘Good’ and she can collect stars. She will now ask her mum to call Beau inside before going out into the garden – and she will make a poster for the door to remind herself
The next morning I received a lovely message from the lady which is proof if any is needed of the powers of positive reinforcement and calmness:
“I am so excited to tell you that we have had the most relaxed morning since we have got Beau. Last night she came into the lounge and not once did she bite. She tried to get on the sofa once but with a little distraction she came away and lay down.
This morning has been the shocker for me. She has been like a different dog. We have made an extra effort to be calm and relaxed and Beau has been the same. She hasn’t bitten, jumped up, barked…nothing! ……She is now laying peacefully….I know she may relapse and I’m prepared for it but she’s shown me this morning that she is more than capable of being the loving Newfoundland that she should be……I knew she had it in her but to see it is another thing. I am so happy!”
I rang the doorbell bell. Betty barked – as most dogs do. I sat down, she barked at me. She continued to be vocal on and off for most of the time I was there.
At first I thought she wanted to chase me away, but it soon became apparent that she was excited by my presence in a friendly sort of away. They seldom have callers and to Betty I was therefore a major event. If I touched her she went quiet but then would bark at me for more when I stopped.
I couldn’t however get on with my job and pet her all the time. By doing so I was merely reinforcing here for being loudly vocal. If we had put her in another room she would have continued to bark and I didn’t want her even more stressed. Continue reading…
It was hard to imagine as I sat with Cocker Spaniels George and Rupert that the problem is alarm barking. Having had a sniff of me they simply settled down for the evening.
These two dogs have a very good life! They want for nothing. They go to a very good daycare while the couple are at work. They are taken on holiday with them and are very much loved.
They do what they can to stop young Basset Hound Bentley doing unwanted things like jumping at the table and barking for attention.
In fact, they are instead reinforcing these very things.
Whilst reinforcing the unwanted behaviour by ultimately giving Bentley what he’s asking for, they also try discipline – ‘NO’.
They do all they can for Winston but his behaviour is a challenge for the young couple – as it would be for most people. They simply can’t cope with his manic evenings.
They have had the one-year-old English Bulldog for under two months and they are at their wits’ end with him. It’s ruining their life to the extent that the gentleman admits to not wanting to come home in the evening. Continue reading…
