Milo is a beautiful 14 month old Cocker-Springer mix – and a handful! His family adopted him from Wood Green three months ago at eleven months of age.
Hand-reared
It became obvious very soon just why his previous owners had given up on him. Fortunately the members of his new family are giving it all they can and have already made progress.
Milo didn’t have a good start in life because his mother died when he was born and consequently he was hand-reared. It is almost impossible for a human to replace the lessons taught by his mother. From his behaviour it also seems likely that he didn’t have the rough and tumble, give and take and bite inhibition lessons learnt from being reared with siblings.
Milo is a handful
He’s a very good natured and friendly dog – but he is a handful! His ‘crimes’ include jumping up, mouthing and nipping. He steals things for the attention and for the chase. He nip-bites when examined or groomed and grabs a hand that takes his collar. He jumps up at work tops to steal food.
Milo jumps all over visitors and they are afraid to have their young nephews and nieces visit them.
At the start of walks he is flying about, leaping up and grabbing the lead, nipping arms and maybe humping the person holding it. He lacks self control or any form of impulse control.
Reinforcement drives behaviour
His is a perfect example of reinforcement driving behaviour. Attention of any sort will do!
When looked at like that the solutions become clearer. We unintentionally reinforce unwanted behaviour so need to reinforce with attention desired behaviour only. This may be easier said than done – which is where I come in with strategies.
Milo isn’t a handful in every respect. He has some very good traits. He is affectionate. He never barks for attention and is peaceful in his crate – very necessary when they aren’t about to watch him! Neither is he a big barker generally.
The things that most stimulate him need reducing so that he can calm down. It’s not a good idea to play chase games with a dog that mouths, nips and grabs, or who steals things and runs off with them – winding you up for a chase.
He needs rules and boundaries in terms that he understands – provided more by the actions of his humans than by words and commands.
Good self-controlled behaviour needs to become more rewarding than bad behaviour.
About 5 weeks later – some good progress with lead walking: ‘We see lots of progress compared to where we were and are confident your plan is working. One proud moment yesterday was when we watched our son taking Milo out for a short walk. The whole process was a result of the training plan – Milo allowed him to fit the harness without any fuss, he sat and waiting while the lead was attached. He remained calm, and followed my son out of the door with a slack lead, we watched them go off down the driveway, Milo walking at his side, lead slack and a general confident look. Matt had a treat for him and he certainly deserved it!.
