General Members
This group is dedicated to members who want to interact with other members and talk about their... View more
Organizers:
- Organized by
-
-
Layla’s Journey
-
Layla’s Journey
I rescued Layla ( 6 year old Belgian Malinois) back in June and we’ve had some issues with her. When I received her she was getting over a hematoma with her ear that became infected and repaired. Also tested positive for Lyme Disease as asymptomatic and was put on an antibiotic from her previous Vet. That antibiotic cause some digestive stress causing loos bowls. My Vet suggested we come off the antibiotic and we put her on a bland diet. During her initial exam it was discovered that she had a fractured tooth. Once her digestive issue was cleared up we made an appointment for dental surgery. Wound up she had multiple fractured teeth and plaque and tartar build up causing some gum inflammation. My Vet suspects she had been gnawing on metal and other hard objects or even tennis balls which are harmful to a dogs teeth.
(Let me back up a little—Layla has been and is very reactive/aggressive to other dogs. I’m suspecting her mouth pain may be part of the cause of the reactivity along with not being socialized and/or trained to cure that mess).
While all this is happening I’ve been using Robert’s Training Techniques taught here on the website.
Ahhhhh….consistency, patience and using the same inflection. Duh. Here we go, thousands of reps!
Layla and I on our journey–I’ve been doing the right turn circling/spiraling on loose leash training with Lyala and we were doing pretty good and then the yawning and checking out from her would begin. Short attention span of about 5-7 minutes. Signal for me that that session was/is over. Some walk and play and rest until our next walk in a few hours. Then we’ll do it again until it becomes second nature.
Then we had a medical issue (tooth extractions) to take care of and shut our training down a little. We’ll keep doing it but in shorter duration intervals. We are in day 3 of recovery. Last night she was having a problem with pain as she was breathing rapidly and rolling her tongue and seemed uncomfortable, but once we went to sleep and woke up this morning she seemed more relaxed. Short “business” walk, breakfast and she is comfortable. Dialing it down.
Stay tuned as we both learn and conquer. I saw a post from Jay Jack on how to deal with the aggressive behavior to where you should play first (tug) to decompress the drive a little, take the tug toy with you on a walk and when you see the “trigger” begin to introduce the tug to distract and be more energetic than the trigger and practice the out command to where the out can become longer and longer in duration. We’ll see!
-
3 Replies
-
Steve,
There is something that you can do that might assit the many problems that Layla has. Your can order a wide-spectrum probiotic for dog with many different strain in it. Most people are unaware that the gut is the “master brain” for the entire body impacting every organ, emotion, and thought process. It is amazing really. A simple probiotic gets the gut under control and then all the problems (or most of them) resolve.
My dog was recently on a probiotic becaue she was on antibiotics. They sprinkle on the food, they are taste neutral so dog do not fight them, and are once a day. I would keep Layla on them for a month or two just to get her symptoms under management. You will have a “new” dog that compliments your training routine and Layla’s health issuex will minimize, and some go entirely away.
My prayers will be with you and Layla.
Celeste
-
Hi Steve,
Sounds like Layla is lucky to have found you. As you’ve noticed, she will have a difficult to impossible time learning while she is ill or in pain.
Might be a good idea to listen to Jay’s post again- assuming you mean his talk on differential reinforcement. It’s complicated.
Have you seen the daytodaydogtraining pateron? He has an entire reactivity case (board & train) posted. It’s a shepherd. He is somewhat aligned with Jay & Larry Khron and deals with all kinds of dog aggression. He is very involved with dog rescue and volunteers his services to local shelters.
If you are interested in working with a trainer- he’s TWC certified and on the TWC website you can find certified trainers that work his way, in your area.
Good luck. ❤️ (it should not take thousands of reps to help Layla or any dog).
-
**Might be a good idea to listen to Jay’s post again- assuming you mean his talk on differential reinforcement. It’s complicated.**Yes, I do believe this was the post. Real complicated for sure. But manageable. There are times I do have to take humane measures like a slight grab of her flesh around by her ribs with a “soft” No, we don’t do that.” She get’s it. Then there are the squirrels! Now she is staring up at the trees!! Val, this is challenging and fun at the same time once you start noticing progress. I have been taking her out to do her business and stretch her legs a little and always circumventing any triggers. Except those darn squirrels! Just have to put in the time.
-
Log in to reply.