Member Riggan
MemberForum Replies Created
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Ryan, sorry it has taken so long to get a response to this. Yes, if the dog is nervous / stressed, he probably won’t be interested in eating. 13 weeks is still very young. You might be moving too fast for him. You want to work on building his confidence when away from home. Are there places you can take him that are not stressful for him? This is far better than trying to create positive associations when he is fearful. This can backfire by rewarding fear. Try to take him places that he can have fun. Then very gradually progress to slightly more challenging environments. Work on basic obedience commands at home until your pup is very confident in his response. Then you can ask for sit, down, etc when out and about and really highly reward him for responding. Even if he knows the command we’ll at home, start outside by luring him. This MUST start in a distraction / stress free location away from home, though. The more you are able to build a history of positive responses, the more confident your pup will become and the greater trust you will build. Going too many scary places too quickly will just reinforce for him that the world is a scary place. Good luck!
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What a lucky dog! Yes – you are overthinking it. He is now active all day long and is tired when he gets home. You might want to shift to short training sessions during the day, since he is with you. Think through some behaviors you would like him to do at the shop. Maybe it is remaining on his bed while you talk to a customer, or picking up a tool when you drop it, or taking a note to a designated employee. It doesn’t matter what it is. Then start training it. Be creative as you think through tasks. He will love having a job, and you might even find him helping out around the facility!
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Oops – I didn’t tag Alin correctly. Trying again!
Robert also has several good articles about bringing a shelter dog home on the Bound Angels website, but for some reason none of the links are working right now. (@alin – can you help us get access to that material? I don’t see the articles I am thinking about on the Resources page. Thanks!)
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Claudia, First of all, welcome to the site! You will find lots of very supportive people here, many with a wealth of knowledge about dogs and dog training. Second, you have only had your dog 2 weeks, so you should expect it to be a bit of a rocky start. You don’t say what your dog’s background is, but it is quite possible he has already been through quite a lot in his 1 year of life. He needs time to adjust and get used to you just as you need time to get used to him. The rule of thumb is that a rescue takes about 3 months to settle into a new home, and then will continue to show enormous change for the first year. So don’t give up on him or you yet!
Lastly, you don’t say what types of issues you are having so we can only offer very general suggestions. The top thing that you need to build with your new dog is trust. I love the comment about being his “rock.” That is certainly a good start! Patience and consistency are key. Setting reasonable expectations is also important. Remember that in some way, your dog has already been traumatized and in some form abandoned by those who should have provided for him (even if it was for a good reason – the dog doesn’t understand any of that, and just knows his world has changed drastically).
Robert has some excellent resources related to rescue dogs and bringing them into the home. Here are a few:
How to Rescue a Shelter Dog – Podcast Episode 67 – Robert Cabral
SHELTER DOG RESCUE Dog Q&A LIVE Understanding What is Best for Rescue Dogs – YouTube
He also has several good articles about bringing a shelter dog home on the Bound Angels website, but for some reason none of the links are working right now. (#Alin – can you help us get access to that material? I don’t see the articles I am thinking about on the Resources page. Thanks!)
Hang in there for a while, Claudia. Let us know more specifically what the issues you are encountering are. And don’t worry about your English. You did great!
Riggan
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Good suggestions by Ed. In addition, I would give her a place to be while you are eating. Some place where she can be part of the family during this time but not annoying. Lance has a cot in our living room (we have an open floor plan with living room / dining room connected). You can teach her a “Go to your place” command, or you can have it next to a heavy sofa or something that you can use to tether her to so she can’t approach the table. Once she learns to go to this place and stay there, you can start using this new command if she tries to come to the table. Then, if she does not respond to her “Go to your place” command, you can give a correction (although I would probably avoid the use of the e-collar for this for now, and just use a verbal or leash pop correction).
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Rhonda,
There are likely multiple factors involved here. How much do you know about this rescue’s past? Is there a basis for his fear aggression? That doesn’t change how you will go about resolving it, but it can help you understand and predict where behaviors will occur. Also, at 5 months, the dog could be going through a normal adolescent fear period. From an evolutionary perspective, at this age, young pups are starting to explore more without their mom around. Building in a heightened sense of fear during this period helped ensure survival of the species as the young dogs start to learn what is safe and what is not.
So how to handle it? I agree that in your house, a crate is a wonderful tool especially if children or strangers are around. If possible, put the crate far enough away that the dog can see or hear the people without being overly stressed by them. Give the dog a stuffed Kong or something else that is very appealing to him so that he starts associating visitors with good things. Do NOT let the visitors approach him or do something that the dog will perceive as threatening. When I started with Lance, this meant he was in my office with the door closed where he could still hear guests but not see them. I would periodically during the visit go give him a chicken jerky strip or something like that. Once he was not bothered by the guests (other than the initial warning alert that there are intruders in the home!!!!), I would leave the door open so he could catch glimpses of the people. Then I advanced to having him on his cot at the far end of the room or laying under my legs. You get the idea – very gradual advancement of difficulty, but only within his comfort level and with the actions of the guests carefully controlled. Top priority is always to keep the guests safe. If it is children who are likely to be noisy and move quickly and unexpectedly, to this day I will keep Lance separated and behind closed doors. It is just too much to expect of him to deal with them.
Outside the home, start with a quiet park or at a time when there are few people there. I would definitely not take him to a dog park or force him to play with other dogs during class. I like the suggestion that you continue to do obedience training (with a high rate of positive reinforcement) while the other pups play. Do not shelter him from scary stuff, but only expose him at a safe distance. “Safe” means that he can see something that might be a concern to him but he is also still able to turn his focus to you and respond to training. Remember that with a change in distraction level, you will need to drop your expectations back to step one. So even if he is 100% on “Sit” at home, when he is in the park with a distraction, return to luring the sit. Then gradually build back up to 100% response. Each time you move closer to the distraction, lower your expectations. Only move closer when he is comfortable at the prior distance. Throughout this process, he is learning to trust you and that you will keep him safe, so don’t break this trust by trying to rush the results.
Definitely watch Robert’s many “Join the lesson” videos to find out how YOUR tension can be going right down the line to your dog. I wouldn’t necessarily rush to a prong collar. The last thing you want is the pup to associate the pain / pinch of the prong with the feared objects: “See – I was right to be scared! I try to drive that thing off and it hurts me!” Also, in Robert’s latest video with the Dutchie-Mal mix, you can see the almost instantaneous change when he takes a fearful reactive dog off the prong and onto a slip lead. He talks about how a prong can make a reactive dog worse.
Consistent exposure is key. That doesn’t necessarily mean every day, though. Things will happen, and if your dog has a particular scare one day, you might want to avoid any triggers for a couple of days before restarting. It can take adrenaline levels over 24 hours to return to base level after a fight / flight response is triggered. If this is related to a fear period, you could very well see a substantial change within weeks. Regardless, keep working on it bit by bit. Your pup is still very young, and much of his confidence will come from seeing you stay calm and unconcerned. Then you will have a long and loving companionship for years to come. Good luck!
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Cecilia, I had a similar problem with my last golden. One of the things I noticed with him is that it typically was a frustration / feeling overwhelmed behavior. He was extremely mouthy as an adolescent, but by 9-months he knew that was frowned upon. He really wanted to be a “good” boy, but when he started feeling pressure during training (asking for a bit more than he could easily do), his mouthy “alligator” side would come out. He would then redirect that energy into pulling the grass. As Walid said, this can then become a self-reinforcing behavior. So how to address it?
1) Take a look at your training. Are you asking too much too fast? Are there more corrections than rewards? These can increase the pressure that the dog feels. In general, I like to keep about an 80 / 20 ratio between rewards and corrections (90 / 10 is even better!). If I have to correct the dog more than that, I am probably moving too fast. A little pressure during training is a good thing – it keeps the dog moving forward – but too much is not.
2) Movement is your friend! It lets the dog expend that built-up energy that he doesn’t know how to appropriately control yet. I wouldn’t use fetch for this, since it disconnects the dog from you. Instead, I might try a game of “Catch me if you can!” with the dog chasing YOU rather than the other way around. Run away from him, call him if necessary, and then give a huge reward / praise when he catches you. Then turn and run again. Make it a great, exciting game that has great pay-back for him. This will also make recall training go much easier. I also love to use tug. For my golden, this gave him a different and appropriate route to redirect that “alligator” behavior. (I also love tug as a great way to reinforce basic obedience commands in a fun, game oriented approach. And by its very nature, tug is an interactive game that the dog can only play with your participation.) Robert has some good videos on teaching tug. This was probably my most useful tool with my golden. I would watch him carefully, and if I saw him starting to get tense or frantic, I would give him a simple command that I knew he could obey, such as Sit. Then I would immediately pull out his tug toy and start a rousing game of tug as his reward. Then I would start throwing in some sits and downs to gradually get him back to focusing on obedience in a fun way. Once I could see that the frantic energy that had been building up during training was dissipating, I’d put the tug toy away and return to our training for a bit. Tug for him was far more exciting than grass pulling. As he matured, the grass pulling subsided as he became better able to cope with frustration and pressure.
3) As Walid said, work with him on a long line and train a solid “Leave It” command. (“Leave it” is another command I use during tug games. I first train “Leave it” in a more traditional static setting until I know the dog understands the meaning. I then play tug for a bit before telling the dog to “Sit.” I hold the tug in front of the dog and tell him “Leave It.” At first this might just be for a couple of seconds, and then I tell him “Get It!” in an excited tone of voice. I start increasing the difficulty both in length and by teasing him with the toy before letting him “Get It!” All of my dogs have adored this game, and they develop so much self control. I don’t do any harsh corrections for breaking – I keep it more light-hearted as a game rather than strict obedience – but I don’t let the dog have the tug until he is able to control himself.)
Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
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Shelby, Jason gave you some good advice. I’m going to provide some that is somewhat contradictory to his, and you will have to find what works with your pup. You have a big advantage with such a young dog. As Robert keeps saying, every dog is different, and what works for one may not work for another.
Lance, my 4yo rescue GSD mix, is also terrified of children. When we got him last year if he so much as heard a child no matter how far away, he would tuck tail and run into the house. Unlike your pup, we have strong reason to believe that he did have negative associations with small children in a prior unsuccessful adoption. Like Jason, I ALWAYS have Lance on a leash around children, but primarily because I want to be absolutely certain that there is no chance of a child being bitten due to fear aggression. Where my actions diverge a bit from what Jason says is that I DO allow Lance to get as far away from the child as he needs to in order to feel safe. I’m not going to go into all the tiny steps I have taken with Lance on this issue over the past year, but he can now go past children on the trails without a problem. We can even walk past a playground with a few kids and he doesn’t like it, but also doesn’t go into flight mode. He has befriended a 14yo neighbor girl, and is actually starting to show a bit of interest in her 5yo brother. He still keeps his distance from him and his 3yo sister, but is no longer terrified of them. All the steps I have taken have 2 elements in common: 1) I don’t force him to be near children, although I do expose him to them in different ways. He has learned that he can trust me not to put him in a situation he can’t handle. 2) He consistently sees that as far as I am concerned, children are no big deal. With the neighbors, he frequently sees me talking and laughing with them. I use a 30-foot leash so he can keep as far away as he wants, but I stop and chat with them a bit. This gives him confidence and also lets him control how close he will come to them. Yesterday, for the first time, he came within about 5 feet of the neighbor boy, and was more “interested but cautious” rather than afraid. I have no doubt that it won’t be too much longer before they are friends.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I want you to have hope that it can be overcome. Your situation might also be a bit different. It is possible that at around 4-mo, your pup is going through a fear stage. I wouldn’t make a big deal of it (although taking precautions and not allowing it to become a big deal to the pup or to allow an unfortunate incident with your grandchildren). You might find that in a few weeks or so, the issue just naturally goes away. If it does not, I’ll be happy to provide more detail of the steps I have taken with Lance. Good luck!
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Great, William! It seems like you found the right technique to use with her – way to go!
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Adam,
Yes, Robert uses the approach that the Stay is implied in the Sit (or Down or Stand or any static command). He does not use a separate Stay command.