Dog Carrying On Like Pork Chop

[toy dog]

*deleted*

Edited October 14, 2009 by toy dog

[cwm]

My Miss Jemima (who met the lovely Wobbly at K9Force a few weeks ago!) is another who is easily distracted and carries on a bit around other dogs. I think with her, she's a little worried about them, and not really sure how she is supposed to behave - so she feels that she needs to quickly establish that she's friendly and just wants to play...

Things have just started to fall into place for her though - she is now starting to FINALLY heel beautifully, and then... oh, there's a butterfly/leaf/dog/person who I must play with.

What I am finding with Jemima is it's a boundary thing... I tried to ignore/keep walking/walk the other way... all to no avail - she's really listening to what I say now - so now I have just really been enforcing 'no' and 'heel' and I think it's kind of working.

The bigger the distances at the moment from the other dog/person, the better - once I've established at a decent distance, then we can start closing the distance and keep trying...

I had her heeling and watching me fabulously at obedience the other day - then the instructor told us to weave between the other dogs, which caused her a little consternation...but..small steps!!! I figure this will help us.

[Wobbly]

Yay hey CWM - good to see your thoughts in text, that was a fun day, we have been playing heaps of tug since then, I've cut down to one walk a day and the afternoon exercise is tug games

I still haven't incorporated much in the way of commands beyond sit, down & stay yet though with a tug toy reward.

Jarrah & me love adore Jemima - they had a great time playing I imagine she would do very well in obdience - she has a lovely demeanour, attentive and fun loving, but also lovely & calm even around the distraction of about 18 other dogs at close quarters - give her belly rubs from us! She was beautifully behaved at K9Force's - unlike Miss Jarrah who was jumping out of her skin by late afternoon trying to play with all the other dogs. :rolleyes:

Jarrah plays beautifully with other dogs when she's on lead, but I don't trust her off lead, she gets over excited and bites too hard, but on leash she is always good. Unfortunately I think my allowing her to play on lead has really contributed to her leash pulling around other dogs - she thinks she is entitled to play on leash. I only just realised that when I was talking to Steve after the workshop was over - he asks the right questions to make you realise where you've gone wrong.

Steve told me then to keep her from playing with other dogs, so (with one small exception the other day when Jarrah's fave boyfriend Billy was at the beach) I haven't let her. We finally have our private appointment on Jul 26th (K9Force has about a million year waiting list to get an appt) and I am really looking forward to getting his opinion and a training program from him. I'm hoping to get miss Jarrah involved in some kind of work soon - I am thinking weight pull would be good, so I will have to really learn about the doggy psychology behind leash pulling - I will want her to pull in the harness, but not on lead - there will need to be absolutely clear communication between us on this.

[toy dog]

then the instructor told us to weave between the other dogs, which caused her a little consternation...but..small steps!!! I figure this will help us.

oh the weavy thingy!! i remember that now!! thats good practice that, they have to not react to dogs approaching and i think practice makes perfect. it gets them socialising with other dogs and allows you to practice restraining your dog.

[toy dog]

thanks everyone for all your comments including private messages/

[cwm]

Jarrah & me love adore Jemima - they had a great time playing I imagine she would do very well in obdience - she has a lovely demeanour, attentive and fun loving, but also lovely & calm even around the distraction of about 18 other dogs at close quarters - give her belly rubs from us! She was beautifully behaved at K9Force's - unlike Miss Jarrah who was jumping out of her skin by late afternoon trying to play with all the other dogs.

It's funny how you say Jemima was being lovely and calm, and there was I thinking (as she was in her 'I'm bored mode'...what can I do, Oh, I know, let's play tug with Mum's jacket, arm, leash...) everyone was thinking in their heads...what a crazy out of control puppy!!

Give Jarrah hugs from us too - she's gorgeous. I'm sure you'll work things out in no time - it is early days with you and her getting to know each other, and at least you're booked in with Steve so I guarantee it'll be a thing of the distant past in no time!

I tried getting Jemima into prey drive at home with her squeaky elephant - to no avail, so I've tried a few other toys and she's more interested in me then them... and the poor elephant now looks like a pig.. no trunk anymore!

[toy dog]

I think that there are some interesting keys to solving this issue. First one is to learn to relax, and often the heavy talk of leadership and how or how you aren't being a leader can send anxiety levels very high and make the situation even worse!

There are several ways of solving this issue. Most involve some reading of pretty subtle body language from the dog. It is really important to make contact with a good trainer either privately or at a club. Personally, I think it is counter productive to solve these kind of issues over the internet. Vcitoria Stillwell when she is working the dogs is intervening just before the behaviour happens. Most novice trainers don't.

and getting back to the issue, i think a couple of posts is getting off topic here, i don't know about anyone else but i find this subject very interesting and as i have said earlier, its a very common problem with dogs and owners.

i think that the most important issue is obviously, yes, training and getting your dog to focus on you, we've established that in this thread, but also to socialise your dog with other dogs and putting your dog in a situation where you can work on him/her. putting them in the deep end by going to an obedience class i don't know how that is going to pan out but the main problem is other strange dogs and approaching them so it makes sense to go into that environment. i'd prefer to go into a class environment, i feel this would benefit my dog best.

my two cents worth

Edited October 14, 2009 by toy dog