First Post - Advice Sought!

[Guest RosieFT]

Hello all,

I have been a lurker for months but have finally registered and am keen to get some help from you guys!

Just some background, we are the happy owners of a 7.5 month pure bred smooth Fox Terrier puppy named Rosie - my daughter's name choice.

She is gorgeous and has just fitted into our family so well and so easily, is very good with both my kids (3 and 5yrs) and our cat - although does on occasion get a bit carried away.

We got her a bit late (i did worry when i read the thread on the best time to get puppies!) at 14weeks and I started weekly obedience classes with her at 16 weeks and have been going every since. She is super outgoing and loves all people and all dogs - one of the reasons i keep up with the weekly classes because my research of the breed indicated that they can be dog aggressive, even though the breeder disagreed. Nothing phases her and she is super confident - again i have always made sure she sits for dinner, waits before going through doors etc etc because also didn't want a dominant dog. She is an indoor dog with constant access to our garden via a dog door and I am a stay at home mum so she gets plenty of company.

Anyway, enough babble and onto my problem!

She loves brooms, vaccuum cleaners and the hose - high prey drive ?!? I first conquered the vaccuum cleaner, then the broom, but with both she needs reminding every time they come out. She just wants to chase them and grab them. I taught her the 'leave' command and armed myself with treats and went about it that way. The broom sometimes still is just TOO much like a fluffy animal and if she won't listen I up the ante and put her in 'time out'. But on the whole she will 'leave' and get her treat - or several but does give up pretty quickly.

Onto the main problem, the hose. She is obsessed about it and will run to it whenever I come outside and vaguely look like i am going to go anywhere near it, sometimes she just runs there hoping. If I use it she jumps at the water, into the pot plant or whatever I am hosing, and the other day jumped up and bit my hand instead of the nozzle - luckily she felt skin and stopped and didn't leave any marks, but it still stung.

I tried the positive 'leave' method, but she just gets too worked up for it to work as she is not interested in the food rewards at all. I then used a bit of 'correction' training - if that is even a word. Where I would grab her and hold her and tell her leave, or block her path and tell her leave and she started listening but i had to get strong - not aggressive, but very assertive. BUT, and this is what i am not sure about, if she 'leaves' it for a length of time - not long, i tell her 'ok' and she is allowed to 'get' the water. Then i tell her to 'leave' and make her wait, then reward with the 'ok' and she chases water for a bit. Am i confusing her here? It works in that i can usually now water one pot before she can no longer contain herself so i know to get in first to release her.

When we retic the garden we have to lock her inside because she just goes running through all the water, often biting off the heads of the smaller sprinklers....

Is it best to just lock her away when we need to water? Should I accept her obsession? Keep trying to train her?

How do i desensitise her? I admit before i had any progress with leave, i got frustrated and turned the hose on her and just let her do her thing. She was soaking wet, shivering and still chasing the water ages later. Not a good move obviously but i had some vague hope she would either lose interest, or get a bit worried about it, or something.

Thankyou in advance. I hope you don' t mind me bugging you guys, but I have got so much info from this site already I was hoping for more specifics.

[The Spotted Devil]

Just a quick reply as I have to eat my dinner!

When Zig was a rascally puppy, I had a similar problem although it obviously wasn't as entrenched as yours has become (therefore it will take longer for you to break it). I purposely introduced him to the broom, vacuum cleaner, hose etc and as soon as he showed any interest in it I would stop moving it. When he lost interest I would start sweeping again. Puppy interested? Stop sweeping and ignore pup. I actually set him up several times a day rather than waited until I needed to do something. I had spotlessly clean garden paths in the end anyway He now sleeps through my vacuum and sweeping efforts

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Give her a special toy or bone to play/chew when you are watering, hopefully that might distract her.

I had a hose crazy foxy, he went mental and could have bitten me if I wasn't careful as he was so over the top. You could put her away so she doesn't get so frenzied.

I trained my foxy at about 5 yrs of age - he was top of the class, they are super intelligent so you'll do well if you keep going.

[Guest RosieFT]

Thankyou for taking the time to reply

Tonight I watered my pots and totally ignored Rosie - every time she jumped for the water, i just shut it off (have those gun type nozzles) and then continued as if she wasn't there. Not even getting annoyed when she leapt into the lemon trees pot and splashed me with muddly water.. just gave her no notice - except for shutting off the water.

There was no stress, no commands.

She tried barking at the nozzle and i just waited till she stopped before continuing. The only thing is she then tried chomping on the hose to see if that would work and i did correct her for that and she only tried it twice.

So thankyou for the tips!

[WalandLibby]

Lucky you, having a young SFT. My lovely girl died 2 yrs ago. She was also loved to chase the hose, but not to the point that she'd bite me, and I never bothered to try to stop her chasing the water. Actually I really enjoyed how typically Foxy a behaviour it was.

But when I had to hose out pens at the RSPCA I came up with a strategy that probably isn't good for the hose if you have to keep doing it, but you shouldn't have to keep doing it, so I think it's fine. I hosed with one hand and held the hose a bit further down it's length with the other. As soon as the dog looked at the water or moved towards it, I bent the hose in my hand so that it kinked and stopped running (much faster than having to twist a nozzle to off - if you did it that way the dog would already have been rewarded by the time you stopped the water). Although there might be some kinds of nozzle that you can switch on and off instantly. I don't know how much of a history those dogs had of hose chasing, but it didn't take many goes before they seemed to decide that it wasn't worth trying to chase it.

I would think that it would take several sessions of hosing for the dog (especially a Foxy - I don't think they learn from negative punishment especially effectively ;-) to learn that the water *always* goes off if you try to chase it. They might stop trying to do it in a session, but next time you hosed they'd probably try again. Actually if I was hosing near a dog that I didn't want to chase the hose, I'd always be ready to do this - any time they actually did get to chase it would set us way back.

Edited October 30, 2008 by WalandLibby

[Guest RosieFT]

WandL - we are very lucky to have such a wonderful dog in our lives. There is an expression i came across whilst doing my research on the breed and it goes: "You have to have a sense of humour to own a foxy" . My husband and I have on occasion used this to break a tense moment - like the other night when I thought I heard crunching in the house and looked to find Rosie quite happily munching her quite soggy/bloody chicken wing on my freshly changed sheets on our bed! She had decided the grass was too cold and brought it inside instead. You should see her doing her zoomies she is so fast and so cute with her tail tucked between her leg and just doing laps of our large back yard! She does it after an hour at obedience class too - as if to get a release from all the control!

I am in effect, now, using your method as the 'gun' nozzle i mentioned is one where you squeeze a trigger, so when i let go it stops immediately. Thankyou for your advice :-)

She is not yet completely out of control with the hose, but will not be distracted by anything, not food nor her beloved football. Unfortuately I cannot just let her chase the water, because she ends up saturated no matter what the weather and i end up with a shivering dog that needs drying etc. I do plan on getting her a hard plastic pool to have in summer as she does love water and with the warm weather just starting (we are in perth) she has just started a new trick of pawing out her water

Glad to see there are foxy lovers on here!

[Loving my Oldies]

How wonderful to have a "proper" Fox Terrier. You just don't see many around these days - they look so regal and special.

I had a dog who just loved the water and would play and squeal for joy in the days when we could still water freely. She also loved water at the beach - still water with only little ripples coming in. She would run in and "bite" the top of the ripples all the time squealing with joy. How I wish I had a video of those times. She is long gone to god, sadly.

Good luck with Rosie, it sounds as though you are having a wonderful time with her and she with you.

[WalandLibby]

There is an expression i came across whilst doing my research on the breed and it goes: "You have to have a sense of humour to own a foxy" . My husband and I have on occasion used this to break a tense moment

Do you know the quote from Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome? - Fox Terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs. lol. Have always loved that.

Glad to see there are foxy lovers on here!

Because I don't own one anymore I haven't checked particularly, but I don't think there's a breed thread. Would have expected that there was.

[The Spotted Devil]

Thankyou for taking the time to reply

Tonight I watered my pots and totally ignored Rosie - every time she jumped for the water, i just shut it off (have those gun type nozzles) and then continued as if she wasn't there. Not even getting annoyed when she leapt into the lemon trees pot and splashed me with muddly water.. just gave her no notice - except for shutting off the water.

There was no stress, no commands.

She tried barking at the nozzle and i just waited till she stopped before continuing. The only thing is she then tried chomping on the hose to see if that would work and i did correct her for that and she only tried it twice.

So thankyou for the tips!

So pleased you are having some success Be prepared to be persistent, though

[WalandLibby]

Just thought of another Foxy quote - a trainer who I really respect and who admires (with a wry grin) the breed, calls them 'bags of sticks'.

[Guest RosieFT]

WalandLib - loving the quotes.. so true :-)

Cynthia - i don't understand why more people don't have them? I admit i was put off by the notes that they can be dog aggressive and possessive. I am just being vigilent about spotting any problems in this regard and so far have not seen any... she is such a wonderful companion. has fitted in with our family and our cat so easily. Is a real character, and is super loving - would be a lap dog if she had her way! Yet, is also independent enough not to pine if we are not home.

So many people i meet out on walks say they used to have one growing up, or their mum had one or some such thing. Funny how popularity in dogs ebbs and flows.. mind you, some stay there always, like labs etc.