Adopted Pound Puppy

[Guest]

I am a long time member of the Dog Forum, but had to have my Jack Russell of 17 years put down 7 months ago, due to Doggy Dementia.

I have finally decided to share my life with another pooch. This time I decided t rescue a pup for 2 reasons; I did not want to get a young dog as I have a spinal condition and am not as quick or agile on my feet, so would find it hard to run after a puppy trying to housae train and such, secondly I wanted to rescue an unwanted pooch and give him a second chance.

I found a Lhasa Apso Cross at the pound, he is about 2 years old. He is extremely friendly, great with people, great with other animals, but I'm having one major problem. From what I can gather, those who have had him before quite obviously played with him quite roughly as a pup. Consequently as he as grown and teeth and paws have become bigger the play has become really rough. The problem is that he has never been given any boundaries, he does not know what "no" means. When he wants to play he attacks feet (which is harder for me due to my balance issues). Over the past week I have been using the "Reward Training" and ignoring the bad behaviour and reinforcing the good behaviour, i am avoiding using the word no as this just seems to encourage the "game". When he starts to bite at my hands, I ball them up and move them out of his reach, if he jumps up, I stand up until he settles down then sit and reward him with praise for his calm behaviour. When I walk and he attacks my feet, I stop, turn my back and ignore him until he loses interest. I know that it's going to take time, but I want to know that I'm doing the right thing. I've got the rest of the family involved, so that he's not getting confused by others different treatment of him. Besides this Rough Housing, he is a wonderful dog. He walks well on the lead (I have a dog walker) He gets a good amount of exercise each day. He's learnt to retrieve, sit and stay with in days. Even though he is 2, we named him a new name which he knew with in days, so it's frustrating that this is taking such a long time. That is why I want to know I'm doing the right thing! I hope anyone can help me?

[Daydreamer]

It sounds like your doing everything right to me It takes time like you said, just persevere. (spelling??!)

Maybe post in the training forum and you might get a bit more advice

[Poppyx]

i would lover to see a photo! i also have a lhasa apso cross, she is the same age

..on your problem though - she can be the same in playing.......yesterday i called her name and she ran and jumped in my lap licking my face then got a bit excited and nipped it .........

you sound like your doing really well with the training though! i think it will pay off

our girl retrieves 'ball'! kinda cute coz it hardly fits in her mouth X

and when we get visitors she will Not stop barking grr

[raineth]

Hi Rocky,

I think you are doing the right thing

When a dog has done a behaviour because it is rewarding (i.e. he is rough with humans and is rewarded by them playing with him); and then suddenly the reward for doing that behaviour stops (you ignore him and don't 'play along'); then the he will most likely persist for a long time and may even get worse as he is trying so hard to get the reward he expects.

This is unfortunate as a lot of the time people will think they aren't doing the right thing - when they are!

So yeah I just wanted to say that just because you haven't noticed a change yet, doesn't mean its not going to happen. You sound like you're being very consistent. And so my bet is that this behaviour will continue for a little bit and then all of the sudden it will decline rapidly and disappear

by the way this 'phenomenon' is called extinction

let us know how it goes

[Guest]

Thank for all your replys. I feel more reassured that I'm doing the right thing. I want to improve his behaviour not hinder it.

Thans again, I will keep you all informed.