Dog Training Questions
|
Question-
I have two Labradors. One is about two years old the other four years
old. They are
past their puppy chewing stage but whenever we try to leave them out of
their kennels during the day while at work, after about a week of it,
they act out and tear random things apart. They know they have done something
wrong because they run and try to hide in their kennels when they hear
us opening the door. We don't want to have to kennel them all day long,
but we can't seem to stop them from doing this. Is there any other alternative?
Answer-
The first thing to understand is that your dogs do not know that chewing
while you are gone is wrong. They have just learned over and over that
when you come home and find chewed things that you are mad...not
that their chewing is the cause of your anger. Dogs can't make
associations with any behavior after about two seconds. Forget getting
upset when you get home because it only makes the problem worse.
I would guess that there are two problems that you need to overcome:
1- Many people expect too much too fast from their dogs. Before a dog can last eight hours without destroying things he must first perfect five minutes alone. Then ten minutes, then a half hour and so on. The dogs likely got too many hours alone too quickly.
2- The behavior you are describing sounds like bored, anxious behavior. Your dogs likely need much more exercise and much more mental stimulation through obedience training. Make sure to train your dogs daily and make sure they are getting structured walks daily.
Question-
My dog Bubbles has a bad habit of licking she licks to lick when she is
scard when she is happy it doesnt matter what is going on she is always
licking. I wanted to know if there is anything that can stop or cut down
her licking? And why does she lick so much.
Answer-
The key to fixing compulsive dog behaviors is by providing more structure
and using obedience as a means of communication. Teach her to lie down,
sit, or even a trick on command and when she goes to lick you redirect
her attention to a behavior that is more productive.
Question-
I have a three year old male bulldog. The problem that I have with him
is he tries to mount people when they come to visit. He does not do this
to us that live in the home only guest. Its becoming a real problem because
my kids are not able to have friends over. Please help. Thanks
Answer-
Your bulldogs issues are indicative of a lack of respect. Not only for
your guests, who he is mounting, but for you, who he is ignoring when
you tell him to stop.
The way to achieve dominance and respect is through proper obedience training.
You need to teach your dog what 'no' means and that he needs to lie down
when guests come over instead of mounting them.
Question-
My question is I have two boxers. brother and sister and they are tearing
up my house while I am gone to work. They have torn my carpet, dug a hole
in my dry wall, tore down the curtains and torn my swing on the deck.
I have a kennel but I'm not sure if I should put them in there for the
time I'm at work because of what they are doing. They sleep in that at
night. They are potty trained. They have plenty of toys. I have tried
everything that I can think of. So now I'm asking for H E L P please before
they tear up my house more. Thanks
Answer-
From your email it sounds as if you don't want to use the crate as a punishment
for their behavior. You shouldn't. The crate is not meant to be used as
punishment but simply as a means for keeping your dogs out of trouble
until you get home. As they learn how to be in your house without destroying
things it is only at that point that you can gradually give them freedom
outside of the crate while you are gone.
Question-
I have a year old miniature pincher. She chews everything. I'm talking
about getting into the garbage, chewing up bedding and pillows, clothing,
shoes, toys, etc. She has chewed through our matress to where you can
see springs.Also, she has chewed up my daughter's Game Boy. What do I
do to stop this? I'm about ready to get rid of her but then it would just
be a problem for someone else and I'm scared she might end up getting
abused. I really want to keep her but she is costing me lots of money.
Would obedience classes help?
Answer-
First of all I would recommend against group obedience classes. There
is a reason why I have never offered group obedience through my company.
They don't work. They just don't. Group classes offer very little value
and the majority of my clients have gone to group obedience classes before
they ever came to me. Save your money and spend it on private training
in your home.
Second, there is always a common factor in cases like yours. The dog has
no supervision. If the dog had supervision these cases of chewing wouldn't
have happened. What happened instead was that the dog was given freedom
to choose what she wanted to do, she felt like chewing, and the behavior
was self-reinforcing because no one was there to tell her chewing is wrong.
Essentially you have trained her for a year to chew, so the fix isn't
going to be easy. Starting now she needs 100% supervision. I recommend
keeping her on a leash in the house. If you can't watch her keep her in
her crate. If you catch her chewing in front of you correct her with the
leash. After doing this for a while she will start to earn her freedom
around the house, but for now she needs to be under your constant supervision.
Question-
My parents own a sheltie. She has a problem with inscessantly barking.
My parents are about to get rid of her since it's gotten so out of hand,
and the barking is ear piercing. She starts to bark when someone makes
a quick movement toward the door, or someone comes over and knocks or
rings the doorbell. Even after they have been there for a while she continues
to woof. It's really irritating. We've tried a bark collar, a shake can,
praise when she doesn't bark but nothing seems to work. Even if we call
her name in a sharp tone when goes off on her barking spree she doesn't
listen to us. Please help!! I'd hate to see her go, she is otherwise a
brilliant, beautiful, loving dog.
Answer-
First of all, I truly hope you don't get rid of your dog. Your dog's behavior
is a direct result of the environment you have created for her. That is
true for all dogs. Dogs that have 'good' behavior act that way because
their owners have created an environment that allows for good behavior.
Dogs with 'bad' behavior act that way because their owners, whether they
understand it or not, have created an environment that encourages bad
behavior. It would be a big shame if you created and environment that
allowed bad behavior and then got rid of her for it.
Your dog needs to learn more respect for you. I would try a number of
things to fix this problem. I would teach her a reliable 'down stay' and
when she starts barking I would have her lie down and stay there. That
is often enough to change a dog's frame of mind and change barking behavior.
I would also have her wear a leash and correct her when she barks incessantly.
Above all, do what it takes. If it requires hiring professional help do
so. It would be a tragedy to not provide what your dog needs, get rid
of her due to your lack of willingness to help her, and pass her problem
along to another owner.
Question-
I have a five year old male Chocolate Lab. We have owned him for about
three years now. He is very well mannered and most of his training existed
prior to us adopting him. He is never allowed on any furniture in the
house. He has a large dog pillow/bed that he can sleep and lay on for
comfort. Over the past few months he has developed a habit of getting
on the couch when we are away from home (we find hair to prove it). We
have tried placing objects on the couch to make it uncomfortable for him
to get up there, but he continues to do it. Since we are not home when
he does it and he never tries it when we are at home, it is hard to discipline
him and change his habits. I have heard you say that dogs have short term
memory, but when we get home and notice we will usually call him in a
stern voice. He comes in with his head down as if he knows what he is
in trouble for. My guess is that our voice tone creates that reaction
regardless of whether or not he has done something wrong. To get to the
point my question is how do we change this behavior since we are not home.
We have never used a crate or locked him up in anyway when we are away
from the house, because he behaves except this. We like to give him the
freedom to wander, but we do not want the hair on the couch. Can we teach
him to go to his bed if he wants to lay on something soft.
Answer-
You are right, when you speak firmly upon arriving home he doesn't hang
his head because he knows he wasn't supposed to get on the couch. He hangs
his head because you are speaking sternly to him. The only thing you are
teaching him is that you coming home is not a good thing because you are
always angry. Don't do that.
My recommendation for fixing the problem is to use a ScatMat. It is a
commerical product that should be able to fix your problem. Good luck.
Question-
We have a Bernese Mountain dog puppy that is a year old on Dec. 29th.
This is so disgusting but he is a poop eater. He prefers the poop from
our other dog but if all he can get is his own he will eat it also. We
try to always have it picked up but sometimes we are gone and that is
not always possible. We talked to our vet and she said to put lemon juice
on some and let him try it because dogs don't like lemon juice. Apparently
my dog thought that was a special treat because he ate it all and it was
drenched in lemon juice. Do you have any suggestions because
I have had it with this disgusting behavior?
Answer-
There are a number of reasons why dogs eat stool. Often it is a lack of
nutrition that causes this behavior. Most commercial dog foods do not
have the necessary nutrients for a growing dog. The first thing I recommend
doing is changing the dog's food. If this doesn't fix the problem contact
me and I can give you more tips. The food I recommend can be found at
the following link and is even delivered straight to your door! Good luck-
Flint River Ranch
Dog Food
Question-
I had a question for you. We have a female Giant Schnauzer and a male
Mini Schnauzer and earlier this week we tried to add another female Giant
Schnauzer to our clan. We only kept her for two hours. Every time she
got close to our other dogs she would attack them. My husband was a vet
tech so he knew how to submit her. The first few times she would just
bark at our dogs and somewhat bite them. We would submit her to the ground
and tell her 'no' several times and when we thought she would be calm
we would let her back up and try to distract her and praise her when she
was being good. However she would only be good for one or so minutes and
then she would attack again. We tried to keep both dogs on a leash but
it wasn't working. One time she locked her mouth on my giants back and
would not let go. My husband was trying to open her mouth and I was trying
to pull my dog away from her. It took us several minutes for her to let
go. Needless to say we took her back to her owner and told her that their
dog was very agressive. We've had several different types of dogs come
to our house and everyone plays nice together, no fighting or anything.
So I have two questions:
1- Can Giant Schnauzers co-exsist together if they are the same sex and
age?
2-Do you know any other ways that we could of fixed her agression towards
our dogs?
Answer-
To answer your first question, of course they can get along together.
It is not always easy to get two dogs of the same sex to get along but
it can be done.
To answer your second question there are several issues. First of all,
I don't know what it means to 'submit' a dog but I assume it means to
force them on their back and get on top of them. Don't ever do this. It
is a silly, old school way of training dogs that is not a good idea.
I never recommend introducing two dogs unless they have complete respect
for you. You introduced a dominant dog to another dog without making sure
she respected you first. Then you would attempt to stop them from fighting.
Think about it, though, why would she stop fighting for you? You aren't
her superior and in her mind you had no cause to tell her what to do.
I know you attempted to gain respect by 'dominating' her, but that method
is just so wrong that it is easy to see why it didn't work.
The better method is to simply use proper obedience training techniques
to get her in the habit of listening to you. Once you have gained the
proper respect then you can go about introducing the dogs with success.
At that point if the aggression comes out again you are in a position
where you can give a leash correction to stop it and the correction will
have meaning because it is coming from the 'leader'.
Question-
Hi, I need some advice. I have a 9 year old toy poodle. I got
her when she was about 4 years old from a friend. She's been a really
good dog until recently. For the last 6 months she's been peeing on our
new carpet. I've tried tons of expensive cleaners and I use a Bissell
carpet cleaning machine at least 2-3 times a month to try to get rid of
the smell and to help the dog resist the urge to urinate in the same spots.
We've tried keeping her in the kitchen while we're gone, using a baby
gate and she has practially destroyed the gate and ended up hurting her
paw (she was bleeding when I came home). She used to only urinate inside
while we were gone but now she's doing it at when we're home. We take
her outside to potty almost every 2-3 hours when we're home and she goes
out there too.
I need some words of wisdom.
Answer-
The answer is simple and has two parts.
1- Keep the dog in a crate while you are gone. This will keep her from
urinating in the house.
2- Supervise her completely while you are home. Even go as far as keeping
her on a leash. You have to be able to catch her in the act of going to
the bathroom if you are going to correct the misbehavior. You can't catch
her in the act if seh is sneaking off to pee. Do this and you will re-train
her.
Question-
I have a Shih Tzu that is an incredible dog. He is very obedient and we
couldn't ask for a better dog when it comes to being quiet, and loving
the kids, even the baby, etc. He is great about going to the bathroom
outside, but sometimes we get busy and and he may go to the door but we
don't notice and then he ends up going somewhere else. How do we get him
to "alert" us that he is at the door and needs to go out?
Answer-
I never recommend teaching a dog how to alert that he needs to go to the
bathroom. When you do that you put the dog in control and the dog never
learns how to 'hold it'. A dog should know how to hold it in the event
that the opportunity isn't immediate to go to the bathroom. There are
exceptions to this but as a general rule I recommend against teaching
a dog to alert.
In order to teach your dog how to hold it you simply need to supervise
your dog better. When your dog begins to go to the bathroom in the house
he should immediately be corrected, this way he forms a negative association
with going to the bathroom indoors. He already has a positive association
with going to the bathroom outdoors, if you can make going indoors a negative
you will fix the behavior.
Question-
I have a brand new German Shepherd. He is only eight weeks old. I had
some dog training sessions when we had our Akita so I'm working on the
house training. The one thing I'm having trouble with is he wants to use
my feet and hands as chew toys. I realize he's a puppy and he likes to
chew but even though I tell him no bite and I give him one of his chew
toys and praise him for chewing on the proper toys, he still continues
to want to bite my feet and hands. Any tips for the biting?
Answer-
This is a common problem with puppies. Many people think that by saying
'No bite' that they can fix the problem. Think about it, though. Why would
that fix the problem? Dog's don't understand English so even though you
say 'No bite' or 'Stop it' or anything else, your dog won't understand
you.
My experience is that most dogs don't understand the word 'No' at all.
They have heard the word one hundred times but they have heard plenty
of words hundreds of times as well. The key to fixing the problem and
helping your dog understand what 'No' means is to connect something to
the word so that it makes sense.
With the case of puppy biting there are numerous ways to do this. You
can use a spray bottle and every time your puppy bites you can spray him
in the face as you tell him 'No'. You can use a leash and as he bites
you can give a jerk on the leash as you tell him 'No'. You can use two
fingers and tap him on his muzzle as he bites as you tell him 'No'. The
bottom line is that if you want your dog to realize that 'No' is a negative
word, you have to attach something negative to the word.
With any dog, puppies especially, you can only use corrections that fit
the crime. Don't be abusive or harsh, simply attach something negative
to the word and your puppy will soon learn to stop biting. Consistency,
as always, is the key to changing any dog behavior.
Question-
I have two sister Yorkies that are seven months old. When the two are
wrestling and playing, one of the girls attempts to hump the other. It
only occurs when they are playing and doesn't happen all the time. I was
told by a Petsmart trainer that it has nothing to do with a sexual stand
point, but more of her trying to be more domineering. Is this true? And
how do I get her to stop? She does not do it all the time and it is just
the one dog. She is smaller than her sister and she is the one who is
more submissive.
Answer-
It is true that mounting is normally not a sexual behavior, rather a dominance
related behavior. If it is the case that the submissive one is the one
doing the mounting it probably means that she is attempting to gain some
upper hand in the relationship. The solution is simple, you need to teach
your dog what 'No' means. As she attempts to mount the other simply tell
her 'No' and give her some sort of correction that makes the behavior
negative in her mind. If you are consistent with this course of action
you will fix the problem.
Question-
Our dog is a min pin/bulldog mix and we got her when she was about seven
months back in April or May. We think that she was abused before we got
her cause she always cowers towards us. Our problem is that we have had
the
hardest time trying to re-train her. She uses our house as a restroom
and she never listens to the commands that we say. Even giving her treats
when she does "go" outside or listens to a command, doesn't
seem to help. We have kept her outside for the past 3 weeks & when
we have let her in, she will do her deed. We are at wits end and fed up
but don't want to give up on her. What to do?
Answer-
I often hear owners complain that their dogs don't 'listen' to their commands.
The way that sounds is that the owner is blaming the dog for disobedience.
Dogs will always behave in two ways: 1- What
comes naturally through instinct or 2- What is taught to them.
If your dog is not listening to your commands it means that you have not
taught your dog what those commands mean. I always hear arguments when
I say that, "But I have taught the dog
what sit, down, and no means. She just doesn't do it when I want her to."
If she doesn't do it when you want her to it means you haven't properly
taught those commands. You have to consistently attach meaning to any
dog training command if you want to cause a change in behavior.
With regards to the house training issue go back to what I previously
said. You haven't taught your dog to go to the bathroom outside so she
is going to do what comes naturally, going to the bathroom inside. Giving
your dog treats when they go to the bathroom outside is only part of the
equation. I'm willing to bet that your dog is not supervised 100% while
in the house. Your dog needs total supervision before she can be trusted
with any freedom in the house. Good luck.
Question-
I just had a question and would like to know why my dogs pee on the blankets
they sleep on. All but one does it. They will only go in the house if
they're not let out. And they will only do this when we put them down
for the night. We'll give them fresh blankets and they just pee on them
again. They also go on the paper that is down so I thought it was weird
they go on their blankets as well. Please help!
Answer-
Dogs like to pee on absorbent material. That is why, given the chance,
most dogs will choose to pee on grass over cement, dirt over asphalt.
The solution is simple, don't give them blankets to sleep on. Problem
solved.
Question-
I have a new puppy, about 10 weeks old. I'm trying to house train him,
but he doesn't like going outside... EVER!! He runs and hides when I go
to take him out. He only will go out if I'm out there, he won't go for
anyone else. If I'm in the house when he is out he stands at the door
and cries. He uses potty pads beautifully, but I live with my sister and
going inside isn't an option. How do I get my hermit dog out of the house
to do his duty?
Answer-
My first piece of advice is to tell you to never allow your dog to run
and hide instead of going outside. He should simply be on a leash and
you should simply take him out when it is time. No fanfare, no hiding,
no hysterics, just walk outside. If he doesn't want to follow, just keep
walking. You are in charge. The more he has the chance to put up a fight
and hide, the better he will get at hiding from you and avoiding being
taken out.
When you get him outside just wait with him. I know that this is annoying
but he is only ten weeks old. He needs time to learn the purpose of being
outside, going to the bathroom. When he does go, give him tons of praise.
Good luck!
Question-
We are in the process of adopting a Pit Bull / Great Dane Mix puppy. He
is approximately nine months old. The shelter has said he is just a big
puppy and needs quite of bit of training, due to being in the shelter
for a long period of time while being a puppy. They have also said he
has some issues with men. (We have met him and are excited to bring him
home and train as well as love him) My question is... What is the best
way to go about brining him into our home and getting him use to being
around men and knowing he is safe? And how can we ease family members
who are wary of his breed?
Answer-
This is a good question. I often find that a dog's entry into a new home
can have trauma involved because of a lack of definable goals and objectives.
Dogs are often stressed out because as they enter a new home they aren't
sure who is in charge, and too often their new owners don't show them
who is in charge. Imagine how you would feel if you started a new job
and had no idea who the boss was, who answered to you, and to whom you
answered. There are a few things that you should do to accomplish your
goals:
1- Determine ahead of time what house rules are.
Is the dog allowed on the couch or the bed? How should he greet new guests?
Are there rooms that are off limits?
2- Obedience train your dog. Obedience training
is very calming and soothing because it establishes the proper pecking
order and puts your dog into a controlled state of mind. Obedience training
is also functional in your case as it will allow your new dog to interact
with family members in an appropriate manner.
Dog Training Services offered in Utah County,
Salt Lake City and North of SLC also Santaquin, Payson, Mapleton, Woodland
Hills, Spanish Fork, Springville, Provo, Orem, Lindon, Pleasant Grove,
American Fork, Lehi, Highland, Alpine, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain,
Sandy, Draper, Bluffdale, Riverton, South Jordan, West Jordan, Murray,
Kearns, West Valley, Salt Lake, Park City, Woods Cross, Bountiful, Farmington, Kaysville,
Layton, Syracuse, Clearfield, Roy, Weber, Ogden and more.
Contact Ty the Dog Trainer
Salt Lake City Dog Trainers and Salt Lake City
Dog Training
 |
__ |
        |
|