All About Training Your Dog

Thanks for being patient…there are a lot of things happening
right now, BUT let’s get to the meeting of the dog in question.
I’ll give him a false name to protect the innocent: Frasier.

When last we spoke I mentioned that Frasier had been given up because he bit an owner that I had a few suspicions about. Although the wife told me that her husband was a gentle man, I had my doubts.

Dogs who bite their owners do so for a number of reasons.
One of those can be because the owner is not the leader, the dog is. That could happen with someone who is “gentle.” But this guy sounded hard and angry over the phone. Plus the circumstances of the bite seemed a bit out of whack. More about that later.

Anyway, before seeing the dog I had to keep an open mind. He might have been the monster the guy portrayed. I doubted it, but better safe than sorry, so I was careful in planning “the meeting”.

I would meet Frasier at the boarding kennel where the rescue
organization kept some of their dogs. I would also meet with the foster, a lady I done a session with some years back. I was
prepared to meet a “beast.”

We got there about the same time and after talking for a bit,
Frasier was brought out to us. He appeared to weigh between 50 and 60 pounds, a Shepherd mix. He was very distracted, contantly searching back and forth both visually and scenting. AND he was contantly whining. He appeared to be in a great deal of emotional pain…as you might expect. What he didn’t appear to be was dangerous.

The foster and I took him for a walk. He was distracted and whining the whole walk. He had no problem with me touching him on the head or the back or walking behind him.

He had no problem with me approaching him or walking away from him. He did seem to have a problem being away from his family.

Since I only got one opportunity to speak with both the wife and the husband I didn’t know if he showed signs of separation anxiety at home, but he certainly was anxious on the walk. I also had given him every opportunity to show that he was dangerous and there was no sign of it.

The foster then felt confident to take Frasier with the
understanding that if there were any problems she could call me. We went over some strategies to make sure that he got over his anxiousness as quickly as possible and we ended the meeting at that point.

Sounds pretty clinical doesn’t it? Well I talked with the foster
several times and it actually took Frasier over a week before he stopped constantly whining and pacing. By the way the foster and I went over how NOT to reinforce the anxiousness and begin to train “happiness,” so I know she didn’t cause his anxiety to linger.

Here was my diagnosis after talking with the husband and wife, meeting Frasier and consulting with the foster: The wife and daughter loved and spoiled the dog and as a result unknowing “trained” him that he was the leader in the house. Not unusual. As a matter of fact probably the main cause for all K-9 behavior problems, after not enough exercise.

And all this “love and attention” was the cause of the extended and very intense separation anxiety.

Further the husband was WAY too hard on the dog: In fact the foster told me that the wife confessed to her that when the husband got bitten the first time he had grabbed the dog by the haunches and yanked him out from under a table.

Frightening enough that a dog might bite out of fear, but for a dog that is “trained” to be the leader over humans, to be grabbed like that would be “unacceptable.”

Neither I, at the meeting nor the foster in her home, saw any of that. Then again we treated Frasier kindly and gently and also in a way that showed him his proper place as a dog, not a leader of humans.

What’s sad is that I had explained these problems and issues to the husband PRIOR to meeting Frasier. A one hour training session, NOT with Frasier, but with the humans in the house would have solved it all.

But because the father “knows so much about obedience” a
little girl is missing her dog..and a dog is missing his family.
Sad.

We can only hope Frasier finds a great new home. As of this writing he is doing fine in his foster home.

So after all of this can you guess what the biggest obstacle is to a well-trained and behaved dog? Think about it and until next time…

Train on!

Doug

So when we spoke last one of the owners of a dog that bitten promised me that she would have her husband, the one bitten, call me so I could ask a few questions.

If you haven’t read the previous post a rescue organization called me and asked if I would talk to an owner who had been bitten by a dog that had been adopted from said rescue organization.

My first conversation was with the wife who told me that her husband was a gentle man and had not harmed or over-corrected the dog at any time. In fact, he was scared of the dog as a result of being bitten.

However the circumstances that were described in the first bite led me to believe that there was more than at first I was told.

Supposedly the husband called the dog to him and when he didn’t come, reached for and grabbed the dog from underneath the table where the dog was and pulled him out. And then the dog bit the husband.

None of this was “feeling” right to me, so after talking with the wife I requested a conversation with the husband. I found it interesting that the wife called me the next night and then she put the husband on the line.

Now I’m usually a pretty good reader of persons, but I also have to say that there is plenty of room for error in trying to read someone over the phone. However if this man was gentle you couldn’t prove it by me as a result of this phone call.

While he didn’t sound furious, he did have a hardness to his voice that you wouldn’t expect after hearing his wife’s description. He was clearly upset and a bit angry as a result of the incident.

Honestly I can’t hold that against anyone. It’s upsetting to have a dog, any dog much less your own, bite you. So my goal was to make sure he knew that I understood and then also to let him know that this was my specialty.

I described some of the dogs that were similar and some much worse in terms of behavior than his dog and I outlined how I had worked with owners and the dogs to solve the behavior problems. I was careful not to minimize his situation, but I also wanted him to know that there was hope.

Actually much more than hope. I didn’t say it to him, but I felt that this was actually not a tough case at all. What he described is not all that uncommon and pretty easy to fix. What I did was mention that I thought we could fix this, but I couldn’t make any promises until we started working with the dog. Now remember I had yet to see the dog.

After mentioning this I then asked him a simple question: “If I can fix this and we can get him behaving properly, would you keep the dog?”

You see the rescue organization called me because the family had been making noise about returning the dog. The organization was more than willing to take the dog back, but wanted to know first if he was dangerous. If he was dangerous then they obviously didn’t want to adopt him out again. So the ideal situation would be if I could help the owners so the dog’s behavior would be fixed and they would keep him.

Ideal for everyone. The wife and daughter loved him. And I assumed that if I could show them what was needed to get him behaving properly then the husband would go back to loving him too.

So as I said I asked him the simple question, “If I can fix this and we can get him behaving properly, would you keep the dog?” Without skipping so much as a beat he immediately replied:

“Absolutely not. I would not consider it. I’ve had dogs before and I’ve obedience trained them. They always knew what they were supposed to do and they always knew when I was disappointed in them. When he bit me he came at me hard and he wanted to hurt me. I have a daughter. There’s no way I’m keeping him.”

I asked him, “Have you ever over-corrected this dog? Ever hit him?”

“No.”

The wife was on the other line and she interrupted.

“How about the time he didn’t come to you right away and you kind of kicked him when he came in the door?”

The husband ignored that.

I then asked him if the dog slept in the bed.

“No. Well he was on my daughter’s bed when he bit me this time, but he’s not allowed on it. He sometimes used to sleep in my daughter’s bed, but we stopped that.”

I mentioned to him that sleeping in the bed is a serious “no-no” and can help create a dog that feels like a leader over humans and many times just correcting human behavior changes dog behavior. He wasn’t budging.

“Look I know about training obedience. I’ve done it with the other dogs I’ve had.”

“I understand, however this is not about obedience. Now the fact that you know a lot about obedience will help this process, but this is not about obedience training and fixing this is not about corrections.”

He responded very quickly.

“Look we’re not going to keep this dog.”

I responded back just as quickly.

“Ok, well then we don’t have anymore to talk about. I’ll take it up with the rescue organization.”

I have to tell you guys two things. First of all, he irritated me because of his obvious anger and that was not how he or his wife portrayed him. Second, he seemed arrogant and resistant to learning something new. The result of that is a girl who loves a dog will not have her dog anymore.

I didn’t think going into this that the dog was completely at fault. I will admit that I had a suspicion that he was angry and had done something to the dog, but I also wanted to leave plenty of room for him to show me I was wrong.

The most telling piece of evidence against him as far as I was concerned however is when he said he would not take the dog back, even if I could fix it. In all my years of doing this I have never had anyone say that.

Now it was time to meet the dog. I was getting myself prepared to meet the “beast”!

Stay tuned for part 3!

 Train on!

Doug