I need help having two problems
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Whenever I want to really drive home a point of NO with my dog, I always flip her over on her back and hold her there. This tells her that I am alpha and what I say goes. When she's particularly determined that she is right, she'll try to get away and has even given me the grouchy noise (it's not quite a growl, but you Basenji people know these 'voices'!). Hold firm and look them in the eye. Give them the stern voice. And I put my pointer finger in her face when I'm scolding her. She's learned now that if she doesn't stop doing whatever it is that is getting her in trouble, Mommy will get THE FINGER out! Then she KNOWS she's in trouble. And she sits right down and looks at me with that cute, innocent face. It's a nice, psychological, non-violent form of discipline.
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Point taken, Quercus. I don't have to do it very often to be honest. But it does seem to be effective with my dog. I don't personally feel like I've sacrificed any relationship the two of us have because I flipped her on her back. But I can understand how different dogs might react differently. I think ultimately you need to find what works best for your dog and how to get your dog to respond in a positive fashion.
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My advice is buy some more binkies and watch the puppy every minute. Each time he gets a binkie, whap yourself over the head for not keeping your eye on him
exactly…..whapping the puppies is not allowed--but whapping yourself is fine :) I could never get Max in all of his 16 years to stay away from anything irresistable that was left within his reach or unattended. After a few years, I was much improved about picking up after myself and had to whap myself less often :)
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Quercus
Could you share some of your communication tactics with us?
Also the gummy part of the pacifier maybe what is of interest. I know i love chewing on gummy stuff, a bad habit yes but it feels good and I am not teething. LOL. I am new to the doggy world here, but if you could find a chewy, think gummy bear texture, toy it may help. Just a thought.
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When Jazzy was young I used to put her on her side and hold her when she got snarky with me, but it wasn't a forceful or terrifying event.
I'd put her on her side and hold her with one hand on her shoulder and the other on her hip until she settled down. I'd talk calmly to her the whole time, and once she stopped arguing, I'd keep one hand on her shoulder and stroke her with the other hand until she really relaxed.
Then I'd release her and she'd usually lay there for a minute letting me rub her sides.
I only had to do that a few times before she stopped snarking at me altogether.I don't go in for the throwing the dog down on its back, holding the throat, etc method that seemed to be popular a few years back. But our method was actually pretty gentle and calmed her very quickly. And I have a dog that listens very well to what she is told, but always obeys with perky ears and a perky attitude. There's no fear in her.
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Yeah, that is called a "down restraint" and I teach that to my clients as well. It is different from the "alpha roll" because you start training it when the dog is calm, and rather than correcting the dog by forcing them over, you are teaching them to calm themselves; while also letting them know that you will control their body when you want to. But it is very gentle, slow, and calm as you described…and the release happens when the dog relaxes.
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Basically, my way of training (not that it is unusual) steers away from the older way of thinking that people must constantly let their dogs know they are in charge. We teach our dogs how we want them to behave gently, and set them up for success.
For instance if one of the dogs is doing something I don't want them to, I usually try to train a replacement behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior. So, if the dogs are hovering around my preschooler as he is eating. I train them to sit on the couch and wait until he is done before they can get up.
I don't know…I guess I kind of have everything set up so they rarely get into trouble, they all have a nice strong "leave it" ..so I don't have go around saying "No....no....no....stop that" If they do have or do something they shouldn't I actually get up, and remove it.
If they need a correction, it is much more effective, IMO to grab their scruff and give them a little shake and growl. Though I rarely do this with my dogs, and I would hesitate to suggest anyone try that with their dog, if they don't know how they might react.
Does that answer your question? If you check out trainers such as Patricia McConnell, Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson...some of those folks, those are the people I trust.
And, strangely...our Ivy always ate the hard plastic part of the binkie...so even if she just had it for a milisecond she would make the plastic part scratchy!
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Basically, my way of training (not that it is unusual) steers away from the older way of thinking that people must constantly let their dogs know they are in charge. We teach our dogs how we want them to behave gently, and set them up for success.
For instance if one of the dogs is doing something I don't want them to, I usually try to train a replacement behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior. So, if the dogs are hovering around my preschooler as he is eating. I train them to sit on the couch and wait until he is done before they can get up.
I don't know…I guess I kind of have everything set up so they rarely get into trouble, they all have a nice strong "leave it" ..so I don't have go around saying "No....no....no....stop that" If they do have or do something they shouldn't I actually get up, and remove it.
If they need a correction, it is much more effective, IMO to grab their scruff and give them a little shake and growl. Though I rarely do this with my dogs, and I would hesitate to suggest anyone try that with their dog, if they don't know how they might react.
Does that answer your question? If you check out trainers such as Patricia McConnell, Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson...some of those folks, those are the people I trust.
And, strangely...our Ivy always ate the hard plastic part of the binkie...so even if she just had it for a milisecond she would make the plastic part scratchy!
Yep Guru chews on the hard part even though I did once find it in his mouth like you would see in a babies mouth like he was sucking on it.
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Andrea- I luv Patricia Mcconnell I got several of her pamphlets & things have been working out great!! She even recommended a behaviorist in my area that I'm hoping to set up an appt with to help us out :)
She's having a seminar in NJ that I plan to attend.
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Andrea- I luv Patricia Mcconnell I got several of her pamphlets & things have been working out great!! She even recommended a behaviorist in my area that I'm hoping to set up an appt with to help us out :)
She's having a seminar in NJ that I plan to attend.
Oh, that's great! I hope you can hook up with someone that can really help. When is the NJ seminar? I met her about four years ago (geez time flies)! She is really a neat woman…so brilliant! I mentioned a problem I was having with one of the dogs...and she said something to the effect of "well I said this technique works with dogs...not Basenjis" totally tongue in cheek...but she understands that they *are different, but not untrainable :)
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IMHO, please be careful with the alpha roll over, I used to do that when I first started dog training many years ago, I eventually had an aggression problem with the dog, got bit pretty good. I guessed it was my fault and never rolled one since. I never used pacifiers with my son, so no dog troubles there, but his blanky got stolen often. gg It sure cannot hurt to put the litterbox there and see what happens, its easy, fairly clean, and better than cleaning the rug often. You could also try using a scatter rug over the other rug, see if that helps any! I have one spot where one of the dogs, having gotten too excited, peed, they still go there if excited. I love my dogs, oh well its only in the hall. ggg Good luck, hope you find a solution! Carole
