Posts made by FernRN1

Yes I have the same issue, it is not all the time, but my brother lives with me. She used to growl at him every day, and he would give her a treat, I told him to stop rewarding the bad behavior, and that did help. She only growls now when I am in bed, she sleeps beside my bed, and if he walks past my bedroom she will growl. It's always a soft growl. I immediately tell her no, and 99% of the time she will stop.
But I am the only person she will let pet her, and the only person she will go for a walk with. I thought maybe they were one of those 1 person dog types. If someone else tries to pet her, she just backs up, doesnt growl or anything... just gets out of their reach.

Soooo super cute!! Welcome, I love this forum, have gotten so much help from the members!

Thank you all. With your advice I have made a few changes.
First I am incorporating walking past the house during the walk, yesterday three times. And by the end of the walk she had no idea we were going home!! So it helped for yesterdays walk for sure, and I plan to keep doing that.
Second, she seems to only like/trust me. My brother lives with me and she will not let him get near her. He gives her lots of treats to try to win her trust, she will get close enough to take the treat, but that is it. --It hasn't worked in 3 months. So I told him no more treats all the time. She only gets treats with training or for reward for good behavior. I got her a big bone from one of the suggested sights, and she has that she can chew on.
This change has made a difference in her as well, for the good.
I am learning just as much as she is -- we are learning together.

@tanza Thank you. I have talked to the vet, they said they knew some good trainers, she wasnt sure if the trainers had ever worked with my breed of dog, Shiba inu basenji mix. I live in a small town, and my resources are limited.

@eeeefarm Once we are home she is fine, a happy girl, yes that is when she gets fed, right after we get home from the walk. After she ate she then begged all evening for my attention and to go for another walk. I love the idea of going past the house during her walk!!

@tanza How do I do that? How do I find one? She is just acting out because she doesnt want the walk to be over.

Well I got so much help with my last question, I am hoping I can get some with this problem. Woody loves to go for a walk, she begs all the time to go. Problem is once she is out, she doesn't want to go home, and will stop and freeze and I cannot get her going again. When she figures out we are heading home, that is when the freeze happens, she literally will not budge unless I walk in a direction that is not towards home. The first time she did it was half a block from home, next time a block, each time it has been a little farther from home....I think because she is learning the different paths we take. Today she did it a mile and a half from home. Took me ten minutes to get her to move, and then she pouted, walked as slow as she could, and stopped feet planted intermittently all the way home. A walk that should have taken an hour and 15 minutes took 2 hours and 15 minutes. In the past if I walked away from her and turned my back to her and not look at her, she would give in and come. But that doesn't work anymore. Another problem is she has been abused, beaten, so when she does this and I get frustrated and walk back to her ... she can tell I am not happy, and she will back away from me. So then I feel I need to pet her to make her not feel afraid of me, but I also feel when I do this I am teaching her she will get positive reinforcement for bad behavior. What do I do????? I am afraid to take her anymore.

@eeeefarm I did not see the link initially. That is amazing! DidI hear a clicker in the background?

@zande I am sorry if I wasnt clear, we have 4 different paths we can choose from each day for our walk, (actually it is her walk) and each is around 3 miles long. Some days if I am feeling up to it, or the weather is a little nicer we will go for longer.

@elbrant I do give her a variety, we have 4 different paths around my home, and I have taken her to the state park a couple of times. She has one path that seems to be her favorite....as she spends a lot of time sniffing all the smells, there are a lot of dogs that use the path. And she definitely lets me know which way she wants to go for the day!!

@tanza I would be very afraid to let her off leash, I do not know that she would come to me if I called her. From what everyone has said, I am leaning towards obedience training, as a first step. But have also read that you cannot have just any trainer as the besenji is a little more difficult of a bread?

@tanza I have an above ground pool ----- we set it up each year, ..... on a sand base in my yard.

@triggers-dad hadnt thought of the dog park, the man at the shelter said she was "indifferent" to other dogs., and when we go for our walk she will stop and look at them, but never makes a move to interact with them, a lot of times she hides behind my legs. I do have a friend who has 4 german shepards, but I dont know if I should "expose" her to all of that. She is a rescue dog and has been beaten, so she is skittish -- she will not let other people get near her.

Thank you all so much. I have gotten some good ideas and great advice!!

@eeeefarm Thank you for the input!! She is food motivated for sure, loves treats. I did get one of the roller balls you fill with treats, and they have to roll it to get the treats out. She watched me roll it around so the treats would come out...it is still sitting there with treats in it, she is not interested. I did learn today she has buried some of her treats in the sand by the pool, thought about putting some in for her to "uncover" but I really do not want to teach her she gets rewarded for digging.

@sandy-hovis Thank you, ordered some, will definitely try it!!

@tanza Thanks for the link, I will get some, so afraid these days on that kind of stuff ...have read horrible stories about it causing health issues

@sandy-hovis What is this find it game? I have tried placing treats, but she doesnt get them...is there certain "smelly" treats you use? how did you get your dog started? DO you drag the treat to give them a path to follow? I would like to try it, can you tell me more

Yes she has a big ham bone to chew, and it keeps her busy for a few minutes. For example, yesterday as soon as I got out of bed she was begging.... begging equals bumping me, the basenji squeal, .... to go for a walk, I took her for one. Usually we walk in the afternoon, but I thought maybe I would try it in the morning to see if that helped. It didn't, she is constantly following me around all day, wanting my attention, which I give her intermittently...but the laundry doesnt do itself lol. I have to be careful as I will be cleaning and turn around and fall over the top of her. Took her for another walk in the afternoon and as I said she wasnt happy because it wasnt long enough. Came home, she is begging to go again. In the evening I am sitting on the couch, she goes and lays on her bed, but every ten minutes or so she comes back wanting my attention. I sat on the floor with her for 20 minutes petting her... till she walked away.. a few minutes later she is back wanting my attention. As I type this she is bumping me.... wanting attention.

@tanza I have had her 3 months, and we do that, she knows a few commands already. She wants my attention all the time, she needs something to entertain herself, so that when I am busy she isnt bored