whew...wow carrie that is a lot to digest!
We have tried in the past to ignore Oz (see picture below...he is not growling in the pic but his floppy lips fall back when he is on his back to be patted and i think it looks hilarious). He will paw and nudge us and we ignore him (haven't tried the arms crossed while doing this yet this is one of the tactics we used to train him to not jump up on us). How long in general does one keep this up and what is the desired ending?? To let him know when he will get attention when we dish it out?? We tried this for about 3 weeks only and it seemed to semi work for awhile. Do we keep up this behaviour (giving him attention on "our terms") until he understands that we are the two leaders? What kind of sign will he then show that he accepts both of us as the alpha's??
The feeding program...he gets fed once a day and the food does not remain on the floor. I don't believe in free range feeding for various reasons for either cats and dogs. Is this the feeding prgram you are talking about?? We worked with him extensivly when we first got him as he was incredibly food possessive. Now, we can put our hands in his dish and/or mouth while he is eating and remove the food if need be or keep our hands in his dish while he is eating. occasionaly, he will back off and lie down and watch us and pant but he does not growl anymore. He still doesn't like it when we do this but he knows and has learned WE control the food in this house.
Kennel training...i am one of the people who believe in kennels for dogs. Not for punishment sake (as many people use kennels for) but because dogs are pack animals and i feel should have a place of their own to go. He gets about one hour a day of "ozzie time" in his kennel and otherwise he goes in there when company is coming over for the first 10-15 minutes as he "forgets" the command "off" and will proceed to jump up on guests for a little kissy. Once everyone is settled down he comes out and greets everyone. We never use kenneling for bad doggy behaviour....we never say "ozzie bad dog go to your kennel" as that is negative reinforcment. Otherwise, he actually likes his kennel. He will go in on his own plenty of times during the day and sleep or when we come back from the off leash park he drinks a million liters of water and sleeps in it for the next hour or two. We also did quite a bit of retraining him in his kennel to make it "fun" as we do know that one of his hang-ups was being abused and physically tortured in his kennel. Oz is very much a kennel possessive dog though. He would go after the humaine society attendants (growl, rush them, snarl) when they came to clean his kennel as it WAS HIS and NOBODY ELSE was allowed in...but when he went to a foster home he was a different dog...not Cujo at all. Anyway, I digress. We have worked with him SO MUCH in this year that we have had him and we have almost overcome most of the quirks and humps he possessed. The door to his kennel stays open the remainder of the day if its not his downtime or visitors are not coming over or something like that.
I guess we are probably compensating him too much still on his abused past. I know I think about it when he does something "bad" and how to correct the problem. WHat is the most effective way that is. We will have a try on ignoring him. If you can give me more information on this aspect that would be much appreciated.
Thanks and you didn't ramble on at all! I hope your team won!!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks