Dogs in Training

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You may remember my post from back in September when my husband and I adopted a nine month old handful of a pit bull. She barked obsessively at our cats and bit them if they got close enough, she bit us when we tried to put her leash on, she bit us if we told her to get off the couch, she ate everything she could get her paws on...she was a handful, to put it nicely. We took her to a beginner training class, where she excelled, and we are leaps and bounds from where we started. She is not my first dog, but she is the first dog who required this much effort, and I don't think I've ever done something so rewarding.

Our biggest issue now is her play behavior, and I honestly have no clue how to handle this. She tries to play with the cats, but she plays with them as if they are other dogs her size. She pounces on them and bites them, and they are much too small to take that kind of play. We never leave them alone together and we make sure it never gets out of hand. She will stop with a "leave it" most of the time, but I don't know how to make her not do it in the first place, or at least be gentler.

She is the same way when she plays with people. If you try to with her, she will chomp down on your arm or leg like it's a big tasty dog bone. Sometimes if you're walking by her and she decides she wants to play, she will bite your feet. And I'm not talking about little nips; these are full on bites. We always stop, turn our backs, and ignore her until she calms down. If there is something nearby to redirect her to when she is actively biting, we do that before turnings our backs but don't give her any other attention besides giving her the toy. But this never doesn't happen, and this is one area where she hasn't improved at all. We've also tried yelping and that just makes her wag faster and bite harder. -_-

She also behaves this way with other dogs. On Thanksgiving, my cousins brought their (young) GSD mixes and we brought Luna. My cousins both said their dogs are usually pretty dominant in play situations and aren't fazed by dogs who play harder than they do. They are also much bigger than Luna, so we figured they wouldn't let her walk all over them. We were wrong. It wasn't very long before they didn't want to play with her anymore. Of course we monitored everything closely, and when it was obvious the other dogs were done, we took Luna home. She had a playdate once with our neighbor's pit bull when we first got her. He has a similar play style, so she didn't learn anything from him except to keep doing what she's doing. The only other dogs she's had a chance to play with since we've had her are my mom's labs who are 11 and 9 and she is way too much for them. They will play with her a little bit, but when she gets to be too much, they growl at her and she actually does back off. That's the only thing I've seen that will make her back off.

She was tested with a number of dogs at the shelter and never showed any aggression. We've never seen her show any aggression to other dogs, cats, or people. She just plays really hard and really rough. She also only acts this way around people she knows. If a stranger comes over, she's sweet as pie and acts like cuddling is the only thing she likes to do.

Ideas?

Here's the little monster smiling pretty for the camera xD


...and chomping on Daddy's arm because he was napping when she wanted to play.

Hello everyone! I'm new here. I live in cold Manitoba and have a 3 year old Belgium Mal cross and I foster dogs whenever I'm able.

Right now I have a 1-2 year old border collie mix who was found as a stray running in a rural community. She was in good shape when found but was not claimed in the pound after the holding time. I was contacted to foster her so she would not be euthanized. She is such a sweet dog, wants to snuggle, wants to please, fast learning, loves playing. She's good with my cats, kids and dog. However she's very reactive to dogs outside and walking her is a nightmare as she lunges, snarls and barks like a maniac every time she notices another dog. I tried to positively reinforce and use gentle leaders but when we encounter a dog she gets so hyperfocused she can't be redirected and I literally have to drag her home while she freaks out. Due to this I am no longer walking her at a reasonable hour, which means less walks for her because when I work evenings I work until 12:30am and I'm up at 6am with my kids and she doesn't get a walk at all. She does get exercise, we have a good sized fenced yard where she plays with my dog but otherwise during my late week isn't leaving the property.

Any advice in this situation? I cannot afford to take her to specialized behavioural training and I don't think the rescue could afford it either. There are no other foster homes to switch her to who have more experience and my time is very limited every other week. I want her to be successfully adopted so I really want to help her with this. There was one potential adopter turned off by seeing her freak out when a dog in the distance walked down the street.

I mentioned in my previous post that when we met Luna at the shelter, she was very mouthy. She continued to be mouthy when we brought her home, but whenever she would start to gnaw on our arms or legs, we would redirect her to a toy. It only took her about a day and a half to realize that humans are not chew toys, which is great.

Except in the last two days, she's started actually biting. She bites when you put her leash on. She bites when you take her leash off. She bites when you try to redirect her from doing anything she's not supposed to be doing. Basically, when she's not getting her way, she bites. She doesn't growl or give any kind of warning, but it's definitely a "screw you" kind of bite, not a "let's play," kind of bite. And it's not just a nip - my husband and I both have bruises from it. We say "ouch!" every time, but she really could care less. Those are the only tools I have to stop biting - redirecting and saying ouch, and Google hasn't really given me more than that. Redirecting isn't working for this because a.) She's not doing it because she's bored or wants something to chew on; she's (seemingly) doing it because she's mad, and b.) It's just one quick bite, and when it's over, it's over, so there's nothing to really redirect.

Any ideas?

My husband and I adopted a dog on Saturday, and we get to bring her home this evening. She's nine months old, and we don't know much about her history. The adoption counselor told us that she's housebroken, she loves cats and kids, and her favorite treat is shoes xD. However, when I was going over her paperwork after I got home, it said that she was a stray. I'm not sure how a stray dog would be housebroken, or how they would know she is housebroken when she has lived in a cage at the shelter. So it's a little grey.

We spent about an hour with her on Saturday. It could have just been the excitement of being out of her cage and in the play yard (on a leash), but she doesn't seem to have any manners at all. She didn't seem to know her name or what "no" means. She is also very mouthy.

I'm a little nervous to say the least. I've done the puppy routine several times, but I've never adopted an older dog before. While she is definitely still a puppy at 9 months, she's not an itty bitty baby puppy. She's got a little more life experience under her belt, and I'm not entirely sure how that changes things. We've already signed her up for a training class, but it doesn't start until the 26th.

So I guess just any general advice anyone could give would be great! Should I just ignore the fact that she's a little older and treat her as I would a younger puppy, or should I take a different approach? Thanks in advance!

Edited to add a picture of her sweet face:

This is especially adorable because the dog's a Shiba, of course.

Some background and context:
I have an almost 5-year-old Australian Cattle Dog mix named Butler. A friend found him abandoned in a parking lot and found the owner, who turned out to be neglectful and unable/unwilling to care for him, so I adopted him this past March. He had heartworms, and was under strict crate rest from June-July. (We just finished at the beginning of August and he is heartworm-free now. Hooray!! Side note: heartwrom treatment is hell, make sure you are using preventative!!!)

Butler does not have any behavioral problems as far as getting along with my roommate's dog, chewing/destroying anything, getitng into human food, etc. He is housebroken, but within the past month he's started peeing on the door frame of my bathroom. There have been a couple instances where he will pee in another spot, but it's usually that area. It's often once a day for multiple days in a row. I don't think it's need-based peeing because I take him out three times a day and he always pees outside. He seems to be doing it while I'm at work, though.

I clean the spot every time with a cleaner with enzymes to break down the smell, I am dilligent about taking him out regularly and on a schedule, and I have a vet appointment in a couple of weeks where I'll ask them about it. But in the meantime, any advice on what else I can do? I imagine (if it's not a medical thing) it could be a dominance act towards the other dog, or maybe it's because he had a fairly unstable home life before me (and his life with me has been a little inconsistent because of the crate rest) and he's just adjusting. I would really like to stop cleaning up pee every day after work. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
( picture! he's a great snugglerCollapse )

I just came back from DogEvent in Paris. Four days hearing and talking about animal training, behavioural science and positive reinforcement, it was brilliant.

Speakers included Susan Friedman, Kathy Sdao, Ken Ramirez, Chirag Patel, Joey Iversen, Grisha Stewart and Kelly Dunbar. I don't have a summary of the even, but I thought I'd share my notes for those who are interested. There's one post a day at my LJ.
I haven't reread them, so don't hesitate to tell me if something needs clarification. And I've yet to add my notes from Chirag Patel's workshop on teaching cooperation for medical care. It was highly interesting and I encourage you to check in again when I finally add them (next week maybe?).

Enjoy. :)

Here is our Puppy Class graduation 2015 video from Silvia Trkman's online class at the link below. My daughter and I learned so much about how our puppy Razzle thinks and learns and so many fun tricks and some really important skills. Please check it out and if you like it please "like" it at the link below. (Yes we are competing for the most likes to win first prize which is a new free class with Silvia Trkman who is a genius dog trainer!!!)

Anyway I hope you do really like it--and there are lots of other graduation videos to look at here too! We are Dinah and Bronagh and Razzle.

http://www.lolabuland.com/graduation-puppy-january-2015/comment-page-2/#comment-157300

Hi all :) Last week I took in a foster puppy. It has been a while since I had to live through the puppy years and am having a difficult time getting him to stop the play biting. My usual techniques (shouting 'OW!', withholding attention, redirection to a better chew toy than my arm) aren't working as well with this little guy as they have for my other dogs. Does anyone have any other suggestions for curbing the play biting?

ETA: The pup is 12 weeks old and too smart for his own good!