Ki

[Shalista]

I was going to put this on the dog hugging thread but i didn't want to derail it.

My question doesn't relate to Bax but to his 'cousin' Ki.

Ki is a 5 year old chihuahua that my sister has had since 8 weeks.
He is not allowed to leave her room except to leave through a window and go onto the porch roof. He poops and pees on the roof.
He has a few toys but doesn't often play with them. He also has a 1 year old male cat that lives in the room with him that he does play with.
He doesn't go on walks, doesn't have training sessions, isn't given mental stimulation.
My sister swears by punitive measures and frequently uses alpha rolls, leash pops, and yelling to discipline Ki. He used to have a bark E-collar. She also flicks him on the nose and has actually broken his nose so that it points at an angle now off to the side.
He eats a high meat content kibble (the name escapes me).
He recently went to the vets and was diagnosed with chronic hip pain. (the vet didn't elaborate as to the cause)
He hasn't had any formal training but kind of knows sit, down, and stay.
He's dog reactive
He's very shy with people and generally fearful
He is NOT potty trained
He's very highly food motivated
He's toy motivated
He's very eager to please
He's really smart

All that to say, I've decided to do a bit of training with him. I feel bad for him locked up in his room all alone and Bax is doing really well so I'm looking for a challenge. I know I cant do much given his owners views but if i could get him out to sniff around and maybe challenge him a bit i thought it might be good. I know it's going to be a struggle but i want to help the little guy.

The first question that's come up regarding him is this whole "hugging" business. what do you do if the dog honestly seems to WANT a hug?

I took Ki to the vet to get some shots and a check up and he was a nervous wreck the whole time. (though he did handle the other dogs in the waiting room pretty well... with judicious application of hot dog pieces.) Towards the end when he was almost shut down from the experience he stood on the exam table, put his paws on my shoulder and pressed himself to me. I confess, i hugged him. Did i make this worse? My sister treats him basically like a living stuffed animal so I'm curious to see if this is natural dog behavior or if its skewed from life with her. thoughts? Should i have not hugged him? what do i do in the future?

[Fundog]

He was extremely frightened and looking for comfort. You followed his cue as to what kind of comfort he needed, and you have him that. Well done. It's the people who just scoop their dogs up out of the blue and squeeze them and freaks dogs out.

[Shalista]

Thanks fundog, i feel better now =)

My new Ki question regards training ques. Ki has a passable knowledge of sit, down, and stay but I'm concerned about his attitude about them. He was taught them punitively. When she wanted down she shoved his back until his legs buckled. When she wanted stay she'd shove him down and any time he got up she'd yell at him and push him back down again.

I want him to enjoy our training sessions without him being afraid. I was thinking of retraining the ques using hand signs since they
A) wouldn't have the negative connotations of the words and
B) Bax much prefers them and learns faster with them so ki might enjoy them as well and
C) he's really quite clever so i dont think it would take long to retrain.

My concerns are
A) it might confuse him to have two sets of ques and, more importantly,
B) i doubt his owner would ever use the hand signs so they wouldn't have much practical purpose.

Should i just try to reframe the words in his head with lots of treats? If you tell him to go into a down now his ears go back, his eye whites show, and he licks his lips as he slowly lowers himself down.

TL;DR Ki is scared of his que words for basic obedience. Should I try to make him feel better about them with lots of treats or use hand signals instead (which his actual owner will never use).

[JudyN]

When I went to training classes, we trained for both verbal and hand signals, and were encouraged to use both on their own (as well as together)- so in one session we might give verbal commands with hands on our heads (or even facing the other way, or lying on the floor), and in another we'd use the hand signals and say nothing. This seemed to work well - Jasper wasn't confused by it. So I reckon teaching hand signals would be a good idea.

You could also try training new verbal commands - how about using French, or a language of your choice? That might be better than using words he associates with something negative - I'm not sure if you can fix that association, particularly as your sister is likely to continue being negative.

[Shalista]

Yeah, I had hoped if I could change the que I could make him feel better about doing the action. I was thinking maybe the action wasn't stressing him so much as knowing that when that particular que came he was about to get manhandled.

I'm also curious to hear your thoughts on queuing for sit and down given that Ki has bad hips. I took him to the vet yesterday cause I was tired of hearing her complain that he couldn't jump in the window anymore and how obnoxious he was about trying ten, fifteen, times before making it through the window. Yup, according to the vet ki is now "wedge-shaped" because he carries all his weight on his front paws so his back paws don't hurt. He's going on pain meds soon but i'm curious about the wisdom of making him repeatedly sit, down, and stand if his hips hurt. Should i hold off on training until the pain meds kick in? His hips aren't painful to touch and he's naturally so nervous (lip licks, avoidance, head down) I'm not sure I'd be able to tell if they started hurting him.

TL;DR Ki has bad hips. Can i still train him to repeatedly sit and down?

[Nettle]

If he has bad hips, tailor your training so he doesn't stress them, regardless of if his painkilling meds are working or not, because extra wear and tear will be very bad for him.

So no sit, down, standing on back legs, twirling round, jumping, tug, anything that uses his hips. Training a series of exercises isn't important - how about you just let this sad little dog have some fear-free chill time with you instead?

[Erica]

Maybe puzzles instead of training? Or if he gets happy about training, do things like "shy dog" or crossing paws or nose targets...things that don't require moving his hips.