Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and have been eagerly reading all the relevant threads and articles.
I'm 25, and grew up with dogs (one until I was seven, and then three different ones from when I was fifteen to when I left home) but Benny is my first dog as an adult. Benny will be a year old in January - we're not sure of his exact birthday because he was a street dog in Romania who was in a shelter then brought over by a rescue and fostered for a month in the UK. We got him at eight months, so he's been with us just over three months now. He hasn't been neutered - we were very, very close to getting him done on the advice of the rescue, but literally three days before the appointment we were strongly advised not to by the dog trainer whose basic training classes we went to for the first eight weeks he was with us.
We also have a tripod rescue cat who is around five years old, and they mostly are kept apart. Paige lives upstairs and Benny is nearly always downstairs with us. When they are in the same room, Benny will usually bark and run towards the cat with a wagging tail, and Paige will hiss and get up high away from him. There haven't been any actual injuries but we've been careful never to leave them unsupervised.
Ideally I'd love to get to a point where Paige felt confident enough to come downstairs and Benny wouldn't chase her, but the situation is tolerable for now while we focus on other things.
My partner also grew up with a dog, and I would say understands dogs more than I do (I'm more naturally a cat person). She is a wheelchair user and works full time with a long commute, so she's out of the house from 7.30am to 6.30pm every weekday, and has medical stuff in the evenings so she's not free until around 8pm. I work very part time, mostly from home, so the majority of the dog wrangling falls to me. I struggle with anxiety, depression and a fatigue disorder which are simultaneously barriers to me being successful in training Benny, but also things which are helped by the fact that I have to get up and look after the dog. Sleeping all day is no longer an option, although it's still sometimes a desire.
That's the background, now onto the detail!
Our ideal day would look like this: at 7am my partner's PA comes in to help her get off to work, and at around 8am Benny and I would go to the park for a half-hour off-lead run around and sniff. He is full of beans in the morning, having spent the night sleeping in his crate in our bedroom. He typically does a large poo on his first walk of the day, sometimes two, and does lots of wees. If there's another dog in the park, he loves to run around with them and play wrestle a little bit, although he never seems to bite, even playfully, and mostly just wants to run and be chased/chase. There are a few dogs around here who enjoy this too, but it's always hit and miss whether they're in the park at the same time as us. Then we come home and I do whatever I need to do during the day. In the afternoon we go out for another walk, usually 1.5 hours or so with an opportunity for off-lead running around. If I have errands in town, Benny comes with me. We go the long way round so he can run off-lead on the way, but he's on the lead when we're in the town or if we meet people without dogs in the fields. Sometimes he's bouncy enough in the evenings that my partner and I decide to take him out for another half hour at 8pm, just walking round the block and maybe a few minutes chasing treats in the park.
In reality, especially now it's winter and dark in the mornings, I really struggle to get up and out in the morning. Much more often over the last month or so, we've not gone out until about 1pm, by which time Benny is really ready for some exercise. By the time we're back home, at around 3pm, it's already starting to get dark and that means he doesn't get a second walk unless it's the short on-lead walk round the block. I am trying to work on this, but it's so hard to overcome the fatigue and apathy when it's dark, and I'm constantly exhausted.
I have quite a lot of life admin to deal with and also am about to start a distance-learning Masters degree. Twice a week I tutor - one day I go to the students' house, so Benny is shut in his crate from 3.30pm when I leave for work until 6.30pm when my partner gets home. The other day the student comes to me, and she works with difficult dogs in a specialist rescue so is quite happy to have Benny around while we have the lesson. Sometimes I go out in order to babysit, but that's typically in the evening when my partner is home. Basically Benny is left alone in the crate once or twice a week for a maximum of four hours, usually less than three.
I do have a home office, which is upstairs as is our living room where my sewing machine, piano and other hobby stuff is, but I can rarely spend any time up there because Benny can't handle being left downstairs while I go up and will batter his way through any obstacle blocking him from the stairs to get up to me. Then he'll be all worked up and bark at the cat until I have to bring him down again. Shutting him in the crate while I'm upstairs isn't ideal either, as he'll bark and whine and scratch at the bars and get himself stressed out. The cat is also stressed because she is constantly on edge in case he comes upstairs, and I can't concentrate because of the noise of the barking, so this doesn't really suit any of us.
We took Benny to an eight-week basic training course, as I mentioned, which was good but as Benny was so new to us (the first lesson was on the Thursday of the week we got him, and he had moved in on the Monday) and the class was held in a room directly under a nursery apparently full of toddler elephants learning to tap-dance, he was very jumpy and distracted. He did get a lot better at dealing with being in a room with five other dogs, and we taught him a few things (the most useful being sit, lie down, wait and touch - he taps my hand with his nose) but he was definitely the slowest learner in the class. He was the only rescued street dog and we'd had him the shortest time, so we didn't stress over this, but it meant the class moved on without him.
I was struggling to cope with his barking in the house - he barks at any noise, especially car doors shutting or people talking in the gardens next door - and we contacted a behaviourist to come and do an assessment. She made several suggestions, including putting him on Breakthrough food, getting a muzzle to use when we're out, feeding him exclusively from a Wobbler Kong, and not letting him off-lead until we're 100% confident with his recall.
We got a muzzle but we all hate it so much that he hasn't used it. He has never bitten or come close to biting anyone, but he does run up to people, barking and circling them, and it can be quite alarming. I've also not stopped letting him off-lead because I simply cannot spend enough time walking him on the lead to satisfy his need for exercise. I think I'd have to walk him non-stop for at least three hours a day if he wasn't able to spend some of the time tearing round the fields at high speed or romping with other dogs. I just can't do that and still get anything else done in my day.
The Wobbler Kong has been a success, and he really likes chewing paddywhack and pizzles. He has zero interest in any toys, but will merrily tear up a teddy bear, toilet roll or cardboard box. We gave him a pile of t-shirts to sleep on before we got enough bedding for him, and he sometimes carries those around in his mouth and chews them. He's had balls, tuggy ropes, squeaky toys and even a giant home-made cat toy thing, a piece of fluffy cloth on the end of a long length of elastic attached to a bamboo cane. He chased it once after I'd smeared it with Primula and filled it with treats, but wouldn't bother with it after that.
What else to tell you? He follows me everywhere - I can't close the door to go to the toilet or have a shower or he sits outside whimpering and scratching the paintwork of our rented-house door. If anyone comes to the house, and a lot of people do - PAs twice a day, deliveries of medical supplies at least once a week, social workers, occupational therapists, tutoring students, the postman... then he barks his head off and runs at them. He's now familiar enough with the PAs that he'll stop barking once he's sniffed them and realised who it is. He barks at me and my partner when we come in through the door too. His greetings are very physical, he'll jump up and fling himself at us. We tried to train him to lie on his back and show his tummy when we come home, which he will do, but he kicks his legs and wiggles enthusiastically. He's more physical with me than my partner, and has scratched my face with his paws more than once in his exuberance. I find this really hard to deal with. Ironically my partner likes him to cuddle up with her, roll around the floor, lick her face etc while I hate it, but he doesn't do that to her as much as he does to me. We think it might be because she's a wheelchair user - dogs seem to treat her a little differently even if she's not in her chair.
I would really love to have some ideas about how to tire him out a bit more, and advice on whether to keep him on the lead as suggested by the behaviourist or let him off to run around as I have been doing. We do have a long training lead which I think I'll try taking with me - would it be okay to let him run around with the long lead on, but haul him back if he spots a dog or a person and wants to go running off up to them?
I had been letting him run over to people with dogs if the dog seemed friendly and willing to play, but I read somewhere on here that I shouldn't do that, so I'll try to get the lead on him before he runs off. We've been working on recall - if I call him back to me as soon as I spot someone, and then ask him to touch my hand in exchange for a treat, I can typically get him on the lead. If I leave it a little longer, and he's started moving towards them, then there's no bringing him back. I have to catch him in the window where he's realised there's someone there but hasn't made up his mind what to do.
Twice since we got him I have had what I think is a rotator cuff injury, one in each arm. I don't notice it happening but become aware of a bad pain that is worsened on certain arm movements, when sleeping or when I'm trying to lift anything. It does make it harder to walk him on the lead because basically at the moment my right arm is out of action and hurts all the time. I went to the GP and a chiropractor when it happened to my left arm, but the only consequence of that was that I was poorer after paying for two sessions of chiropractic treatments that didn't seem to help. I suspect the injuries happened when Benny yanked on the lead trying to get at someone I was keeping him away from, but can't be certain.
He is now barking because someone closed their car door (there's a van parked outside next door, I think some kind of builder, and he's been very barky today). I think he needs to go for a long, long run in the forest.
Please, any advice on how to reduce the noise-reactive barking, the constant following me around the house, the overly physical greetings and the herding/rounding up people we meet would be so appreciated. Rehoming him is not an option, but neither is continuing as we are. The cat needs to be able to feel safe in her own home, I need to be able to go upstairs sometimes, delivery drivers don't want to be worried they'll be attacked, and I really don't want to have to wear earplugs all the time!
Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Thankyou for the super detailed post, thats brilliant!
So to try and cover it all.. bear with!
First thing - you will NEVER EVER tire this dog out with physical activity. Never. Do not try, all you will do is create a canine athelete at the top of his game ready to do more and more and more.
What is important is getting out, spending one to one time with him, him having a run about, sniffing the sniffs, seeing the sights.
What is NOT important is the distance covered or the length of time (beyond a certain point anyway!) he's run about for. I could show you any number of dogs I've met who get two, three, four, five! hours of fast walking and running per day adn are up for more, bored witless and frothing at the mouth... because they are fit as fleas and not mentally stimulated in the slightest.
Soak up the energy with training both out and about and at home - several 5 minute sessions every day on whatever you need to do, as well as the on going stuff about noise, visitors and the cat - if you are doing enough he WILL be tired!
Outside - yes, you shouldn't be letting him off unless you are sure you can get him back and some of the behaviours you describe might land you in trouble if he does them to the wrong person - barking and circling a stranger COULD put you the wrong side of the dangerous dogs act here, because it only needs the person in question to be 'reasonably apprehensive of injury' and for you to have called and been ignored to demonstrate he is 'out of control in a public place'... and make a complaint and thats you and him in deep doodoo.
So harness - Perfect Fit by dog games or similar - 30ft long line, hey presto, end of problem - you can stop him (don't haul him in with it, use it to stop him and then you catch up to him), you can let him drag it, you can take it off in safe places to play with dogs he knows. Everyone's safer.
To use the long line, hold the middle section and let the spare trail behind you, and practice your recall - have him come, hold his collar, reward, send him off again!
Getting stuff done upstairs - baby gate across your office door, pop another one across another door for the cat to have sanctuary, then he can lie outside and watch you rather than be shut away from you. Or if he isnt a pest then put a dog bed in your office and shut him in with you.
Feeding from food dispensing toys - good, double plus thumbs up for that. Vary your toys, Kong wobbler, kong, snuffle mat, theres MILLIONS of them now, some can be home made some can be purchased at everything from a small figure to a small fortune!
Noise reactivity - treat pouch, load it up with something good (currently loving the MEAT LOVE brand meat and treat sausage!) or have pots with high value treats around the house - you hear a noise, he gets a treat. Repeat until noises themselves trigger a happy response from him rather than a reactive startled response. Be sure that the treat happens because there was a noise, this is classical conditioning here - it is NOT dependent on him being good or quiet or whatever - noise = treat.
Training classes - go back, you can do the same class over and over or graduate up to the next class, or go to someone elses class - there are classes for trick training, teaching dogs service dog skills, classes for scent work, classes for the canine good citizens scheme - as long as you are enjoying them and the methods used are force free and effective, do as many classes as you want.
On top of all this, consider the balance of each day - lots of the things we automatically equate with 'good dog ownership' like going for whizzy walks and throwing balls, can actually be winding a dog up and building stress rather than what we wanted.. getting rid of stress and tiring them out.
For every high octane activity, try and fit in two lower octane, calming things - gentle massage, finding food scattered or sniffing it out of a snuffle mat, learning to track, lying nomming a chew toy on your leg, grooming, chewing a bone.
So to try and cover it all.. bear with!
First thing - you will NEVER EVER tire this dog out with physical activity. Never. Do not try, all you will do is create a canine athelete at the top of his game ready to do more and more and more.
What is important is getting out, spending one to one time with him, him having a run about, sniffing the sniffs, seeing the sights.
What is NOT important is the distance covered or the length of time (beyond a certain point anyway!) he's run about for. I could show you any number of dogs I've met who get two, three, four, five! hours of fast walking and running per day adn are up for more, bored witless and frothing at the mouth... because they are fit as fleas and not mentally stimulated in the slightest.
Soak up the energy with training both out and about and at home - several 5 minute sessions every day on whatever you need to do, as well as the on going stuff about noise, visitors and the cat - if you are doing enough he WILL be tired!
Outside - yes, you shouldn't be letting him off unless you are sure you can get him back and some of the behaviours you describe might land you in trouble if he does them to the wrong person - barking and circling a stranger COULD put you the wrong side of the dangerous dogs act here, because it only needs the person in question to be 'reasonably apprehensive of injury' and for you to have called and been ignored to demonstrate he is 'out of control in a public place'... and make a complaint and thats you and him in deep doodoo.
So harness - Perfect Fit by dog games or similar - 30ft long line, hey presto, end of problem - you can stop him (don't haul him in with it, use it to stop him and then you catch up to him), you can let him drag it, you can take it off in safe places to play with dogs he knows. Everyone's safer.
To use the long line, hold the middle section and let the spare trail behind you, and practice your recall - have him come, hold his collar, reward, send him off again!
Getting stuff done upstairs - baby gate across your office door, pop another one across another door for the cat to have sanctuary, then he can lie outside and watch you rather than be shut away from you. Or if he isnt a pest then put a dog bed in your office and shut him in with you.
Feeding from food dispensing toys - good, double plus thumbs up for that. Vary your toys, Kong wobbler, kong, snuffle mat, theres MILLIONS of them now, some can be home made some can be purchased at everything from a small figure to a small fortune!
Noise reactivity - treat pouch, load it up with something good (currently loving the MEAT LOVE brand meat and treat sausage!) or have pots with high value treats around the house - you hear a noise, he gets a treat. Repeat until noises themselves trigger a happy response from him rather than a reactive startled response. Be sure that the treat happens because there was a noise, this is classical conditioning here - it is NOT dependent on him being good or quiet or whatever - noise = treat.
Training classes - go back, you can do the same class over and over or graduate up to the next class, or go to someone elses class - there are classes for trick training, teaching dogs service dog skills, classes for scent work, classes for the canine good citizens scheme - as long as you are enjoying them and the methods used are force free and effective, do as many classes as you want.
On top of all this, consider the balance of each day - lots of the things we automatically equate with 'good dog ownership' like going for whizzy walks and throwing balls, can actually be winding a dog up and building stress rather than what we wanted.. getting rid of stress and tiring them out.
For every high octane activity, try and fit in two lower octane, calming things - gentle massage, finding food scattered or sniffing it out of a snuffle mat, learning to track, lying nomming a chew toy on your leg, grooming, chewing a bone.
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. The impossibility of wearing him out physically makes a lot of sense, he has whacked on muscle since he came to us (he was a skinny little street urchin and now looks like he borrowed the back end of a greyhound). We do have a really, really long lead so I'll start taking that out with me. I hadn't realised about the dangerous dogs act, that's really scary.
Sadly I don't think baby gates would work upstairs, he can leap incredibly high! I can, however, shut him in the office with me and let the cat feel safe in her bedroom. Eventually I hope we can all be in one room together, the poor cat is lonely and cries for company.
We always have loads of cardboard boxes thanks to lots of deliveries so I tried out putting his kibble into a big box stuffed with brown paper, and a few treats twisted up in brown paper bags. He really liked excavating his breakfast from in there! I bet we can make a snuffle mat for him, we have lots of scrap fabric and felt.
I'll try the treats for noise reactivity - I've been having fairly good results saying "Good boy, Benny, quiet dog!" as soon as I hear a noise (but before he barks) and that usually does the trick at preventing the bark but doesn't bring him off high alert. Treats probably will though
Hopefully we'll start 2017 with huge progress Thank you again!
Sadly I don't think baby gates would work upstairs, he can leap incredibly high! I can, however, shut him in the office with me and let the cat feel safe in her bedroom. Eventually I hope we can all be in one room together, the poor cat is lonely and cries for company.
We always have loads of cardboard boxes thanks to lots of deliveries so I tried out putting his kibble into a big box stuffed with brown paper, and a few treats twisted up in brown paper bags. He really liked excavating his breakfast from in there! I bet we can make a snuffle mat for him, we have lots of scrap fabric and felt.
I'll try the treats for noise reactivity - I've been having fairly good results saying "Good boy, Benny, quiet dog!" as soon as I hear a noise (but before he barks) and that usually does the trick at preventing the bark but doesn't bring him off high alert. Treats probably will though
Hopefully we'll start 2017 with huge progress
Thank you again!Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Just a couple of thoughts - if you're walking him with a long lead it is best to attach it to a harness rather than a collar, particularly if he has greyhound acceleration. And you can get double height stairgates, or even fix one above the other. But if he'll settle in your room, hopefully there's no need for that.
Our cat, Monty, never really adjusted to having a dog in the house, and Jasper does sometimes try to get him to play by plonking a paw on his back or (gently) wrapping his jaws around him
But Monty lives in the bathroom & walk-in airing cupboard behind a stairgate with a catflap and comes out for a bit of fuss whenever anyone goes to the loo 
If he did come down & join us in the evenings Jasper would be fine, but the only time he'll willingly be in the same room as Jasper is when I'm cooking fish and they both want to 'help'
Our cat, Monty, never really adjusted to having a dog in the house, and Jasper does sometimes try to get him to play by plonking a paw on his back or (gently) wrapping his jaws around him
But Monty lives in the bathroom & walk-in airing cupboard behind a stairgate with a catflap and comes out for a bit of fuss whenever anyone goes to the loo If he did come down & join us in the evenings Jasper would be fine, but the only time he'll willingly be in the same room as Jasper is when I'm cooking fish and they both want to 'help' Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Oh yes, double height baby gates! Sorry I automatically assume poeple know about doing that as ive always had lurchers who laugh in the face of a single baby gate 'oh my, you have provided an amusing jump for us to play with...'..
Also for moving around the house to go upstairs to the office etc, pop a lead on him so theres no opportunity for him to dash off and worry the cat - the less the cat is worried the quicker that will resolve itself!
Also for moving around the house to go upstairs to the office etc, pop a lead on him so theres no opportunity for him to dash off and worry the cat - the less the cat is worried the quicker that will resolve itself!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
We use a harness all the time, his collar is a bit too big (we thought he'd grow into his ears, but so far he has not). Only problem we've had with the long lead so far is him wrapping it round my legs and nearly pulling me over! I'm working on building his recall; any tips beyond simply repetition with medium/high value treats? He can be really good, coming back repeatedly on the first request, and then it's like he loses interest and ignores us completely.
At this very moment he is practising fetching an object and bringing it back to my partner - you can see the little cogs in his brain turning. I'll see about doing another training class in the new year, wearing out his mind definitely seems more successful than trying to wear out his legs!
Double-height baby gates and leads inside, seems so obvious and yet I just hadn't tried it... thanks guys
At this very moment he is practising fetching an object and bringing it back to my partner - you can see the little cogs in his brain turning. I'll see about doing another training class in the new year, wearing out his mind definitely seems more successful than trying to wear out his legs!
Double-height baby gates and leads inside, seems so obvious and yet I just hadn't tried it... thanks guys
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Don't do too many recalls - it's better to have one awesome recall per walk than six good ones and one where he ignores you. And when you can, once he's had the treat and you've told him how brilliant he is, let him go off again. It's easy to only call him back when you need him back and there's a lot of dogs (mine included at times 
) who when they are called, look around to see what exciting thing it is they're being called back from!
I have different 'levels' of recall - calling his name, or 'come, come, come' works most of the time. I blow the whistle less often, but it gets a really large reward & lots of praise and is almost infallible as long as deer & rabbits aren't involved. Then there's 'come along' or 'this way', which isn't a recall right back to me, but tells him which way we're headed and that I'd like him to accompany me.
But these sort of evolved so I'm not sure how it translated into structured training...
) who when they are called, look around to see what exciting thing it is they're being called back from!I have different 'levels' of recall - calling his name, or 'come, come, come' works most of the time. I blow the whistle less often, but it gets a really large reward & lots of praise and is almost infallible as long as deer & rabbits aren't involved. Then there's 'come along' or 'this way', which isn't a recall right back to me, but tells him which way we're headed and that I'd like him to accompany me.
But these sort of evolved so I'm not sure how it translated into structured training...
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Re: Trying my best with our rescued street dog
Things are getting better with Benny, but we're still really struggling with barking. At the moment we have Autoglass replacing our car windscreen outside the house and he is incredibly stressed about it, barking every time he hears a noise (and we can hear them talking to each other, even though the windows are shut) and not settling down at all. He barks when he hears our neighbours in their garden, he barks when car doors open and close, he barks when people walk along the footpath at the end of the garden. He loses his furry little mind whenever post is delivered, and delivery drivers won't come into the garden to bring parcels any more, I have to go and get them over the gate because Benny barks so loudly, even from inside the house, that they are frightened to come near. If he's had a couple of good walks he can be a little calmer, but he still barks if he thinks anyone is coming anywhere near the house or garden, just not every time when a car door closes or a neighbour talks.
We're giving him vitamin B6 drops, we've tweaked his diet based on advice from a behaviourist, we've been working on his acceptance of expected visitors which has improved - we've had a lot of guests in the last few months and he's now pretty good at tolerating them as long as they enter the house before he does, so I take him for a short walk while they get inside and settled. We just can't work out what to do about noises from outside. He is too stressed to accept treats or perform behaviours that he's otherwise very confident with (like sit, or lie down so he can have his belly rubbed - his favourite relaxing activity). At the moment he's got two meat-stuffed Connectables which he's ignoring in favour of hypervigilance.
Any suggestions about what to do with this noise reactivity? One of the problems is he often reacts to noises I haven't even heard, so I can't pre-empt his reaction with a treat even if he would accept them.
We're giving him vitamin B6 drops, we've tweaked his diet based on advice from a behaviourist, we've been working on his acceptance of expected visitors which has improved - we've had a lot of guests in the last few months and he's now pretty good at tolerating them as long as they enter the house before he does, so I take him for a short walk while they get inside and settled. We just can't work out what to do about noises from outside. He is too stressed to accept treats or perform behaviours that he's otherwise very confident with (like sit, or lie down so he can have his belly rubbed - his favourite relaxing activity). At the moment he's got two meat-stuffed Connectables which he's ignoring in favour of hypervigilance.
Any suggestions about what to do with this noise reactivity? One of the problems is he often reacts to noises I haven't even heard, so I can't pre-empt his reaction with a treat even if he would accept them.
