Teaching NOT to shake
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2Bassets&aBullmastiff
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:33 pm
- Location: Illinois
Teaching NOT to shake
Ronan, our recently adopted bullmastiff, has a habit of randomly wanting to shake especially when trying to work out how to get his rewards. I would like to teach him to only shake when commanded. Why you may ask, well thats because his paw when shaking is about the height of my one year old daughter and more than once he has accidentally knocked her down with it. Now he doesn't try to shake with the kids unless my husband or I ask him to but she seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The last time was her walking up to me to ask for a drink as he was trying to figure out that I wanted him to watch me. Any suggestions??
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Re: Teaching NOT to shake
Sounds like shaking is a "default" behavior for Ronan - something he has been rewarded for, and something he expects to "work". So, if he doesn't know what you want, he defaults to what he knows. I'd ignore his attempts to shake if you haven't asked for it, possibly split the behavior you are looking for smaller (reward very little pieces so he's not confused by you asking for too much of a leap in logic and also work on a new fun behavior that gets highly rewarded and doesn't involve big paws in the air. Maybe a bow or a down. I find that when dogs learn a new behavior, they'll like trying that one, and you can make it his new default.2Bassets&aBullmastiff wrote:Ronan, our recently adopted bullmastiff, has a habit of randomly wanting to shake especially when trying to work out how to get his rewards. I would like to teach him to only shake when commanded. Why you may ask, well thats because his paw when shaking is about the height of my one year old daughter and more than once he has accidentally knocked her down with it. Now he doesn't try to shake with the kids unless my husband or I ask him to but she seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The last time was her walking up to me to ask for a drink as he was trying to figure out that I wanted him to watch me. Any suggestions??
Sandy in OK
www.positivelycanine.com
www.positivelycanine.com
My dog's current "default" is similar to the shake - during "101 things..." I rewarded him for putting his paw inside the box, so now he raises his paw in the air even though there's no box there. His shake was pretty intense when he first learned it - it was more like a b*tchslap - but by learning this new behavior, his shake is now a lot softer.
OP, I agree that with such a big dog around little kids perhaps less physical behaviors might work for now. However, if you play 101 things to do with a box and have him put his paw inside - clicking and treating while his paw is still in mid-air, maybe his shake will get softer with time as well.
OP, I agree that with such a big dog around little kids perhaps less physical behaviors might work for now. However, if you play 101 things to do with a box and have him put his paw inside - clicking and treating while his paw is still in mid-air, maybe his shake will get softer with time as well.
You can also redirect the shake motion to mean something else if you haven't asked for a shake. When Georgia paws at me without my inviting her to, I get up and put her in the back yard, wait 10 minutes and let her back in-- she figured out pretty quickly only to paw at people when asked or when she wants to go out.
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whatthedeuce
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:57 pm
Ours was doing this VERY aggressively with us- sort of like Noobs said, more like a b#tchslap! He would more place his hand on you, but he's got a lot of force behind this hand and would be very pushy about wanting it on you. He's stopped doing it with now since we never, ever ask him to do it. But when he greets strangers, he sits and immediately puts his paw on them, HARD. Sometimes if the stranger is OK with it (which they usually are because they think it's cute), he then puts his second paw on them and before we know it, he's standing up and in their face.
Not good!!!
He's in a manners obedience class now, and I hope we'll learn in there about how to greet strangers (both his actions and what we're supposed to do to get him to be gentle). We just moved to a new area and don't really know anyone, or else we'd ask for help with training that from friends and family.
Also when we sit or lay on the floor with him, he swipes us really hard with his paw, too. But he won't look at us, just swipe hard. I hope we can get rid of that behavior as well because sometimes he does it right in our face.
Not good!!!
He's in a manners obedience class now, and I hope we'll learn in there about how to greet strangers (both his actions and what we're supposed to do to get him to be gentle). We just moved to a new area and don't really know anyone, or else we'd ask for help with training that from friends and family.
Also when we sit or lay on the floor with him, he swipes us really hard with his paw, too. But he won't look at us, just swipe hard. I hope we can get rid of that behavior as well because sometimes he does it right in our face.
Yes she does, she also got the point that pawing means "go outside" because now she'll paw my knee, just once and go stand by the door and wait for me to let her out.Noobs wrote:10 minutes is a little long, no? I imagine after 30 seconds they forget why they're out there and find something else to occupy them.
I chose going outside because Georgia rarely rings the bell to be let out, and will just hold it until one of the other dogs rings the bell. You could just as easily assign the pawing to some other doggie request such as snapping on the leash and going around the block, or getting a brush and giving the dog a good once over with it, or playing a game of tug.