How do i get my dogs to learn "dog manners"? Help!

[Nic25]

Hello

I am a kiwi fan who watches the show religiously! I have two beautiful dogs. Otis a 3yr old staffie/lab/etc (SPCA special) and Sable a 2, 1/2yr old huntaway/Aussie sheepdog/Lab. Otis is a sweet boy who loves everyone and thinks hes an awesome athelite (he's not). Sable is rather submissive, very kissy and likes to "talk" alot.
They adore each other (both are fixed) and Sable only really challenges Otis's "authority" occasionally. They have been a challenge to walk as both pull but i now have them on a double lead and halties which seems to help.
My problems are that Sable is starting to show agrresion to other dogs while being walked. If she is off the lead she is fine. This is hard for me as the two of them weigh more than I do, the halti's help but I've got to the stage where I have to carry a newspaper rolled up tight to tap her nose when she lunges and then her backside as she tries to back up and eject herself from the halti. I really just want them to ignore other dogs while they are being walked buit i do realise this is a little unreasonable to ask, seen they don't get to play with other dogs on a regular basis.

My second problem is they have decided wheels are evil (???) and thus will attack bike wheels or even lawn mower wheels and trailer wheels. I keep a sharp eye on them so they don't ususally get the chance but we have had a nasty shock when some mountain bikers suddenly came upon us on a track (a SKINNY track too) and the dogs pounced *sigh*.

My third (sorry for the huge post) issue is how to stop Otis wanting to "play" with vehicles with large engines (bus's, trucks, boy racer cars etc). Everytime he hears them he starts to "prance" towards them and will lunge at them if he thinks he can. I should mention Otis is shortsighted. We are a little lost as to where this behaviour comes from.

thanks for any suggestions anyone can give me

[emmabeth]

Hiya

Ok - thing one Sable's on lead aggression.

First thing to do - take the rolled up newspaper. Put it in the bin.

Whats happening is as i see it, sable is not the most confident of girls, shes possibly frightened of other dogs (quite likely), and she knows when shes on the lead, she cannot run away, and she cannot skirt round them - what she CAN do is to 'oi you, feck orf, get away from me, ill get you!'.

And then you do something unpleasant.

So, she sees another dog, and something unpleasant happens to her. Which works out at , other dogs are REALLY unpleasant.

(Try this - you are frightend of spiders, you react by going 'arghhhh omg omg a spider' and start throwing everything you can reach at the spider.

If i then hit you on the nose with a newspaper every time you see a spider, do you stop being frightened of them? Do you stop reacting in that way? No. You now associate spiders with even worse things!)

So, no more punishment for her reacting to other dogs.

The way to stop her is to get her to focus on you. If shes watching you, if she knows walking calmly gets her plenty of rewards, if she has to keep an eye on you because you may change direction, change pace, ask for a sit or a down..... then shes not focussing on other dogs.

If she learns that walks are an opportunity to get plenty of rewards, she will want to focus on you, and it WILL matter to her, if she misses an opportunity to be rewarded.......

Which means, when she goes off on one at another dog - the basic principal is, she doesnt get any reward for that.

Its a bit more complex than that as at first you need to set her up to succeed - make sure for a while she doesnt see these other dogs. Then she sees them at such a distance as she doesnt react (may take a few goes to find that safe distance).

When she sees but doesnt react, reward (ask for a sit, ask her to look at you, reward).

Gradually you shorten that distance.

It is not unreasonable to expect dogs to walk past one another without reaction - however you must understand a little about how dogs communicate.

Dogs do not naturally walk straight up to one another, head on. This is something WE force them to do when we put them on a lead.

Naturally, dogs will approach in a wide arc, so there is no chance of accidental staring (which is rude and threatening in 'dog').

Because we have dogs on a lead, they cannot do this, because we walk on sidewalks, again, we cannot do this.

So to make up for this, if possible, cross the street.

Teach a 'behind me' command whereby the dog stands behind you, cutting out the direct eye contact with the approaching dog.

If you can safely stop somewhere, stop, put the dog in a sit with you between your dog and the approaching dog, reward the dog for keeping her focus on you whilst the other dog passes.

SO, thats Sable.

For both dogs, work on the above things, do this seperately at first you will really struggle to get anywhere together.

Walking to heel is about much more than just 'not pulling on the lead'. A dog that walks to heel is paying attention to you, and a dog that is paying attention to you is a dog you have control over.

Work with them both, individually - use the haltis but use a double ended lead back to a flat collar. Walk them off the collar, bring the halti into action IF they pull. Otherwise, dont say anything regarding walking to heel, but if they do go ahead, stop walking.

Have treats on you, when the dog chooses to be beside you, walk off briskly, say 'heel' and reward the dogs position beside you with a treat.

When they each have the hang of this, teach them to sit when you stop, or to down. Throw in direction changes - they MUST focus on you, or who knows where you will go!

Then you can start walking them together, preferably when you have got to the stage where you dont need to treat them for every single pace at heel.

I do strongly recommend that you do this on walks where the intention is NOT to actually go somewhere exciting, like the park. When the dogs realise that there is no exciting destination, the urge to pull is far less - again you have to set them up to succeed!

Ok - wheels.

This is probably a mix of several causes. One: its fun to chase (and sable has herding breed ancestry so is hard wired to be reactive to moving things), two: if theres nothing else fun to do...... the devil makes work for idle paws. three: wheels may be scary, appear from nowhere, make an unpleasant noise, so chase them away!

Solution to this....

One: introduce a strong 'leave' command - to teach this you start off with the dog learning that 'leave' means 'dont do that, do THIS' where 'this' is far more rewarding.

So your first one could be 'dont chase that ball of scrunched up paper that i have thrown a few inches...... have THIS piece of delicious sausage'....

Again, set up for success, make it stupidly easy to get it right at first and gradually make it harder.

When the dog sees a thing to chase and looks sto YOU for what you may have, then you start to say 'leave' as you throw the item.

When thats going well and your dogs will both leave things you have thrown because they know you have a treat instead, or another ball to throw the other way, then you can start to leave a time delay between them leaving something and you gettting the treat or the other toy out......

Then work them together, then on low grade 'real life' distractions etc.

Dont run before you can walk, if you have them both off lead, they go after a cyclist, and you think they WONT leave, then dont use the command - if you use it and they ignore it, then they have learned it means nothing!

2/ the devil makes work.......

Make those paws less idle! Out on walks, dont just let them run around willynilly, give them things to do. Again, if they are focussed on you, if you are the source of all entertainment then the passing cyclist holds much less interest. Keep them guessing, keep walks interesting by changing the route (if its circular, do it the other way round!), stop at different points and play ball games, or short obedience training, do clicker training..... anything just keep them interested in YOU above everything else.

3/ scary wheels......

Whenever you see things with wheels, as your dogs for a sit and reward them. Wheels = treats.
Making every encounter with wheels a pleasant one makes them less scary (go back to the spider scenario - if you are scared of spiders but every time you see a spider i give you $200...... d'ya like spiders more?)



Otis -

Big engines make big noises - big noises can be scary. Especially if a big noise means 'shortly a large speedy thing will whizz by you.... and you cant see it properly'.....

So whats a dog to do, well, he can ignore it, perhaps.

Or he can shout at it and tell it to go away.

If his human also starts sto shout, or tighten the lead, well hey that means something really IS up, that humans joining in, that human knows its a scary thing...... (shortening up your leash means the dog is pulling more into the collar - go have someone put their hands around your neck and tighten them a little.... do you want to relax, or do you want to fight it and struggle?)

Take him to a place where you can sit, where traffic goes by but he is far enough away not to lunge and bark at it.

Take a biiiiiig pot of treats - sit down and admire the traffic.

When he is focussing on the traffic, ignore him.

When he looks at you, give him a reward.

When you get to the point after a few trips to that place, where he looks at you all the time for the treats (or toy or whatever), and couldnt give a monkeys about the traffic, then find a place a bit nearer.

If he goes mental lunging and barking its too close, back up until he sees it, but doesnt react that way.

Repeat until you can walk along near traffic with him focussed on you for treats.

You may find that he needs something to get out his frustration, treats may not work but a ragger toy he can play tug of war with you, that will deal with his frustration in a safe way, putting his focus back to you and away from the traffic.


Hope all this helps - with each thing, bringing the focus back to you, giving your dogs a reason to focus on you, and reassociating the scary things with treats or toys from you will work. Start easy and work your way up!

Em

[Nic25]

Thanks for the great advice, am going through the processes now

[dapnee]

To get my Pug pup to ignore people, bikes and the like at the local park, I had him attached to a long light nylon lead.
When a person, bike or the likes came close I would get the lead, tell him "no" and quietly pull him into me where I would give him a treat.
I only had to pull him into me a couple of times and give him the treat, after that he 'caught on' and now I am confident enough with him to let him run lose, when someone now comes close he looks at them then at me and runs to me, I still give him a little treat.
Repetition is the answer, good luck.