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Dog Owner Invents Training Techniques...
Author Stumped!
By Adam G.
Katz
Dear Adam:
Please help! I am ready to give
away my 6mo. old Maltese. I grew up with one of these dogs- the most
gentle and affectionate dog I'd ever met so I bought one for my family at
great expense. I tried to find a good breeder and had the dog
shipped.
The problem is this- He growls and snaps at my 4 year old
whenever he tries to pet him or pick him up, or if I'm watching saying,
"Good dog, no growl, it's OK.. " he will not growl but struggle to get
away and growl as soon as he's down. He has bitten when I was not
watching.
I tried the advice in your book [ Secrets of a
Professional Dog Trainer! http://www.thats-a-good-dog.com/dogproblem
] and that given by others on the discussion group. For a long while my
son was the only one to feed the dog, I kept him off the furniture and the
kids owned the toys. Nothing seemed to help , so recently I've been
grabbing him firmly by the scruff and growling "No" at him, then putting
him in a small room by himself for several minutes. Today when I went to
correct him he snapped and growled at me! He is now frightened of me and I
am angry at him.
The most upsetting thing for me is that I wanted
this dog to be a friend for my son like mine was for me when I was young.
My son is a gentle, quiet boy who loves animals and is saddened my this.
Is there any hope?
Signed,
- Stewart.
Dear
Stewart:
I don't know how to say this without sounding like a
complete jerk, but ....
PAY ATTENTION AND FOLLOW
DIRECTIONS!
The one thing you apparently HAVEN'T DONE is to CORRECT
THE DOG'S UNWANTED BEHAVIOR!!! The 'pulling on the scruff of the neck' is
only for young puppies, 8 to 10 weeks old. It's ineffective for older
dogs.
For correcting older dogs, I spend much of the book
explaining the benefits of the pinch collar. Remember the concept of
motivation? Remember the notion of associating a negative/correction with
the dogs unwanted behavior? Remember how I teach you to look at the
corrections you're giving and decide if they're motivational or not?
Remember page 23, page 38, page 59, page 62, page 155, page 173, page 174,
page 181, page 226, page 241, and page 260 ?
I'll quote from the
book, "After you correct the dog, immediately tempt him to do the behavior
again. Offer him the choice: If he does the behavior again then most
likely your first correction wasn't motivational... If he refuses to do
the behavior, then praise him-- as he's just made the RIGHT DECISION."
[Page 156.]
Now, if you have a specific question about how to
implement any of these techniques... then that's another issue. But
telling me that you're confining the dog in a bedroom as some sort of
"Time Out" technique is NOT something you've found in my book. And neither
is, ""Good dog, NO growl, it's OK..."
Again, I'll repeat: Praise
the dog only when he makes the right decision (staying calm). Do not tell
him, "No growl," if he's already being quiet. This is SOOOO CONFUSING TO
THE DOG.
It's very simple:
The dog does something good = You
say, "Good dog," and praise.
The dog does something bad = You say,
"No!" and administer a correction with the leash and collar.
I can
only speculate why your question is not more along the lines of, "This is
what happened when I corrected my dog using the pinch collar and tab for
this obnoxious behavior."
The only reason I'm being so blunt about
this issue is that it's a central theme throughout the book. I stress over
and over again the elements of timing, consistency and motivation. In
fact, many readers have commented that my repetition of this concept is
sometimes tedious.
Once you can explain to me how specifically
you've used timing, consistency and motivation and applied these elements
to your dilemma, you will (perhaps surprisingly) find yourself in the
position of explaining to ME how you will have fixed your dogs obnoxious
behavior.
To read more of my dog
training ramblings, read about my book:
Secrets of a
Professional Dog Trainer!
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more dog training information,
visit the following links:
Main site: Dog Training
Secrets of a
Professional Dog Trainer Book--
http://www.thats-a-good-dog.com/dogproblem
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