Dog Training World › Forums › Behavior Problems › Dog Anxiety › Is hole digging anxiety? › Reply To: Is hole digging anxiety?
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I wanted to work with her for a while before commenting.
Mike, what you said about going with mother nature is spot on. Once the puppy settled in and realized this was her place and she had a routine a lot of the behaviors started to go away on their own. Β Her desire to be near me, made her naturally wanting to learn to gain praise and she started to learn very quickly once we found our groove. Β All I had to do was encourage the things in her that were potentially positive. Β …In hindsight I think part of her anxiety could have been anticipating something unknown or scary. I do know the breeder is a screamer and I did once see her hit a 5 week old puppy in the nose with a flip flop so … who knows. Β That stuff doesn’t happen here so that had to be weird, waiting for something that just doesn’t come… till finally it just stops bothering you. I guess that could have been going on?
Now though she’s awesome! Β Bold, inquisitive, outgoing, friendly, happy, joyful – she’s like that cool hang out dog. Β Emelee won’t chase the cats, rabbits or chickens. She doesn’t go after the horses (Magic will screw with the horses) Β TheΒ only problem now is that I’m no dog trainer, and at this point I’m at the dangerous juncture of I could accidentally teach her bad things out of ignorance because she’s a learning maniac. Β This is the point where I completely cry about distance.
The trick you said with the submissive urination also worked. I just never acknowleged it. (spelling it’s early) I never looked at it or commented at it or even looked in her face when she did it. Once she started to relax it started to abate. Again, I did as you said, kept a predictable routine, never acted in anger, never over reacted, always positive. It works. Β She actually went for a microchip the other day and didn’t even poop or puke in the car a total FIRST although I still had to drag her up into the jeep because she doesn’t know climb and doesn’t voluntarily climb or jump on anything. Gonna need some help with that lol.