Sharon Blakeney-McDonald
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Marcus,
I was wondering if you have watched phrase 1 videos here on this site under “video instructions”? The blue bar at the top of the page click on the white dashes and then click on “video instruction” and click on phrase1 “dog training videos with treats and positive reinforcement only” and follow them in order. Also in the knowledge base under quick charts you will find the written instructions that explain step by step to doing all of phrase1 before moving onto phrase 2. I’m not sure but you may be missing steps in the phrase1 teaching the commands.
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Hi Scott,
There are many reasons why a dog may act aggressively or bite. My thoughts is you may be right Kaia is showing dominance aggression. Also the other thing is she at the age of where adolescent dog goes through their critical period (6-18mths) – a time in their lives where the dog may start showing assertive behaviour. Kaia biting Odessa could have very well been a social status issue with her. I would say it was a “warning bite” to your child that she had enough of being stroke. Many large breeds that have been bred as guard dogs can have low social aggression – you can read more about this in the knowledge base under “social aggression”. It is also important to remember that to dogs the family is a ‘pack’ and when small children are involved the dog may consider that the children are lower in the pack hierarchy then them. The first thing to do when trying to overcome this problem is to change the peck order of the pack. The dog needs to be at the bottom of the pack. Reading the information on “leadership” in the knowledge base section is important aspect to help you in this area with your dog. Also if you wish to troubleshoot the problem you can go to the self help section where the “pyramid” is there to help you with doing this. I was impress to read that you had taken the steps with your children to teach them to be gentle with Kaia and when to “leave her alone”… it may also help to ask the children in future not to interact with her while she is in her bed resting if you haven’t already. If you do observe any more signs of dominance from Kaia towards your children she needs to be corrected immediately and either send to her crate or her bed away from the children. Continue with doing all phrases of the obedience training and this will put you in the position of control where you can use the corrections to teach Kaia her aggressive behaviour wont be tolerated towards your children.
The second issue of attacking small fluffy dogs apart from keeping Kaia on leash you could muzzle her. Teach her a “leave it” command and make sure the “recall” command is rock solid before allowing her of leash or without a muzzle. Moving to phrase3 of the remote collar training is where you will get the 100% backup of your dog doing your commands.
I hope this is of some help to you… keep us posted on how you go.
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Hi Lauren,
Congrats to owning your new pup Zadok. GSD are often know to be instinctively protected of their owners and territory due to their breed traits. My other thought is Zadok is reaching the age where he could be going through one of the critical development period of his life. Around the 6 to 14mths a second fear impact period occurs that could also explain the change of Zadok behaviour towards your visitors. Often during this period the adolescent dog becomes unsure and fearful of new things to unfamiliar people perceiving them as a threat now. There are a few things you could try to do. One is instead of trying to encourage greetings you could try to wait til he as time to work it out himself that they are of no harm. Instead of having him confront your visitors at the door you could try giving him a “safe space” where he can evaluate the situation from a distance. You could teach him a “stay” and “go to your place” (perhaps the crate, or a dog bed, mat or what ever you prefer) for him to go to in your home. Once he know these commands, you can use them when visitors do come. I use to do this with my GSD and once my guests were settle Tazer was “free” from his place to be able to come to them when he was comfortable they were no longer a threat. My visitors could then give him a treat/pat and after that he would just lay close by to watch us all. I taught Tazer the commands by following the training system from this site. I would also go to the knowledge base and read about “leadership” – reinforcing your role as leader is an important part of making sure your dog understands he needs to look at you, the owners for directions. If you don’t provide leadership then he will do his own thing. This is a good time to be training your dog as it helps build their self- confidence by putting them in a position that sets them up for success.
Please keep us posted on how you go….
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Hi Sunghee,
My thoughts from what I’m reading of the dog being quite attitudy/pushy behaviour may be coming from not having any discipline/corrections. Without teaching the dog phrase2 corrections the owners are given her the option to choose whether she obeys… if she does obey its seems to be only on her terms of getting the treats/toys she wants. What happens when she doesn’t want the treats/toys to ‘sit’and rather keep jumping on the people instead? I find with using treats/toys that it is a great way of teaching commands and for increasing the behaviours you desirer – but to change a undesirable behaviour that you don’t want such as her ‘jumping on people’ the dog needs to learn what corrections are… its only fair that she does knows this too.
When the dog does bites you during training is this to get a treat/toy? Is it to do with she doesn’t want to do the commands or the training anymore? Does she also bites or do this with the owners? It could be she biting to tell you off for trying to discipline her and not giving her the treats/toys when she wants them… possibility could be a rank issue of who is in charge. The leader is who sets the rules, as control of the resources and gives the discipline/corrections to the lower ranting dogs for not following their leadership.
If you go to the pyramid under the “start self help” (above video instructions) you can troubleshoot the dogs behaviour problems there…. this may help you further with solutions. Also did you watch the third vid in phrase2 with the starmark?… this vid may help you too as you can watch Mike teaching another client on how to teach a pup the correction phrase2.
Please keep us posted on how you go with it all….
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Oh Sunghee, I forgot to mention if you do need further help with understanding the phrases 1 & 2 “sit” there is more information provided in the Knowledge Base section. You will find listed under the Quick Charts is the Obedience chart where Mike explains more clearly how to do phrase 1 “sit” up to the phrase 2 Escape Conditioning lesson & the Condition Punisher. It is best that your dog understands the correction phrase 2 and the command structure first before adding distractions – the distraction for the owners pup may be the greeting of people. The Command Structure Chart is also listed under the Quick Charts.
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I do have a similar problem as you with finding people who will help in the training. This is where Puppy pre-school as the advantage by having the people available that can assist you in the greeting training. When you move onto the next phrase 2 and after she learns what a correction is you can start correcting this behaviour the second she goes to jump. I taught my mums pup to sit through phrase1 and am now using corrections and the command structure they teach here. This teaches her when I say “no” and she doesn’t do it then she will received an correction for breaking my commands. I use just a flat collar with my mums pup as she is only small and it gives a correction enough to motivate her to do my commands. (instruction video phrase 2 training with a starmark collar is the vid I follow to teach her.) A larger or more stronger pup would probably need the starmark collar. The head halter is a great training tool to use as well but with my mums pup being so unruly I would be apprehensive to use it with her. The dog you are training does seem to understands the “sit” command but hasn’t been taught yet that she is not allow to break the command… this is taught in phrase 2. My mums pup is a half terrier breed and she is so energy, playful, and determine that I found the key with her training is being consistence and never to let her get away with not obeying my commands. You are doing great to have taught the pup phrase1… the owners of the dog are lucky to have you helping them with their training of her.
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Hi Sunghee,
I came across a piece of info that may help you with your choice of what collar to use in the video instructions under ‘Dog Behavior lesson and tips’. The first vid ‘Foundation Style Dog Training demo’ Mike speaks about the Pros & Cons of training collars. The head halter may not be the best choice with an unruly dog, as neck injuries are a possibility with it. I’m doing the same as you where I’m helping my mum out as well with her pup who is very excitable and is jumping at people/dogs for attention. The greeting I reset the exercise and only reward the right behaviour when she sitting calmly for pats/attention with people and move her away before she starts the wrong behavior. I also reset the wrong behaviour too by moving her away til she is calm and begins learning that she won’t get what she wants til she does what I want. Following what I learned in phrase1 I do this with food too where she doesn’t get it til she gives me the behaviour I want… sitting calmly not jumping, nipping, etc. The moving onto Phrase two is a good idea as this is where the dog learns escaping and avoidance of corrections that will help the owners further to teach the dog to remain in the commands when given.
I hope this is of some help to you.
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Hi guys,
Christine I know exactly what you mean by trying to find another well balance dog that won’t trigger your dog off. What I’ve found though is with some dog trainers they will owned a well balance dog who helps them with other dogs that have this issue. What I’ve been doing to help solve problems with my dogs is I go to the self help section on this site where you can troubleshoot your dog’s behaviour problems on the triangle… once you know why your dog is displaying the behaviour you then can start to work on the problem. The new thing out on this site now is you can send a video of the problem you are having with your dogs in chat to Mike or Judy so they can see what is really going on and can help you with it. Technology soooo amazing…
James so good to hear your dog is doing much better.
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That sounds like she is doing a lot better… you may be right that she just needed time to settle in and bond with you all. If she 18mth old it could have also been just a stage she was going through – the second fear period generally occurs between the age of 6-14mths old. I think with your guidance she is going to be fine.
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Oh, I forgot to mention it could also be prey aggression if its fast movements triggering her off. Teaching her a ‘leave it” command is helpful in this situation too.
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Hi James,
Your dog sounds like she as a sweet nature… though it seems she could be nervous when it comes to other dogs. (It could be she feel they could be a threat to her). Do you find she will play comfortably with dogs that she doesn’t consider a threat to her? My other thought is it could be “redirected aggression” as dogs become her object to attack with those triggers you speak of when she goes after a dog. Though with Redirection aggression it is generally cause by frustration/excitement at the dog not being able to get at the source of what is frustrating it. You have done well to identify her triggers for when the behaviour occurs. When you know what the triggers are you can either remove her from the trigger before the behaviour starts (like you are doing on your walks) or you could teach her alternate behaviour to do instead. You could teach her a command like “leave it” or a “come” command to get her focus back onto you instead of the dog that she goes after to attack. If she is apprehensive about playing with other dogs then I wouldn’t push it. This is my thoughts to what may be happening… I’m still in the early stages of learning here so please don’t quote me on it. She is such a lucky girl that you have given her a new home.
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Hi Mike , yes – I can see the tabs and I follow your instructions and a tab ask you to “select your dogs” – which I did do but nothing came up for you to put your information into it.
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Hi Mike, I try to update Tazer journal by the “add journal” but there was no where you could. I did manage to posted it through “add dog” and ended up with two Tazer in my journal but you could only view it on “my dogs” and not through my journal.
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Hi Sunghee, from what I’m reading you are doing a great job with both of your puppies. Puppies during play figure out what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour. Both of them seem to be playing appropriate by role-reversing and ending the play when one of them yelped. Rough playing works best when the two are friends that may not have been appropriate between dogs that don’t know each other. I would take the opportunity here to work on a reliable “come” to called them for brief play pauses too.
