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CaptBubba posted:What are the best ways to prevent the development of separation anxiety? I plan on adopting an adult dog sometime this summer, after I move. I work full time from home so I'm a bit concerned that the dog may become so used to my presence all day that days where I take off for any amount of time may trigger some sort of freak-out. The best thing you can probably do to stave off separation anxiety is practice leaving. Since you work at home, you'll be able to start off nice and slow. If you plan on crating, take a good amount of time when you first get the dog to make him/her LOVE the crate. Play crate games several times a day for just a few minutes at a time until your dog is a pro at going and chilling in the crate. Leave your dog in the crate for increasing amounts of time while you work. Some people use it as a nap time place for their dog after a play session or hike, for example. If you don't plan to crate or once the dog looves the crate, then practice leaving. As Skizzles said, don't make a big deal out of it, have a great treat to associate with you leaving and go through the motion of putting the dog in the crate, getting your stuff, etc. If the dog is showing signs of SA, you can take it real slow by not actually leaving at first, then leaving for a few minutes, etc. If your dog seems to be cool with you leaving (or is just getting used to it like normal with a little barking to see if that will get attention), then just vary the time so that it's unpredictable. Sometimes go hang out outside for five minutes. Sometimes take a trip to the store. When you come back, don't make a big deal out of it. Ignore your dog while you take off your shoes, etc. and then let the dog out of the crate or, if he/she is loose, make them sit or act calmly before you give attention. If your dog is super clingy or insecure, then there are additional exercises you can do to teach your dog independence and how to handle it when you can't provide attention or your presence 24/7. It will totally depend on the dog though, so you'll have to play it by ear when you get your new dog. Good luck! 
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Mar 12, 2012 02:19
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^^^When the 'end the game' technique fails because the puppy is entertained somehow anyway, I highly recommend playing games where you reward for any behavior that is NOT mouthing. This, in conjunction with encouraging licking, was how we taught our dog to stop mouthing entirely when not invited to during play. The 'end the game' method didn't work on her either. Here is a video that shows how to teach your dog not to mouth! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c77--cCHPyU CaptBubba posted:Thanks! I'm thinking crating is going to happen because many of the rescues pretty much require it (or make you write out a nice long essay about why you won't do it). I'm concerned because one of the breeds I'm considering getting is a Boxer (as there seem to be a bunch of them in need of adoption) and I know they can get separation anxiety pretty easily. I think it will help a lot. Dogs learn through repetition, so anytime your dog gets to practice the crate being awesome and you leaving and coming back without it being a Big Deal will help and then he won't even notice the difference when you have to travel for real one day rather than just go hang out at the coffee shop for an hour. Two things to remember: one, exercise is helpful for almost every problem. Making your pup tuckered out will help his crate training (like if you crate at night) or when you aren't home or are busy and you need him to take a nap or be quiet. Two, keep in mind that even an adult dog can suddenly reveal some previously unseen personality traits based on environment. If you select a dog who has an unknown history or hasn't been at a shelter long, then you may not be seeing the same behavior as you will when you bring the dog home and he's suddenly not in a shelter and omg, your shoes look tasty! Most dogs don't do a 180, but it's always good to be prepared and, if you can, see the dog several times or take him home on a trial basis if you really 100% need a particular personality (and even then, most dogs have a settle in period). Kiri koli fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Mar 12, 2012 |
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Mar 12, 2012 03:06
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Engineer Lenk posted:Your dog may be more fearful than you think. A big aggressive barky display can be rooted in fear or anxiety. Chis and doxies are pretty well-known for fear aggression. This is very true. Fearful displays can often look assertive and sometimes exclusively so. My dog, because of her personality, breed, and the way she learned to avoid stress, always displays forward motions (moving toward the trigger, barking, jumping, growling) and almost never does anything stereotypically fearful (cowering, running away with her tail between her legs, etc). But her problem is very much anxiety and fear. With the submissive peeing, I would definitely say there is some fear and reactivity going on there and you should change your approach in these situations (cue him to do something else, start from a distance, etc. as others have suggested).
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Mar 28, 2012 16:20
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Abbeh posted:My dog has ISSUES.  Hey dog with issues buddy.Poor Zoso. Have you done a lot of training with him? Mental exercises such as shaping can help a dog build confidence. You can also try different exploring games with him such as really easy nosework (i.e. put out several boxes, put a couple treats in one and then let him find the treats! put covers or stack boxes for extra challenge). If he likes toys, try to use that for a reward and encourage him to work to play with the toy. If he doesn't like toys, you can shape him to interact with toys and other objects and by showing interest yourself, he may start to find them more exciting. It's really hard with a shut down dog, so it may take a while, but as long as you find a good motivator like a favorite food, you should be able to encourage him to come out of his shell and try new things. It can really help for their overall confidence and help him be mentally tired so downtime is more relaxing. Additionally, I am a proponent of medication in cases when it is clear that the dog's quality of life is being severely affected and you've tried behavioral modification. If he's making himself sick while you are gone and is completely shut down otherwise at inappropriate times, then I would talk to a vet or behaviorist about possible anxiety medications. His past trauma may have just affected him so deeply that he needs a bit of help and then you can make a lot more progress on your behavioral modification and his day-to-day life will be more enjoyable.
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Mar 29, 2012 00:28
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Koth posted:Yes, I did read it. It's very similar to Dr. Ian Dunbar's method. But you make a point of saying not to free-feed, and Dr. Dunbar says you should only feed your puppy with the use of Kong toys for the first while so they develop good chewing habits. Free-feeding is where you just leave food out all the time and the dog eats whenever. You can still feed food in kongs or toys, just leave it out for a set time and then put it away again. That way the dog learns to eat when it's eating time and you avoid them getting picky or eating too much or resource guarding.
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Apr 25, 2012 13:45
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I disagree. Barking is self-reinforcing when it is due to boredom or stress, but when it is attention seeking, then the dog will be very reinforced when he receives the attention he is craving. I would continue to ignore him and not let him dictate your schedule. He only gets attention when he is being quiet. There is no guarantee that he will start sleeping later when he gets older* (a friend of mine's dogs get him up at 5am every day and they are old) so don't start a habit of letting him push you around. That said, there are things you can try. Play music or white noise and/or cover the crate. You can also try saying, just once, 'That's enough' or 'Quiet'. Some dogs will settle if they realize that you hear them but aren't coming to give them attention or let them out. Just don't overdo it. Also remember that if you've been giving in to his crying, then it will get worse before it gets better. If it worked a couple times, then he'll try harder before he realizes that it isn't going to work again and cuts it out. *I forget how old your puppy is, but even if he's super young, if you're sure that it's just for attention and the reward of getting to come hang out with you on the bed or whatever instead of needing to pee, then I definitely wouldn't give in.
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Apr 27, 2012 00:41
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Ikantski posted:I think her puppy is bored after being in the crate ~8 hours. Right now it's whining from 6am to 7am, they wake up and let it out. If it's willing to do the behaviour for an hour before getting the result, I conclude they enjoy doing it. When they do wake up, they'll have to let the dog out so they can go to work so it's going to get reinforced eventually anyways. He didn't say when they go to bed, so it may not be 8 hours, not that that would be terrible. My dog whined for hours when we first got her and she couldn't sleep. An hour is nothing. When they wake up, they should wait for the dog to be silent (even for a second!) before letting him out so as not to reinforce the whining. This may take some effort for a while, but it's worth it. If they reinforce the whining by letting the dog out, then what happens when the dog decides that it wants to get up at 5am? Some people don't want to get up that early, whether you think it isn't that early or not. Dogs benefit from learning boundaries and schedules and how to properly request things such as attention.
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Apr 27, 2012 02:43
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tiddlez posted:I think it's a simple case of waiting it out for long enough to hope he gets the idea? I will try the white noise and also the 'Thats enough' tomorrow morning to see how that goes. Everything else about him is awesome, he's so well behaved and clever but he's just not getting the sleep thing. Pretty much, yes. What you're attempting to do by ignoring him is extinguish his whining/crying-to-be-let-out behavior. Dogs do things that are rewarding or reinforcing and behaviors that are not reinforced will disappear. The tricky part is realizing that the dog decides what is reinforcing. The typical example is a dog that jumps on you when you get home. Petting/playing with him is reinforcing, but the dog might also be reinforced by ANY attention at all, including you saying 'NO!' and shoving him back down, which you think is an aversive. Standing still like a tree and completely ignoring him, on the other hand, is not reinforcing (for most dogs) and will eventually extinguish the behavior. So if your dog wants attention and is explicitly not getting it when he whines, the behavior will eventually be extinguished. You have to be careful and never give in though. When it's time to get up, wait for silence before the dog is let out. At first, this may mean waiting for a while and accepting only a split-second of silence, but you can build up from there.
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Apr 27, 2012 14:19
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tiddlez posted:Thanks for this. I really just wanted confirmation that I am doing the right thing by ignoring him. Generally he will cry non stop. I wait for a split second of silence and i will cough or stand up and this keeps him quiet. Then when he is still quiet I shout down that I'm just coming, and then i use the bathroom etc and then head down and let him out the kitchen and we go out for a walk! Generally, you want your dog going INTO the crate to be a rewarding experience and coming back out to be a neutral, boring experience. We made the same mistake. When we first got our dog, she would whine and be restless in the middle of the night (she has anxiety/hypervigilance problems, so every noise woke her up). We covered her crate, turned on a white noise machine and moved her into the next room (she would wake up whenever we moved) and then ignored the hell out of her. She stopped after a few weeks and started sleeping until we got her up. Months later, we moved to a new house and started a new tradition: when we let her out in the morning, we would encourage her to race into the bedroom and jump on the bed and wake up the other person! So much fun and excitement! So cute! Well, after a while, she started getting anxious to get out in the morning and get her huge reward of jumping on the bed and so started whining/barking before we were ready to get up. It's okay to be excited with your dog in the morning, but try to separate it from the coming out of the crate part. Ignore your dog until you're ready, teach him to wait in the crate (even with the door open, look up crate games if you haven't already) until you say okay, and make it not a big deal when he come out and gets his lead. Then once you're out the door or it's been a few minutes, you can start playing/cuddling.
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Apr 27, 2012 14:43
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Rixatrix posted:I think she calls this the Give Me a Break game? I've been thinking of using this to deal with Rho's reactivity in high distraction situations, but I think I'd need an x-pen or something to get us started and I haven't gotten around to getting one. I absolutely love using an x-pen for reactivity stuff, especially when it involves leash reactivity. Being behind an x-pen seems to take a ton of pressure off of Psyche, she obviously feels like the x-pen is keeping her safe as opposed to the leash, which we use to keep others safe, but pretty much makes things worse for her. We've made a ton of progress using an x-pen, particular in our house where things are cramped and she feels territorial. We've successfully used a long line before as well, but if there's any leash reactivity, Rho may feel better about an x-pen over a long line. Of course it could go the other way for a dog that's used to fence fighting or has barrier reactivity.
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May 2, 2012 00:23
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How was the dog at the shelter? Did they give you any idea of his personality? Did you interact with him at the shelter and how did that go? How did it go at the vet? If he wasn't displaying such behavior at the shelter, then it sounds like he is reacting to his new environment with rather extreme anxiety and fear. What I would do right now is just ignore him. Dogs are very sensitive to social pressure and thus trying to entice them, reaching out hands toward them, etc. can have the opposite of the intended affect. Get several yummy foods you have around and try dropping a piece when you walk past (keep your body language relaxed and don't face him head on or stare). If he doesn't eat it right away, that's fine, just wait him out. I'd also put a leash on him and leave it on so you don't need to keep reaching for him. If he responds well to being ignored and having some food just dropped and hopefully ventures from his corner a bit, then I would try leading him by the leash for bathroom breaks while still ignoring him as much as possible. Hopefully he'll start to feel less pressured and eventually explore and start exhibiting curiosity toward you instead of fear. Edit: that's great! I'd still give him a lot of space and drop yummy treats to associate yourself with good things and see how he adjusts over the next couple days.
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Jun 10, 2012 02:51
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Asnorban posted:Thanks for the brushing tips everyone! In addition to the great advice that everyone gave about desensitizing and pairing brushing with food, you can make a lot of progress through negative reinforcement, for more stubborn dogs. It sounds like your dog has already learned that running away will get him out of a brushing (at least temporarily) and so when you use a leash to hold him still, he may try other methods to get you to stop by throwing tantrums, barking, nipping at the brush/you, or rolling over so you can't brush where you were brushing. If these things happen no matter how slow you were doing with the food/desensitization*, it is important not to let them work! Persist with your brushing through a tantrum or other form of resistance (even if it's just touching the dog with brush and not real brushing) until the dog gives in. You CAN outlast the dog! And the second the dog gives in, that's when you take the brush away. This teaches the dog that being calm will end brushing and being naughty will NOT end brushing. At first you can end the session entirely if the dog is really spazzing out, then you stop for just a few seconds, then you work up to brushing while the dog is calm (but still ONLY stopping when dog is calm and doing what you want). *I love using food and desensitization, but my dog is a special, stubborn snowflake to the point where if there weren't two of us there (one to shovel food in her mouth and the other to brush), she would protest in all manner of ways, including snapping at my hands/the brush. I couldn't go any slower and I didn't want to provide her so much food (because we provide her tons of food for EVERYTHING, see special snowflake who reacts to every-loving-thing), so I switched gears and showed her that doing it MY way was the only way to get it to stop. Now she sits calmly while I brush her and only occasionally gives me dirty looks when I'm too rough on a huge mat.
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Jul 17, 2012 01:18
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Veskit posted:So now I've been giving her a kong with peanut butter, leaving the room for short periods of time, and slowly trying to bring her back into understanding that me leaving is not a big deal at all. Is this the best way to go about it? I've considered moving her crate into my room so she knows I'm around, but that just seems to be a solution to me sleeping but not a solution to her anxiety. I second that you should try moving her crate. We have solved minor separation anxiety problems with our dog by moving the crate's location twice. The first time was when we just got our dog and we had her in our room. She was so keyed up by any noise we made that she wouldn't sleep and just barked all night. So we moved her to a different room and that fixed that. Later, we moved to a house and put her in an empty room we didn't use for anything else. She came to hate her crate and wouldn't go in. So we moved her to the living room and redid the crate games and she was very happy then. Your dog just may be more comfortable being near you or in a more trafficked area of the house. You can also try covering the crate and playing music/white noise, if you don't already.
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Jul 31, 2012 02:33
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Topoisomerase posted:I don't think off-leash playing with another dog is going to generalize to "don't be fearful on leash walks" at this point, even if the dogs barking was the precipitating event for the fear. This is true, many dogs that have problems on leash don't have the same problems off leash and one can't be fixed doing the other. uptown, if the dogs get along though (or even if they don't), you can take this opportunity to take them for walks together and do parallel and opposition walking where you teach your dog that walking time means calm, ignore-the-other-dog time. They can be rewarded with play time after a nice walk, but during a walk, they have to pay attention to you (work on things like eye contact) and walk nice. Just be careful because if one dog is spooky, the other dog can feed off of that.
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Aug 10, 2012 19:07
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Tourette Meltdown posted:Our puppy (yeah he's 9 months old and 60 lbs... still a puppy!) is totally sweet, well socialized, plays a little rough sometimes but we're working on it. He's a good dog, y'all. But he won't stop jumping up on people. On us, on guests, on strangers on the street. He just gets SO EXCITED. For jumping on yourself and guests, I would teach him to Say Please. This involves him doing some behavior (a Sit is easy) before he gets ANY attention. Start by just sitting watching tv or at your desk or whatever and when he wants some attention, ask him for a sit and reward any time he sits with treats and attention. Work up to him sitting without you asking. The trick is to be consistant about giving him attention whenever he sits so it becomes automatic (and you can phase out the treats). Then generalize it. He needs to sit before getting pet, before getting food, when you come home from work before he gets to greet you. Then when he's got it down, you can have guests wait or ask for a sit before they engage him. If you're out walking him on a leash and he can't approach strangers without jumping on them, then he can't approach strangers. He doesn't need to greet everyone. If you want him to be able to greet people, then work with new friends (who will do what you say) and work on exercises where he defers to you over things he wants in the environment, like squirrels or whatever.
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Sep 26, 2012 21:48
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^^^Beaten on a lot of good points. I agree! Okay, a couple of thoughts. One, be careful that you aren't chaining behaviors. Like he's learning jump -> asked to sit -> sit -> get what I want. If there is a chain, then I would try interrupting by giving him a timeout. Next, dogs gets better at behaviors by practicing. So I would definitely cut out any access to strangers or guests when you aren't actively working on the problem so he doesn't get the extra practice. Third, you need to figure out what about jumping is reinforcing to him and remove it. It sounds like it isn't just direct attention because ignoring doesn't work. Is it access to you? Try doing the timeouts whenever he jumps (either tether him somewhere or put him in a bathroom) to see if he is discouraged by losing access to you. If it's just pure excitement, then I would do a couple things. 1) game time ends immediately when he jumps on you (either with timeouts or the removal of attention/toys) 2) more advanced switching exercises. Switching exercises involve moving your dog from an excited state into a calm state quickly. So like you could do some wrestling (or whatever he likes) to rev him up and then ask for a down when he's super excited. It's a little harder to do than I'm making it sound, but it should teach self-control. If he's hurting you, I would also just refrain from doing things that get him so excited that he jumps on you. Try to find alternative games and exercises to do while you work on the problem. Remember also that mental exercises like shaping are good for wearing your dog out. They don't replace physical exercise, but they can definitely help.
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Sep 26, 2012 22:24
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Victory Yodel posted:We just adopted a shelter dog and wanted some advice. We lost our last dog to lymphoma almost 2 years ago and wanted to wait until our daughter turned 5 before getting a new companion. We went to a shelter in "just looking" mode and came home with this cutie: I definitely wouldn't worry yet. Dogs can take a week to a full month to settle into a new home and 'show their true colors'. My dog, who has huge anxiety problems, took about a week but didn't wag her tail for almost a year (I didn't think she would ever wag it!). Obviously, that's extreme, but all dogs are different in their body language and habits. For how to treat her, I would, if you think she's been abused, watch for things that stress her out and try to avoid them for a while and counter-condition them when you can't (edit: like a life less said, even simple interactions can be stressing her out and it doesn't necessarily indicate abuse). Stress lingers in the system, so the stress of a new place means that you should try to hold off for a while before confronting things that stress her out further. If she's not stressed by simple interactions, I would also start training really easy things, make it totally fun, lots of treats. Some dogs feel better when they are working and really get into it. Otherwise, just give her some time. I imagine that she will start testing boundaries in a week or so (don't feel sorry for her and let her get away with hell now because you will regret it later!) and then you'll have a total hellion on your hands. 
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Oct 16, 2012 18:47
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pumpie2 posted:I suspect it is mismanagement and inconsistency on our part. We live in the UK, north wales to be exact. I have contacted some local trainers asking if anybody can help us with this. I was just looking for anything that we could do right now that would help us cope with his behaviour until we can get some professional help. Right now, you need to manage him such that he will not be in a position where he feels the need to bite again. Don't let him socialize or approach strangers (or strange dogs). If someone comes to the door, put him away before answering. Basically, you want to avoid two things: him getting a chance to bite again, obviously, but also the dog having opportunities to practice reactive/aggressive behavior. Practice makes perfect and will prolong his rehabilitation. Once you find a trainer, you can form a plan of action and then re-introduce normal activities. Though, with a documented bite, I would probably never allow the dog to have contact with anyone who is not aware of his history and has consented to work with him (i.e. people who accept the risks and aren't going to sue you if they get bitten). That sounds restrictive, but really, there is no reason a stranger on the street or the pizza guy or whoever ever needs to interact with your reactive dog.
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Oct 29, 2012 18:01
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Seashell Salesman posted:Maybe this is not answerable without knowing what exactly is wrong, but how on Earth should we react when she does this at night? We've tried ignoring it, telling her no, comforting her, squirting her with water. The barking/growling at her rear and tail chasing shouts OCD behavior to me. My dog has similar OCD issues. Her worst thing was chasing her tail and then pulling out the fur. Putting her on prozac fixed that issue, but she still has some lingering behaviors. On nights where she doesn't get much exercise during the day, she will occasionally growl/bark a the ceiling, sometimes at a shadow or dust and sometimes at nothing at all. It only happens at night when she is tired, but not tired enough. I would try really upping her exercise for now, particularly mental exercise like training. With my dog, we interrupt her episodes by distracting her or removing her from the area, but since your dog is focused on herself, that might not work. How do you comfort her? Try doing massage, it might get her to relax. In the long term, I would definitely talk to a neurologist or behaviorist and consider medication if they think it's a good idea. I'm not sure about the expensive neurology tests...we never had anything like that done because my dog has other obvious problems, so putting her on prozac was a no-brainer.
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Nov 19, 2012 14:27
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Riiseli posted:I know of only a couple of dogs, which have quit barking due to a sonic device. However citronella collars very often provide a long time solution. My Naru has barked with a citronella collar maybe twice about seven year ago. I can still get her to quiet by showing her the collar (I rarely do this, but it works). Healy on the other hand has emptied one of these collars by bark bark barking as a youngster. Luckily she grew up and doesn't a collar anymore. That's interesting that you and a life less have used the collars effectively. I never really considered them because I thought they were generally ineffective and would malfunction and punish the dog for nothing, stuff like that. I've hit a brick wall with Psyche's barking though. It is mostly now not anxiety-driven, but habitual and just part of her watch dog routine. I have been consistant about interrupting her, but my timing is just not good enough. So this may be something I will try. However, I would not want her to wear the collar non-stop as she is a very talkative dog and she has barks that are completely unrelated to her watch dogness that I wouldn't want to punish her for (during play, mainly). You say that you can just get the collar out and it is effective...did you use the collar all the time at first? Do you allow barking during play? Basically I am wondering if I can use the collar as needed (leave it on when she is just laying around or the times of day when she normally is most barky) rather than just leave it on or if that will just confuse her and be ineffective. There is a definite difference in her barks and I feel like she may be able to understand it like she understands that mouthing is okay during play but not otherwise. But I'd like to hear what others have experienced before I go ahead with it.
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Dec 7, 2012 16:15
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ShadowStalker posted:Is it still recommended to make the dog sit and enter the house only after we have entered the house? To add to what adventure in the sandbox said, having your dog enter after you isn't teaching him that you are alpha or whatever, but having him sit (or do another behavior) before going through doors, getting attention/pets, getting food, etc. will give him extra practice, show him that obeying is rewarding in a variety of contexts and help him realize that any time can be working time (and a chance for him to earn a reward!). For more information, google "Nothing in Life is Free".
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Dec 27, 2012 23:10
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a life less posted:A good trainer won't set the dog up to fail, even during an assessment. They really should want to avoid rehearsals of bad behaviour at all costs, so you're not likely to see any explosions during the trainer's visit. Good for you for calling a trainer, and good luck in dealing with these issues. Just want to echo this. Way back when we had our consultation with Psyche, I was totally ignorant about dogs with problems and thought the trainer needed to see EXACTLY what Psyche was doing or how would she know how bad it was? So I brought doggie out right away and she had a little meltdown while the trainer looked at me like I was an idiot (not really, but she had thought it was a bad idea and was right). I know now that a good trainer will be able to pick up on the subtle signs and won't want or need to provoke the worst behavior to make a diagnosis. So trust the trainer to do what they do and just give them as much information as you can.
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Feb 5, 2013 15:58
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nesbit37 posted:I am a little worried about my 1 year old dachshund who seems to be regressing in terms of separation anxiety. When we leave for work/school in the morning we put her in the bathroom with her crate, some safe toys she likes (nylabone and a kong), turn the radio on so she can hear voices and then before we walk out the door give her her breakfast in a wobbler. She used to be completely fine with this, excited to get her breakfast and didn't even notice us taking off. Starting last Wednesday, however, she started acting almost depressed that we were going. She will run and hide if we turn on the radio before she is in the bathroom, she won't eat her breakfast now if we give it to her in the bathroom and she has started to cry again when we leave. She is starting to do this anytime we put her in the bathroom because we need to go somewhere and leave her alone. This may be too simple a solution, but after months of being okay with her crate, my dog suddenly decided she didn't want to go in it either, though she didn't really have a problem once she was in. I tried crate games and tons of yummy treats, but it was a no-go. We had her crate in an extra bedroom upstairs and I guess she found it isolating because we solved the problem by just moving her crate down into the living room (and then playing more crate games to get her back in the habit of going in = fun). I guess she just liked being in the middle of things, even if we weren't home (lol, dog logic), or it reset her little brain. So that's an easy thing you can try.
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Feb 25, 2013 14:33
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:I have, I guess, a blunt question: I can't really answer this question without seeing the dog and assessing your setup and watching his progress. I understand that money may be an issue, but really only a professional trainer will be able to give you a good answer and help you through it. I can tell you two things though: first, dogs can take a good while to settle in to a new place. Three weeks is not necessarily enough time for a dog to adjust, especially one who is having a hard time because of anxiety. Second, Reconcile is fluoxetine hydrochloride (aka prozac) and will take anywhere from a week to a month to reach its full effect in your dog. I am surprised the vet didn't tell you this. You should be monitoring your dog for changes (though it may be hard to tell changes from the meds from changes from him settling in) and it's not uncommon to need to change the dosage. I would call the vet back up and ask for more details about the dosage and what side effects you should watch for. I would also ask your vet about behavioral modification to go with the meds. I understand that you have read a lot of books and have that under control, but if you can find a vet who knows something about behavior (and isn't just throwing meds at the problem), then you'll have someone helping you monitor the progress of the meds and progress in general.
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Feb 26, 2013 03:50
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Millions posted:I adopted my 4-year old dog Tegan just about a month ago, and just in the past week she's taken to destroying all of her stuffed toys. She had a stuffed bear and a chicken that she began tearing the stuffing out of, so she's not allowed to have those unsupervised anymore. She doesn't try to eat the stuffing or anything, and I've been sure to clip the seams off if they're coming loose so she doesn't eat them... Yesterday she was given one of those tough stuffed toys that's not made of cloth, but she started ripping that apart within 10 minutes. I even tried one of those limp toys that has no stuffing, but she decided to tear it open anyway to remove the squeakers. In my experience, there really aren't any sturdy stuffed toys. Some last longer than others, but there's no magical ones that my dog doesn't rip to shreds. She loves pulling out stuffing and squeakers, but is also perfectly happy to rip apart stuffingless toys. Eh. What we do is we rotate toys and my dog only gets to play with newer toys with us (tug and fetch so she doesn't have a chance to start ripping it apart) and once a toy gets old or battered from regular play, we let her rip it apart. My dog also won't chew on rubber stuff, but she likes knuckle bones and antlers, which are good for their teeth and not too unhealthy like rawhides or stuff like that. Also stuffed kongs are good, freeze whatever you put in it to make it last longer. I would try those for chewing needs and otherwise just manage the toys to increase their longevity and keep her interested.
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Mar 29, 2013 17:01
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Rixatrix gave you all the right advice you need to get started. Just to add a tiny bit, dogs don't generalize well, so it's not surprising that your work with your nephews is not translating to children in general. You should absolutely keep working with your nephews and, if you teach him certain tools like Look at That with them first, he will learn faster in a different context. But you will need to repeat the DS&CC and reinforcing of a polite alternative behavior with children on walks or wherever it is you see random children.
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Apr 29, 2013 14:09
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MrFurious posted:I took a dog first aid class about a year ago and one of the things they taught us was that if you need to cool a dog off quickly due to heat stroke or something, get that cool towel (not too cold) and place it on the inside of their shoulder joint at their back legs. Big arteries run close to the skin there so you can cool the blood off quickly which will help a lot. That's a good tip, thanks. I have a feeling it's going to be a hot summer.
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May 4, 2013 16:22
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Dog Whispering in the 21st Century. Here you go.
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Jun 10, 2013 19:26
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Fraction posted:I feed my dogs kibble, no water or anything. Same. I tried the water+kibble thing twice when I needed to give her some powered medicine and she ate it so fast, she threw up all over the place (I think that's the time she jumped up on the back of the couch we were sitting on and the proceeded to vomit). So she eats all her meals dry out of a ball she has to roll around to get the kibble out. She's probably so used to her food/treats getting doled out a piece at a time, her stomach doesn't know what to do with a bunch of food at once. Plus she actually gets full when she eats from the toy and stops eating before it's all gone. If I put it in a bowl, she would just eat it all because it's there. We're lucky that we tried Blue Buffalo early and it agrees with her stomach, even when we switched to a lower protein formula. She eats all sorts of other poo poo too, since I just use whatever food is around for treats.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:22
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wtftastic posted:We just think that you are more likely to see success with the "ow" and then walk away method, rather than smearing butter on yourself. I agree that the 'ow' and walk away method is often successful, however, you will occasionally run into a dog who is undeterred by it. Psyche was one such dog and our solution was to do shaping sessions where she was rewarded for not going after hands, no matter what we were doing (waving hands around, reaching behind her, etc). We did in conjunction with two other things: 1) we did encourage licking, but not with butter (sounds messy, inconvenient, and I'm not sure phasing it out would be all that effective). We simply put our hands flat on the floor such that they were less fun to bite and encouraged licking when she switched to that and 2) after she had gotten good at the shaping game, we reintroduced hand biting in the context of 'game time' where it was allowed only under specific circumstances. I know the original question was about a young puppy, so the solutions may differ depending on WHY your dog is mouthing. Psyche was a combination of over-excitement, communication (that was how she learned to let people know she had to pee), and stress (which is why we encouraged licking, it is stress relief to her). Here is a kikopup video demonstrating the shaping exercise. She does it with a pretty young puppy.
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Oct 10, 2013 14:47
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E: Accidentally hit quote instead of edit!
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Oct 10, 2013 14:49
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wtftastic posted:Also it can be useful to teach your dog that some level of pressure is okay, especially if they're just generally kind of mouthy. Yeah, that's why we reintroduced biting during play sessions because I wanted her to practice acceptable levels of pressure. It taught her both a softer mouth and when to stop (when playtime was over). She needed to stop cold turkey before we reintroduced it though, since she learned that biting was the best way to get attention from her former idiot owners.
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Oct 10, 2013 15:20
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a life less posted:I question why your dog is only eating half a meal out of the toy but a full one in a bowl. Perhaps you're feeding too much? Also, dogs get better at removing food from puzzle toys, so she'll get more efficient about getting to the food as time goes on. Psyche doesn't finish her food in her toys, but will clean a bowl. I think it's because she eats the bowl in three seconds and doesn't register fullness, but the toy takes longer. She'll usually leave about 1/5 of her kibble in the toy. With the puppy though, 3 cups sounds like a LOT. Psyche eats 2/3 cup a day and she is 26 lbs (though she probably eats more training food than most dogs per day). Do puppies really need to eat that much? Sab0921, what kind of food are you feeding?
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Oct 14, 2013 20:42
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Sab0921 posted:She eats Nutro Ultra Puppy. 2/3 cup a day seems really low. She rarely, if ever eats the whole three cups. She eats treats and kibble throughout the day, which all probably adds up to about three cups. We feed blue buffalo, which has more calories than Nutro, so that's part of it. We used to feed more than 2/3 cups, but my dog is really lazy, so we lowered it when she started gaining some weight. I'm not suggesting anyone else should be feeding 2/3 cups, I was just surprised at 3 cups. I've never had a puppy.
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Oct 14, 2013 21:52
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lazerwolf posted:Recently our 5 month old Australian Shepherd/German Shepherd mix has been an absolute terror to try to walk. We've had her since 6 weeks old and started taking her on short walks around 8 or 9 weeks. She was tolerable on those early walks but we could tell she wanted to be the leader and when she grew bigger she tended to pull on the walks almost 100% of the time. She has two speeds, stop and sniff and run, there is no comfortable walking speed with her it seems. We've tried to treat her at heel position periodically during a slow walk but this ends up with her disinterested in actually walking and more interested in trying to get into our pocket where the kibble is. Within the last two weeks she's gotten noticeably worse. Her favorite thing now is to play tug with the leash. I've included two short videos taken today while trying to take her out to pee. Help we have no idea how to correct her behavior. Ha, cute. It looks like jumping at your pockets and tugging on the leash is a lot of fun. What I would do is start practicing her walking inside. Teach her that jumping at your pockets is not fun, in fact it is totally boring because when she does it, you either freeze or walk away and she gets no attention and no food. Then practice her sits and leave its when food is around. For tugging, inside or in a fenced area, try to get her to walk. If she grabs the leash, you don't tug, you drop the leash and walk away! That's no fun. When she starts to get the hang of it, you can feed her for being in heel position or for choosing to do anything acceptable that isn't mugging you or eating the leash. I understand that you need to take her out to pee, so that will hamper things, but if she develops good habits inside, you'll have more chance outside. Hell, you could even carry her outside to pee so she can't practice bad behavior... For outside, you can also step on the leash to stop her from tugging. A longer leash will make this easier. Redirecting to a toy is also a good idea.
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Oct 28, 2013 03:04
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Superconsndar posted:For the vast majority of dogs they aren't necessary and get misused, but for very high drive dogs in certain situations, I just don't get all the hate that prongs get. I've used them on several SUPER sensitive pits and none of them had emotional breakdowns or ~trust issues~ over it, and it certainly has never INCREASED reactivity, for me. Moses is the most emotional dog I've ever had and when he sees a prong he's just like "hell yes WE GOIN It totally depends on the dog (and how it's being used). Psyche is the opposite. I have never used a prong on her, but when she is near threshold, even pressure on a leash attached to a harness/collar is enough to send her over threshold. I've had to desensitize her to me pulling on the leash (if she's far enough gone, it's the only way to move her and she WANTS increased distance, but won't let me move her. God is she dumb). I imagine a prong would have just made things worse, plus risked injury. Head collars, for some reason, work like you are describing though. It raises her threshold and reminds her that I exist so she can keep her brain focused a bit longer. It works even if I have the leash attached to her harness, just something about putting stuff on her nose.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:58
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Skizzles posted:Depending on what head collar it is, it may (allegedly) hit calming pressure points behind the ears. I totally forget about head collars. The New Trix is by far my favorite head collar. I could walk my friend's leash-reactive GSD with only a pinky on that thing. Surprising amount of control. I just always default to harnesses because there's little to no fuss with desensitization, as is needed with head collars. I think the behind the ears thing helps, but it's secondary for her because it works with the several different head collars we've tried + her muzzle, all of which sit on roughly the same place on her nose, but have different behind-the-head attachments. We're using the New Trix right now. I do like it, but if we're going to walk past a dog, I clip the leash onto her harness because it's not so good for dogs who jump around. She can pretty much back right out of it (it also attaches to the collar, so this doesn't result in loose doggie), even though in principle it should tighten and not allow that. Great for pulling though, works like it should on the principle that dogs move into pressure, so if you move the pressure to the back of the head, you get less pulling. Confession: I have never really succeeded in desensitizing Psyche to head collars. I tried. I spent a full two months on the New Trix before I ever took her for a walk with it. They were so necessary for our reactive dog classes in the beginning that I would just have to slap it on her and she associated her original one (not the gentle leader, the other one, I forget the name) with bad things. She likes the New Trix better, but still bulks at putting it on. Don't tell the force free people.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:34
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