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National Train Your Dog Month
I'm a week late in posting this, but January is NTYDM. There's a FB page dedicated to it where they post training topics a few times a day. I like it because the topics are quick and professional trainers are answering questions. The topic of the day a few days ago was all things bully breed, so every few hours, they'd post a fact about bulldogs or pit bulls and they'd post questions about identifying bullies and BSL. The topic right now is leash manners, yesterday was about NY resolutions with our animals, and they'll be on to something new tomorrow, so it stays active.
Even if you don't have dogs, it's worth checking out so you can pick up some tidbits about things like breed discrimination and legislation, if you care about that sort of thing.
Re: National Train Your Dog Month
Awesome, thanks! One of our dogs definitely needs leash training. And I think I need leash training myself for walking 2 dogs at once. It's really only for another week though since once we get to the new house they will have a huge fenced in yard to run around in.
Ojo- since you posted this, and I really don't want to have to start another thread asking you dog questions, I'm wondering if you have any advice for me. We just got our new Boston a few days ago. She will be 2 in April, and our other Boston will turn 6 in April. They are getting along amazingly so far and we aren't having any issues there.
The issue I'm having is how to teach her not do things without scaring her. She was a rescue, and you can tell she has been abused before. She is very jumpy, and if she thinks I might be mad she squats and pees a little. I'm not yelling at her at all, and I'm trying to get her comfortable with me and being here, but I also want to teach her not to pee in the house. Do you have any tips for this at all? Thanks!
Without seeing her, my best guess is that she just needs time and lots of calm NILIF. I wouldn't quite resort back to Potty Training 101, because tethering her to you or rushing her out the door mid-squat might freak her out more. My biggest caution would be not to baby her, no, "Oh honey, it's okay!" or anything like that, although that is the natural inclination for most of us. Stay calm, lots of treats, lots of praise, the basic stuff. I'm sure she'll get there with some time and once she realizes how she fits in to your pack. Don't beat yourself up if it takes a lot longer than you expect. Bandit used to flop onto his back if one of us used a, "Eh eh!" voice because I think his last owner forced him into alpha rolls. It took a good six or seven months for him to realize we weren't "against" him.
I don't know what that is. I'm googling to find out.
I think Ceasar is valuable in that he encourages people to work with their pets and he doesn't encourage the line of thinking that some animals are too stubborn, too aggressive, too _____, to be trained. Many of his methods fall more to the aggressive side (ie forcing a dog to the ground to impose dominance over it, eek), but on the other hand, he teaches people to enter a house without paying attention to the dog, which I think is good. His constant "tsssht" noise gets on my nerves though.
Great, thank you. I am trying to be better about taking her out more often. With Stewie he would only go out like every 5-6 hours or when I made him go out, but I'm trying to keep them to every 2-3 hours now. I have definitely been guilty of the "it's ok honey" thing already, so I need to stop.
I do feel bad that after only a week here we will have packers and movers, and then driving cross country. But I know both dogs will love it when we get to the new house.
LLW = Loose leash walking; Jake is HORRIBLE about pulling. And the whole making him stop, sit, and waiting for my command does not seem to connect in his brain. At all.
Oooh, I've tried that with my dogs, but didn't have success either. I had better luck with a drop leash technique. I normally only give the dog about 2' of leash so they cannot walk in front of me. When they pull on me, I drop the slack (so the extra 4' of leash, still holding on to the handle) and turn around to walk in the other direction. The dog then has to figure out where I went and run to catch up with me, at which time I pick up the excess 4' of leash. We basically just keep going like that, walking in one direction, drop leash, then when he's calm and in a proper heel, we can turn around together and go back in the direction we were originally headed. It takes a long time to get that down, at least based on 2 of my 3 dogs.
I love head collars, but my dogs are so big my shoulder still hurts if the dogs are determined to pull against me.
I'm going to try this. Jake may be a small dog but it frakkin' hurts when he gets it in his mind he wants to go over there. Now. Especially now that the joints are all loosened up thanks to baby on board.
I don't have a dog but I have a question. I don't know if anyone has dealt with this. My in-laws adopted a 4 year old yellow lab (female). Overall she's a really great dog but there's one problem that they just can't figure out how to shake.
They live in a slightly rural area and if they take the dog outside and the dog sees any kind of rabbit, she bolts. No turning back, must have the fuzzy rabbit bolts. Is there anything they can do or any type of training that might help alleviate that?
MIL wants to get her into agility training, not to help with the bolting but to see if she likes it. I guess they just finished an 8 week obedience class as well.