spiritdogs
Posted : 2/19/2011 7:37:56 PM
Coming in late on this one, but everything Kim said makes sense. Without a lot of help, you clearly are frustrated with Maze's behavior, and probably mostly because of your fear that something will happen to her. However, your actions need to ALWAYS tell her that you will keep her safe, and that getting to you is pleasant. If you have been using punishment, and occasionally losing your temper, you are automatically not doing that, so environmental stimuli are going to influence her more than you are. She has no idea why, when she is already terrified, you are trying to kill her - if you think about it, if someone you lived with threw you down and made threatening noises and gestures at you, it would be called domestic abuse! I'm very glad you had the courage to post, though, because you are getting some good advice on not having this continue. The first line of your post, though, is telling. You think you have to use correction - well, you really don't! In the first place, it's very hard for beginners to get it right in terms of timing and justification. Secondly, if you are prone to lose your temper, I'd rather see you try to remain all positive for a while to restore Maze's confidence in you. Teach Maze an emergency recall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulVD2iYZsYI. (If she's afraid of the whistle noise, you can use a birdy noise that you make yourself - just have it be the same each time.) Then, teach a regular recall using Leslie Nelson's "Really Reliable Recall" DVD. When you train, you must start in low distraction environments *before* you ever get to the area where a frightening stimulus occurs. Another thing you can do is desensitize her to the noise that sets her off. Go there without her, record the noise, and then you have a CD that you can use this way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLx2yNhfACI