brookcove
Posted : 2/4/2009 11:57:26 PM
She CAN adjust. Eventually. But she needs some time, and it's best if they can take it slow and not crank on her for, yes, doing her job. They may need to bite the bullet and just drag her out on that leash - she needs a crash course in the game of What Made That Noise. The good news is that she'll only need to see these things a couple times to realize there's no need to alert.
There's two things going on here. One, she doesn't know WHAT she's guarding. She's guessing wildly. She needs everyone in the family to do stuff with her - no touching please, no snuggling. Take her out on lead, feed her treats, walk in circles in the back yard, talk to her, stop at every darn leaf in the back yard. It's like mini walks. Everyone needs to do this. The idea is that she needs to know that the whole family is on the same team together. If she were thrown into a new guarding group, she'd follow everyone around for a while until she knew the ropes.
That brings us to part two. Now she'll be bonded with the family and knows the limits of her physical territory. She needs to learn what her audible territory is. It would be really nice if a couple times a week, everyone in the family could go for a walk with her together. Besides that, she needs, seriously, about three walks a day as far as possible from the house. It's not important to go on the same walk every day - in fact, the more variety the better. She needs to see all the sounds she hears, in context, and realize they present no harm to her new family. She'll take her cue from the one with the lead (needs to be an adult or teenager for probably her first year in the family). If the leader is calm, she will be too.
On the crating. Just, agggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. They need to realize that crating while her family is home, is the equivalent of severe beating for another type of dog. If they can't watch her while someone is actually in the house, they need to attach her to a belt, close doors, or use baby gates to limit her ability to amuse herself in another part of the house.
LGDs have very high tolerances for physical pain, but are very sensitive to being cut off from the pack. So you can use this for an aversive, but remember how very aversive it is.
Let's say it's two months from now and she's learned all the sounds in the neighborhood. The mailman comes to the door. She jumps to the window and barks. That's fine. Mom says, "Thank you!" and now she should be done - Mom can take it from here, there is no danger. But she keeps barking. NOW you want to firmly but without comment or fuss, crate her in another room (or just put her in the room and close the door).
This is perfectly horrible to an LGD. She's out of the flock! Something might be happening! She needs to be needed!
I'd hope she hasn't learned to bark BECAUSE she was removed, at this point. Even if so, however, you can give it about 30 seconds to a minute, and then let her out. Ignore her though, regardless of whether she was quiet or not when you opened the door. None of that matters. You removed her, then let her back, and she knows you have control of that - and more importantly, she can control herself next time and avoid being separated.
I hope all that makes sense. I adore these guys and if I were a millionaire I'd totally be doing LGD rescue and rehab.