UPset and venting

    • Gold Top Dog

    Thanks to all for the suggestions and comments.   I have 2 emergency recall 'kits' at the door (yummy dehydrated salmon).  I put her on a long line, a good 50' and let her zoom around and recalled her randomly.  Once she figured out I had the salmon, she was trying out other things, sit, down, spin, back, speak.  Funny girl. 

    She's also dragging a line in the house which has helped with the counter surfign and other obnoxious behavior.

    WHen these things happen it's important to remember to take baby steps backwards and start from step 1 again to refresh both our memories. 

    Overall she is a great girl; I love her so much.  Sure she's got these quirks, but lord knows, so do I! :)

    • Gold Top Dog


    Why was I mad?  First, she door dashed when my 6 yr old was coming outside. He is very good about having her stay before he leaves the house.  He may be, but few six year olds know what to do when the first strategy fails:-)  You may need, at least until Echo is mature, not have your six year old leave the house while the dog is out of the crate unless you are right there.

    She bolted and went flying around running full tilt; meanwhile there are several young kids and babies playing on this beautiful day, and cars driving up and down.  Here is goofball Echo playing keep away from me, gleeflully running around and around people and children, and she does the jump=stop, where she runs full-tilt and then stops by slamming with her front feet right into people's stomachs.   She did this to a 1 yr old.  She could've been seriously hurt.  If you chase, scream at (not saying you did this, just making a point), or grab at a puppy, they often interpret it as play and think it's a very fun game.  Even if your heart is racing, and you are angry, you are the human and must exhibit calm.  To get her to come back if she gets loose, try running *away* from her and make high pitched noises.  She may come to see "what you have found." 

     Sure, it's my fault, she's my dog.   The trainer has us do a regular come command and then an emergecy recal (VAMOS!!!) which is followed by a good 30+seconds of food and praise.   She ignored both and turned a deaf ear to me.  She's not ignoring you to be a twit, she's just doing what puppies often do, and it's counterproductive to get angry at her for just being a dog.  Try getting a copy of Leslie Nelson's "Really Reliable Recall" DVD and follow the steps.  No puppy comes when called with the minimum of training, in fact my dogs never get off a long line until they are past adolescence if they don't come every single time I call.  If you are the mom of a busy family, it's also possible that your dog is not getting enough exercise (physical *and* mental), so consider using puzzle toys to feed her, and maybe parcel out half the ration to her while you do some training a few minutes here and there.  Another strategy, if you have a safe fenced yard, is to toss her kibble around the yard and let her "hunt" for dinner.  This can be especially effective at dusk, when puppies tend to have the "zoomies" because it's the time of day when they might have gone out learning hunting with a parent in the wild.

    I was already outside with my 4 yr old at the time. I think you may have to think about how you manage the puppy when you can't be there - if you need to step outside, she can be placed in her crate for a few minutes with some treats, then let back out when you go back in. 

    Second door dashing, she was running full tilt and I tried my "jealosy" tactic, which is to kneel down and make a fuss over Darby, who is almost always right at my feet.  It worked except this dog ran (and you should see her run, she can keep up with a greyhound) straight into me, slamming first into my wrist and then into my chest.  I couldn't breathe for a minute, she hit me so hard.  Someone may be playing with her the way puppies play, or playing roughly.  I find that the more calm a household can be made, the calmer the puppy is.  That said, this is a breed that needs an awful lot of exercise (think about the stamina it takes to jump in to cold water and retrieve fishing nets).

    Yes, I was mad.  She was foolish twice today (and how do you teach her to NOT jump=stop on people?) and I thought it better for us to both have a time out.  Her away from me, me away from her.  She was rewarded with treats when I shut her in, she was not tossed in in anger.   I needed a moment to catch my breath and calm down.  We've all had those moments:-)  Someday, when her muzzle is gray, like Sioux's is now, you will long for the days when she could run like the wind.  Anyway, the best way I've found to keep dogs from jumping up is to ignore them for doing that - meaning no eye contact, turn your back, no talking.  The problem is that few people will cooperate with you, which leads to the dog being intermittently rewarded with attention for jumping up, and it is that intermittent reinforcement that keeps the dog jumping!  Video on jumping up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_OKgQFgzw  I like this non-confrontational method. 

    As a puppy I am sure she is allowed momentary indescression but I was quite upset.  At the moment, she's laying on my feet gazing up at me.

    I just need to nix the door-dashing, jump-stopping and just general feet-up=on-everything issues.

    And yes, she's a portuguese water dog with an improper smooth coat.

    I think it's important to understand these principles whenever you train a dog, whether it's a pup or an adult.

    1. You get the behaviors that you reinforce.  (So, ignore behaviors you don't like, and reward heavily the behaviors you do like.)

    2. Dogs continue to do behaviors that work for them. (They are NOT altruists, who want to please us all the time - the reason they please us is to get attention, food, good resting spot, go for a ride, go for a walk, smell the nasty seagull carcass on the beach, etc.  But, that's good, because all those things can be used as reinforcements for offering the behaviors we want!)

    3.  What you allow, you teach. (For example, I know some clients who don't want to offend their friends by telling them they must ignore the puppy for jumping up.  So, they allow puppy to jump up on their friends, and then they put the puppy in a time out, which is way too late to be understood as a consequence of the jumping up behavior.  They allow this, and so the puppy continues to jump up.  My strategy would be to crate the pup, get the guests in to the home, tell them how they need to interact with the puppy and arm them with a few tidbits for when puppy offers correct behavior.  Then, let puppy out to interact.)

    Glad you've taken some of the good suggestions here.  We all get frustrated now and then, but I really like how Chuffy reminded us all to "train without ego" because it allows us to get past the moment and do what we need to do to just train the dog;-)

    • Gold Top Dog

     Bravo, Anne! Very well put.

    • Gold Top Dog

     

      How much exercise does Echo get? Does she have many chances to really run? PWDs do have a pretty high physical activity need, higher than my Belgians I think LOL. Even if she has regular chances to really run, I'd suggest upping her exercise. I really think more exercise will help with a lot of what frustrates you about Echo. A treadmill would be great for her and I bet she'd learn to trot on it pretty readily. Put her on a work out schedule every day. Packing and hiking are great activities for the dog and owner to bond over. Also physical activities which also make the dog think are great for this breed. Hide and seek with family members all over the house and/or yard. Trick training - teach a new trick every week. Agility foundation work. Balance ball work. This breed really needs an active lifestyle to be happy, good house dogs - especially when they are young.

      I really like Callie's idea about the door dashing line. Never thought of that before but I may suggest it to others now. It works as management and as training, teaching the dog that door dashing is never rewarding. Which is why you have this problem in the first place. Echo has successfully door dashed multiple times. She has gotten the reward of being able to run free. No matter what you do to try to correct the behavior once it's happened and she's loose it's too late for corrections. The behavior has already been rewarded and anything after that is too little too late. Variably reinforced behaviors tend to become very strong, encouraging the dog to keep trying. If you don't do something different to prevent her door dashing from being successful, Echo will become more and more trained to door dash, if she thinks she can.

     It isn't surprising that she ignores her recall cue after door dashing - coming to you means the end of running free. To teach an effective recall in this situation, you need to have a way to practice recalls while Echo is safely running loose. With a very long line, calling her giving her the best treat ever then allowing her to run again. Over and over and over, until coming when called (and being caught) no long means "the fun is over".

      Does Echo like going for car rides? Any chance if she is able to get out that you could calmly walk over to the car and say "let's go?" or something similar and get her in the car? I might even teach Echo a routine of going from door to car to door as a super fun, daily game. First on a leash, then on a very long line, then on a shorter/lighter long line. Race (ok you don't have to race her but it makes it even more fun!) her from the door to the car where lots of very, very tasty treats are (steak, pot roast, real stuff!) waiting inside. Then race her back to the door where there are more really, really tasty treats are waiting inside. This is something that even the kids can get into playing with Echo. The idea behind this is to build a huge history of reinforcement for Echo that going straight to the car from the house or the house from the car is much more well practiced than running off. It will teach her a default behavior that gives her a chance to earn a lot of rewards, every time. I'm certain this is a teachable default (my dogs have all learned this on their own from coming with me so much as youngsters) as long as you were willing to practice it every day for a couple months. And otherwise manage the door dashing so she can't practice running as a default behavior.

    • Gold Top Dog

     

    Great great ideas, keep them coming!  The recent door dashing episode was preluded by 2 days of no walks or playdates with neighbor golden retriever, Shamu.  We had a very busy week so those got pushed by the wayside.  I think she was basically saying- enough of this laying around stuff!

    She's had 2 walks today and is newly entertained by our dogsitting friend, Bella.  So things are going much better.  Been working hard on sit/stays/waits at the doors, did some car/house, house/car runs and rewarded the last one with a trip to pet$mart. 

    These reminders have been great for me, thanks so much, everyone!