Question about Humping
Comments (0)This is a recent question from a reader of my website:
Question: I recently adopted a dog from an animal shelter. She’s precious. She keeps trying to “hump” my children’s teddy bears, though. She’s been fixed so I don’t understand why she does this. Can you please help me?
Answer: There are a few things to understand about your dog:
1- Fixing a female dog has nothing to do with sex drive. Fixing a male dog may alter certain behaviors that are characteristic of sex and gender but that is not the case with females.
2- Mounting is not a sexual behavior. Mounting is a dominance behavior. What your dog is doing is her way of exerting dominance over those stuffed animals.
The problem is easy to fix. Engage her in obedience training and teach her what ‘no’ means. Good luck.
No need to accept bad behavior
Comments (1)In dealing with dogs and dog owners every day it is inevitable that a bulk of my conversations revolve around dogs. There are several phrases and philosophies that I hear from time to time. One of those phrases is, “Oh, he does that because he is a puppy.”
One thing I really help my clients to understand is that, yes, your young dog is jumping, chewing, nipping, peeing on the floor, pooping on your rug, etc. because he is a puppy. I then go on to explain that although these are very natural puppy behaviors they are not acceptable puppy behaviors.
A lot of people reading this may say, “Well, of course they aren’t acceptable. I know that.” The reason I write this, though, is that many people have consigned themselves to the fact that they are going to have to put up with a year of hair pulling, teeth clenching moments before they can actually enjoy their puppy. I think that many believe that part of raising a puppy is just putting up with these horrible behaviors as training and age begin to take effect.
I am here to say that it is important to recognize the limitations of a puppy mind when you begin training. There is no need, however, to allow yourself to fall into the mindset that you just need to accept certain bad behaviors. There are solutions to every negative puppy behavior. Some take longer to implement but none of these behaviors need to be accepted.
I encourage you to seek out the best methods. If you have been working on a specific puppy behavior without success for a time realize that you must seek out a different method, not throw in the towel and hope the puppy ‘grows out’ of the bad behavior.
Good luck with your puppy training!
A question about aggression with a German Shepherd
Comments (0)This is a recent question from a reader of my website:
Question: I have a three year old German Shepherd that I have raised & trained since he was seven weeks old. He has been a great dog. Suddenly, he has bitten me twice in the last two weeks for giving him the command ‘Drop It’. The first time it was a piece of roadkill. The second time was over a dryer sheet. He has not drawn blood but marked me on the forearm & hand. I have spent hundreds of hours working with my dog, not just training, but walking swimming & other fun stuff. I am afraid for my grand kids and I don’t understand him suddenly turning on me. I don’t want to put him down as I love him very much but won’t have a biting dog. Please help!
Answer: I sympathize with your situation as you obviously love your dog very much and feel trapped by what to do. Allow me to give you my insight.
I highly doubt that this behavior is ’sudden’. The manifestation of his behavior happened suddenly but I would bet that there have been subtle signs for some time that perhaps you didn’t recognize.
I would need numerous details to be able to give you an in depth response but there is one thing I can be sure of without further information. Your dog suffers from a lack of respect for you. A dog that has respect for his owner would never do the behavior you described. So the solution for you comes down to gaining proper respect and dominance from your dog.
Again, I don’t have all the details but I run across situations like yours quite often. The situation is that the dog, for the most part, is an obedient dog. The dog also has a big problem with dominance. The reason being is that the owner has taken the wrong approach to training. In most situations like this I find that the owner has done training based heavily in treats or ‘purely positive’ methods. The end result is a dog that is quite obedient out of pure conditioning and rewards. He is obedient because it suits him and because his owner doesn’t actually challenge him. The moment, though, when the dog feels challenged enough (in this case when he didn’t want to give up a tasty piece of roadkill) he will then exert his dominance.
Treat training or strictly reward based training will NEVER earn the respect of a dog. When people do this they are essentially ‘paying’ the dog to be obedient. This works great in a human system but does not work well in a canine system. Dogs in a pack aren’t obedient to the alpha because he pays them. They are obedient because of respect.
Now, obviously I have made a big assumption here. I don’t know how you have gone about training your dog. Once thing I do know, however, is that it has not earned the respect of the dog. Training does not need to be harsh. Training should have a balanced mix of corrections and praise, though. Praise for good behavior and corrections for inappropriate behavior. Training in this style will help earn the respect of your dog. Respect equals no aggression.
Good luck.
Gimmick dog training
Comments (1)I get lots of questions from dog owners through this website. Some of the questions are pretty silly to be honest. Some of them I never respond to because the person is obviously asking as a joke. Most of the questions I respond to in one way or another, either by email or through blog posts.
I rarely get someone who thanks me after I have taken the time to answer their question. Most of the people take the answer I give them and do what they will with it, either apply the training information or ignore it. No problem with me.
There are those, however, who do take the time to thank me for the dog training tips I have provided them. There is something in common with many of the people who thank me. Those that take the time to thank me often have received ‘gimmicky’ tips. Allow me to explain:
The solution to most dog training problems lies within these areas:
- Obedience training
- Supervision
- Correcting bad behaviors and praising good behaviors
- Being consistent with the proper techniques
Just about any dog training problem can be solved with a combination of several of the above mentioned areas. There are some dog problems, however, that can be fixed or aided by what I call ‘gimmick’ methods. Examples of ‘gimmick’ methods are:
- Using bitter apple spray on your furniture so the dog doesn’t chew. This is a gimmick to me because it requires a spray to get the dog to not chew your furniture. I want the dog to not chew my furniture because they respect me and my belongings, not because of a spray. Having said that, bitter apple spray can be helpful and so it doesn’t hurt to use it so I will at times recommend it.
- Placing pots and pans hanging over the edge of a counter. When the dog goes to get on the counter searching for food he may knock over the pots and pans and scare himself from counter surfing. To me this is a gimmick because before the dog ever had the opportunity to get on the counter he should have been supervised and corrected for trying to get on the counter. It can help some people, though, so I will mention this method.
- Placing dog stool in the hole. By putting a dog’s own stool in the hole you can often help to fix a digging problem. I consider this a gimmick because the dog is probably digging because of a lack of supervision, obedience training, and mental and physical stimulation. Can putting stool in a hole work? Yes, but it is a gimmick because the owner should be looking to the root causes of the behavior.
I believe the reason people that get ‘gimmicky’ answers take the time to thank me is because ‘gimmicky’ techniques are simple. They take no effort on the owner’s part. I think that when I tell people to obedience train and supervise their dog that they write me off because it is too much work.
There are partial ‘gimmick’ solutions to many dog behavior problems. The reality is, though, that if you want to change your dog’s behavior it is likely going to cost you some time and effort. If you have a dog, get ready for some work.
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