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Old March 23rd, 2011, 07:41 PM
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Stinkycat Stinkycat is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Langley, BC
Posts: 161
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenMax View Post
Though I agree with you on some points StinkyCats..let me run this by you and let me tell you my remedy (I am certain I will not win any popularity with this one..)

I placed a very large doberman recently. He was fine as long as he knew that he was not running the household..at the beat of his drum. Fast forward...dog went into the new home. Almost immediately he started mouthing which escalated to grabbing which escalated to actually puncturing. Not happy people to say the least...but partially their fault... All the while they had a positive reinforcement trainer who suggested to 'ignore' the behaviour by turning their back on the dog. So what does one do with their arms then? Hold them in the air so that the dog jumps up to grab them?

Sorry - I totally 100% disagree with ignoring such behaviour as one can see the escalation process. Not effective.

My suggestion was to walk INTO the dog. Look ahead of the dog and keep walking right into him. He will normally back up or get out of the way. No words used...the silent head on walk.

Results - it has been 3 weeks and the dog no longer reacts in such a manner. It took 3 times of walking into him, now a click of the fingers, pointing to the mat...and the issue is resolved. Voila!
I totally agree that trainer was an idiot! They should've managed the dogs nipping by not allowing it to happen in the first place, you can only ignore minor annoying behaviours such as a dog pawing at you for attention or barking in the crate cause the dog wants out.

In that scenerio they should've found out why the dog was mouthing them in the first place. was it a pushy behaviour to manipulate the owners? Or was it play? If it was play, they should avoid any activities that trigger the mouthing and slowly reintroducing the play and work on redirecting the mouthing onto appropriate chewing objects. You have to manage the dog in order to train another behaviour in its place, the trainer should've figured out why the dog was mouthing.

And the problem would be solved, I've worked with dogs who mouth to the point of scarring my arms. You have to redirect the behaviour, not ignore it.

I think alot of people take "ignore bad behaviours" wrong. If you can't ignore a behaviour you're going to manage it so it doesn't happen.
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