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Old May 27th, 2011, 12:40 PM
A.spivak A.spivak is offline
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a question for anyone who can give me some good training tips

hi my name is Amy
I have a shepared chow cross that is about 2ish. She is a resued dog.
When we first had her she took a while to warm up to the family. she would not play with us and just wanted to be left alone outside. my husband could not call her because she would not come to anything he said but would listen to me a little better.
As far as i know she was found on the road and could not walk.
the way she acts seems like she was abused from the way she would always put her head down and is very submissive.

Now i am trying to train my dog Zasta to listen and get her to do things i need to her to like stay go lay down all the simple things right now and im having a hard time getting her to do them.
I will tell her where to go lay down and she walks all over the place or goes where she wants to go and if i go get her to tell her where to be she will not listen i will have to drag her over and she always pees. She acts like shes always getting into big trouble. I have never had a dog with problems or how about to take things slow to get her out of these habits.
the one thing that just gets me is you can try and be clam and as nice as can be about it all and she will always end up peeing and its not just small pee its a big puddle of pee.
If i could have someone plz give me tips or something to help me go about it in the right way.

thanks so much
Amy
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Old May 27th, 2011, 02:00 PM
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marko marko is offline
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First off Welcome to the forum!

Others will have better suggestions for sure but I wanted to ask a few additional questions.

But before we start, with respect, dogs don't naturally know how to lie down or stay at a human's command. These things need to be taught so even though it's simple to you, your dog is not finding them simple....and this is NORMAL. Depending on how badly she may have been abused, this may also come into play...but it can be solved with patience good training and love in the vast majority of cases.

Please also know that most dogs want to please you and this sounds like a submissive dog. I say this because the peeing she is doing sounds like 'submissive urination'. Dogs do this to show you that they are submissive and it has nothing to do with housebreaking. Basically (if I understand this correctly) by peeing in this way (while being dragged) your dog is telling you that you are the superior and that your dog just wants to follow your lead. It's actually quite sad because the dog is trying to communicate with you in a delicate way, but we humans never see urination (even submissive urination) on the floor as delicate. We think it comes from a place of malice when it does not.

The problem is that you are not understanding each other.

1 - has the dog mastered sitting?
Meaning the dog sits every time you say sit. If the answer is no, imo that's the first command you should work on as it's a much easier one than 'lie down over there.' The dog needs to master each task before moving on to another task...especially harder tasks.

2 - How long have you had the dog?

That piece of info will be useful to other that I hope can help here.

3 - Would you consider obedience training (please say yes )

Good luck!
Marko
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Old May 27th, 2011, 03:12 PM
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Masha Masha is offline
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There are some very knowledgable members here that will be able to provide great advice but to me it seems that you need to focus on building her self esteem and your bond and only then worry about her following commands etc. Training can be a great form of bonding but she seems too stressed during training hence the peeing - how about long walks with her and lots of playtime - these would help establish a bond and trust. Positive reinforcement (if she did something good give her treat/toys/petting to show her that she is a good girl and you are proud.

I am curious what other members think....
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Old May 27th, 2011, 10:46 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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First of all, thank you so much for adopting a rescue. How long have you had Zasta?

Quote:
Originally Posted by A.spivak View Post
I will tell her where to go lay down and she walks all over the place or goes where she wants to go and if i go get her to tell her where to be she will not listen i will have to drag her over and she always pees. She acts like shes always getting into big trouble.
Amy, she pees when you "drag her over" because she's terrified . Please don't physically force her to do stuff like that as it's only reinforcing her fear. As you already know, she isn't able to learn when she's in that mindset.

I would love for you to take a look at this website. It's full of informative articles and dozens of videos to get you to train her so that it's fun for both of you. Please go slowly and with lots of patience and, once Zasta has mastered one, move on to another. I promise you'll have loads of fun and you'll start to see her come out of her shell. I would recommend you view the first three videos and then start with "Teach Your Dog His Name" that's a little further down the list. Even if you think she knows it, it might be a good idea to get her to positively associate her name with good feelings. It'll be a great start. http://www.dogmantics.com/Dogmantics...ideo_List.html

And please let us know how you're all coming along. Photos of Zasta are always welcome (actually, we insist ).

Edited to add: If there's one one book you should read to learn more about positive dog training, especially given the fact that Zasta is so submissive, this is the book you should try to get your hands on.... The Power Of Positive Dog Training, 2nd edition, by Pat Miller. You can get a preview here (where I order my books from): http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB723
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Last edited by luckypenny; May 27th, 2011 at 10:59 PM.
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Old May 27th, 2011, 11:16 PM
A.spivak A.spivak is offline
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I have had Zasta for just a year now.
I can get her to sit but when i tell her things its not like come here all them long words in it its come, stay, down. things like that
I might have sounded mean when i said dragging her to where i want her to go. lol i didnt mean for it that way. what i mean is like i will point or stand to where i want her to go lay down and there is times were she will do as she is asked right away but at other times when she dont want to listen. Like i will say come and if she dose not come the first time i will go get her and try walking her over to were i want her to be and then when she dont want to listen is when she will not want to give in thats when it feels like i gotta pull her over to where i want her to be.
there is things that she was great at when i did get her was she has NEVER ever taken off on us off leash in public. she loves animals we take her to the dog part when we can and like i do have another dog that is about 2 years old now she is a small chiu. they play very well.
I have gotten her now tho to go sleep in a kennel that took about a year to get her to wanna just go in there on her own. but i would leave it out in the living room for her at all times and i think the trick was i started feeding the dogs in there cuz they were eating each others food and one would get some or none lol.
I do play lots with her well try lots like now thats all she ever wants to do is play witch i love.
I do try when playing with her to do the simple things like try staying get her laying down all them things but when she dont want to she will just give up and not want to anymore and just from there not listen for a while.
with the peeing to every time we let her in the basement she will go down to just pee right away.
I can say i do watch tons of at the end of my leash show i love it and try doing things on there. some things i dont know how to say the things she dose wrong in a way. I do try getting help with my husband trying to show me how to walk her better or say things like well i need help but i dont get it so im alone on it lol.
for the dog training part i live in leduc and i have not been able to find one in town. I dont drive and my husband wont pay the money for me to go into one. I would love to take classes cause i know it would help me out so much more.
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Old May 28th, 2011, 12:35 AM
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TeriM TeriM is offline
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You've gotten some great advice from others above. I would add that often we assume that dogs understand things when they really don't. I did a test a few weeks ago with my dog and was quite astounded to learn that cues I thought he knew he really didn't. I do regular weekly training classes with him and he is five. He understands all of the commands but where we get crossed up is that we humans give so many unconscious cues that dogs interpret as the actual cue.

Sounds confusing but for example if I stand totally still and make no eye contact with my dog and give the command he did not comply with all my commands. If I gave that same command but join it with a hand/body signal or just the way I glance then he is quick to comply. That taught me that sometimes our cue is not what the dog thinks it is. When you add in that your dog is quite submissive it is quite possibly that she just gets overwhelmed and shuts down when she doesn't understand.

LP's book and video suggestions are excellent. I personally am not a fan of the "end of my leash" show. I think Brad's techniques can be useful for some dogs (confident, pushy) but a dog like the one that you describe will do soooooo much better with positive training methods (treats, clicker, praise, play etc). You need to work so that your dog thinks you are the best thing ever and has great trust and respect for you. In return you need to be sure to never push your dog beyond where she is comfortable and listen to her body language to know when she is overwhelmed.
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