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Major shifts in behaviour (LP - would especially love your insight here!)
Okay, so Chase is the bigger problem here, but Kailey certainly plays a role. They're both going on four years. We've been in our current house for one year with no major changes...but the behaviours have been especially bad in the past six months.
1) Counter Surfing - This has been an ongoing battle with Kailey (with the whole history of homelessness and emaciation), but a new behaviour for Chase over the past six months. We have always avoided the obvious "don't leave food on the counter". But Chase - I swear out of nowhere - started stealing off the counter and coffee table recently. A muffin, bowls of fruit salad....they will both pick dirty dishes out of the sink if they don't make it into the dishwasher. But Chase is even ballsier than his sis and he will steal as soon as you turn your back.....she at least waits until we leave the house. Bear in mind she was homeless for a while, so the battle is a little more understandable with her - though still not okay. But Chase? We used to be able to leave him in a room with a plate of food for 20 minutes and he wouldn't dream of touching it. Two months ago they plucked a dozen thawing pork chops out of the sink and went and ate them in our bed!!!! Chase was also making a habit of sneaking to the basement and eating the cat's food (dish kept up on top of a workbench). We had to put up a baby gate to keep him out of that room. 2) Aggression - This is ALL Chase. He was well-socialized as a pup and actually was more comfortable with males dogs than other females. When we adopted Kailey he could get a bit snippy with intact males - seemed protective of his new sis. It's only gotten worse We had a friend's GSD for a day in January and Chase tackled him! Pinned him against the shed, snarling and snapping. Then they got in a fight over a stick (DH had to step in). I had to tie Chase to me the rest of the day. And poor Kailey was so upset! She liked Dexter, but when the boys fought she laid down in a corner of the yard with her paw covering her eyes. Seriously. Now SHE, the former rescue who was terrified of everything and always lashed out, can go to a dog park yet there is no way on earth Chase can now (not that I really like dog parks....but you know what I mean). He will tolerate two males that we are neighbours with...but there is a chain link fence in between. But then there are two intact bassetts that just moved in behind us and he despises them....charges the fence whenever he see them. BTW, Chase was neutered at 6 mos and Kailey was spayed as soon as we rescued her at around age one. Dexter, the GSD, is about one y.o., neutered, a tad dominant but generally well-tempered. Chase will submit to Kailey in a second, no question - he always has. But any other dog....he's become a dominant little jerk. Last time we went to a dog park (like two years ago) an intact male Setter kept bugging Kailey and Chase tore out a hunk of his fur! We though intact males were the only problem....but then he went after Dexter. Who is over twice the size of Chase by the way... We're having a couple other issues, but these are the main two. I'll leave it here for now. PLEASE, any advice would be so appreciated. I always felt capable and in control of my dogs....but this has just become terrible. I do think exercise is part of it and I admit their walks have been lacking between winter and me battling tendonitis in my hips and a pretty nasty dout of depression. But still.....both these issues came on pretty surprisingly for Chase and I just don't know what happened to my sweet, obedient boy! Please just ask if you need any info or clarification.....I need to figure out where I'm going wrong here. I want to foster again but there's no way I can if I can't even control my own dogs! And no way on earth I could have a male in the house, that's for sure.
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl Last edited by Chaser; May 17th, 2011 at 10:44 AM. |
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Chaser,when it comes to dog-behavior,I have no clue
I just wanted to say I am sorry this is happening with your wonderful dogs.. I hope it is something like needing more exercise and things will change,if the weather ever turns. Or could it be he senses your health-problem and depression??
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"The cruelest animal is the Human animal" 3 kitties,Rocky(r.i.p my boy),Chico,Vinnie |
#3
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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I'm going to apologize in advance for the length of this reply .
Chaser, I wish I had some easy answers for you but, we too have been having our share of serious troubles with Penny. I can only tell you what's been working for us so far and hopefully some of it can be of some use to you. For your first scenario, the only thing that will work, imo, is to never ever let the dogs have a chance to get at food on counters, sinks, etc. If they only get lucky once a month, the fact that they do is extremely reinforcing and, you can bet they will keep trying (sort of how people get addicted to gambling). If they never find food over a long period of time, the behavior will extinguish. You can teach a 'leave it' but, it really wouldn't help for those times you can't supervise. Penny doesn't take food but Lucky might on the odd occasion. We now put food in the oven to thaw. You can use a pantry, the microwave, a cupboard, etc.. For your second issue, which is obviously serious, both management and training are what's needed. I'll let you know what we do here at the moment. Neither dogs are ever out in the yard unsupervised...and that doesn't mean we watch them through a window. We have to physically go out with them. Unfortunately, that means they are also never out at the same time as Penny now re-directs aggressively if anything excites her in the environment (whether it be negative or positive). So, what's working for us so far is that we try prevent her from getting to that point at all (but she's a little loopy so sometimes it can just be a bird in a tree that'll turn her into Cujo). If there's a dog, horse, people walking by, we try to re-direct her attention to us or even physically block her and then give her something else to do. We're fortunate that we have no neighbors in the back and both sides of the property are well covered so that the dogs can't see what's going on in those yards. For the front yard though, we're planting cedar along the fencing this Spring and will try to figure out something to cover the gates (we have a chain link fence). In your case with the Bassets, is there anyway you can block the visual access into their yard? Do the Bassets come right to the fence? So, although stressful at times, the management is the easy part. The training part not so easy for me but, we have noticed improvement. We do a lot more recalls and, slowly try to build up Penny's tolerance to stressors and that's by reconditioning her to see them as positive things, not things she has to be afraid of or aggressive towards. I think in Chase's case this is what he needs too. I'm going to pm stinkycat and millitntanimist as I believe they can explain the "how-to's" much better than I can. One thing we tried that didn't work, actually made the situation worse, was set down a whole bunch of new rules all at one time (we too thought that perhaps they were too spoiled). So suddenly everything was NILIF, no dogs on the bed, furniture, etc. I can't tell you what a mistake that was as it only increased the stress and anxiety Penny was feeling. However, our issue was that Penny started attacking Lucky and Nukka whereas that's not the case between Chase and Kailey, thank dog. Increasing their exercise did help dramatically, especially for Lucky. We started cycling with them (20 minute run is the equivalent of a 1 hour walk) and Lucky needs about 45 minutes to an hour of running per day. Problem now is, Lucky pulled the bike right out form under me and I got hurt . Dh is the one who takes him now as he outweighs me by 100lbs and Lucky isn't strong enough to unbalance the bike. Does Chase lunge after other animals/people when you're walking with him? Is your dh able to cycle with him (using an appropriate attachment of course) for about 20-30 mins. per day? If not, is there any way you can hire an experienced dog walker? I know without the exercise, it would be hell here...I'm already dreading next Winter . Oh, another thing, we no longer feed our guys out of bowls at all. Everything gets stuffed into their Kongs and is frozen/semi-frozen so that it takes them between 30mins. - 2 hours to eat each meal. It keeps them super busy and prevents them from getting into trouble out of boredom. I hope some of this helps you. I know too well what it's like to have everything suddenly go to hell in a handbasket .
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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Although it's on the older side of average, Chase has just gone through social maturity, and is challenging other dogs because of it. It seems that so far he has not lost a fight, so he is thinking he's pretty special and can win them all.
As LP has said, counter surfing is a learned behaviour, and whatever started it is long behind you. Although you can do some things to train a dog not to touch edibles in your absence, the effort involved is high, and the success rate low. You are probably better off making the counter physically inaccessible to the dogs, so that you can continue to use your kitchen as you like. For the cats you could also consider putting a cat flap on a closed door, as you may at some point have your baby gates jumped. I disagree with LP on the likelihood of leadership to help you, but if you need to be 100% committed to it and not give up if the initial response is negative. Regardless of your decision in that area, I would book in a short obedience session with Chase every day or every other day. My focus for the sessions would be: Distance SIT with distractions - if you haven't trained it yet, add distance and distractions to a reliable sit slowly; if you have, practice it to reinforce. Sitting is a neutral behaviour, neither submissive nor dominant, that communicates between dogs, I don't want to fight, but I am not bowing down to you either. You need to reach the point where you can get a sit during the initial posturing, growling, or circling that precedes biting. COME with distractions - again, increase the difficulty slowly or if already trained, practice to reinforce. WATCH me - Fighting cannot start or continue without eye contact with the opponent. Having Chase look at YOU is incompatible with him looking at the other dog. His gaze towards you should be soft and non-confrontational, but his focus should be strong. LEAVE IT/OKAY - This can apply to anything, food, toys, other dogs. It does not necessarily mean touching is permanently forbidden, but it means you have veto power over his desires. For management, if you know a dog who can win against Chase but fights using skill and not injury, it would help him to lose a fight. Other than that, avoid further interactions with the type of dog that is setting him off at this time. Build up slowly from dogs he is fine with, to those that cause a small reaction, to those that get under his skin even more. Accept that he will have a limit that you will not surpass. Fence-running is quite instinctive for a shepherd, but if allowed to do so with neighbours, his level of excitement will increase, and he will begin to do it for the adrenaline rush. Work on your obedience towards this, and also teach him that the neighbour dogs are good. Pet them and talk to them, if Chase shows any sign of neutral or friendly behaviour towards them reward and praise him for it. A common mistake is to react by yelling or punishment, but these tend to increase aggression and animosity. |
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Where did I say that? Of course leadership helps. What I said was, "One thing we tried that didn't work, actually made the situation worse, was set down a whole bunch of new rules all at one time." In our case, with our particular dog, too much at one time is too much for her.
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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Misinterpretation of that statement I guess!
Can you elabourate on how you would use leadership with Chase but not risk making things worse the way that happened with this one dog you mentioned? |
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To avoid that, I usually give my own opinion/advice directly to the op without trying to interpret what others are saying. Otherwise the gist of the thread tends to steer away from the help they are looking for and I hate it as much as the op when that happens .
Management, teaching, re-conditioning/de-sensitizing, and exercise should help Chase. Above all, support for Chaser and working within her limitations.
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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When Riley approached two years of age it seemed as though he finally figured out how big he was and proceded to become a major jerk. He was bluff charging other dogs and basically being a bully as well as totally blowing me off. This is quite common when dogs mature.
What worked for us was tightening down the rules and working regular obedience sessions etc but that was combined with lots of positive reinforcement for his good decisions. I worked hard on developing a better relationship with my dog by doing lots of obedience/recall "games" with lots of reinforcement. This causes the dog to look to me for all the "fun stuff" as well as for leadership. When you have that it becomes easy for the dog to look to you for permission to go see other dogs etc. It is also really important to work on lots of self control. Once you have a history of bad reactions it also becomes very hard for us to maintain that calm behavior that helps our dogs in stressful situations. For a while every time we approached another dog on leash I would sing the "I'm a Little Teapot" song in my head to keep my body language loose. I would use calming signals and also be very positive, treat lots and keep the visits short. Riley loves to tug so often once we passed I would often do a quick game of tug to help us decompress. I would also strongly suggest that you purchase a few books on dog body language. Learning to read your dog's behaviour is a huge help in heading off bad situations before they develop. I personally love http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB527 which is also available now as an ebook. I still will use some of these signals (head turn, yawn) etc. in times where Riley might seem a bit uncomfortable with a crazy approach from another dog. The good news is that we were able to work through the situation within months. The only time I ever really need to watch Riley now is if he is super excited or if a strange dog approaches him very close to our vehicle. I was luckier then LP in that he had a strong basis to start with as we had him from a puppy and we just needed to head off the "ass" phase before it became totally ingrained behaviour. Good luck .
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"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead |
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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__________________
Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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That's exactly what I was suggesting - that you might have some suggestions as to how leadership would be best applied to this situation.
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__________________
Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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Chaser,hope all this good advice will help you and the puppers
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"The cruelest animal is the Human animal" 3 kitties,Rocky(r.i.p my boy),Chico,Vinnie |
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Oh, one idea I was considering is to build a small agility course in our yard. Chase has that awesome border collie speed and agility - loves to jump and weave and spin. I thought it would be great for exercise, mental stimulation AND to make our yard time more productive than "let's go out and charge the bassetts"
Thoughts???? Also, since we don't seem to have problems on leash, would it help to introduce him to more dogs on walks? We usually just ignore them, since that is better for Kailey due to her leash issues.....but I don't know that it has done Chase any favours. I usually walk Chase and DH takes Kailey, so they could carry on while I let him socialize a little....? I don't know....too much too soon? I think he's at his worst in "his" territory.....neutral seems to be okay, unless there's a male humping his sister that is
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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Well I'm feeling less hopeless about it all....which I think is a pretty positive start
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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What kind of fencing do you have? Maybe a tarp or something attached to it and then another small fence a foot or so away (we temporarily used a strong chicken wire type galvanized fencing at our old home. Inexpensive and found at a hardware store) to prevent Chase and the Bassets from meeting nose to nose. If you need ideas, maybe you can take pics of the area and we can help out. It's not a permanent solution but I think management is key while you're working on teaching new behaviors so that you're setting yourselves up for success.
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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Second, dogs meeting face-to-face (especially on leash) is not safe as it's not how they would naturally greet. You could unknowingly be forcing a confrontation between two dogs.
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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LP has the best training info, doesn't she? And TeriM - she's done so much work with Riley lately I'm sure he's taught her something!! I'd take their info and run with it. Just on a personal note - I know LP is glad to help out anyone she can by pm or emails. She's such a wonderful person that way!!
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Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
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When I refer to rules in home I am talking pretty basic stuff. Wait for permision before going outside, getting off the bed it told, doing behaviors/tricks for treats and meals etc. I walk Riley 1-1.5 hours daily with the bulk of that off-leash but we do all sorts of drills/training/rewards during those walks so he keeps focus with me. Quote:
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"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead |
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Chaser, when I teach obedience I use lots & lots of praise, and sometimes treats, toys or other rewards, too. When working and learning are fun, your dog will learn faster and more reliably. You are dealing with some very frustrating behaviours which are self-rewarding and to counter that you need to offer Chase a bigger reward than those bassets do, just for something simple like sitting when he approaches them, coming back when called, or even just looking away from them and breaking that intense border collie gaze. He likes to play, to win, to focus, to be excited - redirect those desires to doing things for you.
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If DH can't rig something up once the weather improves I'll upload a pic for sure!
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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But when he is NOT with her, he really is amazing on leash. He's been to events before with hundreds of leashed dogs and he's calm and friendly....sniffs, quick hello, moves on.... I'm going to take TeriM's advice on researching body laguage too.....but I really do feel confident with him on a lead. It's almost like he's worse as part of a pack than he is on his own....does that make sense?
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Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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Absolutely!
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Edited by Mod
"a dog that would wrestle but not injure or become injured", having two dogs challenge each other is a situation that could easily become out of hand, and both dogs could become injured. I think it's irresponsible to suggest to have two dogs challenge each other and think that neither would get hurt, it's risky and not to mention even done with good intentions (if setting up a fight is ever done with good intentions) could result in both dogs and handlers getting seriously hurt.
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Abigail~ APBT~ 2 Jersey ~ APBT~5(ish) Kato ~Rottie~ 5&1/2 Wendellan~ Feline~ 10(ish) Theedee~Feline~10(ish) "Da-Goob"~ APBT/Dogo x (5-6ish) "My Pitbulls are better behaved than your kids!" (my favorite bumper sticker) Last edited by growler~GateKeeper; May 18th, 2011 at 09:21 PM. |
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Let's move on and keep to suggestions regarding the issues Chaser has asked for help with in the original post.
Thanks
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Avoid biting when a simple growl will do The Spirit Lives As Long As Someone Who Lives Remembers You - Navaho Saying |
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Chaser, upon 14+'s suggestion, here's something pretty (and a fun project to boot) that might serve well for that corner of the yard . Maybe a couple of them side-by-bide.
http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-t...into-a-garden/
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"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -Will Durant |
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"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead |
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__________________
Chase (Friendly Resident Wigglebum) - Border Collie/Lab/Shepherd X Kailey (Misunderstood Gentle Beauty) - GSD & foster failure #1 Rupert (Gold-Medal Winner of the 3 a.m. Kitty Destruction Olympics ) Heidi - RIP my sweet baby girl |
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