Howling Success K9 Services - Need Help With Your Dog?

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Comment by Cindy Lee on April 13, 2009 at 11:40am

Kris
Just a strange question about animal behavior. How does a move and a change in familiar people affect dogs' behavior. My dog (Terrier mix) hasn't acted the same since my move here and since my breakup with my significant other.
Thanks, Cindy

Comment by Howling Success K9 Services on April 9, 2009 at 10:28pm

As far as the fence, the first question is how high is it? Can you make it higher? If not you are going to have to watch her and verbally correct her when she gets near it. I would tell you the easy method of hot-wiring the fence but you cannot do this because of the children. What is the fence made of? All it would take to make it higher is medal stakes and wire. Goldens get the clue pretty quick and most are not as bull-headed as some other breeds. I need a little more info on the fence. The problem you have is she already knows she can get over the fence. Take a picture and send it to me.

Keep a line on her when she is in the house. Remember umbilical cording? Set up a situation where you put something yummy on the counter and when she goes near it grab the line and give her a sharp pop on the line and tell her "OFF". Once she is off praise her. Use your "nah" also. Depending on how sensitive she is mouse traps work really well also. They won't hurt her and if you lay paper towels over them the "snap" they make when she reaches up there may discourage any more investigation.
I did have a Doberman once that I used mouse traps under a sheet to keep him off the couch. I set several on the couch and then left the house and snuck back to watch. Just a minute later he did his thing and popped up onto the couch and WHAM-all the mouse traps went off and he was jumping around like a mad man. He jumped off the couch and stood there a minute and looked back at the couch....then the goof ball got a big smile on his face and jumped back on the couch to see if he could scare himself again...
But - this is not the normal reaction of most dogs. Most will be surprised enough that they don't like to repeat the action.
Do this also, when she jumps on the counter say to yourself there is something very dangerous on the counter that she absolutely MUST not reach. This will ensure you are firm enough with her.

Let me know if this works and if not we will try something else.

Try this and see if either work for you. Don't wait until it happens again, set it up so you can make it happen so you can deal with it. Take a day and say "today, I am going to work on Cheyenne not getting on the counters" and let me know how it goes.

Comment by Daphne on April 9, 2009 at 10:05pm

Kris,
Hey, thanks so much for the advice on Cheyenne's jumping up on people. It is working real well. She has gotten the hint and is taking to sitting very quickly also. You rock!!
New problem (shock): As you may remember my back fence is very low due to the land of my neighbors and I being uneven. Since Cheyenne is a Golden she is tall. She can easily leap over the fence into the neighbor's yard. She has done this a few times now when she is outside to go potty. I am guessing she wants to play with the neighbor's chihuahuas. The second part of the delima is that due to the neighbors yard being lower (as I stated) she can't get back over without my help. My shoulder is hurting again :o( What can I do at this point besides tie her up? Also any advice on teaching her not to stand on her back legs so she can get the food off the kitchen counter? Wow, big puppies!!! A new and exciting challenge. Wish you were here. I told Cheyenne today-that she needed a visit from Aunt Kris!! :o)

Comment by Howling Success K9 Services on March 21, 2009 at 7:48am

Stay positive! Remember she doesn't get what she wants, getting pets, until you get what you want, sits.

Comment by Daphne on March 21, 2009 at 7:46am

I do remember Rose running around with that hamburger. She was awesome! Beau loved the tug of war ring, about ripped my leg off with that thing. :o)
Thanks for your help. I'll start today and let you know how it goes.

Comment by Howling Success K9 Services on March 21, 2009 at 7:41am

Sorry for the typos, it's early. You get my point.

Comment by Howling Success K9 Services on March 21, 2009 at 7:30am

The secret to jumping is NOT giving her attention when she is jumping. If she learns that she gets the attention when she is acting appropriately, she will stop. Jumping is a habit they learn early on, usually when they are tiny puppies. Unfortunately not all breeders are trainers and when the puppy jumps, they reach down and pet. This imprints on the dog that jumping is positive behavior. What you have to do to change this is teach her that jumping is not postitive. When she starts to jump give her that verbal correction I taught you so long ago and give her a sit command. Do not touch her. Move away a bit or even face away from her. Once she sits then reach down and pet her and verbally praise. Do this every time she approaches you for a while, and soon you will notice that she will start sitting automatically. You responsibility is never forget to praise. A mistake that people make is once the behavior has been modified, they stop praising the positive action and the dog goes back to their old habits.
As far as toys, you have to experiment. I probably have fifty toys in our toy basket and each one of my dogs has their favorites. I have tried putting certain toys to the bottom and Bizzie will root through the basket to find her favorites. Try some cheap squeakies. She may tear them up but you never know. There is a binky out there somewhere for her. Remember Rose the Bulldog? Her favorite toy was a cheap rubber hamburger I bought at the grocery store. She would walk around with that stupid hamburger sticking out of her mouth for hours.
Do you tug with her? One idea is to buy a tug toy. Booda Bones can be bought at PetSmart. This is a great toy because it will force you to play with her and you can also teach her to play with the kids. Years ago trainers used to say do not tug with your dog but I never understood it. I have always tugged with my dogs. It's a great way to build confidence in the dogs, (I always let them win) and it also teaches the dog that toys are better than skin. She is a golden so it won't be hard to teach her to play gentle. If you get her interested enough, she will bring you the toy. As I speak I am having balls and tugs put in my lap at my computer station now. It's easy to get busy with our lives and forget that we are the center of our dogs world.
Another thing is you, the twins and the dog should all be going for daily walks together. Walking is the best thing you can do for your dog and it's great excersice for you and the kids. I know you love hearing this one.
Boarding is good. There are so many of my old clients dogs I miss. But we are making new dog friends now happily. Your dog is very beautiful. You made a good choice with this new puppy.

Comment by Daphne on March 21, 2009 at 3:20am

Kris,
As you know we have a recent addition to the household. Cheyenne (Golden Retriever) is now 7 months. She is an absolute sweet heart. I am having a few issues (common to all puppies I'm sure) that I have questions about. The first one is that she is so happy to see/be with me and wants my attention that she jumps up on me. Even when I am giving her attention and petting her she still wants to jump up. Also is there a specific toy that will keep her interest enough to not chew on the kids' toys? I've tried various "bones" and she's not impressed. Any advice you could give would be GREATLY appreciated.
On a similar note, how is the boarding going? Wish you were here to board the dogs when we go on vacation in June. It is always a relief not to worry about your pets when you're gone.
Just an update on our other dog Dusty, she is doing well. 12+ years old and still as obedient as the day you moved. It is such a blessing to have well behaved dogs. Thank you so much for your knowledge and guideance.
Daph

Comment by Rick L. on March 19, 2009 at 9:32am

In a recent email from Kris, she mentioned problems with toads and their impact on our pets. I thought it might help if I told my experiences with them.

I have a Jack Russel (Penny) and true to her nature she has to try and kill anything that moves. Lizards, grasshoppers, crabs, snakes (yes, she killed a coral snake once by shaking it so much she broke it's neck) and the dreaded toads. The hassle with the toads is that they excrete some kind of solution that can cause everything from hallucinations to spasmodic activity with your dog/cats body. At least this is what I've seen. I'm not a vet or an expert on this, only very very experienced because Penny has killed many of the toads.

Of all the times she has been so sick from the toads she almost died once. I held her for 9 hours while she went through what I can only describe as one seizure after another. But what I have learned over time is, one drag her over to toads and get very vocal and angry over the toad pointing out that they are DANGER! Not that this has had a great impact on her learning curve but I still do it anyway.

But once she bites one, she usually comes running to me with foam coming from her mouth. The first thing I do (besides yelling) is to wash her entire mouth out with lemon juice. I keep two large bottles on hand at all times. That usually reduces the impact. But she's also learned to be cautions when biting them now. She's mainly trying to flip them over so she can kill them from the underside. The one time when I thought she was going to die I made a liquid solution using milk and carbon pills. I forced it into her while she was so sick. It didn't stick long in her (about a half hour) before she threw it all up. But the carbon helps absorb poisons. I bought those pills stateside years ago and they don't seem to go bad. I mean they are only carbon in a capsule. I held her to keep her from hurting herself from all the spasmodic jerking and running she was doing while under the poison's effect. I even fed her mashed rice a couple of times during the event (a table spoon at a time through a large syringe and water) to keep her hydrated. Yes, it was terrible mess, her bowels were totally spasmodic too but I kept her and me cleaned up. She had some lucid moments during the event and I was very supportive. I think I sang some songs to her to help her stay tranquil (I'm a terrible singer) but it helped her to know I was there caring for her.

Penny may have survived many of those fits but they have taken a major toll on me. I'm constantly on frog/toad patrol. My dogs have a fenced yard and don't go out of that area unless on a leash.

I don't know if my info can help you for any future problems but in my area it's pretty much toad free nowadays. The rains bring in one or two, but I keep my dogs within hearing range and I know the funny bark she makes when she is about to kill something. When I hear that I'm on the move. I do have to admit she a lot more hesitant about attacking a large toad now. She usually only goes after the little ones, still trouble but nothing like what the big ones can do.

Comment by Carol Linville on February 19, 2009 at 10:47pm

Just to let you all know, if you have a problem with your dog, Kris has the solution - known her a long time and she is so great with all dogs - sure miss her here in SC! Carol

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