My friend is a dog whisperer

[momofmany]

Originally Posted by hissy

I think that is what is so perplexing with China, she knows she is doing the wrong thing, and she does it in a sneaky way, and if we come into the room, she automatically slinks off into her kennel. Her favorite trick is jumping on the feeding platform and eating the cats' food. She waits till we are elsewhere in the house, then we hear her jump up there and come in to bust her, and by the time we arrive, she is back in her kennel with a mouthful of food. Mike yells at her, I keep telling him that yelling isn't the answer, but he does it anyway

Thanks for the insights. Dani is coming over in the morning and I'll see if she has some ideas for you. Fish tank carbon works wonders on eliminating the smells of dead critters in the walls and under floors (just a thought).

I pondered my shepard mix, Nita, a bit more today as she sounds a lot like China (she's been gone many years so I had to think for a while). Nita had her first spinal x-ray at age 10 months and by the time she was 4-1/2 years old, her spine had fused into an arc and paralyzed her (inoperable and in extreme pain we released her). I had just moved here and my vet was still new - he had never seen such advanced arthritis in a dog so young and wouldn't believe me when I told him her age. She was 6 weeks old when I adopted her so I knew her age. It was clearly a genetic disorder.

You said China was poorly bred - could she have some genetic disorder waiting to rear its ugly head? Dogs with health problems seem to like to chew thru things - it's almost like they need to do something to keep them distracted from their pain. That is usually the first sign that I notice that a dog is ill.

I just shared your story with my husband. His advice: build a stainless steel room and keep her there until she outgrows it. (groan)

I will ask Dani tomorrow.

 

[hissy]

lol thanks for the idea, but the remodeling doesn't call for a stainless steel room Any stainless steel we have around here goes into building knives.

 

[jcat]

M.A., China's catching birds in midair really isn't all that unusual. My sister's Viszla has been doing it for years (she kills more birds than all three cats together). We had a Boxer whose "hobby" was catching blackbirds in midflight. I made the mistake of doing Agility with him, thinking it would burn off excess energy, etc., and was soon told by the "Agility experts" that that was the wrong sport for a dog with excessive jumping behavior. They were right, as he seemed to think I'd be pleased when he jumped the coffee table, sofas, fences, etc.. We switched him to swimming in the summer, and hiking in the winter, and the excessive jumping stopped.

 

[momofmany]

Talked to Dani this morning. Remember her perspective is in the line with Jan Fennell, who studies wolf pack behavior as a method of managing dog behavior. She differs from Cesar Milan in that Cesar is more about submissive control versus natural pack behavior. Submission is a big part of it but not all of it.

I said prey drive and her immediate response was that the majority of dogs with an overpowering prey drive are having dominance issues. China as a pup is still trying to find her place in the "pack" and apparantly has strong alpha abilities. An alpha takes control of the food situation and one with strong alpha traits has an overpowering drive to go for food. Puppies instinctively try to exert their natural abilities and those are ultimately influenced by the pack. You are her pack and you have the ability to influence (rehabilitate the dog and retrain the owner).

Jan Fennell would tell you not to let China off the lead until you have gained full control over her. For the home you would not allow her to be in a position where she could do things that you cannot control (e.g. don't let her run loose until you fully trust her). Dani only allows her dogs off leads once they have proven that she can call them and they come to her 100% of the time, regardless of the distractions they come across. Dani also confines dogs to spaces in her house where they cannot act out, again, until she can trust them.

When China does something wrong (catching a bird or a dead something under the house), be as casual about taking it away from her as you can. If you make a big deal of it, even negatively, China will think it is a big deal and will continue to do it (woo ha, must be a good thing, look at their reaction!). A time out in the kennel after the fact doesn't really help, particularly if you ceremoniously put her in there (you are making a big deal of it), and a kennel is often a security place for a puppy, therefore you are in a sense rewarding her with security for bad behavior. You are better off finding a "banning" place that she doesn't like as punishment. This is off topic, but she also has mixed feelings about using a kennel - while some dogs gain a sense of security from them, once pups are weaned, adult wolves don't "cave".

I go back to the incident when my Greyhound killed a feral cat. I "banned" him for 2 weeks - I made him live away from the other dogs and ourselves under a (large) table in the back porch. I caught him in the act, was so angry that I made him lay down while I took care of the cat, then pointed to the door with a simple "inside", and once inside pointed to the table. When he tried to crawl out, I simply pointed back to the table and made him go back there. I didn't talk to him other than to tell him to go back to the table. The place wasn't bad, he had bedding, food, water and walks. What stopped him cold was the fact that we ignored and ostracized him so severely during this time. He was an adult with 5000 years of natural instinct to chase down small furry critters to counter. I'm not sure that I would be so extreme with a puppy, but perhaps short bursts of it will snap her out of it. When I told this story to Dani, she agreed it was the best thing to do for that situation.

If your friend is able to get advice from Cesar, I would love to hear what he says, if nothing else to see if what he advices is consistent with Dani. She acknowledges differences between her training and Cesar's training.

I hope this makes sense and can help in some way!

 

[hissy]

Thanks Amy and thank Dani as well. She has given us much to chew on. No pun intended.

 

[sbw999]

I watch Cesar and he has helped me to understand how to train our dogs in a way that is not so confusing to them, and better for them. My dogs get the run of the fenced back yard, they are big and need to run. Truth be told also, I want them a little territorial when it comes to the house, so they dont lick someone who enters the property to do harm to me or my family. Thus I dont want them as passive or submissive as Cesar has his dog pack. But Ive used Cesar's techniques to have a great "walking" experience with Nala and Sabrina which was hell before. Now they both walk peacefully at my side, not tugging my shoulder out of its socket, and they ignore other people or dogs as we walk along. They love getting out of the house and their yard as well.

Cesar is a godsend.

 

[misscharlotte]

Originally Posted by hissy

We have tons of balls, throw toys, kongs outside and inside. She goes on two walks a day with me- weather permitting 45 minutes long. We walk her back to the back pasture by the creek and let her off lead and let her run for 30 minutes at least 3 times a day.

I also love to watch the Dog Whisperer too. I don't have a dog at the moment...just my two cats.

Hissy - I'm going to point out something that Cesar would likely ask. Do you walk your dog or does she walk you? Sometimes when he walks a dog, he places a slightly weighted napsack on the dog's back to give the dog a task to focus on, especially working breeds. Have you tried that?

 

[hissy]

She walks by my side in a heel position the correct way. We are thinking about the knapsack idea.

 

[momofmany]

Originally Posted by sbw999

Truth be told also, I want them a little territorial when it comes to the house, so they dont lick someone who enters the property to do harm to me or my family. Thus I dont want them as passive or submissive as Cesar has his dog pack.

Thank you! You clarified what my friend was telling me about the difference between Cesar and Jan. Cesar is more focused on the submissive behavior and Jan more so on a pack behavior. Great example!!