Gidgets getting to be a bit of a handful

[Lizabeth]

Shes happy, and she is very comfortable and secure in her world now. She has gone from not wanting to be touched to wanting pets cuddles and love just totally the sweetest girl in the world. With this said. She has come to the point that she has decided she is going to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it, and Nothing is going to stop her.

 

Running across the street because she decides its time to go down and play in the river, refusing to come back. Running out of the yard to meet and greet people! Then barking at them with fur up totally ignoring me! Refusing to come back! I tell them she wont bite shes a stupid puppy and please tell her to sit and she will quit barking and sit for you. Some are nice and will comply, others will not (cant blame them for not trusting my word) So Gidget is on leash now, she cant play in the dog run for now, I can't trust her to stay in the yard. What I am doing with her is just calmly sitting her down and telling her very sweet voiced that the people are ok, she does not need to bark at them. She will sit hush and Ill talk to her while she watches them do their thing. Thinking this is best way to deal with her barking issues as they are connected to a great part of her bulting out of the yard. So far so good. But I will not let her off that leash not if shes going to jump over and leave the yard.

 

To be fair part of this problem is due to the fact I have not been able to give her a good run. I was out with the dogs last week and I slipped and fell and landed in the river on a rock (I suffer from broken neck and severed nerves this is serious for me) I am so proud to say that all my work and training with her on assisting me to keep my balance and get up and down curbs and things paid off 3 fold this day! I sat her down put the leash on her and told her this is serious I need your help its time to go to work! At first she didn't want to do anything but run off and play with the other dogs. I sat her down again looked her in the eye and told her firmly "Its time to work" A light turned on in my little girl she got rite serious quick! She Did exactly what I have been teaching her! Id say 2 steps, she went 2 steps, wait she waited, 3 steps she went 3 only. Kept looking back to me to be sure I was ok and following! She got me up that cliff like a pro! Then she got me home! Boy I can't tell you enough how proud I am of her!!

 

Then their is her newest thing. We have hard wood floors, Gidget is gnawing and chewing on the floors!!!!! I catch her and firmly correct her then give her a chew toy.

 

This whole barking running thing... It is like she goes into a zone if you will, nothing I can do will snap her out of this zone. Its as if she can't hear or see me. It usually ends up with her running into the street and almost getting hit by a car! Its serious!! Now someone has offered to loan me the unthinkable a beeper shock collar. I can set it to beep not shock just to get her attention, and set it to the very lowest of settings should the beep need to be reinforced with a shock. I am DEAD AGAINST using shock collars for training!!!! Always have been I refuse to zap Jack when he comes to be puppysat. I have hit the beep a few times he gets it rite quick with out ever having me need to shock which I wouldn't anyway.

 

Is what I am doing rite? Just being calm sitting her down, talking sweet telling her they are ok while I pet her to reassure her everything is ok and she is a good girl for not barking? Keeping her tied tell I have ability to walk again I should mention I have been to the hospital over this fall into the river and on meds it is really a bad bad deal cant hardly walk rite now. Keeping her chained outside tell she shows me people do not bother her and tell she quits wanting to tug at chain to go down to meet them. My daughter is gone out of town for work, I am home alone and it is sheer pain to have to go across the street and carry my 9 month puppy home!

 

[Lizabeth]

I want to mention too that from the day this dog has entered my home she has NOT EVER been hit! And she won't ever be hit! And this whole business even though they say the lightest setting is more a poke then anything is quite disturbing to me! I know I have to do something and quick. her sitting with my leg against her talking softly reassuring her to me is the best thing, It may take longer to get through to her yes! But the big question is how do i snap her out of her zone with out the beep aspect of that collar? I mean it is impossible for me to get her attention Nothing I do or say penetrates! Not tell it is over and shes gotten away from the situation usually running across the street to the woods then she will sit and let me come get her!

[chene]

Although I'm certainly no expert, it seems to me that the key is not to get her attention when she is in the zone, but rather before she is. If you train her to focus first on you whenever she sees another person then once you have her attention you can tell her to sit or stay or allow her to go greet the person (nicely). To train it, put her on a leash and get another person to help (one she would normally react to) and start out with them far enough away that she is not running towards them or barking at them. When she notices the person, wait until she looks at you and immediately reward/click/praise (you might have to make some sort of sound to get her attention the first few times). Do that until she immediately looks at you as her first reaction. Then move a little bit closer to the person. Repeat, until she gets to the point where her immediate instinct is to look at you when she sees a person.

Obviously that's just once aspect of it and the big thing is the desensitization, but the looking at you will help break the focus/zone before it starts. Hopefully more experienced members can offer some others solutions or correct me if I'm wrong here.

[Lizabeth]

I like what you said. Like today for example, one bark I calmly call her name tell her it is ok i start going to her she runs to me and sits and we calmly watch them pass with no problems. I have the perfect subject to help me, Our neighbors the dogs just love them so much, they live across a very tiny lightly used street. The dogs all love them and know them to be friend. I can have the man help me. he will get such a kick out of it. Then later when things are going well I will ask the lady to help. She is very frail so Id like her to be secondary after we have things going smoothly just to prevent a potential knock over from happy puppy.

[Camden's Mom]

I just wanted to add that preventing Gidget from practicing this behavior should really be of the highest priority. You said you were going to keep her on a line until this resolves but if I remember correctly you've posted about this issue of her running out of the yard, charging at people and other dogs, etc. in the past. You may not want to hear this but Gidget may never be a dog that's reliably yard trained. Maybe one day she will be able to handle staying in the yard on her own but the risk now of her running into the street and getting hit by a car just seems too high. Not to mention how it makes the people walking past your house feel. I've been charged by dogs I don't know running out of their yards and I can tell you it's frightening and stressful. It's dangerous for Gidget, it's allowing her to practice a very bad habit and it's unfair to the people walking down your street. Your goal should be to prevent her from ever doing it again... ever.

 

I'd plan to keep her on leash in your front yard for a long, long time. She's still very young and is learning self control. Also, based on what you've told us of her unpleasant past, she might still be learning to be comfortable with people. Give her time, work with her on her reactivity to people/dogs/cars passing by your house and I'm sure she'll improve. Perhaps one day, when she's a bit more mature and clearly understands the rules, you'll be able to trust her off leash again in the yard.

 

It sounds like you are limited in what you can do with Gidget given your physical situation. Is there anyone who could come and give her a nice long walk, a quick jog (not too long given her age) or even a romp in a nearby park a couple times a week? I know you are doing the very best you can but I wonder if she's just got some extra energy she needs to burn off.

[Lizabeth]

Its funny you should mention this. Last night I had friends over to help me in the garden and have dinnner. I asked them if they could possibly help me make a dog run for Gidget, as I think she has done this before, got it under control and now its on again, I feel that Miss Gidget will need to be on line for a good year or so. I would like her to have some room to run but not enough to get to any passers by. I am looking at this situation just as I look at bringing her to the big dog park where she is terrified. I don't expose her to anything that scares her or can indanger her! So Why am I trying to teach her that pedestrians are ok not to worry, yet leaving her unleashed so she can go down in the street get in trouble scare people and possibly get hit by a car? It really dosen't make much sence!! And I should smack myself in the head for being so dence and irresponsible!

 

Thank you so much! I suffer from memory loss among other things, it effects my thinking process at times as well as my memory. (Its like my memory files are being held hostage... i only get a little info at a time, some times i never get it, other times Its fine)

I cant really compute an entire situation and understand all that is going on around me, it tends to take me longer to figure things out then it did before the accident. Just makes me go Duh! When I do something that is so obviously, because my brain is not processing the entire situation. If You catch me doing something like this again please call me out on it! I appreciate it! Its like a win every time i pull something out of my brain that it didn't want to share.

[GentleLake]

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a hard time.

 

Do please work on desensitization and counter-conditioning with Gidget. I feel very strongly that you should enlist a good trainer to help you with this. Group lessons would be good, but at least a few private lessons would be better. I believer you've said before you'd like her to become your service dog, right? You should really find someone who has experience with training service dogs, imo, but any good trainer would be a better place to start with her problem behavior.

 

And, yes, do teach her a "watch me" or 'look at me" cue, first when there are no distractions and then proof it with first mild distractions and then increasingly difficult ones as she can handle them.

 

As for leaving her tied outside so she can't reach people, but just bark at them (I think that's what I was reading), that's pretty much guaranteed to backfire. Every time she barks at someone or something while she's out there on the tie out, it's going to be self-rewarding and will just become more firmly entrenched behavior. This needs to be worked on in locations where she's far enough from people and whatever else sets her off so that you can get her focus on you.

 

One other thing. Again, I'm not sure I was reading correctly, but if you're using her to pull you, please be sure she's wearing a harness and not just a collar. A harness designed for pulling -- like a sledding harness -- would be best.

 

Best wishes as you work through this with Gidget.

 

ETA: There are reasons why there are groups who train dogs to be service dogs and then place them with people who need them. One is that they've got the experience training them and another is that people who need the dogs sometimes have issues that make it difficult to do the training themselves. It sounds like you may fall into that category, and I wonder if it might not be a good idea to contact some service dog organizations to see if they may be able to help with Gidget's training. Many don't work with personally owned dogs, but if you can fund one that does (even if they don't, ask for referrals) it would probably be the best and most efficient way to get her trained. Be prepared for the possibility that you may have to send her out for training for a while. That may be a good thing, as it seems she may be taking advantage of you at the moment.

[Camden's Mom]

So Why am I trying to teach her that pedestrians are ok not to worry, yet leaving her unleashed so she can go down in the street get in trouble scare people and possibly get hit by a car? It really dosen't make much sence!! And I should smack myself in the head for being so dence and irresponsible!

 

I just wanted to apologize if my post came across as judgmental in anyway... I assure you it was not my intention to make you feel bad. It's clear from your posts on this forum that you care very deeply for Gidget, have given her a new (much better) life and are doing the very best you can with her.

 

It's easy to think a young dog has "gotten' it" and then have them backslide in any number of behaviors. FWIW, I do not have a fenced in yard and we took Camden out on leash every.single.time we left the house (yes, this includes potty breaks) from the first day we got him at ten weeks. At around ten months old we started to gradually let him be off leash in the yard and it wasn't until he was nearly a year that we were comfortable with him being out there regularly without a lead. It was so tedious but I'm glad we did it for such an extended period of time. He is extremely reliable about staying in the yard (one of us is *always* out there with him too). However, as cautious as we were, when he was about 18 months old he still had a slip up. Camden was outside with my husband one evening and a raccoon streaked through our yard. My husband couldn't recall him and the dog went tearing out of the yard to give chase. I heard the commotion, ran outside and was able to call him back (thank goodness). My husband and I agreed that Camden would be back on leash only outside for a full month and we followed through. I don't know if the dog saw it as a punishment or if he just needed a refresher course on not leaving the property. Either way, he's not run out of the front yard since and that stupid raccoon is still around.

 

I think yard training can be done, but you shouldn't give her a chance until she's ready. You also have to weigh the risks because, no matter how well yard trained she is, there's always a chance that something could happen. I think if you focus on getting her comfortable with the activity on the street in front of your house first you'll have much better success when/if you start working on yard training her in the future.

[CMP]

I live on a very large property that is actually part of larger family farm where there are sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, chickens, geese and, weirdly, crickets. There are fourteen working dogs that do everything from herding and guarding, pulling sleds and wagons - and all sorts of odd things in between. To get off the property and to any place where Molly might run into a stranger or onto a public road, she would have to run, literally, several country miles.

 

Still and all, she is either on a long tether (rarely) or I am able to put my eyes on her when she is outside. Every morning since I brought her home from the breeder I walk her around my "yard" muttering "home" frequently. Aside from some sneaky ass-over-line so she can actually be in her yard but poop in the farm area, she holds the line pretty well.

 

I believe this is because every single time she does not come when called (on the first recall) or wanders out of the yard or disobeys a "stay home" or "go home" or "come home" command she is kindly but firmly placed on her tether where she remains until her next meal (she eats three small meals a day). There are absolutely NO exceptions and NO second chances. When she wanders or bolts after some interesting thing now and sees me walking towards her she tries to pretend she was coming, ears all perky and tail a-wagging. She KNOWS what she is doing wrong. Maybe something like that would work.

 

Also, I play a game with my puppies called "Freeze" which I employ as a safety measure in case a puppy sees something it can't resist and runs after it. I run around like a nut and she gets all excited and runs after me. I then yell FREEZE! (must be yelled and yelled urgently) and stop dead like a statue. After a bit they get it and freeze, too. They LOVE that game once they get it. Then when they run after something the FREEZE thing works almost all the time if you have played it consistently.

 

FWIW and YMMV.

 

Good luck

[GentleLake]

There are 2 really important things to note in Camden's Mom's last post.

 

1) She kept Camden on the leash working with him for quite a long time, until she was pretty sure he was reliable. And it sounds like it was done in stages, meaning that if he showed signs of not being reliable, he want back on the leash for more work.

 

2) When he had a major Oops! episode chasing the raccoon, Camden was immediately put back on the leash for a full month to reinforce his good behavior and not allowed to make another mistake.

 

It's critical to understand that every "mistake" the dog makes is self rewarding, meaning it increases the likelihood that the dog will try it again. When the dog gets away with it numerous times, the behavior becomes more and more firmly entrenched each time it's practiced, which means you'll have to train much longer in order for the behavior to go away.

 

So it's very important with all of the unwanted behavior Gidget's displaying now that you'll need to prevent her from having the opportunity to practice them even one.more.time if you want them to go away. Each "mistake" is actually a win for her and a loss for you. Time to start keeping score and make sure she doesn't chalk up any more points in the game.

[Lizabeth]

I may not have explained this quite correctly, Gidget is never ever left outside alone. None of our dogs are, if the dogs are outside either myself or daughter is outside and close to them.

 

It seems to me that she finds comfort being on leash. Their is no horrible barking with her tugging at end of the lead, She may give a bark if someone passes by, Ill just say its ok and all is fine. Their has only been one time today that she did not stop barking, I thanked Orion for that one, he started wouldnt stop so she chimed in. Even that I put to a stop rather quickly. She more then anything has just sat down watched the people pas with out a single bark, or looked up at them, did nothing and carried on with her business like she did not have a care in the world.

 

You see this is where she gets me! I think oh wow shes doing great she has been for a couple weeks, I will cut her loose and let her play in the dog run. Then trouble begins! So Little Miss Gidget must must must be kept on a lead, until she is older and not so full of that puppy energy.

 

We are planning to have a trainer, Its just we fell into a serious financial crisis that we are working our way out of. My daughter is far from home rite now working on a big study on the Elwha Dam removal site. So it will happen just at the moment we are on a rather unexpected fixed finance crisis.

 

 

And no no one has offended me or hurt my feelings, I am most appreciative for any and all information and assistance in this matter. The most important thing here is to keep gidget and others safe. She is being trained with a very loving but firm environment . I am really liking the idea of "FREEZE" I have been working on "TO ME" meaning get to me now more serious then "Come". I will do everything in my power to keep her from going into that zone where I do not exhist. Keeping her on a leash in her yard is a must not a choice.

 

Happy to tell you some friends and I have been picking through our garages and are coming up with just about everything needed to make a cable system dog run where she will be attached to a lead yet can run back and forth in the dog run area, and not get into so much trouble. Bonus with this is no more tangling up around your ankles and potential falling to the ground from being tripped. ( that is the reason why I wanted her to get to roam freely in the yard I am worried about my getting hurt or falling and not anyone around to help me up) But all issues will be resolved, and Gidget will be happy.

[Lizabeth]

Added note, we spend a great deal of time outside. When home we are outside most of the time, when we go someplace it is usually to go do something outside. The dogs are a huge part of our lives, they are usually always with us, when we do go someplace with out them, they have been given their play time and are nice and tuckered out before we leave.

 

I have put her in her crate when she bolts, and leaving her in there for quite some time. I have her trained to "Back UP" when i am going in and out of the house to move back away from the door so myself can walk out with out her following, or to let a guest enter with out her running out to greet them. She minds extremely well, she sits to greet visitors, she does not jump on them anymore. "LEAVE IT" is a huge accomplishment! It keeps bird and cat safe. and anything else she may want to examine.

 

Also I have a harness for her to keep her safe. Its just I have been working on training, not really putting any pressure on her, not till that horrible day, that i hope will never happen again.

 

Shes been such a joy so well mannered, walks on a leash quite well. But this trouble we have been having does affect her negatively, no doubt about it! I get upset with her and its like her world is all off balance. I just have to look at her and growl a little and shes heart broken. She aims to please! She loves her life! I know it was me who did wrong here thinking she was ready for something she was clearly not

 

I take her to public places, she is very well behaved, she even came with me to get my tires rotated last week, 2 hours she was perfect not a problem in the world. Its this this is the problem area, and if not nipped in the bud and a solution be found it is going to get worse and the trickle down effect is something I do not even wish to ponder.

 

We are in hopes that mid August we can bring her in to a trainer, I am actually looking forward to this.