Sit on the dog

[NW_MONTANA_BC]

1 hour ago, urge to herd said:

That can be an appropriate approach with a dog who is shy ~ if the dog slowly becomes more comfortable as the process goes on over a period of time, perfect! A shy dog might turn it's head, might back away a bit.

However, if the dog is stiffening up, the dog is afraid, even terrified. You say that Tucker is trying to bite people, that says fear to me. Going even more slowly, letting the dog make the decision to approach or back away or even leave after a scratch or two, is much safer. 

Please continue with the Tucker updates ~ love reading them.

Ruth & Gibbs

Maybe shy is a better term for me to use here. He wants to interact with people but,  I seem to think his anxiety level is so high from all the dogs barking and commotion going on that he's not sure what to do. When he does allow someone to pet him he kind of rolls over in a submission on his back and starts kicking his feet and legs and bites or nips at them and then runs back to me. He is not drawing blood or leaving marks. His tail is never held high but it does wag a little but its held close to the floor.

When I have him alone at the house he will bite at me when he is all stirred up and excited, which is most of the time. Today I made it a point to him I was not going to tolerate it any longer. He seems a little better now but time will tell. I have a can with a few quarters in it and when he attempts to bite I rattle the can and tell him NO BITE and then give him a chew toy. I had been howling like a maniac when he bites me and putting him in his crate but that has done no good at all.

I had him in the pet store today riding in a cart and he seemed cautiously fine with people, though he was not really interested in people petting him, he did sniff peoples hands and wagged his tail a little. He does not seem to be stiffening up though.

[D'Elle]

On 9/11/2018 at 3:05 PM, urge to herd said:

 I have some friends who train service dogs, real service dogs. I'll ask them how they teach a long down and report back.

Ruth & Gibbs

I would be most interested in this, Ruth, and hope that you do post what you learn.

[Riika]

I start teaching the long down by teaching a place command. They understand that they aren’t allowed to get off and usually settle down to take a nap. It then carries over to whenever I tell them to lay down and nobody is paying attention to them, they just go to sleep. If even if I don’t tell them to lay down, if they are on leash and I stop to talk to somebody, they just do it and go to sleep. 

[urge to herd]

Riika, thank you ~ I'd totally forgotten that I do that. My dog(s) were all taught to go their 'blanket' and relax. They weren't allowed up from there until I said so. They could stand up, do the turn around thing and re-settle, but no movement other than that sort of thing.

So that's another way to teach a long down. Just keep sending them back to their bed/corner/whatever it is. 

Ruth & Gibbs

[JohnB]

A question on the article. It quotes The leash is adjusted so that when the dog decides to lie down there will be gentle upward pressure on the collar
Does this mean the dog is sitting for this exercise ?