Sometimes I am smarter than my dog.
I've had a training challenge for the past year, and I finally pulled my head out of my **(yeah that place) and figured it out. My reservation of keeping Peach was her inability to accept corrections from other dogs. I have always highly thought it had to do a lot with Yankee not wanting her to nurse at 13 days, due to her low calcium. Peach got the brunt of it, since she loved to nurse closest to Yankee's head. It was a rough week there, but what Peach learned was even if Momma is grumpy with you, keep coming closer, cause she was HUNGRY. Gah, how do dogs do this in the wild?!
So I worried heavily on Yankee not liking Peach and enhancing the bitch factor in the household. And about 5-6 months old, I started seeing Peach's inability to read dog's F*** off signals. Dogs were giving her very appropriate signals that she really just needed to go away, and she'd come closer licking her lips, whining, and submitting, but still moving closer. Over the past year, it escalated. I would watch the signals, so I could grab Peach. Of course, I didn't catch them all, and there have been some dog fights. Ugh. The escalation really occurred so that overtime, as I'd go to grab for Peach, the dog fight would start sooner.
But I figured it out, going to my basic premise, "Don't focus on the undesirable behavior, train what you want them to do." Well, duh. So Peach has had some serious redirecting training. She's been getting tons of rewards for redirecting to me in non-charged environments, creating a very fast recall and head turn. Once I get her turned to me, I can start asking for behaviors, like her lift individual paws, sits, downs, and nose touches. This seems to be enough to *break* the bad energy. Lu is especially subtle in his go away signals, with barely a lip raise, so I will often miss his signs, but I will always see Peach react. What I need Peach to do is to learn to leave the situation.
*This morning's cuddle session - See they really do love each other 95% of the time.*
Lightbulb moments. And a more pleasant household.
And in other news, this was my Tuesday highlight :)
So I worried heavily on Yankee not liking Peach and enhancing the bitch factor in the household. And about 5-6 months old, I started seeing Peach's inability to read dog's F*** off signals. Dogs were giving her very appropriate signals that she really just needed to go away, and she'd come closer licking her lips, whining, and submitting, but still moving closer. Over the past year, it escalated. I would watch the signals, so I could grab Peach. Of course, I didn't catch them all, and there have been some dog fights. Ugh. The escalation really occurred so that overtime, as I'd go to grab for Peach, the dog fight would start sooner.
But I figured it out, going to my basic premise, "Don't focus on the undesirable behavior, train what you want them to do." Well, duh. So Peach has had some serious redirecting training. She's been getting tons of rewards for redirecting to me in non-charged environments, creating a very fast recall and head turn. Once I get her turned to me, I can start asking for behaviors, like her lift individual paws, sits, downs, and nose touches. This seems to be enough to *break* the bad energy. Lu is especially subtle in his go away signals, with barely a lip raise, so I will often miss his signs, but I will always see Peach react. What I need Peach to do is to learn to leave the situation.
*This morning's cuddle session - See they really do love each other 95% of the time.*
Lightbulb moments. And a more pleasant household.
And in other news, this was my Tuesday highlight :)