Moving Stuff
personal list for stuff for the move with links so that anyone interested can know that the fuck I'm talking about
pet needs:
Ssscat! canisters (train the cats to the new counters/etc)
Soft Paws (for the initial move: avoiding 'stress scratching' of walls, which Pan and Liam are prone to)
a new cat tower. either buy from petedge (so cheap on there <3) or construct if we have the time
a no jump harness and a remote trainer for Dougal
note: Yes the trainer gives a mild zap. For everyone that would get up in arms about this, understand that I work with dogs for a living and know more training methods than I can count, and that includes the different ways the different trainers I know go about doing positive, negative, or balance reinforcement training.
All three dogs have different training needs. We could never, EVER use a zap collar on Midas, nor would we. He's the dog type that it would scar for life, and he's been way too heavily abused for anything like that to do anything but harm.
Dougal however is a 9 year old akita/coonhound mix. He was raised in the south to protect a house and was not socialized at all, and I didn't get him until about two years ago. It has taken that long to correct the negative training he had as well as the damage my ex did to him. We've repaired the abuse issues as far as we can via positive reinforcement training, however his protection training is going to need a neative response to bad behavior to go along with the positive response for good.
In all honesty, I doubt we'll need the trainer more than a handful of times, and probably not ever again after the first few days to a week of using it. Many dogs learn after just using it once. For them to not learn means that either the person using it isn't doing it properly, or that the dog isn't right for the training method.
As Dougal is agressive/protective to outside stimuli, our reprimanding him often makes him confused and then actually angry, as he's been doing what he's been taught for 7 years: Defend improperly. This is added to the fact that this dog probably never left his yard/home for those 7 years, so walks and city living have completely fucked up his sense of territory/personal space. This is also why when he aclimates to a new area (the car, for example), he needs to defend it for us.
The correction collar with therefore give him a 'no' that isn't from us, nor from the stimulai directly. Aka: It won't be a person pointing at him and going 'no', which wouldn't do anything until he's gone through this.
When that 'no' happens for his actions, Ian and I will actually do very little. However when he he behaves/backs off (even for a second), he'll be praised/given treats.
This way there's a balance of reactions, and for a dog like Dougal: That's needed.
Sorry about the long winded explination, but I feel people should know these things. I used to be one of those people too that thought correction collars were designed by abusive idiots, and then I actually dealt with trainers and people that have used them properly and found the only abusive part about it is assholes that use it inocrrectly (aka: zap them and yell at them. as if they'll learn something from that shit)
The no-jump harness is for when we have company/I socialize him in the park. This is because Dougal doesn't try to get mean unless he can literally jump up at you. It's his way of trying to get the dominant edge: By being as tall as you are. If he's unable to jump, he just grumbles and doesn't act out very often.
Besides this: He'll be leashed to me. Where I go he'll have to go, and that means going up to whoever I'm talking to.
And, of course, treats will be getting dropped by myself and whoever's involved in this >:3
pet needs:
Ssscat! canisters (train the cats to the new counters/etc)
Soft Paws (for the initial move: avoiding 'stress scratching' of walls, which Pan and Liam are prone to)
a new cat tower. either buy from petedge (so cheap on there <3) or construct if we have the time
a no jump harness and a remote trainer for Dougal
note: Yes the trainer gives a mild zap. For everyone that would get up in arms about this, understand that I work with dogs for a living and know more training methods than I can count, and that includes the different ways the different trainers I know go about doing positive, negative, or balance reinforcement training.
All three dogs have different training needs. We could never, EVER use a zap collar on Midas, nor would we. He's the dog type that it would scar for life, and he's been way too heavily abused for anything like that to do anything but harm.
Dougal however is a 9 year old akita/coonhound mix. He was raised in the south to protect a house and was not socialized at all, and I didn't get him until about two years ago. It has taken that long to correct the negative training he had as well as the damage my ex did to him. We've repaired the abuse issues as far as we can via positive reinforcement training, however his protection training is going to need a neative response to bad behavior to go along with the positive response for good.
In all honesty, I doubt we'll need the trainer more than a handful of times, and probably not ever again after the first few days to a week of using it. Many dogs learn after just using it once. For them to not learn means that either the person using it isn't doing it properly, or that the dog isn't right for the training method.
As Dougal is agressive/protective to outside stimuli, our reprimanding him often makes him confused and then actually angry, as he's been doing what he's been taught for 7 years: Defend improperly. This is added to the fact that this dog probably never left his yard/home for those 7 years, so walks and city living have completely fucked up his sense of territory/personal space. This is also why when he aclimates to a new area (the car, for example), he needs to defend it for us.
The correction collar with therefore give him a 'no' that isn't from us, nor from the stimulai directly. Aka: It won't be a person pointing at him and going 'no', which wouldn't do anything until he's gone through this.
When that 'no' happens for his actions, Ian and I will actually do very little. However when he he behaves/backs off (even for a second), he'll be praised/given treats.
This way there's a balance of reactions, and for a dog like Dougal: That's needed.
Sorry about the long winded explination, but I feel people should know these things. I used to be one of those people too that thought correction collars were designed by abusive idiots, and then I actually dealt with trainers and people that have used them properly and found the only abusive part about it is assholes that use it inocrrectly (aka: zap them and yell at them. as if they'll learn something from that shit)
The no-jump harness is for when we have company/I socialize him in the park. This is because Dougal doesn't try to get mean unless he can literally jump up at you. It's his way of trying to get the dominant edge: By being as tall as you are. If he's unable to jump, he just grumbles and doesn't act out very often.
Besides this: He'll be leashed to me. Where I go he'll have to go, and that means going up to whoever I'm talking to.
And, of course, treats will be getting dropped by myself and whoever's involved in this >:3