Help! Please!

[BOMBSHELL BELLA]

I've been watching "The Dog Whisperer" lately and I am (finally) admitting Gia has a behavior problem after seeing that my boyfriend can control his TWO seemingly rambunctious (and large) pit bull puppies better than I can control my 4 lb yorkie.

I'd made tons of excuses for her behavior before, like "oh she was abused" (she was) or "oh it's just separation anxiety" or "Maybe she's neurotic".

Anyway it has to stop.

1) When I'm not home, I babygate her in my bathroom with food, water, a blanket, toys, & a puppy pad. (I never crated her bc she came from puppy mill and when I first got her, largely preferred to stay in the crate than engage in human contact, meaning no bonding. I literally had to pry her from the crate or she wouldn't come out.) The very minute she knows I'm in the door she starts crying and crying and squealing for me to get her out. She even seems like she starts hyperventilating.

She also does this sometimes when I leave her, even though I don't make a fanfare about leaving, EVER, I just leave.

2) I also have problems getting her to let me know when she has to go outside. If I walk her, she goes outside. But I want her to alert me.

3) Then, she is VERY timid and almost aggressive to strangers, particularly men. She is very untrusting and cannot be won over, even with treats. (She won't even take a treat directly from my hand unless she is sitting with me...never with me standing over her I notice) I would like her to be more relaxed and happy.

4) When we walk outside on a leash and she sees people, or when people come to the door she also barks and growls and I like for her to be an alert "watchdog" but I also like her to stop when I tell her enough is enough.

Please help!

[QuickSilver]

Welcome! It was very kind of you to take a puppy mill rescue, and with your help, she can become more obedient and trusting, which means that she will be a happier and healthier dog.

All of your questions have come up in one form or another in other threads, so reading through other people's questions might help. There is also a search function above. To get you started:

1) How long do you leave her alone for, and how old is she? It sounds like she may have separation anxiety, which will affect her when you return, not just when you leave. When you say she hyperventilates, do you mean a reverse sneeze?

2) Ah, the dark art of potty training. This one belongs in its own thread. There are TONS of potty training threads, and also a potty training support group (there's also a thread in the top ten that tells you how to join). It takes a lot of consistency, patience, and practice.

3) Generally, if a dog won't take a treat, that means she is extremely anxious. In dog body language, standing over her can be taken as a threat, so it's not surprising an already anxious dog would get fearful in that situation. You can help her by using non-threatening body language. Do not tower over her, approach her from the side, avoid direct eye contact, don't pat her on the head. Try to let her approach you, rather than you approaching her.

For men, have men treat her, starting with your bf. Your bf can also use the non threatening body language. Start where her threshold is. If she is too scared to take a treat directly from a male hand, have the man stand farther away and toss a treat off to her side. Your bf can also lie on the floor with treats and let her approach him. Let her go at her own pace.

4) This is partially driven by fear. Generally, I would suggest pennies in a can, but since your dog has already had so many unpleasant experiences, I would try to use positive reinforcement as much as humanly possible. Try doing general obedience with her: Sit, Stay, Down; then Speak and Quiet. This is a good way to bond your dog, since basically you guys get to hang out together and you give her food. Teaching your dog to speak is usually pretty easy, just praise her when she barks ("Good Speak") and give her a treat. When she gets Speak, you can tell her Quiet, and reward her for that.

I would also consider clicker training. If you google "Karen Pryor clicker training", you will get TONS of hits. This is an extremely effective, positive way to train your dog and build her confidence.

Good luck! Please keep us posted.

[BLowry]

My Parents rescued a mini schnauzer about 9 yrs ago. They adopted her at 7 months old. She too had been kept in a cage...was marked as a breeder. She was very timid around EVERYBODY. It took MONTHS for her to come out of that. She never ever bit, growled, barked or went to the bathroom in the house. She was the best little dog I have ever seen. Sadly Heidi passed away within this past year. Heidi had A LOT of health issues.
Please be patient. Mill puppies that have lived their lives in cages need A LOT of TLC and patience.

[JoeyP]

You've got some real good advice so far and I agree that you have a little nervous girl on your hands
She's going to tend to be passive which means she'll be afraid of new things loud sounds and new people and dogs
and this very likely came from her history

What you need to do as her owner is expose her to new things ... but you need to show her new things in a way that shows you're there to protect her and that she doesn't have to be afraid
BUT with a dog like this NEVER try to soothe her by talking soothingly and petting her when she becomes afraid .... because you'll reinforce her fear

The always wanting to be with you thing
Having her stay in her room is fine .... make sure she has her water and food and some toys
what you can do is while you are home put her in her room and let her cry a bit hover around the door and pop over and tell her what a good girl she is when she pipes down
do this occasionally to show that when she is in her room you are sometimes around

The timidity is an exposure problem
maybe she had bad experiences with men before
so what you can do is have a male friend she doesn't know come over
Tell him not to acknowledge her when he comes in
Give him a bag of treats
She will probably not want to go near him at first
But have him just put a treat on the floor a few feet away
when she takes it have him just drop a treat on the floor every few mins
Once she takes the treats without hesitation have him them hand her the treat without looking at her
after that he can let her come to him and look toward her to give her the treat
and little by little she will start to see that men do not mean "bad" things

[lily]

we got one just like her 2 yrs ago. she has finally for farmost come out of it. loud noises still scare her. it lots of time . don't give up. she well come around.

[BOMBSHELL BELLA]

No like she's breathing so hard she's literally panting herself into hyperventilation and jumping around and crying. She doesn't really have that reverse sneezing problem, especially since I walk her only with a harness. (My best friend's yorkie had that problem of reverse sneezing for a while until she switched over to a harness; I guess the collar pressing on the trachea was causing it.)

[BOMBSHELL BELLA]

Thank you all for your advice; I'm definitely going to start incorporating these things, and maybe also call a dog trainer for one on one. I am having great difficulty teaching her to sit/stay/quiet/speak or anything like that because of her trust issues, etc. Positive reinforcement with food with her is difficult because she is so anxious that instead of a reinforcement it becomes more of an obstacle and a distraction with me kneeling to give it to her, her approaching then backtracking (repeating this little dance a few times) then ultimately quickly snatching it and consuming the treat elsewhere.

[QuickSilver]

You probably need to back up on the training then. The first part of clicker training is called "priming" the clicker, where you click, treat, click, treat. The dog doesn't do anything, it's just for teaching them that the click noise means food is coming.

If you're not using the clicker, I'd just use your praise phrase (most likely "good girl!"), and toss the treat away from her so she feels comfortable getting it. It sounds like she needs to get comfortable enough with you to take food from your hand. That may take a while. You can do the same stuff we've recommended for men - just lie on the floor, and toss treats off to her side.

A dog trainer told me a joke:


Q: How should you approach a dog?

A: You shouldn't.



Okay, I didn't say it was a funny joke. It's just to illustrate that a dog will be much more comfortable if you let her decide when she wants to approach you. It's probably best to ignore her for now. What we consider love and attention can actually be a lot of pressure for a shy dog. Move slowly around her, let her come to you, reward her like crazy (in a calm way) when she does.

It sounds like you have your work cut out for you, but I'm sure it will be so rewarding when she learns to trust you.

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by BOMBSHELL BELLA

I've been watching "The Dog Whisperer" lately and I am (finally) admitting Gia has a behavior problem after seeing that my boyfriend can control his TWO seemingly rambunctious (and large) pit bull puppies better than I can control my 4 lb yorkie.

I'd made tons of excuses for her behavior before, like "oh she was abused" (she was) or "oh it's just separation anxiety" or "Maybe she's neurotic".

Anyway it has to stop.

1) When I'm not home, I babygate her in my bathroom with food, water, a blanket, toys, & a puppy pad. (I never crated her bc she came from puppy mill and when I first got her, largely preferred to stay in the crate than engage in human contact, meaning no bonding. I literally had to pry her from the crate or she wouldn't come out.) The very minute she knows I'm in the door she starts crying and crying and squealing for me to get her out. She even seems like she starts hyperventilating.

She also does this sometimes when I leave her, even though I don't make a fanfare about leaving, EVER, I just leave.

2) I also have problems getting her to let me know when she has to go outside. If I walk her, she goes outside. But I want her to alert me.

3) Then, she is VERY timid and almost aggressive to strangers, particularly men. She is very untrusting and cannot be won over, even with treats. (She won't even take a treat directly from my hand unless she is sitting with me...never with me standing over her I notice) I would like her to be more relaxed and happy.

4) When we walk outside on a leash and she sees people, or when people come to the door she also barks and growls and I like for her to be an alert "watchdog" but I also like her to stop when I tell her enough is enough.

Please help!

1. Not sure what age she s or what age she was when you got her that makes a differnce in some of my responces.
First it is sepration anxiety and you need to work on things so you do not have a set pattern to your leaving. Second you need to do ypur usually patern of leaving right up to walking out the door and not go.
this will teach her that you are not the creature of habit that she thinks you are and reduce stress we hope.
Also not taking food when stressed is a sign of just how stressed she is. Dog that are fearful do not like being stood over as it is a sign of disrected from one dog to another and also huma nto dog.
there is a great book called on talking terms with dogs that would be very helpful for this girl.
but in short turn sideway so you look smaller to her and get low even if it is on the ground low. lip lick and yawn and look down and awy it is dog speck that you can use to tell her that you are not a threat to her.
Usually one does not go to a dog that is acting out on arrival home in this case I go straight to her and sit on the other side of the kennel and deep breath and lip lick until she calms down.
2. the not letting you know is fear. man oh man if I go make contact and tell that person I need something she will see me and pay attention to me and that is to much for me to handle. so ever interatcion needs to be very low key and relaxed.

3. as to strangers an why do we feel our dogs most make contact with everyone in the world and like it.... do you. if she can not handle strangers yet keep them away from her.
4. teach her shh and speak and put it on a cue... which as this girl is stressing may not be easy.

I see if you can lay your hands on protocal for relaxation by dr karen overall and also maybe a constul with a behaviour person not a dog trainer but a behaviouist that is a vet or a PHD packing behaviour person is in oreder.
most dog trainers unless they are skilled in fer and aggresion would nt be able to manage this as they want to dominate and control this girl needs slw and steady.

Also you said ypou give her the excuse she is nuerotic.... that is just fine as she just maybe chemically challanged and need a little help and that is where a vet behaviourist can help. this does run through more then a few lines of dogs having diffiuclt times living in the world and it is treatable.

JL

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by YorkieMother

1. Not sure what age she s or what age she was when you got her that makes a differnce in some of my responces.
First it is sepration anxiety and you need to work on things so you do not have a set pattern to your leaving. Second you need to do ypur usually patern of leaving right up to walking out the door and not go.
this will teach her that you are not the creature of habit that she thinks you are and reduce stress we hope.
Also not taking food when stressed is a sign of just how stressed she is. Dog that are fearful do not like being stood over as it is a sign of disrected from one dog to another and also huma nto dog.
there is a great book called on talking terms with dogs that would be very helpful for this girl.
but in short turn sideway so you look smaller to her and get low even if it is on the ground low. lip lick and yawn and look down and awy it is dog speck that you can use to tell her that you are not a threat to her.
Usually one does not go to a dog that is acting out on arrival home in this case I go straight to her and sit on the other side of the kennel and deep breath and lip lick until she calms down.
2. the not letting you know is fear. man oh man if I go make contact and tell that person I need something she will see me and pay attention to me and that is to much for me to handle. so ever interatcion needs to be very low key and relaxed.

3. as to strangers an why do we feel our dogs most make contact with everyone in the world and like it.... do you. if she can not handle strangers yet keep them away from her.
4. teach her shh and speak and put it on a cue... which as this girl is stressing may not be easy.

I see if you can lay your hands on protocal for relaxation by dr karen overall and also maybe a constul with a behaviour person not a dog trainer but a behaviouist that is a vet or a PHD packing behaviour person is in oreder.
most dog trainers unless they are skilled in fer and aggresion would nt be able to manage this as they want to dominate and control this girl needs slw and steady.

Also you said ypou give her the excuse she is nuerotic.... that is just fine as she just maybe chemically challanged and need a little help and that is where a vet behaviourist can help. this does run through more then a few lines of dogs having diffiuclt times living in the world and it is treatable.

JL

That is a great book, very short and easy to put into practice.

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

That is a great book, very short and easy to put into practice.

Sure is made a world of differnts in many dogs lives just with me using it can you just imagine what it done to the many more dogs that have owners and trainers that have read it and learned from it.

Vet clinics in Alberta are asking for people to come in and give lessons to their staff as it works so very well and is so bang on.

I wish more people would read the book and understand that things are not always what they think they are.

JL