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08-17-2010, 04:43 AM | #1 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: USA
Posts: 947
| Can I train my baby to share???? Tia is not quit 7 months and she doesn't know how to share. Everything is about her. If one of my other babies pick up a toy, she will drop hers to go get theirs. If they eat, she has to go eat what they have. If they get lovin/cuddlin, she will push the others out of the way to be first in line. She has to be the first to go outside and come back in. I thought she would grow out of it and have told her 'no', but I don't know if I should be getting firm with her or just let them work it out. She is now bigger than Ally and I don't want anyone to get hurt, whether Ally gets mad at her or she just gets too big for her britches. She was one of five in her litter, the others all boys (I'm sure this is why..ha ha). Ally or Tara (my pek) never did this and they are both from small litters. Ally was one of two. Is this the reason? My neighbor's dog does the same thing and she was from a big litter also. I am training her to only eat out of her food dish and that is going pretty good. Should I get firm with her or just let her alone? |
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08-17-2010, 11:33 AM | #2 |
No Longer a Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: USA
Posts: 143
| I'm not too familiar with this kind of situation, but it *sounds* like she thinks she is the alpha of the pack. You should be firm with her and let her know that her behavior is inappropriate. Normally, in a pack out in the wild, the alpha is the one who has the final say in everything. Next comes the beta who is second in command and finally the omega. There are many things that you can do to reinforce that you are alpha. When going for walks, you must be the one to leave the door first. Alphas are the ones who take the lead in everything. When its time to eat, you can pretend to eat some of her food and make her watch. Then ask her to sit and nicely wait for the food before lunging at you for her food bowl although (if she is an all-day feeder then that probably won't be something you can do). Another thing you can do is train her with basic commands. Dogs need mental stimulation or they get bored and unruly. If she is already trained with some basic commands, you can sit down for maybe a few minutes a day and just make her do them for you. There are many other things you can do but if you google alpha training, you could probably find a lot more information explaining that. If she is being a "bully" then it'll take some effort on your part to reign her in. In a normal puppy-mother environment, no matter if there were only 2 of 5 in a litter, it was the mother's job to teach the puppies appropriate behavior before they leave her. If there was an extra rambunctious puppy that needed some "extra" discipline in the litter, the mother will sometimes take it aside and shake it by the scruff and make it lay there in submission until she allowed it to get back up. You can also implement the same kind of training, I read somewhere on the forums a very long while back about another user taking her yorkie and laying her on her back in the crook of her arm and telling her "gentle" or "be good" and making her lay there until she settled down. She also would randomly do it when the puppy least expected it for some "extra" discipline. I use the same technique on my yorkie and she knows that she has to be good for everyone. We also have a german shepherd and she gets along with him very well but she can have her moments where she thinks she has the upper hand and will sit there and bark at him when they are playing. Hopefully this gives you an idea of what it could be! |
08-17-2010, 11:53 AM | #3 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: USA
Posts: 947
| She knows I'm the alpha; I don't have problems with that. For the most part, she is not mean or a bully. She just wants everything first. I understand that Tia and Ally play tug-of-war with toys, but if Tia sees Ally pick up anything, she will run and get it...because it is better...just like a toddler wanting everybody else's toy. Ally usually gives up, whether she wants it or not. I give them Cheerios for a snack in the morning. I've had to separate into two separate piles because Tia does seem to become a bully then. I do feed them all day because Ally is not a good eater, but Tia normally eats her all her food and there's a 50/50 chance that she may sneak Ally's. When Tia was tiny (around 1 lb) I had to pick her up so Ally could eat. She would just push her way in and Ally would not finish eating. I think I have the food part covered though. I just don't know if I should stop her every time she takes something away from Ally or pushes her out of the way to get to me. How do I make her share and not 'hog' everything? It's hard to explain! |
08-17-2010, 12:44 PM | #4 |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | That can be a tough one. I have one who has a tendency to hoard toys. I've worked real hard on it and he's improved immensely, but I still have to watch him. Strangely, he never had any problem with the food bowl. What I did was put all the toys away and bring them out only during supervised toy time. At first, I leashed one or both dogs and played with them. When play time was over, toys went away. It's a lot of work, but I saw results pretty quickly (weeks) and eventually (after months) I was able to leave toys out again. When he has a setback, we go back to Square 1. Another thing that helped was giving my other dogs their own toys -- ideally a toy the hoarder regarded as low value. Jack got a rubber toy that he really liked and Eddie didn't. That solved the problem. Good luck. Here's a link to a book that was recommended to me. Welcome to Dogwise.com
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube |
08-18-2010, 08:35 AM | #5 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: USA
Posts: 947
| Thanks. I'll check it out. |
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