Quote:
|
I would pick him up by the harness and gently shake him (like his mom would shake him by the nape of the neck). While doing this I would say, "no" firmly. This really startled him. It only took 2 or 3 times of this correction and the barking at me stopped completely and has not returned. He started listening to me better and I have had no dominance issues at all since then. I have no clue if my actions were correct, but they worked for me in terms of dominance
|
Just wanted to add...That worked, and I suspect I know why...Your dog was VERY well socialized I take it? I bet he was exposed to children that he liked, and especially was from a reputable breeder or stable puppy-family right? I would not try these methods with most dogs, but with one of certain personality and history this will work well. The dog language you used might have worked...I odn't know about that, but from my understanding of opperant conditioning and behavior extinction, you simply demonstrated to the pup that the behavior he exhibited did not have the desired effect. You were smart to realize that right away.
My mistake in raising Chewy was that wehn he came to initiate play, I thought it was cute at first...so I would go play...When he got persistent and annoying, I tried methods like you describe, but only made him confused and angry. He would get destructive and avoid me when I rebuffed him. Sometimes he would growl at me and yip. He was not well socialized before I got him. AND I had already made mistakes raising him.
I suspect that had you ignored his growling and stuff, he would have had the same lesson "It doesn't get me anything".
Chewy was nearly a year old before I realized that I had to know MUCH MUCH MORE abotu dog training. He was your classic dominance agressive dog, as well as hyper-intelligent (canine IQ 54), and bored as hell (walked every other day. Given 1 hour of play a day. I came here and posted. I began to learn.
So while certain negative feedbacks can work if you really know the dog, know dog behavior, can observe lots of things, and have a good well socialized dog...I don't give such advice to people who post here because there are too many variables and the potential for a manuver like that going wrong is quite significant. People who post here with basic obediance problems that have classic profiles that they don't recognize, I assume, are like I was then. It is then safe to assume that they won't know how to be a mamma dog, since they haven't been one yet (if you get my meaning).
Hope I made sense...Still, yours was a great contribution! It makes me wonder if there has been any serious scientific research done into using maternal dog signals as a training tool in dogs under 1 year of age...I know about Calming Signals which are useful as hell with a high-strung terrier. I know about dominance / pack theory...But I don't know too much about maternal signals and how to use them effectively.
I had read in my "puppies for dummies" book that mamma dogs grab the muzzle of a barking / yipping pup and shake it lightly back and forth. That this means: "Settle down wild one..." The book recomended this approach for chronic barkers. Didn't work for Chewy. I found that teaching speak (and then hush) worked better than much else. Also reducing his status...Then using the clicker to build a solid foundation for redirecting his focus.