Quote:
Originally Posted by Taryn0405  Hello fellow Michigander!
With regards to your little guy, it sounds like he is sensing something. How is he around kids? Have you guys exposed him to children?
What have you been working on with regards to not growling over his bowl. Whats your body language or tone when you're petting him and he's behaving? Or misbehaving?
Sorry alot of questions. |
Hello! Samson has been exposed to children before and he is pretty good with them, as long as they don't chase him. He doesn't care for that. He has shown his teeth before when they get right in his face, but has never snapped or bitten. I'm not saying that showing his teeth is good by any means, but do you think it means "Hey, get out of my face!"
As for the eating/growling part, the behaviorist tried to do a few corrections with him, but it seemed to make the aggression worse, so we are just sticking with one of us (me or DH), standing by his bowl and leaning over every so often to get our hand by the bowl and rewarding him with a tiny piece of cheese. I have been able to touch him and pet him while he's eating during this time. sometimes he still growls and seems unsure when I do this, but I was told to just give him another tiny piece of cheese so he learns that my hands near him or his bowl is a good thing, not bad. It seems to slowly be getting better.
Usually when I'm petting him, I say things like "Good boy" or "Samson's such a good boy" in a positive tone. I admit that, lately, I have been a bit hesitant in reaching for him because I am afraid of him showing his teeth. Not that he will do anything more, just that he will show teeth. I don't think showing hesitance is good, so I am trying to be a bit more sure of myself in that area. It's difficult, though. When he misbehaves, I try to do a stern "No!" or (what we call) the game show buzzer sound "EEEEHHHH!" Does that make sense. We definitely notice, though, that when DH and I get into a fight, Samson does NOT like it and will go someplace and hide. It's so upsetting, but fights happen.
We spoke to the behaviorist last night and he told us "NO MORE ON THE BED" for Samson for now. He said to remove the stool he uses to jump up and down from the room completely so there is no confusion to Samson. Last night, we removed the stool and pushed our big down comforter to the floor because it was too warm. A few minutes later, we see Samson's head peaking over the edge of the bed and a minute after that, he jumped up! I can't believe he got on the bed without the stool. He's a determined little bugger. It took us a second to recover after he did that, but we told him to "get down" and then my DH put him in his crate for the night.
The behaviorist also said, in regards to him growling toward me more, that I have to do more. I will have to work harder then my DH. He said to initiate play time and work with him on sitting and rewarding him with tiny pieces of cheese and to really encourage him and praise him. Lots of praise and encouragement! When we got home last night, I took him for a short walk and then did some play time fetch. I first made him sit and said "Good boy!" really enthusiastically and gave some cheese. Well that just did him in! He became my best friend after that. It took forever to get him to start fetching once he knew I had cheese, but he finally got it. He did so good! No teeth showing and he was letting me scratch his ears and face! He played for so long, much longer then ever before. I will do this every day/night from now on so we have some positive time with just the two of us. I also plan to walk him more then before, even though it's getting colder and darker earlier. I just know how much he loves to walk. I work 10 hour days, so it can be difficult to get out there at times (especially as I progress in this pregnancy) but I just love letting him out there to exercise and explore.
My DH even said last night while we were playing "We haven't played with him like this in a while and that could certainly be part of the problem. We should do this more" so I was happy to hear that.
What do you all think of this so far?