Quote:
Originally Posted by matese  
Great advise. your furbaby senses something that he is not comfortable with. I would definitely try the treats, frozen green cut beans or Cheerios if you are watching your furbaby's weight. |
Apologize for the length but for those working w/hard cases, who really need to try to make a break-through with a dog's unwanted behaviors, can read this for what it's worth. It's always worked for me with various bad boy or shut down dogs!
To stretch a point to breaking, no offense intended, truly but, if you are really trying to modify a dog's undesirable behavior and I've worked with plenty angry/aggressive/fierce, upset, shakingly nervous or shut-down, closed off dogs, if you really intend to try to break down all his barriers of fear, self-protection intuition, innate long inbred senses screaming in his insides that drive his unwanted behavior, you need a bait or treat the dog cannot EVER resist, usually meat or something that smells very like it, to make him want to come near enough to work up to eventually sharing food with him, a true bonding experience to a dog. If green beans work to do that, wonderful, but I've never broken through a dog's sense of protective nature using them. Or any regular treats. But if your dog highly, irresistibly values green beans to the point of drooling for them, use them. But it usually takes something far more seductive to get through to a worried or fearful, reticent dog, bring him forward, go against his nature.
And it still usually won't come easy, overcoming that dog's barriers. But use something that overrides that dog's better judgment by enlivening his glorious sense of smell, his atavistic desire to exist, starts him drooling, breaks his will for the moment, i.e., that is usually some type of very special treat of high scent or meat, usually warm, boiled, unseasoned chicken or even warm turkey dog bits. Talk about high stink! High-meat scented lures take a dog back to canine basics. Things that smell to high heaven to that dog's wonderfully scent-loving nose are what can cut through his barriers and get to his desire to eat, to live another day, as a dog's see it.
You know they laughingly say if you ever want to temp a vegan to the point of breaking, be sure they are very hungry, fry bacon with them in the kitchen and eat it in front of the poor thing! Unfair but that kind of tempting, luscious lure is what it take to break through to a dog acting on what ALL his senses are telling him. Only three things usually can overcome that strong sense of intuitive self-protective behavior in a canine: fear, sex and food, in what order depends on the dog's DNA and life-experience.
In the case of our overfed, usually pampered, never hungry pets, the food better be high-value, HIGH-SCENT food, meat or something that really smells like or better than meat - something he CRAVES with all his being. When you seriously want to modify a dog's behavior, don't worry about his weight during the re-training sessions, you can cut down on dinner or whatever but you have
got to overcome his better judgment during behavior modification efforts with your bait. And with many dogs, the lure needs to be food-seductive high-scented or forget it. They won't try.
Of course, if your dog isn't food-driven, he's likely a very high-energy go-getter, very prey driven and is always driving you to play, work him, endlessly. I mean he's obsessed with getting the ball, bringing it back, getting it again and again - all day! Those type working dogs react very differently and usually take a whole different strategy to modify unwanted behavior. High-value food or treats, even if very hungry, means less to them than the obsessive joy of working, working, working. But thankfully for most of us lazy trainers, our Yorkies are lovers of food! Try something your dog cannot EVER resist if you want to modify behavior. And only ever use that fabulous, special bait/lure/treat for behavior modification training, and green beans or whatever his regular treats are for the rest of his rewards.
Once you eventually break through, get him moving forward, taking the food from the guy, then use all the behavior modification techniques you can read about(plentiful on YT and the net) to continue to get him to work for your praise and the good oxytocins he will feel once he bonds with you or the guy during that training. Then, you transition to regular treats, given generously at first during training, then sparingly once his learned, but always, always, always, always, always, with genuine happy, heartfelt, look-him-in-the-eyes
praise once he gets it right! Than he'll do anything to gain your happy praise alone, enjoy that great feeling of job well- done with you!
Happy training!
