Sharing Mylee's Behavior Progress
 

Since Mylee is in the rehabilitation stage from her surgery we've been working hard on some of her less desireable behaviors. One really bad one was her separation anxiety. She used to beat me to the door, and when I tried to move her, she would snap at me and try to bite me. If she didn't beat me to the door, she would follow me and when I started to shut it between us she would spin and bark aggressively or bite at my pant leg or shoe.

I first started off by tossing a treat away from the door when I left to distract her from the door. This may not seem like the right thing to do, I don't really know, but it distracted her enough for me to get out without allowing her the time for showing aggression. It was kind of a game because if I didn't make it out before she got her treat, then she won because she would have had her treat and shown her aggression too. I knew this would not be an acceptable fix to the problem.

In our spare time, we've been working on "stay" and she has been doing well with that for (very) short periods of time.

Well, she slowly started showing me signs that she really wanted the treat more than beating me to the door. So we started doing the sit and stay on a rug away from the door. (it is a sliding door before I actually go out another door) So I have been taking her to her rug, asking her to sit, give her a treat, then tell her to stay, and I walk to the door. If she comes off her rug while I am walking to the door, we correct, and try again.

I am happy to say, that now when Mylee knows I am ready to leave, she goes to her rug, sits and waits for her treat. When I tell her to stay she no longer has the look of fear in her eye but one of confidence and content and she sits there until I go through that door. If I catch her off guard and need to leave before she realizes we're leaving, I say Mylee, stay. And she promptly goes to her rug and sits.

My husband didn't realize I had been doing all this with her (he works evenigns) and the other day we left together, and I told Mylee to stay, she went to her rug, and he said....."You been working with her?" I said, NO! What just happened? LOL. Thanks for letting me share in my excitement for this little dog. She's such a rewarding challenge.

Woohoo! Go Mylee! That's awesome!

Actually, Victoria Stillwell used tossing treats to correct that very same problem with a Yorkie on her show. It seems to work wonders for dogs such as that.

Congrats to you, the trainer, too. :) It takes diligence!

Really, that's cool. I thought maybe I was reinforcing a bad behavior. But, in the end she got to where she focused on getting that treat rather than the door and it kind of opened the door so to speak for taking it to the next step. She is very motivated by treats so that's very good but she still has a list of other behaviors we have to work on. She's a work in progress.

Really happy for you that you figured out what works for your girl!! All your patience has done wonders for her. You have given her confidence that Mom and Dad will be back home. Congratulations to you and Mylee!!