Adrienne Farricelli

Yes, she loves the kong, and I got a kong wobbler like you recommended which took her a couple of weeks to learn but now she uses it all the time. I got her a licking mat also and am going to try the brain games with the muffin tin this week. If she doesn't understand it right away, I noticed she gets frustrated and won't use it. I also got a flirt pole which she loves. Try to make it easier for her initially. For example, you can place smaller balls in the muffin tin that are easier to lift up and remove. Then make it gradually harder and harder to help her learn to focus more rather than getting frustrated. We also have to spend more time on drop it. Whenever sees me get a treat out, she drops anything so I haven't been able to trade her anything. I've been saying drop when she does let go of things but I don't think she's getting what it means yet. It's OK initially to put the treat right in her face to get to drop, praising and rewarding. However, in the midst of that, at some point, try to do so empty handed. Here is a video demo: Well the stamina is not physical, it's with the mental stimulation. She gets wired so fast and we lose that window for her to nap easily very quickly. Today after her puppy class, it took her 20 minutes to wind down and usually she comes home and collapses. Ah, gotcha! Sorry I misunderstood! The Australian cattle dog part of her likely has instilled that desire to work, work, work up until she can. These resilient dogs were purposely built for managing the rough terrains of their homelands, withstand the unforgivable heat, and control stubborn herds of cattle. This all took lots of energy! Indeed, it can be said that this dog breed is always ready for action and will not rest as long as there is something to do. It's as if these dogs do not want to miss anything. Working is their life, not working is their misery. Even when in the home, an Australian Cattle dog will be extra aware of his environment, and that includes their owners' emotions, whereabouts and actions. And after exciting events, it's difficult for them to wind down, sort of like children after going to an amusement park. Jazz up/settle down is also not working anymore. She does it perfectly but she is not getting as "jazzed up" anymore and then when we stop playing she keeps pacing around and won't sleep. It can be a good thing that she doesn't get that jazzed up anymore, maybe she learned that the calmer behaviors get rewarded so why not just start straight acting calm in the first place? However, she's not that calm to be inducive to sleep. Try to swap to calmer activities when her nap time is around the corner, like licking, chewing something. She did it again the next night. I didn't yell at her but I said to get off the bed and I was sort of like "ugh, off" in an annoyed/tired voice (she realized she could jump on it the other day) and so she did but then right after, she peed on the floor. I am working even harder on watching my own energy around her because she's very tuned in to us. If we're not calm all the time, she gets upset. She likely is indeed very in tune with your body language and felt a need to "apologize." I know of some dogs who have peed submissively even when their owners rolled their eyes and sighed upon noticing them poop on the floor. Barking at other dogs in the yard, can easily get out of hand. It can become self-reinforcing because it fills a void when a pup feels bored and if the dogs leave when she barks, she'll come to think her barking sent them away and soon a new habit establishes. Not to mention, if it evolves into barking at many triggers/fence fighting, it can increase arousal levels causing her to become very riled up. The more dogs get aroused and (frustrated) and vent their frustration by barking, the more this behavior puts roots and becomes established. These frequent rehearsals make the behavior habitual and more difficult to overcome over time. Ideally, we want to supervise our dogs when outside and call them back as soon as we recognize signs that they're about to react to outside triggers. Do this before your pup starts reacting when she's still under threshold and reward generously. She's obsessively going out there and barking at them now. We keep redirecting her but she's definitely in flight stage too because she is less responsive. Repeatedly redirecting risks also un-powering the cue used to redirect since barking is self-reinforcing and she may be having more "fun" outside compared to whatever rewards she is getting for coming back. We may therefore risk the phenomenon of poisoned cues. One of the most poisoned cues in the dog training world is the word ''come!'' or whichever cue is used to call a dog. There is a myriad of examples of how easily a come command may be ruined irreparably. For instance, dog owners at the dog park most likely call their dogs when it is time to leave. The recall command, therefore, becomes "poisoned" when the dog starts to associate being called with having the leash snapped on and going home. The same goes with owners who call their dogs to only subsequently engage them in tasks they may dislike, such as nail clippings, baths, ear cleanings, or anything perceived as boring and so forth. It comes as no surprise, therefore, why dogs may no longer want to come when called when he most often gets an unpleasant surprise/consequence. They may consequently appear to be ''lazy, stubborn, or disobedient '' in our eyes when all they are doing is trying to protect themselves from undesired happenings. The solution is to call your dog, praise your dog for coming and then briefly engage her for some time in something she really likes. If at the dog park, therefore, this may mean playing some tug-of-war before snapping the leash on and then walking a lap around the park allowing sniffing before leaving. In the case of calling back indoors, you can give your cue in a happy tone of voice and praise/reward by allowing her to go on a fun treasure hunt once inside followed by play with a favorite toy. This can help ''break'' the association so the ''come' cue is no longer associated with something unpleasant. She's realized what we are doing and while she will come to us, she runs away from us if we try and urge her inside the house now. So we're not letting her go out there as often anymore because it must be supervised now and that's frustrating her too. She barks at the sliding door now and we redirect her but she keeps going back to it. But we don't have time to always go sit out there with her for an hour like she wants. I'm hoping she will give this up sooner than later. I don't think she'll give up wanting to be outdoors easily. You have a mix of outdoorsy, active breeds so the outdoors is inherently very reinforcing. Make sure to dedicate some time each each day for meeting those needs for exercise, training, play, socialization and mental stimulation. Allow outdoor time so that a good part of those needs are met, but in a productive way. Sniffing adventures, treasure hunts. You can also find activities that can help keep her focus away from wanting to bark at triggers when outdoors such as machines that make bubbles for dogs (yes, bacon-flavored bubbles!). However, make sure the indoors is teeming with good things too, otherwise we risk making the outdoors very reinforcing and being indoors felt like punishment. We can't control hormones and inherent desires to want to spend time exploring, but we can make the most of the time spent outdoors so that it's not spent constantly barking at triggers. The cat time is getting better. I took a video to share at the end of our training session but it won't let me upload it. But anyway, she was good at ignoring them but then we let her have a friendly visit afterward while she stayed calm. She laid down and wagged her tail while they sniffed her through the gate. She even tried to lick them. As soon as she gets excited and tries to jump up, we close the door and end the session. The cats have started pawing at her tail gently and she looks at them but stays focused on our "look at me" or whatever. We did try letting one of the cats out again but she got too aroused so I think we need to stay patient and slow with this. That sounds like progress! You can upload the video on YouTube and then share the link here if you want. Thanks again for all your help! You have really saved us and helped us get through this more than I can even express. You are very welcome!

It's interesting that you mention this, because we have had one instance where she tried to swallow the thing whole when I approached, so she indeed doesn't get any bones anymore. That must have been scary! We see that with some resource guarders who are worried that we may take the resource away, so they'll want to gulp it down fast so they don't have to worry. I do give her natural dental sticks and the occasional piece of beef lung or chicken leg, but she can only have one 'with me', i.e. I sit next to her while she eats it, and when she's chewed it down to a dangerously small part I'll break it into smaller bits right before her nose which she then gets to chew. That doesn't seem to trigger any negative behavior whatsoever. She's practically prancing as soon as I open the kitchen cabinet where I keep them, and her body language is much more relaxed overall. She doesn't show any signs of minding it when I'm taking it, and she won't try to take it from me. Far as I can see there are no signs guarding behavior when I'm there the whole time and show her where the food is non-stop. I think she's just used to it with the dental sticks, but I'll take it that's a good sign, because if she can get used to it with those we can work up to a point where she's completely comfortable with the bowl too. That sounds good! Your cooperation in this case is likely helping her understand that your intent is not to take away. And the fact that that very last small piece, you don't remove it, but rather make into some safer chewable pieces to give to her confirms to her that you don't mean to take it away. Many dogs also like it when we hold their chews as they get to chew it from the right angle. One of the most endearing moments for me is when a dog with a tendency to guard food, learns to trust enough to bring me their food puzzle with some food they are struggling to get out, and place it in my lap and look at me, with anticipation. When I remove the food for them, they look so happy and I feel honored for being entrusted to that level! I'm also definitely going to try the metal slow feeder. I'm always in the room when she's eating or playing anyway, so I'll make sure to keep an eye on her - but from a distance. I have actually already read up a bit about desensitization on this platform because I wanted her to get more comfortable with her harness, and she responded great to that, so I'm confident we can make it work with this too! Thanks again for the in-depth response and the many additional resources. 😁 You are very welcome! Great to hear you have helped your dog with the harness through desensitization, that's awesome news! Keep us posted on how things go, happy training! Best, Adrienne

So we had four days where she was really, really good - like I was wondering whose dog she was and even starting to hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel. But then on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had tons of extinction bursts and she was wired almost constantly. Today I realized (yes, it took a while haha) that we have to be managing her energy better. She doesn't know when to take a nap or when she's getting cranky - we have to force her to slow down and take a nap, which means we need to be more observant of her at all times. Because when she is wired/hormones raging, she can't stop pacing and crying and attention-seeking. The fact that she was so well behaved those 4 days are a sign that she's capable of acting calmer, you may see more and more of these days if you are able to find that right balance between exercise, mental stimulation and rest. This is a balancing act that we get better at, as we get to know out pups more and monitor how our pups behave on days they get more rest versus more engagement. It's often underestimated how much rest/sleep these pups need. They do most of their growing during sleep and not sleeping enough leads to cranky behaviors just as in toddlers! Remember that you have a mix of two high-energy working breeds. These dogs were bred to work in farms for a good part of the day so they have that mindset of always be on the go and never stopping. On top of this, young puppies don't have the ability to self-soothe and settle. This is a skill that takes time to master. Some pups can be very reluctant to put themselves to bed unless we help them. You can literally watch some pups acting exhausted, with their eyes almost closing, but then anything moving or any sound can have them bounce back into action, until another wave of sleeping catches them, and they then finally fall asleep. It helps to provide them with a very calm environment. Likely the fact she fell asleep when you sat at your desk versus walking in the kitchen was because the activity was less arousing to her nervous system. Those four good days she slept a TON and when she was awake, she was very calm and good. Puppies also go through growth spurts where they'll sleep more so that could also have been what you have seen. The last two days she has not slept her usual 15 hours and she has been a monster. This also means that when we walk her, we have to keep them very short. Even though she is about 4 months now, she can only handle walks around 10 minutes and not too intense or she comes home and won't relax for 2-4 hours. Yesterday, after her evening walk, she couldn't settle down for 6 hours until we gave her the calming aid chew! We only give her those before bed because I don't want her to become dependent on them and unable to fall asleep on her own. (They have melatonin in them and I know that happens with humans). is that a silly concern? I can't really answer about the supplements, but no it's not a silly question. I recommend talking with a vet before starting any supplements and asking them any questions or concerns. Every pet may react differently and may have different needs. Some vets may not know much about supplements, while others are more informed. I'm not sure how much is related to her teeth either but I got some gum numbing stuff for puppies and tried it three times but it didn't seem to change anything. When she is wired, she won't play with any of her toys for more than a minute. She's restless, demands attention, destructive, and she has started nipping at us even though we've been trying to work with her on that stuff. Frozen toys, frozen rags, kongs - none of those things are very interesting to her for long. The only thing that works are bully sticks but I'm afraid if we give her too many they will lower in value. An increase in nipping is often seen in teething puppies around this age. The types of toys offered to help teething puppies can help up to a certain point, but they can be rather boring and pups may lose interest with their short attention spans. Most pups are more drawn to interactive toys that they can chase around or work on getting stuff out. Are you stuffing the Kong? If so, make sure it's not too difficult to unstuff, but not that easy that it lasts only a couple of minutes. You can use her kibble to stuff it mixed with a little water and then frozen. Make sure to rotate toys to keep the interest alive. So, I think the only thing we can do is try and prevent her from getting to that state with shorter walks and more "relax" time where she might be able to fall asleep. Usually after both walks, I go into the kitchen and do stuff. Like in the mornings, I make breakfast which takes about 30 minutes. But by then, she is wired. This morning I was quicker and able to sit down at my desk in about 15 minutes (after a shorter walk too) and she took a nice long nap. This afternoon, instead of going to make dinner and walk around the house doing stuff, I sat down to type this out and she is sleeping now. Am I onto something here and is it normal for her age to have so little stamina? Puppies of large breeds can also go through growing pains. Basically, as pups have growth spurts at the end of their long bones they can develop shooting pains, possibly along with intermittent lameness during these bouts. Growing pains in puppies typically take place between the ages of 5 and 18 months, although it can be seen as early as the puppy being 2 months and may persist until the puppy is 2 years of age. While limping in one of the most noticeable signs, I wonder if they can still go through the pain without limping. I recall getting growing pains as a child and it really hurt, but I never limped. So this can be a factor, but definitely if you see a lack of stamina, especially compared to before, mention it to your vet to make sure there's no underlying medical cause. However, yes, pups need lots of sleep, and they sleep more during growth spurts so something to consider. On Tuesday, I did lose my temper with her. I had been alone with her for 2 hours during a long extinction burst and she had completely broken my spirit. So we were getting ready for sleep and she was back to chewing on her bed, something she had gotten much better about. I snapped and yelled "stop chewing on your bed!" and pulled the bed away from her. She looked me in the eye and then stood and peed on the mat we keep under her bed. We laughed about it later but in the moment, I was super mad (but managed to contain myself and not react). The cats like to sleep on her bed a lot so it's possible it was because of them but I suspect it was more related to my yelling. She didn't look frightened at all though and she has never peed before after I snap at her. She tried to jump on us to play, and we both just quietly cleaned it up. Was she trying to remind me that she is just a puppy? Since this peeing occurred in the context of yelling, this sounds like submissive urination, it's more along the lines of an appeasement gesture, e.g. puppy saying "please, calm down, I didn't mean to": https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/submissive-urination/ As for the cat stuff, no updates. Just continuing with supervised time where she does training while they eat treats on the other side of the gate. She does keep wanting to go to them but I've been throwing the treats to the side so she is forced to walk away from the door and that is definitely working as long as she is not wired. Sounds like a plan! We have noticed that the unwanted barking in the backyard is increasing but she is good at coming to me when I call her. If she is barking at the neighbor dogs and I come outside and call her, is that reinforcing her though? I loved the analogy with the vending machine and slot machines - it helps a lot - but I'm not sure if I'm always doing it in those sort of situations. I try to wait until there is a lull in the barking before I open the door and go out but it's not always possible. However, she has been going to the side of the yard to do it so I don't know that it matters much. (She can hear me come out though - it's not like it's super far away). Ideally, in these cases, to prevent behavior chains (e.g. when I bark at the dogs, my owner comes out- and I get attention) we would prevent the barking from happening in the first place, calling her *before* she's actively barking at them. Barking at other dogs in the yard, can easily get out of hand. It can become self-reinforcing because it fills a void when a pup feels bored and if the dogs leave when she barks, she'll come to think her barking sent them away and soon a new habit establishes. Not to mention, if it evolves into barking at many triggers/fence fighting, it can increase arousal levels causing her to become very riled up. The more dogs get aroused and (frustrated) and vent their frustration by barking, the more this behavior puts roots and becomes established. These frequent rehearsals make the behavior habitual and more difficult to overcome over time. Ideally, we want to supervise our dogs when outside and call them back as soon as we recognize signs that they're about to react to outside triggers. Do this before your pup starts reacting when she's still under threshold and reward generously. It is great she has been able to respond to you despite this level of distraction though! Not many dogs can be easily called off when they're focused on something and intently barking. Keep up the great work in your recalls!

Thank you for the extra details, very helpful! Please see my observations under your quotes. When Knoet just came to us she had food envy, which was fine because we expected it (she came from a rather large litter that was fed at the same time, with a long line of kibbles on the floor This is the classical cliche' of "we wished the breeder knew better" where pups are put into situations that encourage competitiveness such as feeding a large litter of puppies with one single bowl or not enough food. Here's the thing, during mealtime among large litters of pups, there are two potential problems: puppies pushing other pups out of the way to steal their food and pups being pushed out of the way to have their food stolen. With limited supply and overcrowding, pups risk starting to eat fast, pushing other pups away, stealing food and displaying signs of resource guarding. Providing more food bowls than the number of puppies and providing more food than the pups can eat is a strategy that can help prevent early issues and helps teach pups polite eating habits that can transfer over to when the pups are sent to their new homes and are fed from their own bowls. Supervision by the breeder during feeding times is therefore paramount so to prevent these mishaps. We 'fixed' this by getting a slow feeder bowl. Every so often we'd come near it and add some more kibbles or give her a treat, and that worked wonders for the food envy. However... That's wonderful, I am happy to hear you have used this approach! There is so much negative info on how to tackle this with methods that are wrong, wrong, wrong and even risky such as sticking hands in the food bowl, petting dogs while eating, or purposely taking their food bowls away just to "make a point." I always love to share, veterinary behaviorist Dr. Albrights quote: "We should be advising clients against poking and prodding a dog while eating. It may help to tell clients that messing with a dog’s food bowl when he is trying to eat is like somebody messing with your plate or petting your head when you are trying to eat dinner. Nobody likes that. However, you may be more tolerant, maybe even look forward to the person approaching if you know that the person was going to give you a small bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy ice cream every time approached." This is the essence of how these issues should be tackled. When we have dogs who resource guard (the technical term for dogs who act protective of their food bowls, sleeping areas or toys and tense up when we approach), there is often an underlying issue of trust issues. The dog basically feels defensive and perceives us as if we are "trying to steal their food." By adding a tasty addition you are therefore giving the message of "I am not approaching to take something away, but to make a tasty addition, I am a provider and not a robber." After several reps, dogs learn to relax when we start approaching. The goal is obtaining what is known as a positive conditioned emotional response (+CER) where the dog looks forward to us walking by rather than dreading it. You can read more about this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/conditioned-emotional-response-cer/ Ever since she's gotten her big girl teeth, she's started to basically eat the slow feeder bowl with it. It's a plastic bowl, as seems to be the case with all slow feeder bowls (that I could find anyway), and she'll chomp bits of the edges after she's finished with her kibbles. I can't describe it in any way other than that she has feeding bowl envy. If she's eating, everything is fine, and I could even take the bowl away (though I make a point of it not to, since she's right to think that's her food), but once it's empty she'll start guarding the bowl like crazy. I suspect that what happens here is that the plastic bowl is good in absorbing the smell of dog food and dogs come to associate it with the food. It makes sense since many of our plastic storage containers still retain odors despite being washed. Most likely the same reason why dogs also eat the absorbent pad from a package of raw meat after eating the meat or eat plastic cheese wrappers after eating the cheese. A while back, a dog I boarded ended up pooping part of a plastic bag. When I called the owner about the odd finding he told me that his dog managed to steal a bag of fish and ate the plastic bag after ingesting the fish! What I do now is I try to distract her, for example with another toy or some treats, and then I take it away, but that's not going great. She won't leave the bowl for just a treat, and if I approach her with the treat she'll eat it but very reluctantly. I've also tried trading for high quality treats, but I don't think anything trumps the bowl in her mind. She will leave the bowl if I take another toy and put some treats in it, but she'll make sure to also keep the bowl within her eyesight and will run for the bowl if I approach it too obviously. It sounds like the bowl is perceived as much more valuable than the treat. It could be because the bowl is more long-lasting and offers more engagement, and therefore, a single treat does poorly in comparison in her hierarchy of valuables. Another toy may not work well because it has not retained any scent from food. You will need to be extra careful in giving certain toys that you fill with treats if she's a strong, determined chewer as she may eventually try to ingest those too. On top of that, you risk just moving her obsessing from one object of interest to another, where she'll leave the bowl, but then she won't like you near her toy, and you may struggle if you need to remove that too should she start chewing too aggressively on that. Basically what I do now is I fill the snake (a treat toy) and put it some distance away from the bowl, and once she's somewhat engrossed by the snake I'll sneak to the bowl and hide it behind my back so that she doesn't see me have it. It works about half of the time. Sound like a good plan, but I worry if she'll try to eat the snake eventually or even start to guard that should you one day have to walk by her or forget she's there with it. You mention it works about half of the time, so I imagine she is either reluctant to leave the bowl or leaves it, but keeps a watchful eye on it as she has grasped through associative learning that "getting the snake= you removing the bowl." On top of that I'm starting to notice that she's becoming more guarded with other toys too, and I'm pretty convinced that it's connected because she mostly does that right after dinner too. If I'll try to touch her snake (a toy that you can put some treats into) in the afternoon, for example, it's fine, but if I do so after dinner she'll lay her ears flat against her head. This is interesting-how the behavior is carrying over. I don't want to keep taking her bowl away from her, but I can't exactly let her eat it either (it's non-toxic plastic, but still). So, does anyone have any tips for a) food bowl envy, or b) getting a dog to eat slower without a slow feeder bowl? Either would solve my problem, hopefully! Yes, even if plastic is non toxic, we need to tread carefully because it can cause bowel obstruction or tears if large or sharp pieces pass through. So here are a couple of options: -Use a metal slow feeding bowl as mentioned earlier. However, just because it's hard to chew and your dog may seem disinterested in it, don't just assume it's OK and remove it from him. He may still retain the instinct to guard. If you need to remove a bowl, opt for the safest and least minimally aversive option you can find, I will be sharing may favorite method for this in the next paragraphs. -Another option is feeding on the floor with no bowl (dogs don't mind, food bowls were created more for humans so to keep their food neatly in place and avoid odors or attracting bugs). However, you never know, he may try to guard the floor area so something to keep in mind, and a dog I recently boarded even managed to chew ceramic tiles! -You can try scattering the kibble in a treasure hunt out in the yard. I wouldn't do it indoors in case he may develop a liking of chewing anything that smells like kibble. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ Now, we want to keep safety in mind because dogs who guard items can bite if they feel threatened enough and we need to do our best to communicate to our dogs that we aren't a threat to them. So we need to think a bit like our dogs and determine what from their perspective is considered higher value than the bowl so to make a fair "swap" without any resentment, if we still want to use bowls. In this case, we'll try to find something that is long-lasting (but not too much that we may have to remove it), provides engagement and can be consumed in one sitting so to add some "closure' where the dog eats it and that's it versus hovering over an item for a long time and worrying we'll be removing it. Of course, during this time the dog needs to be left alone and not bothered. One of my favorite (and safest) strategies with guarders when they get a hold of something that I need to remove, is to toss a long-lasting chew (like a bully stick) past a door, and then, once the dog is past the door, eager to get the chew, I will close the door (so that I have a safety feature between me and the dog should the dog decide to make a comeback) and remove the food bowl (or whatever else the dog is guarding/obsessing about) putting it away. Even with this strategy though there can be risks. There is really nothing totally *safe.* For instance, this strategy won't work if the dog in question is the "aggressive" type who will try to steal the item you are trying to swap and bites in doing so, or in the case that you must walk past the food bowl the dog is guarding to get to the door area to toss the chew. There are also risks of dogs who won't eat the long lasting chew provided but will guard it and then you're stuck with another problem. Preventing rehearsal of problematic behaviors is important with resource guarders. We don't want them to practice the resource guarding behavior over and over because the more it is practiced, the more it becomes ingrained. Not to mention, it creates a cycle of stress. Management is therefore important. That entails using strategies that don't evoke guarding behaviors or at least keep them at a minimum. For instance, here are a few examples: -Not walking nearby when the dog is eating or really "into" a toy or chew. -Feeding dogs in a crate away from high-activity areas of the home if they are nervous -Not giving bones if they cause dogs to stare at the bone and guard it or show signs of guarding -Keeping children and other pets away from dogs who guard Management prevents dogs from rehearsing problematic behaviors, reduces the dog's stress levels and keeps us safer. You may wonder though how these cases are tackled in a more proactive approach. In behavior modification, resource guarding is often tackled using desensitization and counterconditioning. Each behavior professional may use their own techniques, and every case may need an individualized approach. Desensitization: this is is a behavior modification procedure that entails systematic, gradual exposure (baby steps) to stimuli or situations perceived as aversive or unpleasant. You can read more about this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ In a dog who resource guards an empty food bowl, the owner moving close to the food bowl is perceived as an aversive event. Standing by, walking by, looking at the dog, talking to the dog or approaching the bowl can give the impression to the dog that we are interested and trying to steal the food. Doing all these things are a big no-no for a good desensitization program. Desensitization involves taking small steps. If for example, a person is terrified of spiders, he or she will be emotionally overwhelmed when a spider crawls on the arm and the physiological response may include a racing heart, increased breathing and sweating. A systematic desensitization procedure in such a case may entail having the person initially look at pictures of spiders over and over until the person no longer emotionally reacts to them, then criteria is raised, and the person may watch videos of spiders and then progress to viewing a live spider from a distance. A good desensitization program therefore aims in taking baby steps and keeping the dog comfortable and not stressed, which often means starting work with distance, always ensuring that dog is not over threshold. If a dog reacts, (like growls, gives a stare or pulls the ears back) that's a sign that we may have progressed too fast and need to take a few steps back in the process. You can read more about threshold levels here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ On top of using desensitization, important is too also add counterconditioning. You can read more about counterconditioning here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ In a dog who resource guards food, this would mean using baby steps while also creating positive associations. A dog who guards food is a dog who lacks trust, he fears that his food will be taken away. These dogs need to eat in a quiet area that is as stress-free as possible. Reaching for the food bowl, standing next to him makes him feel uneasy and confirms his biggest fear: that we are trying to take things away, BUT what happens if instead of giving wrongly interpreted signals, we start adding goodies instead? In that case, we can aim to get our pups thinking: "Wow, not only my owner is no longer trying to take my food away, but every time he walks by, he is adding to it!" Initial behavior modification for dogs who resource guard food may therefore start with tossing goodies from a distance while the dog is eating. This gives them distance that makes them feel safe that typically doesn't cause a reaction from them. Repeated often enough at a pup's comfort level, as mentioned we aim to attain what's known as "positive conditioned emotional response." This is likely something you may have attained already when she used to guard her food. You can read some general information about resource guarding here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/overprotective-food/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/overprotective-of-toys/ Some in depth general discussions on resource guarding: And as always make safety top priority. Work along a behavior professional for in-person guidance, safety and correct implementation of behavior modification such as a dog trainer specializing in resource guarding using force-free behavior modification, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB) or certified applied animal behaviorist (CAAB). Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. If your dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping) for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional who uses force-free behavior modification techniques for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to your dog's behavior as against you.

Still potty issues. Frustrated. After she’s in her crate all night, she will bark to get our attention. She DOES NOT however alert us when she’s not in her crate! We take her out frequently thus don’t have many accidents, but… if she alerts us at all we may get a faint little whimper that we’d never hear from another room. We still (@ 7 months) have her in the laundry room, gated off from the rest of the house. Should I make that space smaller so that she’s less inclined to potty in the far end and see if she barks? I’d love for her to have free reign of the house, but… the rest is carpeted. I’ve only been close enough one time to catch her in the act and say, “no” and take her out immed. Should I tether her to me while busy around the house in order to catch her in the act? Any help is appreciated! Hi there! Welcome back, in your first post it seemed as if she rarely had an accident so it seemed like things were proceeding rather well with taking her out on a schedule, other than the whining to go outside. However, she is now 7 months and should be able to hold it better, although some pups may take longer. With toy dogs, potty issues are common considering that their accidents are easier to miss. We need lots of patience and active supervision with these pups so to prevent cases of incomplete housetraining. So let's take a closer look into what dynamics may be going on and do some troubleshooting.... She is not having much accidents in the crate because crates work great in helping inculcate the instinct of pups not wanting to soil where they sleep. On top of that, crates keeps pups inactive which makes them less likely to need to pee, versus being active and romping around and drinking. When out of the crate, she's therefore more active, and larger spaces do not trigger that "not pottying where I sleep" instinct. A crate of the right size is a therefore great ally for potty training. It needs to be large enough that the puppy can stand, turn around and sleep on her side with the legs stretched comfortably out (for that restorative REM sleep), but snug enough that the puppy doesn't feel OK peeing and pooping in one corner and sleeping comfortably the opposite side. A crate that meets this criteria works great for potty training because properly raised pups perceive it as their "bedroom" and won't therefore feel compelled to soil it, unless they are kept there for too long or are suffering from a urinary problem or have tummy issues (like diarrhea). There is another reason why some pups may soil in their crates and that is sadly pups coming from pet stores/puppy mills since these impoverished environments force pups to pee in the enclosures they are are contained. A crate therefore works great as a puppy's "bedroom" and discourages pups from turning it into a 'bathroom.' A laundry room is often too spacious and therefore is perceived as a "bedroom," "living room" and "bathroom" by most not fully potty trained puppies. Your puppy may therefore play, sleep, eat and drink in one side and then use the other side for going potty. This form of peeing therefore needs tackled considering that peeing in the wrong places is strongly habit-forming because when puppies potty, they feel relief, and that's highly self-reinforcing, and on top of that, they learn to use the same areas over and over. It's therefore important to break the cycle. You asked: "Should I make that space smaller so that she’s less inclined to potty in the far end and see if she barks?" Great question! In an ideal world, that *could* technically work, but we need to consider that there are risks. Firstly, we are looking into a possible established habit, and therefore, there may be risks she'll still consider that space a bathroom, only smaller. Secondly, if the puppy doesn't happen to bark loud enough or for some reason we're not able to hear her, and she happens to have an accident, (which is likely, since she already have peed in this area before), she has now learned to pee in an even smaller space, which can generalize then to peeing in a crate, causing a regression. So it may or may not work. At this point, if we are making it smaller, it may be worthy of using the crate where she likely has less "history" of soiling. Ideally, we would place the crate in an area where we can easily watch/ hear our pups bark/whine or even move around for those dogs who are very subtle communicators. You also asked: "Should I tether her to me while busy around the house in order to catch her in the act?" Umbilical cord training (tethering to you) is a good ancillary tool for potty training. Its biggest advantages are that you puppy is always underfoot and easy to supervise, it's easy-peasy to quickly take your puppy out (she's already wearing her collar and leash!), and you can then praise her/give a treat and free her off the leash to play once she has successfully eliminated in the yard (if fenced) or take her back inside if she doesn't potty in a reasonable amount of time (and try again in another few minutes). With her past history of asking often to go outside, you'll therefore find this method helpful. However, some pups may grow bored and frustrated if they are kept umbilical corded for too long and sometimes may start misbehaving (like chewing on our shoes/nipping the leash or our legs as we move), so we may need to mix and match our management strategies. So we may do this every now and then mixed with crating her at other times, mixed with letting her spend supervised free time in the house and play, mixed with having her lie on her bed (you can let her chew some long-lasting goodie while there) as Jennifer pointed out. Here's how to teach it: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/ Back to the umbilical cord, we should be monitoring them closely when on the umbilical cord, especially if we are getting closer to their scheduled outing. If we're cleaning or on the phone, we may miss their signs and it may be too late. Pups therefore need close supervision until fully potty trained (the formal definition of fully potty trained is a pup who hasn't had any accidents for at least 6 to 8 consecutive weeks). Here are some further tips: -As Jennifer pointed out use an enzyme-based cleaner to clean up messes. You may also find it helpful to use a black light to check if you missed previously soiled spots that haven't been cleaned properly and that she perceives as "her bathroom." The black light will cause any pee residue to glow in the dark making it easy to detect. If you find any residual urine spots, make sure to clean them up properly and then test again with your black light to see whether you were able to successfully remove them. -It it best to prevent accidents from happening rather than catching them in the act. -Keep her on a schedule. Sounds like you have been already doing that. This entails taking her often outside so that she'll be put into the position of rarely having the opportunity to have accidents indoors. Keep track at how often you need to take your puppy out (set an alarm if needed) and when she has an accident write it down and make adjustments by taking her out sooner next time. Keep reinforcing going outside to potty so that she learns that's the best place to go and make it the new habit. The more she goes potty outside, the less she'll go potty indoors, and the more you'll help establish a new habit. -Make sure she has fully emptied her bladder before taking her back inside. Some pups are multiple urinators, meaning that they'll pee little trickles multiple times rather than emptying their bladder all at once. -Keep using your go-potty cues and reinforcing going outside to potty so that she learns that's the best place to go. -Recognize early signs. Most puppies as they develop better bladder and bowel control, will give out more and more evident signs of needing to go potty. It's therefore important watching for these signs. The most subtle signs are walking away from playing, sniffing and appearing a little distracted. The most evident signs include going to the door, barking at the door, pacing back and forth and circling. If you recognize any of these signs, therefore make sure to take your puppy out promptly. -.Avoid as much as possible showing signs of being upset when you catch your puppy in the act of going potty in the wrong areas. This risks teaching pups, not "don't potty in the house" as we intend, but "don't potty in my presence." This therefore often leads to pups who sneak away and hide to pee or poop out of our view. -Cheerfully redirect. Rather than getting upset and startling our pups, we can train them to respond to a cheerful "let go outside!" cue where we rush towards the door happily. It is best if you can train this beforehand so that you have a fluent and rapid response. -If it's too late and a mess is already made, don't act frustrated or angry with your pup, just clean it up and maybe sing or whistle a happy song. This helps prevent them from associating their messes with our presence and sneaking away. -Management, management, management. Management techniques prevent dogs from rehearsing problematic behaviors and repeatedly make mistakes. When dogs engage in problematic behaviors over and over they can become habit-forming. So after your pup is taken outside and goes potty, it's important keeping an eye on them, especially when their next due potty trip is getting closer. So you should keep your puppy nearby so that you can easily monitor her by either tethering her to you (umbilical cord potty training, which is great since your puppy is already leashed and ready to be taken out) or keeping her in a small area nearby you (make sure no furniture is blocking your view of her) so that she is always within your sight and you can promptly take her out as needed. If you cannot actively supervise her or it's her nap time, you can crate your puppy, but always within reach so you can hear her vocalize/move around to communicate a need to be taken out. Alternatively, you can use a nanny cam so you can closely monitor her/hear her if you're in another room. I hope this helps! Best, Adrienne

Hi there, welcome to the forums! Just posting a super sonic fast response and will post more detailed info in a little bit. There are metal slow feeders, I just recently purchased one for a dog who was gulping food down like there is no tomorrows. If you go on Amazon and write "metal bowl slow feeder" you'll find many makes and models. Most dogs don't like to chew hard cold metal, which is also why they make metal leashes for dogs who bite the leash. A few questions: 1) what do you mean when you state 'it's not going great" with the giving toys/treats when you take the food bowl away? Does she eat the treats and try to go right back to the bowl? Is she reluctant to leave the bowl? Please provide extra details. 2) Have you ever mentioned, her ravenous appetite to the vet? 3) Does she also eat other non-food items given the opportunity (don't try feeding her odd things of course, just post her history of eating non-food things around the house, in the yard, on walks). Labradors are known to have stomach without bottoms, so maybe that's also another component on top of her past history with her littermate competition.

I am sure you have the skill! Hey, even dog trainers have dogs that are hard nuts to crack! When I went to school to become a dog trainer in Italy, (that was, before becoming a CPDT-KA), our instructor's dogs were mostly ill-behaved, me and others who were attending were all like, what happened to dogs being our "business cards?" However, turned out she owned 7 dogs, and out of those 7, three were super stars, she just didn't have the time to train them all to that level. Understandable, because she was breeding, showing, training students and prospective dog trainers and then therapy dog work on the side taking her dogs to schools, children's hospitals etc. I always wondered how she was able to juggle all of that! Grisha Sterwart had Peanut, her dog who needed to be deeply rehabilitated which inspired her to create BAT, even then, she still was facing some issues that she kept working on because those issues were so ingrained. So I am sure you already looked the trainer's credentials up, so there's a trick title and then you have a behavior consultant title with IAABC. I love, love, love, IAABC and was debating whether getting that title too, but then decided to go with James O' Heares' Companion Animal Science Institute and slowly working my way towards getting a Dip. CBST title, only that I rarely have the time to study and keep postponing it. Wouldn't it be great to have 48 hour days? I would love to see Esther's videos on her progress, but please make sure the trainer is OK with you posting them here. I am happy that you will be getting the ongoing support, that is, IMO the most important feature to look for. It's good Esther is staying longer, my best results with board/train were with those who stayed the longest. The more the better so to train at a more fluent level and get better stimulus control, the extra weeks really make a difference!

It may be worth giving it a try! If the trainer who is doing board and training is certified in BAT even better. Yes, there are dog trainers even specialized in that, and they're called CBATI dog trainers (pronounced sea-batty).

You're very welcome! Keep us posted on how things go! Best, Adrienne

Thanks for all the additional info! So we were having her behind the baby gate with the door open but she was doing so well we decided to progress things. When she threw the tantrum last week, the cats were roaming the living room and we were having her practice her obedience training/try to ignore. But one of the cats walks slowly around the entire room - she also played on her cat tree - and Atari was freaking out. We reverted to keeping the baby gate between them and she is completely calm and well-behaved as long as we keep actively working with her. Like we can make her sit, get up, lie down, look at us, leave it, shake, etc. and she glances at the cats but doesn't do anything. If we left the gate up but door open all the time, the cats would come to the living room and/or she would jump up on the fence (front paws on it) and cry. So we do about 15 minutes a day (sometimes twice a day but usually it's hard to find time when we're both available) and then keep the door closed the rest of the time. We are trying to do it twice a day more frequently though to speed things along. How close were they to your puppy when she had the tantrum compare to the other times? It sounds like she was significantly over threshold compared to the previous training you have done where she was able to ignore. It was going well with Atari listening to us until Kora the little one walked right up to her and was sitting on the coffee table. Kora then jumped down and walked right past Atari's feet and sat a foot away. I let her inch close to Kora but then she lunged and scared her (Kora just crouched down and put ears back) so I pulled her back a few feet and made her sit and then she erupted into the horrendous tantrum. We had to wait for her to stop before we could put the cats back behind the door because she was jumping around and we were trying to distract her with other things. Kora won't leave the room unless we lure her back with treats. First off, it's great to hear that you were able to graduate to keeping her behind the baby gate with the door open and that she was doing very well that you considering progressing! When we progress though, there is often the risk of some type of setback. Indeed, progressing is one of the number one causes of setbacks we seen in behavior modification, because the dog may not be ready for that level of closer interaction, and we get so very hopeful and we just start seeing everything with pink-colored glasses... But there are other dynamics at play. With the cats feeling more comfortable around Atari, most likely they are getting a little more confident and moving around more and doing unusual things and this is triggering your pup and sending her over threshold. In the case of cats sharing the house with dogs, a big challenge is that it is difficult to control the environment. A cat may happen to come too close or may do something unexpected and can easily tip the dog over threshold. So if she was doing OK with the baby gate with the door open, but not OK with the cats approaching the living room (causing her to jump up on the crate and cry) we may need an intermediate space buffer such as a pet fence between the baby gate and the living room where, they can see each other, but the cats are prevented from coming too close. In lieu of a pet fence, an opened exercise pen can work as well as a temporary barrier that we can gradually fade. She was barking and screeching because she wanted to be let off her harness. We were trying to get her to sit down and look at us but once she escalated, it was impossible. Has anything negative happened lately on walks or prior to walks? No, I think she was remembering the tantrum the night before and how the harness was the source of her frustration. She is ok with the harness now though since we have had four walks. Sounds like some barrier frustration. If a dog was ever allowed in the past to go meet/greet other dogs/people or chase/get closer to the cats when pulling, that time that they cannot, they'll have a little "tantrum" which can also be called an extinction burst. If we stick to our determination in not letting them achieve their goal by pulling/vocalizing -no matter how dramatic, they should soon learn that their behavior "doesn't work" and eventually stop trying (with the occasional return of the undesirable behavior courtesy of a phenomenon known as lovely spontaneous recovery). If we though allow them to pull (and get closer to what they want) sometimes yes and sometimes no, we reinforce persistence and make the behavior of pulling/displaying a tantrum more and more established because it'll be put on an intermittent schedule. Intermittent schedules, make behaviors stronger and more established. An intermittent schedule can make people addicted to certain behaviors. If we go to play the slots in Vegas, and we win every now and then, we'll likely get addicted and want to play more and more. That's what they want. They want us to have a thrilling experience making us get more and more dopamine rushes. Same with a vending machine, if it delivers a snack every time we put a dollar, and then one day it does not, we'll get frustrated that day it doesn't work. So we'll likely kick the machine.. If this works in dislodging the snack, that will reinforce our behavior, so next time, it happens again, you guessed it.... we will likely try kicking again, but that day it doesn't not liberate our holy snack, we'll likely try kicking harder, curse and get even angry ( an extinction burst). If this method stops working though, most likely we'll avoid that vending machine and stop using it altogether. So on the plus sign, consider that with time (and as she develops more frustration tolerance/impulse control), Atari will come to realize that her tantrums won't get her harness to come magically off or the leash to loosen so that she can get closer to the cats. However, we don't want her to create negative associations with the harness (glad that she was able to overcome that with the happy walks!) so we may try to take steps to better control the environment next time or maybe even train something that we can use to redirect her quickly. For example, in an area way from the cats, we can train her to make an about turn and walk quickly with us the opposite direction. This sounds like an emergency u- turn, but being in a home you may not have much space, so let's call it "giving in to leash pressure." In simple words, away from the cats, sit on the couch with your pup on the floor, and when she happens to get at the end of the leash, creating tension on it, looking away trying to get somewhere, make 2-3 kissy sounds and gently guide her back to you tugging very, very lightly on the leash and mark giving in to that pressure and moving in your direction with a yes/click and reward with a treat once she reaches you. Rinse and repeat several times up to the point where she'll move in your direction quickly without the need of your prompt-that is, the gently tugging/putting pressure on the leash. Practice this in several areas of the home (initially away from the cats) then in the yard, then on walks, and then at home at a distance from the cats. The goal is to catch her *before* she goes overly focused/over threshold upon seeing a cat and redirecting her to walk away from the cats with you and then you can toss a treat always away from the cats. Make it fun and upbeat like a game! (You can initially hold a treat at eye level to help her comply and focus on that) You can also use this when she's at the baby gate off leash, when she's looking at the cats, and you want her to disengage from them. Make your 2-3 kissy sounds and toss a treat away from the gate. As she gets better, you can put her on an umbilical cord (leash around your waist) so she's always near you and teach her to back up with you away from the cats. Always be aware of where your cats are, and don't allow her to fixate and "hard stare' the cats. This is a situation that needs to be highly managed and lots of patience is needed. It can sometimes take about 2-3 months for things to get better and when you aren't training, your pup needs to be in a place where all pets are safe and Atari doesn't get to rehearse any problematic behaviors around the cats. Dog and cats will always need to be supervised, kept separated when not, and an additional tier of safety can be obtained by providing cats with high places to retreat to as needed and having the pup drag a leash (so to quickly get a hold of the dog as needed) before allowing off-leash freedom. Neither of the cats run from her. Our fearless smaller cat walks around and when the gate is between them, she tries to play with Atari's tail (Atari doesn't react as long as we are engaging her). Kora the fearless one just circles the room or goes into her hammock and plays by herself. The other cat will lie in his hammock and go to sleep even if Atari is there but when she starts her screechy yipping, he gets annoyed and walks out. He also does not come into the living room when she is there. They both maintain relaxed body language but Crixus, the older one will either hide under couch (He's the one who escapes and then he realizes she is there and he goes under couch) or just stay away altogether. One day, he escaped, saw her, and ran under couch and I couldn't get him out. She laid down and stared at him but was quiet. I had a meeting so I couldn't do anything else but I put the leash on her and held onto it. Since she was calm, I just left her there. She fell asleep about 20 minutes later and then the cat silently came out and then went back over the gate and I could close the door. Do your cats appear scared of her or stressed in any way? Only when she is screeching/tantrum or if they escape and she chases them. We have put her on leash and let her get close to them as long as she is calm-ish. like if she gets excited she has to step back. if she goes slowly, we let her step forward. But then once she got close to them. Crixus the big one hissed and puffed up. The little one was fine but then when she started sniffing her super excitedly, she got a little scared and put her ears back. Neither of them swat her or run ever. Sounds like Crixus will be the one struggling the most, but this is often seen with the older cats. I find they are more likely to be settled in their ways and get more easily stressed. I would therefore focus on training a strong response to leash pressure to the point of it being very fluent. Also provide her with food puzzles, chews and brain games so to keep her mind busy and make the cats less interesting. During walks now, she wants to sniff and roll around on people's yards and she pulls on the leash. Until now, she was heeling all the time even though she didn't know the word yet. This is from flight stage though, right? Should we just reinforce the heel when she is calm/at home and then make her sit more on the walk until she calms down? They are more investigative during this time and want to explore more and more. Keep practicing good heeling at home and in the yard, and in front of the home and progress the walk based on how well she is heeling. You can always make some about turns if she's pulling, and if she really wants to sniff something in an area she's allowed to go, you can "Premack it" by letting her go sniff only once she's walking towards that spot on a loose leash. You can give her permission by saying "go sniff!" and then resume the walk by saying "lets go!" here is more about the premack principle: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/premack-principle/ If she's pulling towards an grassy area, you can guide her away by walking in a circle and giving her another opportunity to go sniff if, once completing the circle, she's moving on a loose leash towards the area. Oh, ok, how interesting! She also peed on the mat under her bed (bed and mat underneath used to be our old dog's who passed away in January). We think it's because it smelled like him. We washed it and she has not done it again until this incident with my parent's dog's blanket. The dog was in the other room because she wouldn't stop barking at him to play and he did not want to play with her. My dad said she walked up to the blanket (he had been separated from her for over an hour) and sniffed it and then squatted and peed on it. We happened to walk in just as she was walking away from the blanket. Was she "empty" before entering the home (peed recently)? Yes, she had been outside for a couple of hours in their yard and he said he had seen her pee. But if she drank a lot of water, that might not matter. Was this a little trickle or more like a larger puddle? It was a normal puddle. Ok thanks, we'll look for other triggers then. They have a cat as well who just ignores her but she won't stop barking at it so my parents have just been keeping her away from both the cat and older dog. Older dog is like 16 years old and a little white dog who used to live with an old woman before they took him after she died. So he's not very dog-like and just tries to walk away from her but then she paws at him and barks obsessively. My dad can't get her to stop so he just separates them. It could be she was leaving her pee to confirm her "puppy license to misbehave." Older dogs smell the puppy pee and perceive it as a sign of "innocence" and that whatever the pups do, it is just because they are socially-illiterate juveniles. The older dogs therefore should technically provide them with "license to misbehave" forgiving them more easily, although not all of them grant this. Older dogs may struggle dealing with young pups and they may have joint issues/ mobility issues and their patience tends to run much shorter and they get easily overwhelmed by all that puppy energy. The odor of "dog" seemed to be a trigger in both cases, so she's likely trying to communicate something if she doesn't normally pee on her own blankets at home.

Oh, how lovely! It's nice when we can have dogs side-by-side waiting patiently for their treats! Nice training you have done there. When we do this, we also create positive associations since, one dog getting treats, predicts the other one getting them too very soon. On top of that, we are instilling impulse control and reinforcing patience. The only risk with tossing is if we aim wrong and the treat gets right in between. I have trained dogs though to learn that if, the other dog happens to get the treat they were trying to get, to give it up and look to me rather than react and I would promptly remedy and provide the treat. Your lovely boy is catching nicely! if Brian seems unfazed by being knocked down, I don't think it's a problem, especially if right after that, he continues playing and it all seems good. Many dogs play rather roughly and if we remove them from the play, and do what's known as a "consent test" (to see whether they feel relief from our intervention or are eager to go back to playing) they'll often want to go right back, which tells us they don't mind. Now, of course, this is just a moment in time, dog-to-dog interactions are rather fluid, and things may always change as he gets older and may decide one day to no longer allow certain things, so monitoring their play is always good.

Yeah, there's a saying "The only thing two dog trainers can agree on is that the third trainer is wrong!" Grisha Sterwart offers also a Lazy Bones BAT in BAT 2 which is crafted for those who struggle with the timing or don't have the time to create setups (although this requires supervision). She calls it "passive training." You may be already familiar with this since it's a sort of way desensitization with a touch of counterconditioning. In a case like yours it would consist of providing the 'reactive dog" with a long-lasting food puzzle when out in the yard, where the dog is tethered using a harness and long leash in such a way to be kept away from the fence line so to be less over threshold. If the neighbor is willing, he/she would let the pups out strategically when the dog is tethered and given the food puzzle. The goal is for the dog to attend to the trigger but decide to go back eating, therefore preventing rehearsal of the barking to get the "other pups" to leave. The right distance is paramount, and therefore if the dog still barks, that would mean tethering more at a distance, possibly closer to the house or even starting inside. with the door open. If the dog shows signs of still wanting to bark, it is possible to cue her to "go get the toy" pointing at it to help make a good choice. Now, we must consider that likely after finishing the food puzzle the dog is likely to want to bark again, so we either have to strategically end the session then or be ready to provide another food puzzle. And we also need to manage other yard trips, meaning we are always with the dog on leash when taking out to potty and not allow unsupervised outings unless tethered and with the food puzzle. This is not a quick fix and can take several months for the dog to ignore the triggers, but if the behavior is fairly new it will take less. Once having reliable non-reactive responses for some tie, it is possible to fade the tether and switch to dragging a short leash on the collar, always under supervision. And then one can give less long food puzzles. Of course, there are no universal "recipes" that work for all dogs, so if a dog it too aroused he obviously won't eat and not all yards offer the luxury of granting enough distance. Some dogs also become more reactive when tethered, so all these individualities need to be taken into account. More active BAT training would consist of having the dog on leash at a distance with the collaboration of the neighbors having their dog on leash (taking turns if more than one before introducing together) and doing BAT setups first in more neutral areas (like on walks, then by the sidewalk, then areas with other fences that aren't the actual fence and then at a distance from the actual fence etc. ). I am not sure if the dogs really respond to these BAT setups or just happen to start getting acquainted with each other with the distance and seeing each other often for their "happy hour" 😉 Most likely, there is a mix into play, but we know that dog who become "friends" and share bonding experiences like walks are less likely to react towards each other.

BAT is one of the things that you can put 100 dog trainers in one room and they'll all have different views about it. I had a Facebook group once where there was a big fight over BAT and had to close the thread because it was literally sizzling and ready to explode. Last discussion about BAT had members trying to define it and it led to hundreds of different opinions. Then there is BAT 1 and BAT 2. BAT 1 was highly criticized because many felt that it was unethical to put dogs into situations where the dog was over threshold or very close to tipping over and negative reinforcement was used. Basically, the dog was on a leash, facing the trigger (being put under a certain level of pressure) and was marked and reinforced with distance for using cut-off signals (like looking away, turning, sniffing etc). Grisha Stewart (the inventor or BAT) had to remedy lots of criticism on BAT 1 and therefore created BAT 2 where more distance is granted so the dog is less likely to be over threshold and can be helped in the least intrusive way possible to engage in replacement behaviors to be marked and reinforced with distance. It is sort of desensitization and teaching an alternate behavior, a bit of like the "look at that game" with the added twist where we have dogs observing other dogs at the window and then come back to us for a treat, only that in BAT we wait for a cut-off signal and reinforce that with distance, whereas in LAT we want the dog to acknowledge the trigger and come to us for a treat ( while he also gets distance). In a way it *can* be somewhat similar to the emergency U-turn for certain things like that we provide distance from the trigger, but in emergency U-turn we don't purposely put the dog into facing the trigger like in BAT 1 and wait for the dog to give out a cut-off signal to provide distance, but we turn at a distance ideally *before* the dog has a chance of noticing the trigger/feeling pressure, which is a bit more closer to BAT 2, but again, in the emergency U-turn we cue it whereas in BAT it is preferable to not cue if possible.

Hi, thanks for the update, the video doesn't open for me. Careful with all dogs trying to steal each others' treats, sometimes this can elicit fights. I will try to see if the video will open later as my connection isn't great at this time. May need to shut off my VPN and see if it works. In any case, it sounds like your persistence has paid off and he's finally figuring it out. Lots of fun to come!

Her teeth were also bothering her a ton - she lost four or five in two days and today she's been very good all day. So I think the teeth were a major part of the problem. Yes, teething can really put a "dent" in their behaviors and makes them extra cranky! I got some plastic scat mats for the couch (NOT electric - they are just sort of spikey but not enough to hurt her) and she has stopped jumping on it. I am glad that you found those spikey things helpful, I have seen them lately on sale but didn't see enough feedback to determine whether they can turn extra helpful or not. I have known some of my clients using those sort of plastic carpet runner things turned upside down so the hard points are facing upward and it helped to make the couch lose its appeal. We did more cat training but let the cats walk around and she threw a crazy tantrum wanting to chase them - she would not listen to us on the training anymore and it probably sounded to the neighbors like we were doing something terrible to her. So now we're back to doing the cat training with the gate between them and feeding the cats treats while she trains/ignores them. Seems there is no solution but time for the cat thing. However, I'm making a point to go and spend more time with them during the day so that it is not just Dan with them and that is helping. I think they thought I was replacing them with Atari. There's not much else we can do at this point so I hope the cats will be ok over the long haul. Some day they will all be friends! It's extra hard on them as they are puppies as they want to play and being restrained can create frustration especially if the cats keep on running away. Your pup is young and often this is the best time to introduce them to other pets and let them learn how to interact with each other. Was your puppy on leash or behind a baby gate or other barrier when this happened? How was your cat's body language overall when they were walking around prior to the tantrum? Do your cats appear scared of her or stressed in any way? How close were they to your puppy when she had the tantrum compare to the other times? It sounds like she was significantly over threshold compared to the previous training you have done where she was able to ignore. Then the next morning she was hesitant to put on her harness for a walk Has anything negative happened lately on walks or prior to walks? However, I took her to my parent's house yesterday so we could run some errands and they have an elderly dog she wants to play with so they have to keep them separated so she doesn't keep barking at him to play. She went over to the elderly dog's blanket and peed on it. Was she marking it? How do we prevent her from doing that, especially when she is at someone else's house? She seems quite young for marking in the real sense of the word, but puppies may urinate to prove to older dogs that they are only "puppies." Puppy urine has a smell that older dogs recognize and learn that puppies are just puppies and mean no harm. They also can display submissive/excitement urination in presence of dogs. I would suggest closely monitoring her just as you would a puppy who is being house trained, and removing the blanket if that was a trigger that prompted the marking. Also, if the dogs greet/meet, best to do it outdoors if that prompts her to pee. If you can recognize a pattern that evokes her to pee that can help you predict it and avoid those situations/distract. Do you by any chance use pee pads? Some pups pee on anything that may look like or feel like a pee pad. Was the older dog nearby when she peed on the blanket? If so, what happened right prior to the peeing? Was she "empty" before entering the home (peed recently)? Was this a little trickle or more like a larger puddle?

Hi Bob, Welcome to the forums and thank you for your service. Aggression cases are not easy to tackle, especially when they have been established for some time. Depending on what is going on, they often require in person-coaching for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification. I am sorry to hear the trainers weren't able to help you. To better understand your situation, exactly what in exact contexts or circumstances is she showing signs of aggression? Please define the aggressive behavior you are seeing (barking, growling, snapping, biting?) Has she ever bitten? If so, has she broken skin? How old is your dog? For how long has she been exhibiting the problem behavior? What type of interventions have you tried with the help of the trainers so far? Thank you, I look forward to your responses. Best, Adrienne

Hi Becky, Sorry to see you go. For refunds, please you can ask for it through Clickbank or you can contact support at this email address: [email protected] Best, Adrienne

Hi there! Welcome to the forums! Kudos to you for training so many dogs! Lucky doggies 🙂 Yes, we sometimes, stumble on small dogs who are reluctant to sit or they back-up rather than sit. Here are some tips and ideas: -You can try to sit down on the couch and practice from there. Some small dogs are wary of feet (they may have been tripped over at some time or are just wary ), other small dogs may not feel too comfortable when we loom over them from a standing position, so if we sit on the couch with the dog on the floor nearby, we are more comfortable and the dog may feel more comfortable too. -If your dog is comfortable around you in her space, you can try training her against a wall, large furniture or corner so that she has no space to back up and will end up eventually sitting. It may take a little bit to persuade them, but some patience and the food lure will likely help. -You can use shaping, meaning you reward very small approximations of the final behavior. So using your food lure, you would start feeding it for just looking up at first, then moving her head upwards, then lowering her back legs a bit until you finally get the sit, at which point give a jackpot of treats (several treats in a row to leave an impact). -If you think your shih tzu may be a little bit inhibited by something ( like hands near her face), you can try a training method known as capturing. You may need to be patient for this. This entails, sitting on the couch (with treats in your hand ready to give at a moments notice) and watching your dog during the day. If you ever notice her sit spontaneously, say "yes!" and toss a treat her way. With time, you should see an increase in the sitting behavior over time as she makes the connection of sit=treat. Keeping her on leash while you are sitting on the couch may help as she may get bored and a bit tired and hopefully sit. If you are still struggling with getting your small dog to sit, feel free to post on the forums and we can do further troubleshooting. A strong reluctance to sit may also need evaluating by a vet in case there's some sort of pain going on that may be preventing a dog from feeling comfortable enough to sit. In several cases, I have had success combining both sitting on the couch and using something bulky nearby to prevent the backing up and set the stage for success. If the dog is allowed on furniture you can even use the couch backboard/headboard? (where you put your back/head against, not sure of its name!) to prevent backing up. I hope this helps! Happy training!

That's great! Front-attachment harnesses can help a great deal. Keep up the great work!

That's awesome! What make and model are you using?

BAT-behavior adjustment training, a bit controversial in the dog training world, but I have found its place for certain cases. We have a section on this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/behavior-adjustment-training-bat/

Ha-ha! Laughing out loud to the idea of body pillows dragged around on ropes! I was imaging the movie Home Alone when Kevin was maneuvering multiple ropes with figures to make them appear real, but in this case acting as "humpees" for doggy humpers. Talking about small dogs, that cute as a button, fluffy female Pomeranian you may have seen in some of the demos, was actually fixated on wanting to hump my arm every time I was typing on the computer. 🤪

Hi Cheryl, it's so odd, as I was waiting for your answers, I was close to 100 percent sure I posted here a long and thorough answer in the past 2 days trying to cover many basis and now it seems like it's gone! In any case, thank you for your extra details! Please see my thoughts/observations in non-bold. When this has happened its always been during times of play i.e. he chases a ball runs with the kids etc..I'm wondering if he is just over excited or what? We can see mounting happening for several reasons. Here are some: -Seeking Interaction In many cases, a dogs' mounting may be a way of seeking affiliation/ interaction or getting others to pay attention to them, explains board certified veterinary behaviorist. Dr. Overall. With children, dogs may be therefore trying to solicit play or they may have learned that they receive attention and interaction when they engage in the mounting behavior. -Mounting from Stress Mounting kids can also be a way to release stress in situations that may be a tad bit overwhelming. Let's call is "anxious arousal." Pay attention therefore on whether the mounting behaviors starts in situations that trigger anxiety/stress. Does the mounting happen when the kids are hyper? It can be that your pup isn't too comfortable when they are running around and the mounting is a displacement behavior. Displacement behaviors are out of context behaviors that tend to occur dogs are experiencing conflicted emotions and they need to find an activity to engage in. The mounting when in proximity of kids may also occur when a dog is unsure of how to interact with them in certain contexts. Some dogs seem overly enthusiastic in meeting/mingling with children, but there may be elements of stress at play. For instance, we have the "kiss to dismiss" which may seem a dog's way of manifesting affection to children- by licking them excessively- when in reality, it's a dog's way of asking for some distance. -Release of Pent-Up Energy Veterinary behaviorist Betsy V. Beaver in her book: Canine Behavior, Insights and Answers, explains how sometimes, mounting behaviors in dogs may be an expression of surplus energy as seen in any energetic dog. The mounting behavior manifests therefore in the same way as barking, pacing, or chewing may occur when the dog has too much pent-up energy and no other way to expend it. -Regulating play Some dogs like to play the 'fun police' and will act as referees when certain types of play get too rough. They may get in between and try to stop the commotion. I can see this take place when you mention that he went to mount when "the boys were on the ground wrestling around. " The poster child of dogs regulating play are herding dogs. So this may be a possibility. -A Matter of Overstimulation Some dogs get overstimulated when around kids and they use mounting as a coping mechanism. It's the dog's way of self regulating his/her arousal. -Feeling Tired and Cranky Some dogs mount when they get cranky and moody because they're overstimulated, yet tired and in dire need of some relaxation or a nap. Will this behavior escalate? Its happened three times which is three times too many, will he grow out of it eventually? Regardless of the underlying issue, we want to tackle mounting. I don't personally think dogs just outgrow it, several do, but I have seen dogs be obsessed about it. I think it can become habit-forming if not tackled and some dogs may get so determined that it may get out of hand and become their default way of interacting. Some professionals may close an eye sometimes when they do it to other dogs they know well and the other dogs don't seem to mind, but when directed to children/people, this needs tackled. So it's one of those behaviors were practice makes perfect and the more it's rehearsed, the more the dog may want to engage in it. He's NEVER been aggressive in any way, and is always gentle when playing with the children otherwise or when they're petting him he loves kids,I can't be active with him like the young ones can so he gets pretty revved up when chasing balls, frisbee etc. how do I correct this?.he's going to accidentally scratch or hurt one of them if he continues with this behavior. Thanks for your input as I'm really concerned about this.. Oh he's not around children on a daily basis pretty much just family gatherings not sure if that's important or not. How to correct this form of mounting? You may need to take a multi-faceted approach. Here are several tips. - Identify the Exact Triggers Often, dogs start mounting kids when kids engage in some specific type of activity. If your dog has a history of mounting kids therefore, determine whether the behavior has occurred in response to a specific situation. Some dogs may chase kids when they are running and when they catch up with them, they will try to mount. Others take advantage of mounting when the kids are sitting on a chair or sitting on the floor. It sounds like you mentioned "When this has happened its always been during times of play i.e. he chases a ball runs with the kids etc" but earlier you also said " I can't have him jumping up on the kids or trying to take advantage while they're sitting down" so I assume it happens also when they're sitting down like on the floor or on a chair. Things get easier with dogs who do the mounting only in certain contexts rather than being obsessed about it and trying to mount ALL OF THE TIME. I know of some dogs whose goal is just to mount and they'll chase to mount and take advantage of mounting any every opportunity they get. It sounds like Shiloh does it occasionally, possibly when he's too overstimulated or the kids are playing too rough. So knowing when this happens gives us the power of taking steps to prevent it. -Prevent Rehearsal of the Problem Once again, the more a dog gets to engage in the mounting behavior, the more likely he'll want to repeat the behavior. With time, mounting kids risks becoming habit-forming and may turn into your dog's default way of interacting with children. You do not want this to happen. The more ingrained the behavior becomes, the more difficult it will be to eradicate. It is therefore paramount preventing direct access to situations that trigger the behavior using management techniques. You can therefore keep Shiloh on leash when in presence of the kids and you know he may be more in "mounting mode." For instance, indoors when they want to sit quietly to play a board game on the floor or as they sit to watch TV. If things seem to be getting too wild, it may also best to spare Shiloh from all that, and keep him in a quiet area to get some relief from all of that. Management will not resolve the problem, but at least it prevents it from worsening. Use management therefore until your Shiloh is better under control and trained and for those times you do not have time to train or when child play may be getting out of hand. -Train Your Dog The good news: most dogs are eager to "work for a salary" especially if you are able to provide a reward that is highly anticipated and that is 10 times more rewarding than engaging in the mounting behavior. In order to work though we need to always actively supervise and learn to recognize our dogs' triggers and earliest pre-mounting behaviors (smacking lips, lifting paw up, a certain look of the face) and intervene super swiftly. You can therefore train Shiloh to respond fluently to a cue such as to come to you when called: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/recall/ a fluid response to the smacking sound: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/ but can also use your "leave it": https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ If your "stop it' works, you can continue using that. My father in law was great in using his voice and learned well to recognize pre-humping behaviors in his collie. When his collie tried to give the slightest sign of wanting to mount one day poor Einstein, he stopped him flat in his tracks. I have a video of this, it's actually funny...will need to find it. You want to train initially in a room without distractions (away from children), and then work in the yard until you obtain an almost reflexive response. Then, you can practice with Shiloh on a long line (long leash used to train recalls) at a distance from the children always rewarding generously for rushing to you. You may find it helpful to use a silent whistle for this type of training especially when outdoors and stick to a verbal or smacking sound when indoors. Only once your dog has proven to you that he is under perfect/close to perfect control, you can keep him off leash, but you will always need to supervise him around children, as often, all it takes is one rehearsal, for the problem behavior to make a quick come-back. Now, stopping a dog when playing with kids is a form of advanced training, sort of like calling dogs off from other dogs when playing in the dog park. It's advanced because of the high level of distraction and high arousal levels associated with play. Please note: if your dog still decides to mount despite being called off, he is either not ready for dealing with that level of distraction, not being rewarded quickly enough, or the reward is not perceived as good as compared to the self-reinforcing mounting. However, we need to keep safety in mind. Is it worth it risking that Shiloh may one day hurt a small child? Because if we are too late, it can happen. We also need to consider that, the kids are over your home only now and then, so this can be easily managed. Not saying he shouldn't interact, but that maybe it's best to skip some overstimulating types of games and opt for some calmer, structured ones where he is not engaging in "over-the-top" behaviors and is therefore better under control. Also, if I recall well, sometimes in the past Shiloh was guarding a soccer ball from you. Now this, behavior may have been successfully extinguished, but it still popped up in his behavior repertoire at one time, so there are no guarantees this may not happen again. It can take just a split second for a child to be running towards a ball and him wanting to get the ball too for an incident to happen. - Children Can Train Too! I asked the ages of the children because they can be involved in training too. The older kids especially who can take directions. A handy cue is the sit and down which are incompatible with humping. You can have them carry some treats in their pockets and have them practice asking Shiloh to sit or lie down when he approaches them. This can keep his mind off the humping. Then, they can toss a treat the opposite way to reward him for complying. This provides an extra tier of safety if Shiloh for some reason doesn't listen to your cue to come when called. Once they toss the treat at a distance, they can move away and you can get a hold of your dog. Once you get a hold of Shiloh, remember to keep things positive feeding him treats as you move away otherwise he'll associate you with making all the fun end and may play hard to catch or resent getting grabbed by the collar. I know you like that Shiloh gets to get more exercise when around the kids, but we need to consider quality over quantity. Running after the kids and chasing balls can be too overstimulating and therefore lead to mounting so you may want to reduce that and engage him in more structured activities. For instance, you can organize Round Robin games where you are all lined up and take turns calling Shiloh and then asking him for a sit and then then giving him a treat. This may help keep his mind engaged and not think about mounting. Make sure he gets breaks every now and then as a whole day around children can be too overstimulating for most dogs. -Ensure Your Dog Gets Enough Sleep Make sure to find the right balance between Shiloh receiving sufficient exercise, training and mental stimulation and opportunities for relaxation, rest and restorative sleep. - Help Your Dog Cope With Arousal Impulse control and frustration tolerance exercises can teach dogs how to better moderate their emotions. This won't magically solve behavior problems, but provides dogs with an extra skillset that can help them. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ - Give it Time The behavior left untreated doesn't typically extinguish, and may even worsen over time. But if we address it, and teach alternate behaviors that are more reinforcing, it can gradually become more and more scarce. One advantage is that, mounting behaviors are more common in young dogs, and as dogs mature, are trained to better cope with their impulses and we start to set some boundaries, the issue can potentially extinguish over time. Make Safety Top Priority The safety of the children of course remains top priority. If Shiloh's mounting behavior persists or you are concerned about the safety of the children (they can get injured even unintentionally), please play it safe using management and/or consult with a dog behavior professional (like a board-certified veterinary behaviorist or Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist). I hope this helps! Happy training! Best, Adrienne Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others.

You're very welcome, keep us posted on how things go! Best, Adrienne

Thank you for the extra details, very helpful! Please see my observations/tips in non-bold. Thank You for responding! She is on the leash with me when I am just about to open the door with the keys the leash goes limp because I am using both hands. That’s when she goes to dig. I say stop it and she generally will stop it! The fact that the digging happens when you about to open the door gives you the power of predictability. In other words, you know when the digging is more likely to happen so you can strategically intervene and plan ahead to prevent it. Here are some options: -Hold the leash in your hand shorter so that she is prevented from going to dig, but she may pull and this may create frustration, so it may be better to... -As you are about to open the door, strategically scatter some kibble/treats by the entrance so she can go on a fun treasure hunt. This can turn into a fun routine. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ -Aim to train her to sit/stay as you look for the key and open the door and then praise and reward by tossing treats inside as she enters through the door. She may be too young to learn a sit/ stay that is long enough for you to open the door right away, but it gets better with time. I managed to train two 8 weeks old pups to hold a sit/stay as I opened a door that was a little difficult to open right away, so if you have a fast key entry, like just one key and easily open the door versus having lots of keys to search for it can be do-able. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/stay/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/college/open-sesame/ -Aim to train her a solid response to leave it. I know this is further down the course, but if there are pressing issues, it's OK to give priority to teaching certain cues. However, you can still wait and entertain her with the treasure hunt game if you want to go in order. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ But when we were on the wall sitting to have a smoke she refused to listen to me and kept attempting to dig about 3 times and ripped up the dirt in the matter of seconds!! Your pup is very young. At this age, they have short attention spans, they have little impulse control and they get bored easily. Think toddlers who can't stand still a moment. They need something to do. Many young pups struggle when we stop to talk to somebody. They don't know what to do. Many will start biting the leash or biting peoples' shoes or pant legs. Some will start barking. And some like yours may choose to dig. She may have even enjoyed you telling her to stop because it got you stopping from talking to your friend and interacting with her. It may have even gotten you to continue walking. In this case, if you meet with people often, you may want to give her something to do so to not get into trouble. Here are some options: -You can carry a little tug-toy in your pocket and let her play with it -You can drop some kibble/treats for her to search for -You can give her a long-lasting treat to chew on ( there are many in pet stores, make sure it's safe for puppies) She had all that exercise!?!? What’s the deal?!? Puppies are balls or energy and they love to explore. Digging is a hard-wired, instinctive behavior that is self-reinforcing. It's almost automatic. Think a toddler in a big room with toys, they'll be tempted to want to play with them. Pups perceive digging like reaching out for toys since they dig out roots, worms and unearth interesting smells. On top of exercise, dogs need mental stimulation and brain games, interactive toys are great choices. Right now we are on obedience 101. I haven’t gotten to take/ leave yet! She just learned sit , paw and lay down! 👍🏼 So I’m happy with this! I just bought a clicker and treat bag too to help with the training! So any advice any further would be great! That's awesome! Pat yourself on your back for teaching her all of those things already! I am sure she'll love clicker training, we have some very cool tricks/useful behaviors you can train under the video archive section. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/#tricks I also am having problems with “drop it” “98%” of the time she will not drop it and she play growls and shakes back and forth?!?! I don’t know what to do! I am giving her the treats when she does rarely drops it. HELP PLEASE?!? It can take several trials to get them to grasp the idea. As puppies they are a bit in that "mine, mine, mine!" modality and they may struggle understanding the benefits in delayed gratification. They may also be too focused on playing to pay attention. Here are some tips: -Try at times when she isn't too interested in play, like when she's a little calmer -Use toys that aren't too new and she has seen around for some time -Don't chase her around when you need to get a toy away from her -Use high value treats and you may need to show them right in front of their nose the first times. Sometimes, we have pups who may be a bit possessive and this makes them more reluctant to give up their toys. Here are exercises to prevent resource guarding in pups that are good to do even with pups who aren't resource guarding: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/the-importance-of-preventing-resource-guarding-in-puppies/ Here is a video demo on training drop it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnItd7OEmw Happy Training! Let me know if you have any other questions! Best, Adrienne