Howler

Following are some reads in regards to aggression and behavior modification. You will need to be logged into the course to access them. Some common causes of aggression: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/attacking-owners/ Signs of impending aggression: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dogs-dont-bite-blue/ Threshold levels: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ Desensitization: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ Counterconditioning: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ A case study of a dog showing aggressive displays: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/ Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. If your dog is showing aggression, please consult with a behavior professional for an in-person assessment and for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification.

Hello Merritt, alan At this age, your pup is in the teenager phase and it's not unusual for pups of this age to be more interested in things in their environment. You can read more about what happens during this phase here: (you need to be logged-in to the course to access these). https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ There are several fun attention games in the brain training course, some extra helpful one to do at this stage are these: 1) Look into my eyes: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/look-into-my-eyes/ 2) The Airplane Game: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/the-airplane-game/ 3) Look at that: You can practice this in a variety of settings indoors, in the yard, on walks and around various distractions https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ 4) Targeting Targeting can come useful when you need your pup to re-focus on you: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ Another great exercise is to walk in the yard or other safely fenced enclosure and hold several high value treats in your pocket. Reward every time your puppy comes near you. Paying attention is something that comes with time, training and after forming lots of positive associations through the interactions with you.

It sounds like things are going pretty smoothly and great to hear that Koda's biting has improved. After going over the first hurdles, it is then mostly about refinement, getting your pup to mouth more gently and then extinguishing the mouthing (which often comes naturally as the pup matures and learns that hands, feet and fingers are rather boring, just as they outgrow chasing their tails). For jumping, if it's the attention-seeking type or rushing to say hello, yes, ignoring should work, although it takes several trials. On top of ignoring, turning your back to jumping dogs to emphasize that rowdy greetings are not the way that humans like to interact can be helpful. Then, you can turn facing the dog once the dog gives signs of calming down, but turn again abruptly should the dog attempt again to jump again. For enthusiastic jumping that is often evoked by hand movements and certain tones of voices, you can also work on desensitizing the dog to them and pointing out that sitting is far more rewarding than jumping in those circumstances. You can see some of this training under the case study section, under Maggie: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/ For the paws on the table, is he doing this with the intent of just exploring and the things fall off or is he actually stealing items off and running off with them? There's another type of exercise that can be done if your pup takes treats roughly. Keep a treat in your hand between your thumb and index/middle fingers letting it protrude a bit (just as when luring) and insert the treat directly in your pup's mouth. If he is rough with his teeth, don't let go (letting go will only reinforce the behavior). Wait for him to nibble gently, and at that time, praise him and let go of it. Repeat several times, and as he gets the idea, you can add the verbal cue "gentle" every time you insert the treat in his mouth to remind him to be gentle. Now, a disclaimer is warranted here: this exercise should be done only with puppies with some level of bite inhibition. If you have an adult dog or a puppy with very little bite inhibition, this can lead to hurt fingers. Since it sounds like your puppy is getting your fingers anyway, at this point, there should be no harm in practicing this exercise, but please practice caution (and possibly use gloves) if your pup bites hard or you feel that his teeth are getting close to break skin. Careful not to insert the treat too deep back as those molars have quite some crushing power and you don't wan't your fingers there accidentally.

Hello and welcome to the forum, You are on the right track in wanting to stop this before things become more difficult. With aggression, things tend to get worse rather than better if not addressed. It is best to nip problematic behavior in the bud before it puts roots and becomes more challenging to eradicate. The wisest thing to do is removing any bed privileges for safety and to prevent rehearsal of the troublesome behavior. She should be trained to sleep on her own mat, but since this training takes time (and she would likely keep on jumping on the bed), you may need to confine her for now in another room or in a crate next to the bed if she is crate trained. If not crate trained here is a guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/ And here is guide to train a dog to go to a mat, but you may need to block off access to your bed in someway during the training period: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/ Since there is onset of new behaviors, it might be wise as well having her see the vet and discuss these behavior changes. Some medical conditions may cause or exacerbate aggression. Many dog behavior professionals require a recent health check before intervening to help because behavior problems arising from medical issues require a different approach (tackling the underlying medical problem.) For now, since these behaviors are escalating and there are children and other pets in the home, the best thing to do is to use management (let her sleep in another area, keep her in another area in the home when the older dog needs to come inside and when the other dogs are playing, and feed her in a separate area or in a crate at meal time) and have a behavior professional (using humane, force-free behavior modification to prevent further exacerbating any tension) come to your home to assess the situation and guide you through the process of behavior modification. This is paramount for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification. If you ever find that despite your attempts, she has sneaked off and climbed on a bed or other piece of furniture, DO NOT grab her collar or make any movements to reach towards her. Grab a dog cookie instead and toss it on the floor to get her off (when no other dogs around to prevent food guarding) and entice her to follow you out of the room. Another strategy to get her to move off is to grab her leash (many dogs come running in response to seeing their leash) or ring the doorbell (do this with no other dogs nearby if this excites all dogs and creates a setup for squabbles). You may also want to train an "off command" using positive reinforcement with the help of your behavior professional so that you won't have to to physically intervene to remove from beds/furniture.

Her leash behavior is sure interesting. The pulling is normal as he needs to learn leash manners (loose leash is your accelerator, tense leash is your break) and pups are impulsive and want to investigate and smell everything. Rewards are always good to give when the leash is nice and loose so that you provide feedback for what you want. The stopping and flipping over may be a response to something in her environment due to internal (do to internal perceptions) or external triggers (stimuli in the environment). What happens right prior to that? is an important question. Perhaps she feels tension on the collar or harness when she pulls and that may be frightening her a bit? If that's the case, this thread has a leash conditioning exercise you can start indoors and then progress to walks: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?101-Leash-training

Hello and welcome to the forum! Great to hear that you are thinking of training her before she reaches her full growth potential. You are correct in that it is far more easier to train and establish good behaviors from the get-go. As for expectations, keep in mind that your puppy is still young and her concentration is not at the level of an adult yet. Make brief sessions that are fun and upbeat and always end them on a positive note (ask the dog something he knows how to do well and reward). The objective is to leave the dog wanting more to maintain motivator value. All the commands you are training are great for a pup of your age, but with the stay you may want to keep it short for now (and with you close) so to not make it too difficult for her. As she matures, you can then progress to longer stays. As for training times and how much training, these vary in dogs based on several factors. This thread below may come handy: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?63-New-puppy-owner-and-new-to-forum&highlight=puppy+training

Hello, and welcome to the forums If your dog has a history of getting along with other dogs and being around puppies, below is a general guide on new introductions. Adult dogs who have never been exposed to puppies before may be stressed by the rowdy puppy behaviors and may engage in defensive behaviors. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/introduce-dog-new-dog/ Consider that puppies often engage in rude behaviors because they haven't learned much social skills. Older dogs may "put them straight' but often do so in a ritualized manner (just a noisy growl or inhibited bite). The pup should "apologize" then, sending appeasement signals to the adult dog (such as licking the mouth or moving away with his body low) or even rolling over and submissive peeing. Always supervise the adult and puppy interactions. Do not leave food or toys around as these may cause tension if two dogs are aren't accustomed to each other yet. Make sure your puppy has an escape route so to move away from the interaction as needed. Intervene if the behavior is more than just ritualized discipline and seems to have an impact on the puppy and doesn't bounce back to acting normally. While these adult dog "lectures" for puppies are important so that the pup learns what are appropriate ways to interact with older dogs, should you notice aggressive behavior or something that concerns you, please use caution and consult with a professional.

Hello and Welcome to the forums! I hope you found some helpful techniques to try among Jennifer's links. Many puppy owners deal with nipping and it's one of those things that take time, lots of patience and repetition repetition and repetition, so please don't feel discouraged! A 6 months, your puppy is reaching the stage of doggy adolescence. This is an age where many dog owners encounter challenges, but you are on the right track providing brain games and putting those meals to good work. Here is a read about doggy adolescence: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ Usually, it's the opposite: puppy biting should get better as the pup grows, not get worse. However, left untackled, you are right that it can get worse in the sense that the jaws grow much stronger, and that the more a dog rehearses the behavior, the more it will put roots and establish. By six months, we would like to see less nipping rather than more, but it's not unheard of for puppy owners to deal with problematic puppy nipping for up to 8-12 months. Her biting should also be inhibited, and not break skin. There are some exercises to train to be more gentle, "gentleness works" is one of them, scroll down to the section on "Train your dog to take treats gently." I have personally used this exercise with my Rotties and now I can even stick a whole treat in Einstein's mouth with my hand and he won't bite down because he knows that my hands and fingers are not to nip. Now, not suggesting to do this as this can hurt in a pup who has learned bite inhibition, but just an idea that dogs can learn that our hands are not to be nipped on. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/train-dog-take-treats-gently/ These other bite inhibition games were crafted for a very nippy German shepherd and can apply in virtually any dog breed: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/ Toning down excitement is important as excitement can cause dogs to bite harder than usual. Impulse control exercises can help train more self-control. Ask your pup to sit before eating, to sit before being given a toy, to sit before tossing a ball, to sit before being pet. Jazz up and Settle is a game that can help redirect attention from hands to a toy. Your pup must be fluent in sitting. :https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/jazz-up-and-settle-down/ Targeting is also a great way to remove focus from biting the hands to making nose contact: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ The fact that she seems to bite at any time makes me think that her biting may be based on boredom and/or just being cranky and in need of a nap. Entice her to go in the crate or on a mat to enjoy a long-lasting chew or stuffed Kong and settle. Many dogs nap after chewing. Here is how to teach your pup to love the crate: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/ I like your strategy for tackling her biting when inside the home and from what you describe it seems to be working. It would be important to identify whether the jumping on the table/chewing the rocking chair is really an attention-seeking strategy or whether she is doing those things because she has associated your presence with behaving and your lack of presence as a free pass to misbehave. I am not sure what you are doing when you are present to prevent her /stop her from doing these things, but there's a little strategy to fix this if she's actually misbehaving because you leave the room. If you have trained your dog to "leave it" (you can find how to train it here https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/) and have applied it to having her leave alone items in the home, you can practice leaving the room so that you are out of sight (or watch from an outdoor window if the room has one), but listen or watch carefully: if you hear sounds or see sights that suggest she is going near the table or chewing the chair, quickly return to room or from the window knock and say "Hey! Leave it!" You can then ask her to sit and give her a legit item to chew on/stuffed Kong. Repeat several times, hiding in different areas until your pup gets the idea that although you are not in sight, you still can outsmart her and catch her in the act. Even better, use a remote monitoring system, so that you can see what she does in your absence and remind her that you are still watching her. When you can't actively monitor or do remote monitoring, your best bet is to crate her or keep her in a room where she can't get into trouble. And of course, not leaving anything interesting on the table can make the table less interesting. At 6 months, puppies are still teething. Generally, you should expect a full set of adult teeth by the age of 8 months. It's normal for your puppy to be chewing a lot during the teething phase. Some dog owners have had success in reducing biting wood furniture by applying some Bitter Apple spray on a table's legs. Making other things at the same time more salient than the table and rocking chair, can reduce their attractiveness. Make sure your pup has access to many legitimate items to chew on such as sturdy toys (Kongs, Goughnuts) so that she can make good choices. The yard issue is not uncommon. Many pups perceive the yard as a place to play and release all their pent-up energy. If you send a group of dogs out in the yard, they'll likely either sniff around or vigorously play. Your pup has no other dog to play with so she likely seeks you out and there's nothing more fun that a person who squeaks ouch! and moves arms and legs upon feeling those sharp teeth. To a pup, that resistance turns us into their favorite talking tug toys. If she is on the leash with you when in the yard, this may be part of the problem. She may be frustrated that she can't do what she wants and the yard is full of so many smells and fun things to do. With just you and her, your puppy may be getting bored and the first thought may be playing and "activating" you for attention through her nips. Here are some tips to let her focus on other things rather than you in the yard and to help her get rid of some pent-up energy. And just in case you are wondering, It's OK to be excited in the yard, puppies need some outlets for their energy and this is fine as long as they are engaged in legitimate activities that don't involve overly rowdy behaviors such as nipping and biting you. A more structured plan is needed. Here are a few ideas: -Try a dog bubble-blowing machine. These machines emit bubbles that taste like bacon. -Do a treasure hunt game, scatter the kibble around the yard. Here's how to teach this: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ -If she ever happens to nip your clothing, you can say "eh eh" and turn around, and if she persists, go back inside the home. Dogs hate when they lose their favorite playmates and their social group. Watch her a bit from a window just to make sure she doesn't get in trouble and then come back to give her another opportunity to behave. If you have been using targeting to get her under control do that. Just like you do indoors. She might catch on this, since this exercise is similar to what you have been doing indoors. -Once calmer outdoors, arm yourself with several tennis balls and keep them in your pocket. If you can get her to sit, rather than focus on the clothes, then mark it (yes!) and reward by tossing the ball. Anytime she grabs on your clothing, rinse and repeat the going- back- inside behaviors. When she's calm, toss a ball. You can even ask her sit and toss her kibble rather than the ball. That gives you many opportunities to reward good behaviors. Calm behaviors turn you into a food dispenser! If she gets nippy when she is tired, she may just be cranky like cranky toddler misbehaving. Entice her to go in the crate or on a mat to enjoy a long-lasting chew or stuffed Kong and settle. As mentioned, many dogs nap after chewing. Kudos to you for doing such a great job with her when she was so fearful! I have a name for what you do when you give her treats around items she's fearful of anything new or something she showed signs of being fearful/hesitant yo approach in the past: counter-conditioning. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ This is perfectly fine and I have used this method routinely when dogs needs to get used to items such as ramps, agility equipment and muzzles. I hope this helps! Best, Adrienne

Finally, a few words about adding a new pup. I asked about the sex of the future puppy because generally having dogs of the same-sex may sometimes lead to some more problems, versus having female/male combinations. Now this is not a general rule of thumb, there are plenty of households with multiple males and multiple females where all is good, but I also know several who struggle. Problems would not necessarily start now, as puppies are often allowed to get away from their "mischief" many times due to adults granting them a temporary "puppy license", but problems often start once the puppy starts reaching social maturity at around 12 to 36 months. This is often when things start degrading and squabbles or serious fights may erupt. Multiple females is often the most problematic, followed by multiples males and then the male and female combos generally do better because male dogs often allow females to "get away" with things. But again, this is just a generalization and doesn't always apply so just wanted to give a head's up about this possibility, but not stating it as a fact. It really boils down to the dog's individual personalities and how stable they are. Sometimes adding a third dog may also lead to issues. Many times there is harmony among two dogs who know each other well, and the third dog may cause an "imbalance."This is often in part related to the re-adjustment process. In the short term, you may expect the puppy pestering the Golden into play and a senior Golden no matter how mellow, may not be too willing to engage in boisterous behaviors. Your golden may therefore repeatedly move away and perhaps, if his patience gets its limit, even growl. This is easily remedied through by separating the pup from the golden just to give the golden the opportunity to relax as needed. The pup may likely be attracted more to playing with the Siberian husky considering the higher energy level and that may help. In the long term though, there "may" be issues between the husky and the pup later on when, once again, the pup reaches social maturity. Whether these issues are just mild (or maybe even non-existant!) or more serious will depend on several factors, but it mostly boils down to their individual temperaments. In general, as you may already know huskies can be quite energetic, rowdy, strong willed and exuberant especially when their exercises needs are not met and there is lack of training, while German shepherds need lots of mental stimulation and the ill-bred ones may be too much too handle. Again, these are just generalizations and not facts. There are many households who successfully have both, but it's important to point out that it takes a certain level of commitment, but often building a strong training foundation with one of these dogs before adopting the other can turn helpful. The fact that there is an age gap is in your favor. Here are a few tips on introducing new dogs to the household: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/introduce-dog-new-dog/ Hope this helps! Sorry this is so long, but there are so many variables with dog behavior. Best, Adrienne

Thanks so much for the update. Good to hear she is slowly starting to warm up. Sounds like she doesn't need much training to learn to like the crate as she already finds it a comfy place to retreat to! Music can really help, we use "Through a Dog's Ear" CD's for stressed dogs, but nowadays there are more and more CDs coming out for relaxing dogs. Once she seems calmer and takes food and treats more readily, if you notice what type of hand movements frighten her, you can present these hand movements in a less intense way (slower, at a distance) and let your hands drop treats after making the movement. Then, you can gradually make the hand movement more salient, always dropping treats. If any point she startles, make a mental note and make the movement less intense. Don't progress from there until she seems comfortable with the movement. You can then progress to using hand movements to toss treats around. Make it a fun game. After several reps of these exercises, she should come to associate hand movements with treats and look forward to them. For sounds, the "hear that' method has turned helpful for several of my fearful fosters and even my dogs when moving to new places: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/ Slow and steady wins the race with fearful dogs. Let her explore at her own pace. Contrary to what was thought time ago ago, you can't reinforce fear in dogs, because fear is an emotion. So it's OK to talk to her, provide praise for baby steps and encourage her. Let her understand that you are trustworthy and will protect her from any harm. Once all those stress hormones are out of the way and the 'honeymoon period" is over, she should be coming out of her shell more and more and you may notice more and more normal "doggy behaviors"that you may need to work on. It sounds like she is very shy on walks and fears novelties. With neophobic dogs, they often weren't socialized much before and they come to fear anything they are not used to seeing. At 16 weeks, the prime socialization window has closed so you will need to work on remedial socialization which means habituating her gradually to people, their movements and new sights and sounds and forming positive associations with them. She is very lucky to have such dedicated dog owners. Once she settles and gains trust, she'll be super happy to have found you. Best, Adrienne

Hello Amy, Welcome to the forum! It sounds like you may have either a case of overlearning here (learning a task so well and so much that the action becomes almost reflexive and happens in many circumstances (hand raised, hand down, hands open, hands closed) or perhaps, much more likely, you have a pup that is simply overly attracted to food and your hand used for targeting has come to represent food so much that he's constantly after it now. There's an easy way to overcome this and it comes with stimulus control, that is, when behaviors are well under control and not confused with other exercises. This point arrives when you progress in the training and you put the behavior of targeting on cue, and it becomes clear to the pup that only cued behaviors gain reinforcement, while non-cued ones never do. In other words, add the verbal "cue" target" and then present your open hand, and reward your pup when the behavior is asked this way. Anytime your pup goes to try to target your hands without you asking for it, never reward it. On top of not rewarding, you can also add a further consequence to "unrequested targets." When your pup goes to try to target when you haven't asked for it, say "oops" put your hand behind your back or under your armpits and freeze a few seconds. Rinse and repeat several times as needed. Your pup needs to learn that only when he is asked for the behavior he gets the reward and he needs to pay close attention to what you are asking. It takes a bit of time with pup as they are so impulsive. Also, make sure that always when you ask your dog to target, you are using an open hand presented as if you want to give somebody a handshake. Help your puppy associate the way you portray the hand with the targeting exercise. This should help your pup distinguish this exercise from other types of exercises such as down where the hand is presented closed initially while holding a treat and then is morphed into pointing down, and leave it where the hand is presented opened but facing the ceiling. In targeting, you also want to fade using food as quickly as possible, so if you have been smearing food on your hand to encourage the behavior, make sure to stop smearing food after the first few trials and start feeding a treat from your other hand to reward a successful target. If your pup is very food motivated, and even kibble makes him excited to the point of jumping around and trying to anticipate, use this enthusiasm as an important learning lesson. Access to the food is only granted once he is no longer jumping and is in a calmer state of mind. This is an important life lesson as we want him to learn that calmness pays, even for other future scenarios where he might overly excited over other distractions (guests over, the food bowl, etc) After all training is mostly that: teaching a dog to control his impulses despite distractions in his world. It may take a bit to tone him down, but with some repetition and some clear exercises, he should gain this understanding and you should see a reduction in these hyper behaviors. So similar exercises apply here: pup jumps to try get to the treat bag? You hold the treat bag flat against you leg with your hand and freeze. Your pup may circle you, try more jumping. If he persists, even leave the room. You can even put the action of turning around and freezing on cue by saying "oops!" and then freezing. When your pup persists and doesn't seem to give up, you can even say 'too bad" as you leave the room. Persistent cases, may require you keep the kibble in your pocket rather than a treat bag. A treat bag can be introduced later as the pup learns better impulse control. I would keep the treat bag on the side, so you have better control over it, if on your back, you pup may sneak up and perhaps be able to snatch it off or make a treat drop which would be a big no-no as it would reinforce his jumping behavior. Then after you have left the room you can slowly walk back (to discourage jumping/hyper behaviors) and try again. Apply the same consequences: pup tries, to jump? Access is prevented as you turn around and even leave. Pup is not jumping? Your pup is praised and given the opportunity to train and earn the rewards. Training leave it is a good life lesson for a pup who is distracted by food. Any attempts to get the food leads to the hand closing. This is an important life lesson. You can even place your treat bag in your hand, and train "leave its " with that. And then try training that with the treat bag on you. Pup tries to jump at it? Say "leave it", cover it with your hand, and turn around. When pup gives up, you can praise, turn around and ask for an easy behavior and reward that. So the important points of all of this is: pup gets rewarded when behaviors are cued, non-cued behaviors are not rewarded. Pup's attempts to gain food or access to treat bag are negatively punished by holding it against the leg, withdrawal of your attention and an abrupt stop in the training process. Pups is extra pushy? You may have to temporarily leave the room. Pups gives up trying? You turn around, praise and resume training. An important point here: avoid consequences that are harsh such as scolding and physically correcting the pup when he tries to grab treats. Physical corrections can lead to defensive aggression, and scaring the pup may lead to a pup that may even be reluctant to follow food in our hands when we need this motivation so to get the pup to follow our food lures in the initial stages of training such as following the food to go into down or sit. If you are food luring, you want the want the pup to be excited to follow it. So care is needed here to not excessively tone down a natural interest in following our hands and food in our hands as we need this when we are in the luring stages. This therefore requires a balancing act of not encouraging rowdy behaviors towards our hands while paying attention to not tone down a natural interest. If you have a pup who is simply attracted to hand movements (many pups are, because hands are fun to follow when we move them a lot) you can find this exercise helpful: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-practice-greetings/ Notice how the dog learns to sit for rewards despite my exaggerated hand movements and stimulating sounds. This is a good impulse control exercise that may be fun to teach pups along with the the Jazz up and Settle Down exercise once your pup learns well to sit and down on cue. I hope this helps! Let me know how it works out and if you need further assistance. Best, Adrienne

Sorry, looks like it was mistyped: this link should work for you: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/ You need to be logged-in to the website as a member to access this.