JMFS

For those who like to play, or want to try playing, music for Fido, here's a Spotify list just for canines. It's keeping my blood pressure down, too - not even 1:00 pm and it's already been an annoying day! It even has Pachelbel's Cannon in D, which happens to be what I trained Monkey to answer to - a brief sharp whistle is not even good enough for a cat, no, no, they require a refined tune. :rolleyes: https://open.spotify.com/user/celmatic/playlist/7lgRIc1XkopZtiuWaySm3d?si=GR0SK-71QpmEFN_loSFYvw Spotify is free, like Pandora (there's probably a list there, too, but I prefer Spotify, usually). The link will go to the Spotify website. If both of those are a no-go, then YouTube has quite a few options, too. Poke around and see what soothes your pooch. :) Back to the grind - I just needed a break from the nonsense of today.

Good session today. We skipped most of the steps for the next exercises because I had already trained him on those. She got to see some of his aggression when she tried to advance another step - a slow reach for the bowl yielded a lip curl and a nose bump. So, I'll practice the step before that and we'll try the next step again next week. The goal is to eventually get him to sit when he sees me approach his bowl without me having to reach or say anything. We were laughing when he'd get his treat for sitting and then he'd look at his bowl with his ears perked and head to the side as though to say, "where's the food?" Initially she said she wanted to put Momo in the same situation as Wednesday night, but after talking about it decided it would be counterproductive. I was relieved for that because I didn't want to intentionally incite the behavior. After seeing the set up and finding out it was dark, the crate door was closed, and there was one other thing that escapes me at the moment, she assessed that all those things culminated to cause the outburst. She said the only thing different she would have done was to turn her back, but otherwise what I did would be the correct course of action. She suggested working with Mo separately with an empty Kong in the crate and using chicken as the reward. The idea is that I will come into the room with the same set up, approach the crate and if I see Mo tense up, toss the chicken to him. Eventually I'm guessing I can bring Gertie in and work that angle. Keeping Gertie and Abbi separate will be easy enough - I'll banish them to the couch with the husband (who Still doesn't understand all this training and what it's supposed to accomplish). :D I feel much better knowing that she concurred with my standing my ground and having only a minor adjustment to it - that means I've been doing the right thing lately, whew! She was impressed with his "stay" and "wait" and asked if she could record it so we went out into the yard (all of his feeding desensitization training is done on the patio / lanai / screen room - you pick whatever you'd call it. In Texas it's a screen room but here in Florida they go all fancy with "lanai.") She had Mo stay with her and then had me call him and put him into a "stay." Then she had me move far away from him until she gave the signal and I whistled for him. She asked if he'd stay if I ran instead of walking and I looked at her like she spoke a different language. Even before my back issues, I didn't run. In fact, if I'm running, you might want to run, too, because whatever caused me to run is something bad or wildly marvelous! She did the running instead and yes, he did stay. I told her if she were a squirrel it would have been game over - that stay would have been broken for sure. For people, though, he'll stay. Oh, and then she just had to record him doing "play dead, all the way dead, Mo" That one's usually a crowd pleaser. :p He's trained well, if I do say so myself, on the basics and some parlor tricks (shake, high five, turn around, back up, etc . . .); it's the resource guarding that I struggle with because so many things are the wrong move and so few are the right one. She's also going to send me some literature / blog info from a couple trainers that she thinks are good reads that will help. Crochet and dog training - that's about all I read about any more - I'm an action-packed gal! I told her about Zuke's Minis and Amazon's subscribe & save - I staggered it to have two different flavors arriving each month (salmon & rabbit, then duck & chicken I think it was) to keep things interesting. I think I end up paying about $4 for a 6 oz bag after all is said and done And I don't have to drive 40 minutes round trip to a store that has them stocked.

You guessed it - she wants me to demonstrate to her tomorrow so she can assess and then target that issue as well. I'll update again once I know more. It's like a mini saga! I thought posting our trek might help someone else down the road. Or, if nothing else, might make others grateful for their easier going pups. :) Gertie just kind of looks confused and curious when these things happen. She tends to go investigate, which doesn't help. She's a little oblivious I think. He's growled at Abbi and she growled back (Dachshunds /sigh), and they seemed to come to a mutual understanding after that - they leave each other alone. It's a tight set up in the office so perhaps when my trainer looks at it tomorrow (and pardons the end-of-year train wreck!) she might see a better set up. Always helpful to have a second set of eyes. Unless they belong to my mother . . . we'd have to rearrange the entire house and all the dogs would end up outside permanently. The crate is definitely necessary for the safety of everyone. He'll leave blankets alone so maybe it will be as simple as putting a lid on it, as it were. If he can't see us milling about he's less likely to get upset. It's how I used to get him to settle at night when he was a puppy. It sure is nice to be able to bounce ideas around and get feedback. Sometimes I remember things that I used to do and wonder why the heck I couldn't think of that before posting! :)

Haha, Einstein. :D Momo will howl with the sirens, but they have to be a specific frequency and if I try to emulate it he ignores me. Thank goodness it's not a life skill! Search and rescue training?! Now that's cool. Mo will stick his head under water for about 20-25 seconds to pull up a rock I've tossed in. I never really figured out a practical purpose for it other than maybe retrieving my keys if they ever fell in shallow water. Problem is, he always came up with a Much larger rock than the one I tossed. He's special, that one.

We had another incident last night. With the weather getting colder Momo is coming in earlier so more contentious situations are presented with this change in schedule. He was in the crate happily working on a Kong. Gertie and I came into the room and Gertie was a little excited. Neither of us were having Anything to do with Momo, but he sure did interject himself into our gleeful play by hovering over his Kong, snarling, growling and baring teeth. Took us by surprise, even Gertie looked at him like, "what the?" It's at these points I'm completely unsure what to do. Stand my ground? Retreat (I think this would reinforce the behavior because it gives him what he wants)? Advance (I'm pretty sure this is a tactic that contributed to our current status)? I stood my ground. It took about 3 minutes for him to stop the noise, but he was still acting possessively of his Kong. After he relaxed I grabbed a handful of Zuke's minis (I love those things!) and each time I walked by his crate and he didn't react I dropped a treat into the crate. I did that for about 10 minutes until he was back to not noticing any of us. He had his back turned to us and his Kong in the corner of his crate so he was still guarding, but it was about 100 levels lower tension than the Cujo-esque behavior. I don't know what to do about this boy. He's 85% wonderful and 15% psychotic. I'll be sharing this with Maruska as well, but wanted to give you an update. I'm frustrated because I'm not accustomed to being unsure of what to do - I'm a very decisive person, but he's got me worried that I'm going to do the wrong thing at every turn! :( She's coming over for training tomorrow and will hopefully have advice / direction. I suppose for now he can't even have a Kong in the crate.

Thank you, as always, for the input. I closed the blinds so she can't look out the window now and we'll give that a go. It's definitely too early to put on cue - she's -20% reliable. I found a YouTube video of dogs barking and she did that adorable head tilt, but wasn't enticed into joining them. She's going to be a tough one to capture because the only time she barks is when she sees something out the window or something unexpected happens. I'll need to figure out a trigger so I can fish a bark out of her. Or, given your warning, I may leave it alone and count my lucky stars that I'm not having to train anti-bark tactics because she's mainly barking when she's supposed to at this point (even though it gives me a jolt each time). The camera / treat dispenser will be uncontested (Momo was never an intended participant). Gertie willing shares and Abbi is utterly uninterested in the thing as of yet. However, its primary function is for Abbi's separation anxiety and the camera / speaker will be used when Gertie is in the crate, treats will be dispensed when we're here to supervise and so as not to tease Gertie with treats she can't reach. So far I'm unimpressed by it - the app keeps crashing, the microphone had serious echo when I tried ol' Zak's method of tuning the pooches in to the voice feature, and the treats flop out rather than being tossed. It may end up back at Amazon if technical issues persist. I've got 29 more days to get the kinks worked out, though. :)

Since the Furbo should arrive today and that darn Zak George showed off not one, but Three, dogs barking on command when demonstrating the device, I decided to give it a go. I never thought to before because they generally bark only when I want them to and it's short-lived. One of the latest posts got me to thinking it would be a good idea to add this tool to our arsenal, though. We might be getting it, but we might be confused, I'm not sure. When Gertie barks I say, "Speak!" and I give her a treat. When I try to get her to do it when I ask she looks at the window. Now, to me that says she's making a connection, but perhaps not with barking, because every time she barks it's when she's looking out the window. I'm not one who's given to being jumpy, but holy cow when that bark cracks through the silence it gives my heart a jolt every time! It's just one short, loud, and sharp bark, but it's sudden and since my back is turned to her it's unexpected. :eek: Thankfully it hasn't happened, yet, while I'm drinking coffee - I think I might choke! What do you think? Keep on the path I'm on, or do I need to refine the method? Pets to those beautiful pups of yours. :)

We've all been there! Jill, the pan thing works Great for cats. :D I tried 2-sided tape, but the cats kept jumping on it until their fur coated it and then it was no longer an irritant. Flippin' wise cracking animals. Another one I never tried with the cats was to tie empty bottles together with string or yarn or whatever is on hand. Then dangle that from the counter. When kitty decides to see what's what, the bottles come down, making all sorts of racket, cat poofs up and tears out of the kitchen. I feel this is fair game with cats being that they're so willful and less trainable than canines. I'd wager it takes at least 5 and probably no more than 100 tries before the lesson sticks in their feline brains. Here's one specifically to the kitchen table: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?30-How-do-you-get-puppy-to-stop-taking-food-from-table&highlight=counter If you toss the word "counter" into the search field in the upper right-hand corner you'll find one from me, and a couple others. The Best method is going to be management. Help them be good by keeping tempting things out of their reach. However, the little devils need to learn manners, too, and that's where the advice Adrienne gives in those posts will come in handy. Until they have a good grasp on "leave" and what the boundaries are, though, management is your best friend. :)

It's exciting when they put the pieces together and we get to see progress. To me these methods seem to take longer than the "alpha" way, but I see the lessons sticking much better and I have a happy dog instead of a nervous one. Momo was trained with an alpha / positive reinforcement hybrid method I cooked up myself when Cesar Millan was The Thing to Beat All Things . . .. I maintain the man has a unique insight to dog (mis)behavior, but his methods aren't for the average dog. Momo is a prime example of that - we have resource guarding issues that I'm working with a Behaviorist to correct. That's the toughest training to pass! I have a hair trigger response system and Gertie has been a challenge. I'm a weird mix of wound tight and laid back, some things roll off my back and others cause me to achieve lift off. I'd forgotten how excited and distracted puppies get and man, oh, man, I learned just how well I had trained Momo (despite the slip ups) after we brought Gertie home. All I can do is tell you how I handle it when the pooches find that sweet spot. I suck in a deep breathe (others say, "take a deep breath to fill the lungs," I punish my lungs with that breath and purse my lips - I'm a work in progress). I hold that breath, then I huff to let it out (others say, "slowly release the air" - I may get there some day). Before I say anything I take a second to check my tone, Then I issue the correction. :D If you're calmer than me then you should have an easier time of it, especially if you're more anxious than frustrated. :) I hope this light-hearted take on deep breathing exercises will help you the next time your pups test the waters. Keep posting updates - it's neat to see other peoples' progress.

Has anyone tried these treat dispenser / camera / speaker thingies? Husband saw the Furbo on Amazon today (I afflicted him with my addiction, muwahaha!) and we're going to give it a whirl. I'm sure Gertie will catch on, but Abbi leaves me dubious. Momo would exploit the thing to his whims. With a 30-day return policy we can't lose so we figured, "why the heck not?"

Here's how shiny she is now: I used to sweep daily and get a good pile. I swept for the first time in over a week today and got a quarter of what I used to sweep up. She jumped into the pool the other day (she wasn't supposed to, but she didn't know that) and after I mumbled a few choice words to myself, I started to dry her off. She dries off far quicker now as well, so that's a bonus.

Dogs Can become possessive of people and things (lord don't I know about the things part with Momo . . .). Sounds like some counter conditioning might be in order. I was telling my husband tonight that I think it's interesting it's little dogs who seem to have the most behavioral issues. We notice it more in bigger dogs because they can do more damage and in little dogs it can be annoying but almost cute. Abbi is 9 pounds and when she grrrs it's flippin' funny. Before the arthritis set in she would growl at our hands and attack them if we flopped them around. Her bites were always quite gentle. With a larger dog, those bites may have hurt, though. Putting fingers in her space I can understand getting grumpy about. If my husband was came over to me while I was chilling out and started poking at me you can bet I'd smack him. If I did the same to him, he'd love the attention. We're wildly different personalities and dogs are the same way. Gertie takes everything in stride. Tonight she was in the middle of her dinner and I asked her if she needed to go potty. She abandoned the food and happily followed me outside. No way in a frozen Hades would Momo even give me the time of day if that had been him instead (hence the Behaviorist). Abbi will get protective of my husband, but that's pretty rare. I can pick her up and put her in my lap if I want to sit next to him. Now if I start poking him and making him jump around she'll puff up and act like she's out for blood so I don't do that often, but once in a while the husband lips off a little too much and must be tickled. It simply has to happen because if I let him get away with it, I've reinforced the behavior! :D Jokes aside, these might help: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/ Something else you can do is keep treats handy. When the chihuahua is being mellow, or if she looks at you without growling, give her a treat and mark the behavior with a "good girl," or whatever you like to use. If My normally feeds the chihuahua you might give it a go so the pup learns to further associate you with good things. When I first met Abbi she would bark her little head off and she even peed a couple times - she's an über submissive dog but has that little dog complex where she thinks she's 109 pounds instead of just 9 pounds. Now I'm the only one she listens to, lol. All it took was a couple, "sit pretty," requests (she has to curl her tail around her body, it's too adorable) and some high quality treats and she was putty in my hands.

I used to be adamantly opposed to dogs in the bed. I can't stand the hair. However, Gertrude McGerterson (as my husband calls her) is a special girl and she swayed my opinion. One evening, maybe three days after she came home with us, I was brushing my teeth while Gertie hung out with the mister and Abbi. I finished my evening routine and went to climb into bed. But. There was a lump there. I thought, wth?! It was a Gertie. See, earlier that evening I had folded laundry on the bed and she kept wandering off so I put her on the bed to allow me to watch her every move while doing my chores. I suppose I'm the one to blame for setting this into motion . . .. She's been in the bed with us ever since. She and Abbi are allowed on the couches that have blankets protecting the fabric, Momo prefers the floor. There hasn't been any change in how Gertie perceives us. Hubby's still a playmate and I'm still the holder of all things yummy and therefore the rule maker. :D Momo stays on his bed on the floor and we all prefer it that way - he loves being pet but he's not a cuddler. He's an independent sort of chap. Abbi stays on hubby's side of the bed because he allows her under the sheets (Dachshunds love to burrow) and nope, no way, not happenin' on My side of the bed. Gertie can be on top of the blanket, but not under the sheet. That's where I draw the line, no matter how special she is! I have a major aversion to dog hair and toe nail dirt getting in my sheets. Some folks don't mind - I definitely, undoubtedly, assuredly, and unequivocally Do mind. :D

Aw, poor Blue. Gertie's not a fan of baths, but she jumped right on into the pool tonight, grrrr. I bathed her Just last night. At least she dries fast now after all that brushing. :D What type of coat does Blue have? If it's thick you might try a wide toothed comb intended for humans - it would get him used to the sensation and isn't likely to tug or pull. Momo tolerates baths but he rolls all over the grass after his bath. Abbi can't stand baths, but she's 9 pounds and doesn't have much choice in the matter. All three love being brushed, but to different degrees. I could brush Gertie bald and she'd ask for more. Abbi, too, but when I hit one of her arthritic spots she's quick to call it quits. Momo is too jazzed up 24-7 to stand still for it so it takes a loooong time to brush him. He has the thickest coat so we do it in stages.

Happy turkey day to you and yours. :) Give those beautiful dogs of yours pets from me.

That story sounds familiar, minus the biting. Gertie was like that until about a month-and-a-half passed and she realized she was home for real. I came out of the office one day to see a 45 lb dog standing on our living room table and I thought, "she's gonna kill me with this behavior . . . she has Zero manners!" Hang in there - it gets better! You're also in good company because I've seen this subject pop up more than a few times around here. Here are a couple to get you started: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?106-Excessive-puppy-biting https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?42-Biting-clothes&highlight=biting https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?14-Biting-problem&highlight=biting There are a Lot more, lol. I picked the first two because I've read through them, and the third looked like a good one. Oh, and there Will be setbacks . . . she chewed off the cord to my space heater last night. My fault - I moved it to clean and forgot to put it back. It was with her toys so of course she thought it was for her.

Good point about switching treats. Those Li'l Smokies are just so nasty to handle. Publix had buy one get one free chicken breasts so I baked those and will be cutting them up after they cool. I did a test run with Gertie and while she was interested those dang Li'l Smokies must have puppy crack in them because she was much more interested when I had those. Maybe I can toss the chicken with the juice from the Smokies. For Momo I was thinking of doing a hybrid kind of thing - instead of putting the high value treat in the bowl, I thought perhaps putting his kibble there might help with showing him whatever I have is by far better than what's in his bowl. I'll throw that question her way, too, before I implement. That Seems intuitive to me because the exercise is to get him to want to do what I ask because I'm cooler than kibble. It might be easier to get him to break away from kibble than a high value reward, like you mentioned. I need three hands! Our usual feeding routine was me going outside and if he wasn't already waiting at his bowl, I'd call him. I'd ask him to sit, pick up the bowl, fill it, put it down, wait for however long (I varied it) and then tell him "Okay." It's after I say "okay" that he's a problem because now that's His food. I think the extra distraction and heightened excitement contributed to him not waiting. I'm normally pretty calm when I feed him because he tends to get amped up if I'm energetic about it. I'll tell on myself - I was still so upset about the incident in the yard that the next day I sure did toss his food into the yard. The grass had just been mowed and I was holding a grudge. That stinker Loved it - he had the time of his life nosing around for the food. If we didn't run a high risk for fire ants around here I'd have switched to that method! It's a tactic I use sometimes when Gertie is ho humming about instead of going potty. I'll get her attention and toss the treat a couple feet into the grass. Works every time - once she's in the grass sniffing around she's ready to do her business. :D Dogs are so bizarre sometimes. [edit] She gave the thumb's up for using kibble as the bowl treat and cautioned me to go slow. No worries about that. Tempting though it may be to forge forward, one good session does not mean we have it down pat!

Yesterday was session #2. She might start taking Mo for a couple hours here and there to teach him fly ball. I don't have big enough chunks of time to do it and she wants to learn more about fly ball training so it would benefit us both. She has good rapport with him and goes on about how she loves how food motivated he is (which is why we have our little issue, lol). I've said more than a few times Mo's talents were wasted on me and this just may be a way to make up for that. How cool would that be?! She said we skipped several steps again because he caught on quickly; however . . . we had to take his excitement level down a couple times. We tested last week's training by her walking around and causing distractions while I went through the series. We passed. Yesterday's sequences were a little more complex than last week's so I was also less clear in my communication to Mo as to what was expected. When we traded places he did great. She said I need to trust him to do the right thing. I guess I'm in training, too. :D What we landed on is me practicing the following with him: 1. When I step towards the bowl he should sit, I take the bowl (no touching it first this time), give him a treat, put the bowl down, reset 2. I step towards the bowl, he sits, praise, I take the bowl, treat, I put a treat in the bowl and set the bowl down, step back and immediately step forward 3. Repeat step 2, but put 2 treats in the bowl instead of just one so it takes him longer to eat 4. Repeat step 3 but he should leave the bowl alone, sit, and wait for me to say it's okay again It didn't happen in just one session, naturally, and I'm having to tell him to wait - I think this is going to be a challenge We also got stuck because the treats were were clinging to my hands. I was also unsure of the steps and I was missing cues so he was getting confused. It was like the first time dancers learn their next group performance. This girl goes to the right and this guy goes to the left and they collide while someone else is completely off on timing and it's mayhem while they're learning the dance. They go home to practice, come back and it goes Much better. To further compact the issues, he gets so excited that he starts taking treats roughly and even nicked my finger so I started tossing them to him - he's an expert treat catcher; however, that served to increase his excitement so I had to keep changing tact which disrupted the pace / flow. We slowed it down and went back to step 2 for a bit so I'll work on 2 - 4 this week. With training friendly treats. Li'l Smokies divided into sixths were a good idea, but I didn't factor in how fatty they are and they started sticking to my hands. Fortunately for us he'd be overjoyed with leaves if they were flavored, so it's not difficult to come up with a high value reward. Perhaps I'll get chicken breasts and cook those up, keep half out and freeze half. Thankfully the air was easy to breathe last night! She was surprised to hear that Momo would still go for another 2 hours even after all that training. I sent her a video of his "zoomies" after she left as proof of his stamina. She thinks that while he'd enjoy lure coursing he'd be happier with agility courses, fly ball, or even frisbee fetches. My old man could run circles around the young pups (and he does - Gertie gets tired before Momo). --------------------- I typed that last night but life happened so I'm finishing this afternoon. We went through the first half of the lesson after this morning's feeding and it went Much smoother. I knew the steps and I kept the excitement to a minimum - it was all business. Zuke's minis to the rescue! As an aside, Li'l Smokies Are excellent motivators - Gertie completely ignored the squirrels yesterday. This morning I had the peanut butter pumpkin treats I'd made and that little toot did Great right up until she went to the furthest part of the yard and a squirrel twitched. Game over. I ceased to exist in her world. This is going to take a loooooong time to train. Anyway, back to Momo. This afternoon I'll do the training again and have enough treats to go to step 3. We only reached 1 treat in the bowl this morning because I wanted to get it down pat before prolonging his time with the bowl. Oh, and he Did wait this time. I took her advice and let him look at the treat in the bowl and after he assessed the situation with his eyes he looked to me for the release. Whew!

Lol, the trouble with smart dogs is that they're smart! With the cooler weather I started wearing a hoodie and switching the pocket I keep the treats in. I also saw a treat bag that was magnified and the trainer was able to move it around on their belt to different positions. I was thinking about taking an old belt, my hot glue gun, a container, and some magnets to see what I might be able to MacGyver together. Thought I'd toss those ideas out there for you in hopes they'd help. I've never seen an Airedale in person, but it was a breed I looked at before I found my first pound pup. I love the shape of Airedales' heads - definitely a unique look.

I thought I'd pass this along. Gertie's coat is like that of a Labrador Retriever's top coat but she has no undercoat. Momo, on the other hand, has fifteen layers of undercoat and a shedding blade gets him done but does Nothing for Gerts. She's like a dry Christmas tree - if you bump against her she explodes into a shower of hair. When I brush her, though, nothing comes off. If that doesn't do it, let me paint this picture - our shower is off white. After removing four piles of Gertie hair from the drain and turning off the water, she shook. The shower floor was almost black after that and she Still had hair flying off when I dried her. I thought maybe she'd be more like a horse and a curry brush might do the trick. I had one and it worked fairly well - hair was raining down. I tried it on Mo and I had to clean it off three times before I decided to return to the shedding blade for him lest my arm fall off from all the brushing. Mo had zero complaints - he was quite enjoying the exercise. This discovery kicked off an Amazon search (because I'm Totally Amazon addicted and I detest venturing out into public). I landed on the FuRminator brush after watching a few videos. Incidentally, if you attempt to Google "deshedding dogs without an undercoat," you're going to learn All about undercoats . . .. :rolleyes: So fast forward to today when the brush arrived and yep, it's quite awesome. It works about 30% better than the cheapy curry brush I had (to be fair, that one Was designed for bathing with water) and 30% to someone with an arthritic back is a 300% improvement. Gertie liked it better than the other one, too. There was a squirrel in the yard and she opted to lay down to be brushed instead. That's a huge nod. Anyway, just in case others are scratching their heads as to how they sweep or vacuum up half a dog each day, but can't get any hair off their pup by brushing, give a curry brush a go. I tried slicker brushes, pin brushes, bristle brushes, and a knock-off of FuRminator's shedding tool. The curry style brush is the only thing that actually removes hair. I've been using the bathing one for three days and used the new one today and her coat is shinier and far less dense. Thought I'd give a go at helping folks with grooming questions since that doesn't really fall under the training umbrella. Monkey and Abbi even liked it. Okay, Monkey likes being touched with so much as a stick, but Abbi is picky and she was thoroughly enjoying the attention. I actually got more Dachshund hair to stick to it in 10 or so strokes than Gertie hair. All I know is that now instead of sweeping daily I'm brushing her. It's a one-off, except that expect my furniture will be less furry so I'll save time in vacuuming couches and cleaning the washing machine after washing the blankets we drape over furniture. Amazon and Chewy.com have numerous options, I just went for the FuRminator because it had several videos available to prove its worth.

Awww, music is a good soother for the pups. I play George Winston for our girls when I have to run errands. Abbi is a fan of Blackmore's Night, and other Celtic singers, too. Thank goodness for Spotify! YouTube has quite a few playlists just for dogs that will play for 2 or more hours, just in case you need a back up. When I remember to, I'll put 3 - 4 drops of lavender essential oil on a cotton round and slide that under the crate so it's diffused and so the girls won't try to eat it. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not so much. Gertie was prescribed Prozac and Xanex but I quickly weaned her off that and decided she's just going to be one of those dogs who's crated when we leave (the destruction she dealt when left free range was impressive, but highly unappreciated). I thought Gertie was going to be a challenge because she was woefully uninterested in treats. As long as I have my homemade treats or Zuke's minis, she's a malleable piece of clay in my hands now, though! Like Eri, she needed to find her feet first. Gert's brother was with her so she was also going through that separation issue. He was adopted the day we went in to look for a Rottweiler / Lab mix litter we'd heard was available. By the time we got there they were gone and one of the gals asked if we'd seen "Taylor" yet. She brought Gertie to the "getting to know you" pen and Gertie kept walking away from us to chill by herself in the shaded part of the enclosure (it was ridiculously hot for only being April). I thought she was Totally uninterested in us - she even spat out the Milkbones we were given to help with the meet and greet. Now she follows me from room to room and curls up on the couch next to me when I crochet. And I dare not eat popcorn without sharing . . .. She's perfect! Well, aside from that squirrel chasing and the occasional ninja pee (honestly, she's my shadow - I have no idea how I miss her sneak off every now and then!), but we're working on it. :D To think I almost passed her up for 13-week olds Rosa, who liked to swing from my pony tail by her teeth, and her friend, Consuela, who was smart as a whip and liked to fetch. They were so much fun, über smart, and highly interactive. It was a heart wrenching decision, but my husband was happy to remind me tonight that I made the right choice and that He was the driving force behind that. :D I tried real real hard to get all three, but reason (husband) won out, lol. I still think they would have been a bundle of fun, but then I think of all that chaos . . .. Anyway, keep us posted. I'm just another person looking for guidance, but I stop by when I need a break from work (which is often). It sounds like Eri's in good hands with people who are going to go at her pace. It took about a month before we started getting into a routine and we (Gertie and I - the husband thinks dogs are family and don't need training, oiy!) just started training in earnest, beyond the basic sit and stay, three weeks ago. Dogs like Eri and Gertie make great companions once they realize they're home, like Really home.

Good morning! After being cooped up with all those barking, baying, whining dogs I'm sure she'll adjust to the peace and quiet of your home in time. :) Is she a mixed breed? Small, medium, large? Did y'all carry her or was she okay on a leash? I"m curious about this little girl! Both my medium sized pooches are rescues. Momo came from Austin PetsAlive! and Gertie was at the Humane Society. I brought Momo home when he was 4 months as well. It's funny how different they all are - he was ready to play with the cats, the cats were thoroughly unimpressed. Monkey remains so. Gertie, on the other hand, was much like Eri, but Gertie was around 9 months old. She was timid and hesitant about most things and had zero manners. I mean None. An open door meant "go ahead," she chewed up the cord for my sewing machine foot (I was Livid, husband fixed it), she decimated the cord to my drill (husband is a building contractor so now I use his manly one), she grew a peanut butter beard when Someone (me) didn't put away the peanut butter, she got her nose stuck in a bag of Fritos that was on my desk . . .. Enjoy the timid period, lol. Eri will come around and Then you're in for some antics. The laundry room is still considered a place of great evil to Gertie. My guess is she spent a lot of time in a small room like that. With oodles of patience (I'm Aries - we run short on that commodity), soft petting, and treats (slaves to their stomachs!) she's overcome all but that darn laundry room. She scuttles through that thing like it's going to bite her rump, her tail tucked a little, her butt sloped down, lol. Eventually we'll work on that but for now she doesn't have any need to spend time in there so it's low on the list. I'm straying . . .. Eri will probably need time and patience. Or, she might figure out real quick that this is for reals and she's not going to have to go back to the chaos of the shelter. Gertie is now out of her shell and holy Toledo is she ever a goofball! Her first week was one of gently enticing her into every experience, even eating. As I type this she's squeaking her duck and prancing around the office as though she's some great huntress showing off her latest kill (I've come to know this behavior as an "extinction burst," thanks to Adrienne :D). Not much advice from me, just anecdotes which I hope help ease your mind. :) If it were me I'd sit next to (not in front of) her crate and hum, chat with my husband, play a game on my phone, something I'd act naturally about, and nonchalantly put treats in front of her here and there so she associates me with good stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if she's too nervous to take treats, though. Once you walk away she might gobble them up. For exercises like that I love the Zuke's minis. They're flavor bombs (or at least smell like they would be) and they're tiny so you don't have to worry about fattening up your pooch. And yep, that was an extinction burst, Gertie is now snoring softly on her bed.

My Behaviorist gal just left and we had a good session. She had 17 steps for us to follow and we went through those three times. She was flummoxed by how quickly he picked up on the tasks, lol. I'll maintain my statement - he's über smart. She didn't want to move too fast, though, so I'll practice these steps daily until our session next week. She said she's tempted to up the ante, but she's going to hold herself back because we don't want to have to go back to square one, or before. Momo was great until she started rubbing his back and chest and spoke to him excitedly. He Finally showed his devilish side and growled a little. Thank goodness, not that I wanted him to get upset, but it was good that she got to see that I'm not practicing Munchhausen by Proxy by making up this issue! Mo really charmed her - she loved his eye contact, perked ears, and head tilt. He sure does look cute for such a sometimes mean dog. She complimented me on doing a great job with training sit, stay, focus, etc . . . because he did those perfectly, regardless of who was asking for the behavior. She said he's the kind of dog someone would pay good money for because he'd excel at sports. Then she told me, "don't you dare sell him!" I told her not to worry - I've invested 8 years into that knucklehead, no one else is getting him. However, if someone wanted to borrow him to do sports a few hours here and there I'd be fine with that. She laughed - she was on to me - she knew he'd come home tired. :D I showed her how I exercise him some days. I let him out of the lanai (screen room) and he ran around it, through the gate, then burst through the dog door. She was amazed at how quick he was. She thought he'd slow down for the dog door, but nope, he's like a torpedo through that thing. We've had to replace it already because that boy doesn't know the meaning of "slow." We talked about his hyper focus on the ball for fetch, and she suggested a way to help his impulse control would be to use a lower value item to retrieve, eventually working back up to the ball. It was very nice to have my efforts noticed, and complimented, by a certified trainer. I think he's going to present a challenge because the cookie cutter approach to this is (potentially) going to be too slow to where he loses interest or goes "over threshold" because he's bored. However, after one session we can't be sure - it's entirely possible he could get tripped up by the next phase and this first one was too easy because I already have him sit and wait until I say "ok" before he can eat. Once we put food in that bowl he might show out. I felt better about my own struggles with him because she was scratching her head, too, when he nailed each step. I do think as the challenges increase he'll display some of his less lovable traits and we may get stuck on a step. She had me feed him before she got there, and that's my instruction for each lesson. Here's a kind of recap of what we did (the sheet is in the other room so I'm going by memory), we repeated each step 4-5 times before moving to the next: Touch the bowl, tell him to sit, treat Touch the bowl, wait until he sits without a command, treat Touch the bowl, wait for the sit, take away the bowl, treat Walk away, have him sit, approach the bowl, touch the bowl, treat Walk away, have him sit, approach the bowl, touch the bowl, take away the bowl, treat Walk away, have him sit, approach the bowl from his side, take away the bowl, treat Switch sides, repeat Walk away, have him sit, approach the bowl from behind him, take away the bowl, treat There were more steps, but that was the gist of it. After we went through the routine a few times she decided we'd go off script and we practiced targeting (okay, she and Momo practiced it, haha). I think she was enjoying his company, enthusiasm, and responsiveness. Throughout he was taking the treats rougher than usual so I threw in my "easy" reminder a couple times. He would simmer down a little, but then he'd go back to being grabby. I also know his body language Very well and saw signs a couple times that he was "over threshold" with the targeting but she's still getting to know him so she didn't notice until he air snapped a couple times, after which she brought him back down to a workable level. He's subtle with his indicators, but she'll pick up on them quickly as she gets familiar with him. I feel good about tonight's session. After just one lesson he's not cured. Surprise! By the end of it we were both covered in slobber (he's not a drooler, by he manages to slime things up) and his bowl slipped from my hand a couple times to where I couldn't pick it up, haha. I'm sure we're going to be choking on the air tonight after all those treats he ate. He Might be put on 'possum / raccoon patrol tonight instead of coming inside. :eek: PS: Every time I type "over threshold" I can hear your advice in my head, lol. That's why it gets quotation marks. ;) If there's One thing you've taught me, it's that dogs need to be Under threshold to learn.

Ouch! That's no fun. :( These are supposed to be the happy-go-lucky breeds after all, but if you've had 7 other puppies and any have been labs then you know what a mouthy breed they are. My brother's Golden Retriever was the same age when I met her. She wasn't Quite as frequent with her bites as your little nipper, but it was irritating nonetheless. Stella would wrinkle up her nose and start peeling back her lips before she'd launch an attack, she looked so evil right before. A little fluffball of teeth! She normally did it to my sister-in-law and especially when sis-in-law would turn her back - that little devil would go for her Achilles (yowch!) or calf and those puppy teeth are flippin' sharp! She tried it on me a couple times but learned real real fast she'd end up with my fingers in her mouth, unable to bite down. I don't know how well that method resonates with force-free scientific training, but I got fed up with the bites and it works great on cats (who, incidentally, don't care what training method you use as long as they get what they want in the end). When you say nothing you've tried has worked, what have you tried and for how long before you moved on to a different kind of attempt? There are quite a few posts about puppy biting and you can use the search field in the upper right-hand corner (there's a looking glass icon next to it) to search for bite or biting - you might find some posts that Adrienne's answered that relate to your situation. I'd be wearing long sleeves, socks, and pants, maybe even mittens, to cut down on the skin damage and pain - I have very little tolerance for that behavior so I'd have to mitigate the damage. Out of curiosity is she full lab or mixed? If full is she yellow, chocolate, or black? That's one of my favorite breeds (along with most of America, lol). Chocolates have been the cantankerous ones in my experience so I'm interested to see if yours will break that chain. :D Any way you look at it, she's still very young and I'm willing to bet you'll be able to get that bite inhibition in check with the advice you get here. :) You Might want to repost it in the training and behavior section - that's where the most activity is. I wanted to say hi and express my empathy for your situation. I have a resource guarder with whom we're starting modification training with a Behaviorist this week so I understand the stress you're feeling - I've been doing it for 8 years so I'm also going to lend encouragement to stick to correcting it at this early age. Hang in there!

Hi Dan, Here are a couple questions Adrienne answered that I've seen since I joined, and have used myself: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?69-Retrieving-an-item-(fetch)&highlight=fetch https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?74-Another-fetch-and-drop-query&highlight=fetch