Adrienne Farricelli

Hello and welcome to the forums, The whole course is meant to teach your dog better impulse control through training (obedience 101 section) while the brain games provide mental stimulation and an outlet for many instinctive behaviors. This helps pave the path for a dog who is better able to focus and whose brain is challenged so to lead to happier, more relaxed dogs. With the issues you are facing, on top of training and mental stimulation, your dog needs behavior modification. This often (especially when aggression is involved!) requires the intervention of a dog behavior professional for safety and correct implementation. I will be sharing with you some examples of the kind of work I would do with dogs dealing with some issues you are describing in your setter. This is an example of behavior modification conducted on a dog I worked with who barked at people entering the room: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/ For handling and grooming issues, I would once again use behavior modification techniques focusing again on desensitization and counterconditioning: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ For example, I would start by touching the dog slightly and initially simultaneously feeding a high-value treat so it would be simultaneously touch- treat, touch-treat, touch-treat. Afterwards, the treat should be given right after the beginning of being touched rather than simultaneously so touch then treat, touch then treat, touch then treat with a slight overlap. We want to make it clear that treats happen contingent upon being touched so to create a positive association. Then we would gradually progress, increasing criteria to longer touches and then touches in various areas of the body (leaving the most difficult areas at last), always paying attention to the dog to ensure he is never stressed or giving signs of being uncomfortable. If the dog ever looks uncomfortable (whale eyes, turning the head, lip licks, yawning), that is often a sign that we have progressed too fast and need to go a step back. For safety, it may be necessary to use a basket muzzle until we have gained trust and a reliable conditioned emotional response to being touched. Depending on the dog, sometimes the basket muzzle may be needed long term in case of procedures that may cause abrupt pain (e.g. medicating a wound or clipping nails where the quick may be accidentally clipped). For reactivity towards dogs who run towards him, it is important to use management as much as possible in the initial stages (walking in areas where there are no off-leash dogs) and aim to once again work on behavior modification. You can find a detailed thread on this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?301-Reactive-anxious-dog If he shuts down during training whatever he is being asked may be too difficult, or he might feel intimidated by something (you standing in front of him, tone of voice, hands near his face). Gordon setters tend to be rather soft dogs, who are very sensitive. These dogs needs a lot of patience and exercises may need to be split in small steps. Baby steps. Start in an indoor area where there are not many distractions. Use high-value treats. Keep sessions short, when he is struggling, ask something easy, and call it a day ending the session on a positive note (jackpot of treats, toss several small treats on the ground for him to scavenge for). Try your best to never show any frustration when he doesn't get things right away, he needs all the encouragement he can get! Most of the training course uses luring as a method for training (using food to position the dog), but if your dog doesn't like hands near his face because he is hand shy, you can try capturing, which entails reinforcing spontaneous behaviors. Basically, for training a dog to sit, what you do is wait for your dog to voluntarily sit. You can therefore have him in a room with little distractions, you sit down on the couch and just wait for him to sit. The moment he sits, you say "yes!" and toss a treat in his direction. Repeat several times. Trial after trial, your dog learns that sit makes good things happen and you should see it happening more and more often. Once it happens more and more predictably, you can add the verbal cue: just say "sit" a split second before you notice him sitting or right as he sits. After several trials, he'll start associating the word with the action and you can say "sit" and he should sit automatically. You can find more tips on living with fearful dogs here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/?s=fear I am sure your dog has a big potential for learning, he just needs tiny steps in the right direction. It can be done! Let us know if you need any assistance as you move through the course. Disclaimer: behavior modification comes with risks. If your dog is aggressive or has shown fearful, defensive or aggressive behaviors, practice caution and consult with a dog behavior professional for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification.

Hello, and welcome to the forums! Bless your heart for helping this little fellow out! These dogs need lots of tender loving care as they learn to feel safe and are provided with opportunities to bloom. You are doing a great job! Now the fact that your Chihuahua doesn't send out signals meant to initiate play may occur because she never developed such play signals in the first place or her play solicitations were for some reason unsuccessful so she they extinguished as she stopped exhibiting these at some point. This may happen as a lack of response from other dogs or a lack of actual play partners. If she was taken away at an early age, you are correct that she may have missed out on some important life lessons such as how to properly "speak dog." In dogs like yours, if you decide to take her to daycare it's important that you use a facility that offers a safe, controlled environment. If there is a dog trainer there to monitor every interaction, even better. He or she can assess your dog's play style and determine whether she can be suitable for day care. If she is, it's important to match her up with dogs who are more "resilient" so to say. In other words, dogs who are more likely to "forgive" if she happens to miss some social signals and capable of "bouncing back" if she engages in some minor infractions. Exposure to such dogs can also work well as 'teachers." If she is still young, there may be good chances she may learn more about meta-signals such as the play bow and other appropriate play behaviors such as role reversals and refreshing pauses. Sometimes dogs are the best teachers. Now, not all dogs have these 'teacher" qualities. Messing with the wrong type of dog could turn costly, both in terms of potential physical injuries and emotional tolls (which often taken longer to heal from compared to battle scars). Since your dog is small, it would also be important to ensure that she is placed with dogs of her same size as a larger dog could cause considerable damage. Sometimes, providing long tug toys where one dog grabs one side and the other grabs the other, can help shift focus from chasing to a more appropriate form of play. Of course, this is all based on whether she would be suitable for daycare. Inform the facility about her behavior. If her behavior stems from underlying fear, daycare may be too much for her at this time. If it's more due to high arousal levels and not-so-great play skills such as perhaps a tendency to fixate on the same repeated behaviors with little or no pauses in between, she might be suitable for only closely supervised play with certain suitable playmates. A careful assessment may be needed. With the issues you are facing, it would therefore be important for your dog to learn how to disengage as you or a daycare supervisor may need to act as a referee. Now, everyone seems to have different criteria as to when certain types of play need to stopped. Some will be more lenient in letting dogs "work things out" when play gets a little out of hand, others are more strict, calling out dogs at the minimal infractions. I personally think, "the golden way in between" is the wisest action, intervening as needed while keeping in mind what type of dog she is playing with and other factors. Of course, take my words with a grain of salt as I haven't assessed your dog in person and therefore don't know exactly how her body language is when she approaches dogs, how her behavior may impact other dogs etc., as we need to consider several factors such as how long she engages in the ankle chasing, how fixated she is when she does that, whether there are pauses in her behaviors, if she uses other play styles in between and how other dogs react to it. Usually we gauge how the other dogs react by removing them temporarily and seeing if they promptly come back to her for more play. If that's the case, they likely weren't intimidated by her play style and somewhat enjoyed the interaction.

You are very welcome! I forgot to post the links on desensitization and counterconditioning. These are the methods that are commonly used to deal with barking that stems from underlying anxiety. Other forms of barking such as attention-getting barking or separation anxiety barking are tackled in different ways. Desensitization: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ Here you can see an example here using door knocks: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/doorbells-knocks-on-doors/ However, desensitization works best when it's powered up with counterconditioning: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ Now, it needs clarified here that the use of food is not to reinforce performed behaviors as done with traditional training, but to create positive associations. It's behavior modification, not training. In other words, when we traditionally train we use food/toys/life rewards to reward operant behaviors like sitting, coming when called etc (operant conditioning). In behavior modification, we are pairing triggers with something pleasant (food more commonly) for the goal of changing the emotional response (classical conditioning, counterconditioning).

Hello, Welcome to the forums! You can find the course's main sitemap here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/ Here, you will find the the brain training section, click on that and it will take you to the obedience 101 section and the mind games. If you have any dog training or behavior questions, here is the place to ask! Happy training! Adrienne

Thank you so much for taking the time for providing all these details, they are very helpful! So sorry for your loss. It sounds like the dog affected by cancer provided a somewhat reassuring effect on your barking dog. It is not uncommon for changes in a dog's social group to have an impact on others at a deep level. This temporary imbalance along with the addition of another dog, could have unsettled things a bit, paving the path for insecurity which put roots. Of course, until dogs can talk and tell us what's going exactly in their minds, this is just speculation. It may also be that your barking dog simply coincidentally reached social maturity around that time. Social maturity in dogs in general starts around 9-10 months up to 1-2 years of age lasting up to 36 months (in large breeds mostly), with behavior problems peaking between 12 to 18 months of age. Of course, there are variations in these time-frames based on dog breed and size. If this is the timeframe in which the barking started to get out of hand, this can be a culprit (on top of the aggravating addendum of stressors taking place around that time, such as the loss of your other dog). Data from research has shown that, the fact that many pets develop problems at social maturity is a major contributing factor as to why many dog owners give up their pets at around 1.5 years (Salman et al., 2000). Veterinary behaviorists attribute the onset of problems during social maturity to myelination and regressive pruning taking place at a neurochemical level. In simple words, this is a time of significant developmental changes in the brain. In particular, this is a time of the formation of neurobehavioral developmental patterns with the frontal cortex being particularly involved in the regulation of “emotion” and emotional outbursts. And then we have genetics, the inheritance factor. Just as dogs can be selectively bred for certain traits, a predisposition for reactivity may come along for the ride. It can even start as early as in the womb, if mother dog is stressed, her stress hormones cross the placenta impacting a developing fetus. Neurochemistry and genetics aside, we must consider that barking can be a highly adaptive behavior, especially for dogs who are anxious. In other words, if every time the dog barks, the person or dog moves away or the door knocking stops or the guest moves back, the dog perceives as if his barking has helped move the trigger away or stop it, ultimately giving him relief and keeping him safe. Barking therefore puts roots and establishes as a dog's default behavior when dealing with the perception of a dangerous world full of triggers. The more the dog rehearses the problem barking, the more it puts roots. Dogs as such need help, but not in suppressing the barking directly by yelling, shaking cans filled with coins or bark collars, but rather in addressing their internal turmoil at an emotional level. These need their confidence levels boosted, they need to feel safe, and sometimes, in severe cases, they may even need medications to put them just in that specific state of mind where they can relax enough so that their brains can be put to work to learn coping skills. I know you likely love to keep your dogs free off the leash when hiking, but your barker dog may need a little bit of restrain so that he doesn't get to rehearse the barking behavior over and over and feel like he must bark at every leaf that moves. It doesn't have to necessarily be a leash, since he's small, he can even be carried in a little Sherpa bag-at least until he learns better behaviors. This just temporarily for the part of the walk where you are more likely to encounter people with other dogs and other startling triggers. Then, if you have the all clear, perhaps you can allow him to walk and explore or use a long line so that you have at least some level of control. If you carry him in the Sherpa bag, there may be chances that, if you reach a certain point of the walk where you are farther away from the house, once you snap on the leash, he may not try to run back to the house (if he panics and starts pulling though, avoid this). Or you can just carry him in the bag for the whole way and let him walk on leash back home. He might not get the amount of exercise you might be hoping for (by romping around), but surprisingly many dogs get more tired with mental stimulation (brain games and training) than lots of exercise. The purpose of the leash is not only to prevent him from rehearsing the problem behavior, but also to keep him at a distance from triggers and under threshold. You see, the closer dogs get to triggers, the more likely they are to react. And the more they react, the more stress hormones circulate in their bodies, potentially leading to trigger stacking (the accumulation of stressful events having a cumulative effect) If he is about to react or reacts, you can always turn around and walk the opposite way to make him less reactive and give him an opportunity to learn an alternate behavior than barking. A helpful behavior that can help in the long run is attention heeling: here is how to train that: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/ Here is how to train an emergency u-turn upon seeing a trigger: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/ For the car rides, it would help to keep him crated. Crating often dramatically decreases barking in the car as the dog doesn't get to go back and forth looking at triggers and feeling the need to protect himself from perceived threats. Some dog owners find it helpful placing a blanket over the crate and playing calming music to buffer sounds. Now, most of the things suggested so far are for management purposes (preventing him to rehearse the problem behavior). To actively work on his anxiety, you would likely need to implement desensitization and counterconditioning techniques. You can read more about these techniques here: Because anxiety-related behaviors have also a negative effect on a dog's welfare considering that stress influences both the mental and physical health of dogs, it would therefore be important to work on the problem barking perceiving it as an external manifestation of an internal turmoil. You would therefore need to take a multi-faceted approach of boosting his confidence levels, preventing exposure to stressors and actively working on his fears using desensitization and counterconditioning. Depending on how stressed your dog is, he may need calming aids in the form of supplements (L-theanine,), DAP collars and diffusers, Thundershirts or Anxiety Wraps or even prescription medications provided by a veterinary behaviorist to be used in conjunction with behavior modification. I hope this helps! I know it's a lot to absorb. If I haven't covered everything completely in depth, please feel free to follow up with details on what you would like me to explain more in depth and I will make sure to provide more elucidations. With anxiety-related barking, it falls more under behavior modification rather than regular dog training so things tend to get more complex.

Ha-ha! (well, I laugh now, back then it was very frustrating!)-this reminds me of my female Rottweiler Petra when she was a pup. She did the exact same thing. Would go to the door repeatedly, then once out, she would space out only to potty once back into the house. At some point, I realized she didn't really have to go all the time, smart pup only wanted to go out to have some fun and quickly learned that every time she went towards the door, she would grab my attention and be sent out. Also, once out, she would forget all about going potty (either because she really didn't have to go or she was just too distracted), so she would only remember to tinkle once back in the home where things were a little more 'ho-hum'... boring and less distracting. How did I work on this? Well it took several strategies: -I would take her out and not let her back inside until she went potty. Of course, initially this was easier said than done because out of all the trips outside, only a few were due to a real need to tinkle, the others were just for exploring and fun. So it took an eternity for her to go potty. It helped initially taking her on a walk (I didn't see your pup's age, so if she still hasn't finished her vaccinations just walk her in the yard), then when she finally did the deed, she got praise and a reward and we went back inside. -It also helped taking her outside on a leash to the same area where she previously went potty. The leash was to prevent her from wandering around exploring and helped her focus on the area where she went potty previously reminding her where the 'bathroom' was. -I made sure to keep the outdoor trip matter-of-fact. I took her to the area, let her sniff and gave her the chance to go. -While I was at it, I used capturing to train her to go potty on command. Jennifer already provided you the link for how to train that. -Once she went potty, she also got some minutes of off-leash freedom to satiate her need to sniff/around burn some energy. -At the same time, I also made sure to make being inside the home more fun so that she wouldn't always think about going outside. So she got to do fun brain games right upon coming back inside which kept her busy for some time. -As Jennifer also pointed out, an enzyme-based cleaner to neutralize odors when your pup happens to go potty indoors can be extra helpful. -Oh, one last thing: when you praise and reward when she goes potty, make sure to start your praise right when the stream of pee has ended or is right about to end. If we praise too soon, the dog will get distracted and not empty the bladder completely leading to a pup who finishes up indoors. The biggest challenge for all of this is distinguishing when she really has to go out to potty from when she just wants to go out to explore/sniff around. It helps to keep track when she goes so that you know that you have some time. Make a little chart with the time of the outdoor trip and make an area to check mark yes or no if she goes. Also, post there when she has indoor accidents-so to keep track of them and measure whether she is progressing or regressing. So if she pees like every half hour, once she successfully goes potty outside at 10:00 AM you know she is likely fooling around if she asks to go out again at 10:05 and most likely at 10:10 as well, (unless she is guzzling water like crazy or she has a urinary tract infection--in which case you may notice her dribbling a bit of pee here and there that often. Things may get more real when she asks to potty at 10:20-10:30. Now, if you have taken her out every handful of minutes when she goes to the door and now start to ignore some of her requests, you may expect some extinction bursts along the way. Basically, she may try harder to get your attention. With Petra, she started barking louder or going away from the door and then rushing back to it. If you ignore these, you should see a reduction in asking to go out, so she may learn to go to the door only when she really needs to go. If not, you will have to be her ambassador, taking her out when she's due for a potty break so to prevent an indoor accident. Keep her in an area nearby the door so that you can swiftly take her outside and keep an eagle eye on her for any pre-potty signs (sniffing, circling, abruptly stopping from playing). Keeping the area clear of large furniture helps you track her easily, versus a room full or furniture which may block your view of her. You don't want her behavior of going to the door though to totally extinguish, so when you know she is close to the time she might really need to go, as soon as she's at the door barking, snap the leash on and take her out. -If she is very young like in the 8-16 week age bracket, please provide more details on her age, as thing may vary slightly. Also, if she pees when you pet her, loom over her or talk to her in a certain tone, please let me know as sometimes frequent peeing is due to submissive/excitement urination which is different from a true need to pee. As Jennifer pointed out, a vet visit may help rule a UTI out in case that may play a role in her behavior. Watch for her peeing frequently (like every time she asks to go out), licking her privates and presence of blood in her urine, but some pups don't always present these signs so always good idea to rule it out. Female dogs have shorter urinary tracts so they are more prone to this compared to males.

Hello c_l_7 , Migraines are awful! Hopefully, the addition of the new puppy will keep your barking poodle a bit busy so he'll have less time to think about barking! On the negative side, we don't want him to teach the new puppy to bark excessively too as puppies are like sponges and very impressionable at that age! Now to tackle barking, these vocal creatures often require a multi-faceted approach, but also an individualized approach depending on what form of barking we are dealing with. You are describing various forms of barking: barking at triggers on walks, barking when you stop walking and then barking at every little sound. For barking on triggers on walks, I will need a little bit more information because this may arise as a result of barrier frustration (the dog wants to go meet and greet people and other dogs on walks but barks because he's frustrated he can't do that- therefore we are talking about a distance-decreasing behavior) or reactivity (the dog is anxious about certain triggers such as people, dogs, sounds etc. and therefore, in this case we are talking about a distance-increasing behavior). These two forms of barking require a slightly different approach. Does he bark and lunge towards people and dogs? Does he get along well with people/dogs? Does he startle and act fearful when he sees people and dogs? What does he bark at exactly on walks? For barking when you stop walking, does he bark at you as if protesting? Some dogs get easily bored and want to keep going on walks so they'll bark in hopes of getting you moving again. Let me know if this sounds like the case. Otherwise, it may still be barking as a result of frustration or reactivity and stopping just makes him more aware of things or perhaps he feels more vulnerable. In regards to every little sound triggering him, you can work on this on using a variety of strategies. Some of these strategies may require you to work with your dog being separated from your other dogs (so that you can easily focus on him, and for safety, in case any of your dogs are prone to resource guarding treats). Please note that you need to be logged into the course to access the reading material found in the links. - Make sounds less salient by buffering them using some noise-making machine. A fan, radio, TV can sometimes help. -Identify if there are any specific sounds that your dog is reactive towards. This article can help you identify them and offers some tips: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/nothing/ -If your dog is reactive towards doorbells and knocks here are tips on how to tackle that: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/doorbells-knocks-on-doors/ -If your dog barks as a reaction to visual stimuli from windows or doors it helps to block access to them. -Once you identify sounds that cause him to react, you can try the 'hear that method" you can find details on this method here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/ -Many dogs who bark do so because they are bored and take their watch dog role too seriously. Exercise, training and most of all, mental stimulation (brain games!) is important. Engaging him in more productive, fun things to do should help him reduce his barking. -In some case, redirection can help reduce the quantity of barks for repeated barkers. So for instance, if a trigger gets him barking many times in a row, you can cut things short by asking him to perform an alternate behavior that is incompatible with barking. For example, he barks just once, allow just that one bark and then ask him to target your hand and reward that by tossing a treat. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ These are just a few tips, more ideas will come to mind once I gather more info about his other forms of barking. On a side note, it is very common for dogs to not listen to us when they are barking. This is because they are often way too over threshold https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ to listen and cognitively function, on top of that, if we yell at our dogs, they likely think we are barking alone with them! As seen, dogs bark for different reasons, so it's important tackling the underlying emotions triggering the barking in the first place so to address them correctly.

Hello, and welcome to the forums, Yes, please provide more details about the biting as this is likely the most important prognostic factor. How often did he bite? What type of biting exactly? Does it occur with just food? Or a variety of items? Of course, just provide info about past biting occurrences, don't try to see what triggers his biting behavior exactly just for the sake of providing a precise answer. Also, how old is this dog now? To answer your question about whether there is hope, it really depends on a variety of factors such as the severity of biting, how long the biting has occurred, whether the behavior is predictable (it happens only in specific, expected contexts), whether the dog gives warning signals prior to biting (does he freeze, growl, turn his head, give "leave me alone" signs?"), the size of the dog, whether there are children in the home, the time and level of commitment the family can provide for working on the issue, etc. So all these factors need to be carefully weighed in. Definitely not something a person can make a blank statement such as "the dog needs euthanized" without seeing the dog, gathering medical, environmental and behavioral history, considering all factors and the possibility for behavior modification. You are doing everything right by managing the situation using a barricade so he doesn't get to rehearse the problem behavior and trigger undue anxiety (dogs who resource guard are anxious as they are afraid of losing access to their valuables).This is an important step as you consider your options. *Please be careful when petting across the barricade in case he might have something valuable nearby that you might not see directly. A dog who resource guards may mistakenly perceive an arm stretching towards him to pet him as a threat to steal something he may be guarding nearby.

Hrdika, This may not be a therapy group, but we are all dog lovers here and we can understand your feelings! You are going through a very difficult situation and you need all the help you can get. I am very glad to hear you are working with a behavior professional as he/she is in the best position to help you out. It would be important to know from him/her if she thinks there are any glimpses of hope with behavior modification that things may change. Of course, no dog trainer/behavior consultant can provide guarantees on the outcome of training or behavior modification (this would be unethical!), but sometimes they can provide a little insight into possible prognostic factors based on their experiences on working on similar cases (all cases are different though) after doing a functional assessment and info gathering. I must agree with him/her though on the fact, that, when training and behavior modification must be carried out, an important prognostic factor is that everybody is on board with the process. If you remember, in a previous post, I mentioned that lack of compliance and lack of a supportive environment (where all the family is committed to collaborate) can put a dent in things. So the next question is: will your husband be willing to collaborate if there are chances that things may improve with time? How far is he willing to go until all options have been exhausted? If things are difficult, are you willing to do a life-time of management? And then, you must consider the welfare of both your dogs. Could Remi be a happier dogs in a home with no other dogs? When dogs are prone to attacking so frequently, there's often a good level of underlying anxiety going on. And then, of course, we must consider the impact on Hannah, who is suffering emotionally from Remi's behavior. Please remember that when there is tension and fights between two dogs in the household, the repercussions can be physical (through potential bites) and emotional. It may sound odd, but often, the emotional toll may be worse as victim dogs learn to live in constant terror of being attacked. If you are doing crate rotations, and Remie still growls at Hannah even though she is separated from her, you may need to find some other way to separate to ensure the two are “mentally” separated from each other so that Remi cannot threaten Hannah even if vocally. Your behavior professional can provide more insight on how to accomplish this. To answer your question about re-homing, I don't think there is necessarily much shortage of women who only want one dog. Sometimes, and I know this may sound very odd, some dogs who attack another dog sharing the household happen to get along with a dog of the opposite sex or different temperament/age group. It may not happen very often, but it's not unheard of, especially in cases of same-sex aggression (female-female combos are statistically the top combo to not get along-and social maturity is often the age of onset for problems). Of course, we don't want to take any risks, so it is best to carefully disclose all her history of not getting along with Hannah and her initial behavior with your husband, even though things improved. It would be important talking about this with your behavior professional as she might now through word of mouth somebody who may be a good fit and perhaps can even help you screen potential candidates. I have never personally re-homed a dog of my own, but have helped spread the voice in the process and there are many happy tales of new dog owners who keep in contact with the former owners providing updates and sending pictures etc. Some former owners also establish so good relationships with the new owners, that they even visit every now and then. I must confess that in some cases of housemate aggression, dog owners often feel terrible at the initial thought of re-homing, but then they feel a sense of relief as separating and living in perpetual tension can be very stressful. This is nothing to feel guilty about, it's just that dealing with inter-dog aggression among dogs sharing the home takes a big emotional toll that can be draining and heartbreaking for all those involved. Of course, this is if worse comes to worse, but having a back-up plan is always important. Feel free to post anytime, Hugs to you at this difficult time.

Hello and welcome to the forums! Kahu is a beautiful name! There are several ways around using a clicker if your dog finds its sound aversive. You can replace its sound with a verbal marker (yes!) or any virtually any other short word that is used exclusively for the purpose. You can also use a sound made with your mouth as long as you can easily make it often and keep it consistent. However, studies have found that clicker provide cutting edge precision and some advantages over sounds produced by us. So if you want to use the clicker, you can try the following: -You can try to keep the clicker inside a pocket. The pocket will help muffle the sound and make it less intimidating towards sensitive dogs. -Another trick of the trade is to put several layers of tape on the clicker, again, for the purpose of muffling the sound. The keyword here is going gradually, therefore, as the dog learns that the click brings marvelous treats, you can start peeling off a layer of tape so to allow the dog to get step-by- step used to the clicking sound. -For severely noise sensitive dogs, you can use a retractable pen that clicks. -Use high value treats to create strong positive associations especially during the charging process.

Hello, and welcome to the forums, Tail-chasing can start as a game in early puppy hood and sometimes persists and puts roots. While putting the behavior on command appears to make sense as we expect the dog to perform the behavior only when cued, the problem is that it is very difficult to have a behavior such as tail chasing placed 100 percent under stimulus control so that it happens only and exclusively when we tell the dog to perform the behavior. Unless we are with the dog 24/7, it will likely happen at one time or another that the dog will eventually perform the tail-chasing behavior in absence of the command at some point or another and this creates trouble, possibly even making the behavior stronger. On of top of this, consider that tail chasing is often a strongly self-reinforcing behavior. It may be used as a displacement behavior, as a way to express frustration, anxiety, boredom or solitude. This self-reinforcement therefore maintains the behavior preventing it from extinguishing as one would hope. Your case warrants further investigation. What breed is your dog? Some dog breeds are more prone to this. Has your dog undergone a full medical examination based on the tail-chasing behavior? Sometimes tail chasing stems from medical issues like anal gland problems, spinal pain and even neurological issues. It would be important to rule all the possibilities out as there's no point working on a behavior if it is medically-induced. Does the behavior happen as well when you are not present? It may be insightful to record her behavior when you are not around. Some dogs do this for attention. In general, compulsive behaviors are suspected when a dog cannot be called out of the behavior, when the behavior occurs out of context (with no distinctive trigger) and increased stimulation and exercise makes no difference. I am a bit concerned about the fact that you need to physically intervene to stop her and that barn hunting didn't seen to help distract her too much considering that this activity is carried out in quite a distracting environment, especially if you own a breed naturally inclined to hunt down vermin. She may perhaps benefit though from some gradual introductions to barn hunts to make her more interested in the activity as perhaps the first day she didn't have much opportunity to acclimate to a new place and understand the extra reinforcing traits of the "game." I am glad to hear though that she did engage for a few minutes in the hunt.

Hello Susan! I am thrilled to hear your new pup has done so much progress in so little time! You need to pat yourself on the back for a job well done. About what happened during puppy class, this is one of those circumstances we wished the trainer would take note of this and would have taken some steps to ameliorate the situation. It sounds like though this was a transition time so maybe the trainer left to take a break or left for the day to be replaced by another trainer to take care of the next class. Regardless, it would have been nice if the dog trainer would have seen the impact this dog had on your puppy and could have asked the owner of this dog to move away at a distance so that your puppy could relax enough to feel more comfortable to step out. I would suggest next time mentioning the issue to who is running the class and your concerns. This is such a delicate phase of development that we don't want things like this to have an everlasting impact through such intense exposures (flooding). If this direct exposure can be avoided, your pup at least isn't put into the position of “practicing” learning to be fearful. Your trainer can also perhaps help with some gradual desensitization (gradual exposure, through baby steps) and counter-conditioning (creating positive associations) to help with these fears.

Hello, Welcome to the forums! It sounds like your dog is emotionally too involved in certain circumstances which make it difficult for him to concentrate on the task. In dog training circles, we say that the dog is "over threshold." In other words, he is too excited that he can't think straight. You can read more about threshold levels here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ It also may be a matter of your dog not having learned commands to a fluent enough level to perform them in distracting environments. This comes with maturity (your dog is in the peak adolescent stage which can sometimes be a challenge), consistency and practice. To work on this issue, we can therefore try different approaches: 1) Lower the level of distractions. Work more on training your dog in a quiet area and then gradually introduce distractions. Therefore, start training your dog to lie down in a room with little distractions, then, once he responds fluently, train him in the living room with more distractions, then in the yard, then on walks etc. If at any time he appears to be struggling, take a step back and introduce a less distracting environment again and build up from there gradually. 2) Increase the value of your rewards. What are you giving your dog to reward his compliance? Sometimes, a higher-value reward can make a world of difference and help get over a hurdle as such. The reward in this case becomes more salient than the distractions which go to the back burner. 3) Keep your dog busy. More exercise, training and mental stimulation can help lower high arousal levels in dogs. You may find these exercises helpful: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ This brain game provides your dog with an "off switch." https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/jazz-up-and-settle-down/ As mentioned, the adolescent stage can be quite a challenge with some dogs. You can read here some tips and ideas for this milestone: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ When you mention "he will get great fun out of giving me the run around for his own entertainment" what do you mean exactly? Do you get frustrated? Do you chase him around? Sometimes dogs perceive all of this as a fun game. If you can also provide a few examples as to circumstances where he gets distracted/overly excited, I may be able to formulate a more precise answer with more tips. It sounds like you are struggling in getting him to come when called. Do you have a fenced area to practice? What are you using to reward when he comes to you upon being called? Are you by any chance, chasing your dog around to catch him? Doing so might trigger a game of "keep away" which is not very good for the purpose of training a dog to come when called. It's far better the other way around, having your dog chase you until you have a more reliable recall response. As I await some more details about your specific circumstance, I will post some threads about recall training which may get you started on some troubleshooting: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?213-Recall https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?264-My-dog-has-selective-hearing https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?134-What-is-the-best-way-to-train-our-new-7-mo-old-puppy-to-come

"Do you think after a little while we should invite other dogs to the house to ascertain whether it is all dogs or this one in particular that causes the problem? I feel it is all to do with her inability to stay under her threshold and remain balanced and calm." Here's the thing: dogs who live as the "only dog" may find it stressful to have other dogs abruptly land into their household. Of course, this doesn't apply to all dogs, some dogs are impacted more than others. It's somewhat a similar experience to the "only child" who must suddenly learn to live with a new sister who will get lots of attention and with whom she may need to share toys and living spaces. From a dog's perspective, this change in their environment is not easy, and it takes a period of adjustment. Some dogs may hide from the other dog, some others may get upset by this new "intrusion." For this reason, when a new dog is brought into the household of an "only dog" a variety of steps are taken in hopes for a smooth transition. The two dogs are introduced on neutral grounds, then they are walked together, and once home, introductions are done very gradually, over the course of several days. The new dog during this transitional time is ideally kept in a neutral area along with toys, blanket and other necessities considering that placing the new dog in an area that the resident dog considers highly valuable can trigger conflict. Areas of high value include bedrooms, areas where owners spend a lot of time and favorite resting areas. If the new pet is allowed access to a highly valued area and the resident dog feels excluded, this can trigger anxiety and possible conflicting situations. Of course, at some point the new dog will need to be introduced to new areas of the home, but once again, this is done very gradually, as the resident dog gets used to the new dog's sight, smell and vocalizations and is in a more relaxed state. Now, this is just an insight into what happens when a new dog must be introduced into the household and is expected to become a permanent member of the household. With visiting dogs, things get tricky. There is not enough time to acclimatize the two dogs, and the resident dog may get upset by this intrusion. For this reason, since guest dogs are only occasional, the best thing to do would be to just manage and keep the two in separate areas so that there are no hard feelings, preferably keeping the guest dog away from highly valuable areas or valuable people. There is really no way to predict if your dog would act the same way with other dogs visiting the house as this depends on many variable. Perhaps, things may go well if the other dog acts less intrusive, is more shy and respectful of your dog's body signals, but it might not be worth trying just to keep things safe and prevent unnecessary stress. Of course, for longer stays, it may be worthwhile doing the whole gradual introduction and see how things go proceeding gradually paying attention to your dog's comfort levels. If your dog is prone to resource guarding though, behavior modification with the help of a professional may be needed.

Hello, In such a case where the guest dog is staying only for a few days and the problem happens only in a specific circumstance (in your case, contingent upon food being on the table) , management may be best way to tackle the issue. In other words, we would keep the dogs away from the table area since it evokes unruly begging behavior in the guest dog and growling along with body blocking in your dog. A good set up may be therefore to erect a barrier by the dinner table (or dining area altogether) such as a baby gate or pet gate (if both dogs don't mind being together) or having dogs down/stay on their own mats (if they are trained to do so) or just keeping the dogs in different areas (so nobody gets upset). When new dogs visit the home it can be a highly stressful event for some dogs. You can try to keep your dog's routine the same if time allows and reassure her every now and then that she is always your favorite despite this other dog visiting and acting as if he owns the place. It therefore helps to not give any attention to the guest dog (no talking, feeding this dog, petting in her presence) and preventing putting Belle into situations that cause her to negatively react emotionally. I am glad you are determined to keep training Belle. The festivities surely can put a dent in many things (like diets and exercise programs!) on top of dog training goals. May the New Year bring more progress! Wishing you the best, Adrienne

Hello, Welcome to the forums, If they are entirely new to obedience, it would be best having them trained separate in the initial stages. Once the behavior becomes more fluent in both, you can then introduce the distraction of each other as part of the proofing process. For more specifics on this you can visit this thread: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?138-Working-with-more-than-one-dog Happy training!

Most behaviors dogs perform occur because they are reinforced in some way. Contrary to what was thought in the past, most dog behaviors directed towards humans aren't carried out by what is assumed to be "dominance." Dogs jump? It's not like they are are trying to attain rank, instead they just want to say hello. Dogs pull on the leash? It's not because they want to be in control of the owner, but rather more simply because they like to sniff and explore. Dogs bark at the owner? It's not because they think they are in charge, but because the behavior is often inadvertently reinforced. The belief of dogs attempting to attain dominance was promulgated by initial studies on wolves by Shenkel in 1947, but the dominance myth was in good part debunked by research studies of wolves in their natural habitat conducted by David Mech. Mech noted that wolves are not dominated by an “Alpha Wolf” as Shenkel portrayed in his research on wolves in captivity, but rather, he found that wolves in their natural habitat formed social groups that were similar to how human families are organized. Members of the group depended on each other to survive in the wild and therefore true aggression wasn't convenient as it would have been a futile energy expense. In addition to this, a better understanding of canine behavior has brought to light the fact that dogs, despite sharing DNA and several traits with their wolf cousins, they are very different in many ways. This means that there is no point in explaining dog behavior through the application of wolf behavior models just as we wouldn't use chimpanzee behavior models to explain human behavior. Although the idea that dogs are basically “domesticated wolves” is still popular, research has shown that this idea is outdated. So to answer your question, if your dog brings the ball or tug toy to you, he is likely looking for attention, and more specifically, it could be he is trying to invite you to play. It could be he wants you to toss that ball, or play a round of tug with him. Some dogs may also bring toys because they like to be chased (a game of keep-away) which I wouldn't encourage because it may trigger stealing behaviors just out of fun. You can read more about this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/stealing-things/ Because this behavior can sometimes get out of hand (I have seen dogs expecting owners to toss a ball for them all day long), it would be important to ensure your dog receives a good daily dose of brain games, training and exercise so that he gets joy (and a strong reinforcement history) from these activities without depending too much on fetching.

Hello and welcome to the forums, I like the setting the breeder offered (gated area by the door with puppy pads) as I have used a similar setting with young puppies and had good success with that for day-time use. At night, a crate in the bedroom may work best, especially if the breeder took some time to crate-train her puppies. If not, it may be a little harder to train as conditioning to a crate takes some time. Crate training can help in the future too for instance when traveling, when the dog is left alone at home for safety etc. There's a crate training section here if you are interested: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/ It is not unusual for puppies to have some accidents as soon as they get in their new home. On top of that, consider that puppies don't have full bladder and bowel control until they are about 16-20 weeks old. So if your puppy is fairly young (most puppies are 8 weeks old when they are sent to their new homes) it is normal for them to have accidents here and there. During the night, multiple trips are often needed. If he gets up and whines at a certain time of the night, it could be he will need to be taken out about 15 minutes to half hour prior. If he gets upset when you try to move him, it may help to train him to follow you outside. You can do this during the day. During the day, get up and rush towards the door as you say "let's go outside" most pups will follow you, and then, once out tell your pup to "go potty" followed by praise and a treat for going. Do this several times until he understands what is expected. If he wanders in the yard playing and not focusing on going potty, once he is leash trained, you may need to take him on leash and restricting him to a designated potty area outside to speed up the process until you can train him to potty on command. Here's a guide on how to train a dog to go potty on command which you will find helpful throughout your pup's life: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/potty-on-command/ During training, treats should never be given for unwanted behaviors, only the desirable behaviors should get reinforced with treats. The only exception may be when doing counterconditioning (behavior modification), but that's a whole different story. I am happy to hear you are excited about your new addition! You can start with the obedience 101 section teaching him some basics such as sit and down and don't forget about socialization (the window closes at 12-16 weeks). Ask your vet for advice on where to take your puppy to socialize safely. More about this here:https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/socializing-your-puppy/ You may also start with some easy brain games to put his developing brain to work.

Hi there! Welcome to the forums, How old is your dog and is he neutered? Is this a new behavior or has he done this before? If there is licking and whining along with air humping, there may be chances something medically may be going on. A veterinary visit may be needed to rule these possible causes out. Allergies, for example, are known to make dogs itch like crazy. These allergies can often be attributed to certain ingredients in foods or they may originate from contact to certain chemicals or allergens. Local irritation may also take place from other skin conditions such as bug bites or scrapes to the skin. In this case, air humping therefore takes place in an effort to relieve any itchiness or discomfort. Urinary tract infections, bladder stones, problems with the dog's anal glands or prostate gland may also be a culprit. Sometimes, in male dogs, an irritation or inflammation of the sheath can be a trigger or debris sometimes gets caught in the sheath.

Hello, Welcome to the forums! How old is your dog? What breed? What kind of play do you engage in when the biting happens? How hard does he/she bite? Gentle mouthing/tolerable(just feel pressure)/painful (triggers an ouch!) Does he/she leave teeth marks? Like puncture wounds or teeth scratches? Thanks

I feel your frustration, so many puppy owners feel this way, it just feels like the nipping stage never ends! How are you redirecting exactly? What of the above methods have you been using? We need to find what she likes doing best and what she finds most reinforcing. It sounded like target training was something she enjoyed doing. Are you doing several targets in a row? Also, what kind of flirt pole are you using? Does it have a toy at the end that squeaks? Are you moving it around a lot? Making it super fun to play with tugging at it? And also giving access to it mostly when you are planning on working on redirection? If you present it too often she might get bored of it and go back to choosing your legs. I think this might be a matter of momentum, catching her before she comes back to grab the leg and redirecting over and over, and then, after several trials of this, right before she gets cranky, end the training by providing her with something that is longer lasting and let her enjoy it as you leave the area. So let's say she approaches you and you ask her to target and you toss her a kibble/treat to reward the target, next right when she is almost done chewing the treat, be ready to re-engage her with another target (present your hand right in front of her so your hand is very salient) or a game with the flirt pole or just tossing another treat or a ball. Do this several times in a row. Careful in being ready to catching before she even thinks of grabbing your leg. Then, after she has done several reps of this, be ready to give her some longer lasting goodie (like a puppy-appropriate edible chew toy or stuffed Kong) and give her some down time, preferably leaving the area while she consumes it ending the training session. This may be important considering that she may go back to biting as a way to encourage you to interact more with her. In other words, it could be she doesn't like the game to stop so she's looking at ways to "re-activate you". It's important to always find productive ways for her to use her teeth so that she spends lesser and lesser time nipping your legs. It may help to wear extra layers of clothing so that you may be less likely to move around. I know of some owners who have been wearing tall boots so to move less around during training. I have used my horse-back riding chaps too. Does the biting occur mostly when you are standing or sitting? Time, consistency and patience is needed with these young pups. Most are land sharks at this age. Keep redirecting and working on bite inhibition. Provide brain games, training, and exercise. Don't forget naps, bad episodes often take place when pups are starting to get cranky. Do you have any friends with vaccinated puppies of her age? Fortunately, most pups outgrow this nipping stage, but teething gets them grumpy and just like babies they sort of throw fits of nipping instead of crying. At her age, your pup may also benefit from learning some basic impulse control exercises How is she doing with sits so far? Below are two pups I recently worked with at 7 weeks sitting nicely before their meals, your puppy should be able to do this. Incorporating some impulse control exercises can help you add some behaviors that can distract from excessively nipping. Once she knows sit, you can therefore also train some helpful impulse control exercises such as sitting for meals, sitting briefly before you open the door (look up the open sesame game) and sitting before tossing a ball. If you can use her kibble for training (giving one kibble for to reward each exercise), you have loads of opportunities for training impulse control exercises such as approaching you, sitting in front of you and you tossing her a treat to reward the sit. Always end the training with a longer lasting treat (a cookie that takes some time to eat, several kibble tossed for a fun treasure hunt) as you walk away and are done with the training. This way you outsmart her so she doesn't have the chance to latch on and she doesn't even feel the need to attack your legs. Another helpful exercise you can do is the Jazz Up and Settle Down Game: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/jazz-up-and-settle-down/ Once she learns this game, you can redirect her to a sit when you notice she wants to nip, but as always, try to outsmart your smart pup and aim to catch her before she even thinks of nipping your leg. The more you catch her before, the better, as many pups are too aroused to listen once they latch on. Finally, something to consider, is that you might be seeing what's known as an extinction burst. In other words, the behavior getting worse before it gets better. What may be happening is that, if previously you used to move your legs a lot when she nipped, but now you are trying to move less, she may be biting with more intensity because she's hoping to get you to move and interact more with her. If you hold your ground, there may be chances she might start giving up trying. Of course, staying still can be quite a challenge with those sharp needle teeth puppies have! -but this is where wearing more clothing or tall boots can turn out very helpful. Keep us posted on how she does with these exercises and feel free to post when you notice the nipping getting better or worse. Are there some times when she nips the most? What seems to evoke the behavior? The more details the better so we can do some more troubleshooting.

So sorry to hear this. Please keep them separated or at least Hannah muzzled and supervised while you await to see the behaviorist. We are past the stage of throwing blankets/blowing air horns at this point since she seems to attack so unpredictably and with such determination and with such frequency. As mentioned, in the last post about muzzling/keeping dogs separated, management at this stage is top priority. The more she attacks, the more she rehearses the behavior and the more Hannah is put at risk. As mentioned before, chemical changes occur every time she attacks and the behavior puts more roots. If she has been going all day after Hannah, that's certainly not good:( I am glad to hear Remie is learning fast and that you found a professional to help you out with behavior modification. Make sure all medical issues are addressed too as they can certainly lower a dog's aggression threshold. I imagine how difficult it may be dealing with all of this and you are commended for being so determined! Keep us posted on how it goes.

Jennifer, I can see swapping for another tug toy working if this is a dog who puts a higher value on the toy tugging compared to treats, especially if the other tug toy is one that is new or the dog doesn't see very often or this other toy has some other appealing details (texture, movement-wiggling it around) compared to the one being tugged. So I don't see why not it's worth trying, good idea! It could be this dog is scared of losing access to this toy, so presenting another one especially if wiggled around could potentially become an easy choice. Something else that comes to mind is that, sometimes, a dog is so focused on tugging that she can care less about the treats offered or hardly notices them. What I usually do if I am playing tug with a dog who is very motivated to pull back, is to stop creating resistance, so I would therefore stop tugging on my side. I would then say "drop it" as I simultaneously hold a smelly treat in my hand letting it protrude from my fingers and would place it right in front of the dog's nose. Most dogs would let go once they get a good whiff of it and go into "gimme-gimme!" mode. So I would let the dog have the treat contingent upon dropping the tug toy, and then either go back to tugging or put the tug toy away if we are done playing with it right while the dog finishes up eating the treat. Of course, we don't want to be always stuck with a dog who drops only upon seeing the treat (that would be bribery), so we need to start gradually fading that pretty soon. Here's how we can do this in several steps: 1) At some point, we start saying "drop it" first and then present the smelly treat by the nose letting it protrude less. 2) Next, we start saying "drop it," but this time the treat doesn't protrude from the hand anymore, rather,it's a bit hidden by my fingers holding it. 3) Next, we start saying "drop it," but this time the treat is enclosed within my fist even though we pretend as if we are still holding it with our fingers. 4) We say again "drop it," but now the hand is completely empty (and perhaps a bit more distant) and the treat is in my other hand or in my pocket. At some point, the dog should be able to "drop it" without relying on the sight of the treat 5) We further raise criteria, saying "drop it" but no longer show the hand near the dog's face, but feed the treat from the other hand or pocket. Other ideas that come to mind is finding ways to reduce the saliency of the tug toy or increasing the saliency of the treats/toys taking advantage of natural events. For example, try asking for the drop it when you know your dog starts losing a bit interest in the game, for example not in the first few minutes of the game when the dog is most interested, but a little later or try to practice early morning before breakfast when your dog is more likely to be hungry and the saliency of the treats increases. Fun fact: Dogs have considerably less taste buds than us (about 1,700 compared to our 9,000), so what really attracts them the most is smell, so the stinkier the treats, the more likely they'll attract her. You can therefore experiment with a variety of treats, perhaps try freeze-dried liver or tripe treats. Something to be cautions about is that sometimes, there may a little hint of resource guarding in some dogs who won't let go of toys in fear of losing their possession. So caution is needed here; if you think your dog is resource guarding or has shown signs of aggression when having toys in the past (stiffening, growling, whale eyes), this would take a different, more comprehensive approach, so please consult with a dog behavior professional to play it safe and for correct implementation of dog behavior modification.

You are very welcome!Feel free to post here for any updates or further questions. Best, Adrienne

With fence fighting, this behavior gets quite addicting and the fact he redirects onto Vera is a sign of strong emotional arousal. So we want to prevent this as much as possible though management. Management may entail: 1) arranging different outings by finding an agreement with the neighbor to let the dogs out at different times. This once again is likely the easiest option. 2) letting Ernie out at a separate time from Vera so at least he doesn't redirect towards her, however this would still allow him to rehearse fence fighting. 3) taking Ernie and Vera out at separate times and when Ernie is taken out he is walked on leash at the opposite side of the fence so he doesn't get to rush to the fence and fence fight (caution is needed here though as some dogs are so aroused that touching them or restraining them with a leash may cause them enough frustration to redirect on the owner and bite. ) Management may also entail doing a yard check prior to letting Ernie out to ensure this other dog is not out and having a plan in place if you hear the neighbor opening the door to let his dog out (more on this soon). Training and behavior modification may be used too, but once again, we must weigh in the pros and cons (time, commitment, safety etc.). Training may involve teaching once again a strong response to "leave it." Leave it is first trained in the home with no distractions, then nearby the door that takes to the yard, then with the door open, then a bit closer to the fence, but not that close that he's over threshold. High-value treats are needed to reward leave its so to make choosing leaving the other dog a no-brainer. Because Ernie has a history of being food aggressive, for safety, this training should take place away from Vera. Another good training command that can come handy is a strong response to a recall so if you are out in the yard and you hear the neighbor getting ready to or opening the door to let his dog out, you can quickly run to the door and call your dogs inside. Behavior modification would involve creating positive associations with this dog. Does he see the dog ever or just hears him? If he hears him only, the "hear that" method may help initially. You would therefore keep him initially on leash indoors with the door open and every time he hears this other dog, you would make a smacking sound with your mouth and feed him a treat. Rep after rep, you should see what is known as "conditioned emotional response. " In other words, he looks forward to hearing this dog rather than dreading it. Once again, this should be done away from Vera since it involves use of treats. Here's a read on the hear that method: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/ If he sees this other dog, then "look at that" may come handy starting by letting him see him from a window as describe here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ Once again this exercise involves treats, so should be done away from Vera. The ultimate goal of training and behavior mod is to change Ernie's emotional response towards this other dog (hearing him/seeing him) and helping him make good choices. This may take some time though, as you need to assure he's not over threshold, and if goes over, you need to decrease distance from the fence area and practice more from that distance. Also, you must consider a potential "startling effect." If you dog is calmly sniffing in the yard, and this dog comes out at the same time and startles Ernie, you may have a setback. Also, since Vera starts barking too, she may also need worked on, so management may ultimately be the best option (letting them out at different times). Disclaimer: Behavior modification and training meant to tackle dog aggression comes with risks and therefore it's important to seek out the assistance of a dog behavior professional for safety and correct implementation.