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Permalink Reply by N a t h a n & L u f f y on February 11, 2013 at 10:44pm

Beth and Jennifer, I really appreciate both your tremendous amounts of advice! I understand everyone has their own methods to raising their fur babies and it just might be one of those case by case bases that decides which style to use. I'll soak up what both of you have said and use it to the best of my ability  =)

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Permalink Reply by Cathie on February 11, 2013 at 11:37am

1. Teach him the "off" command.

2. I'm not sure how the "time out" shows him you are not afraid of him. Are you afraid of him? If so, he senses it, and putting him in time out does nothing to convince him otherwise. The time out is just a way for both of you to shift gears, calm down, get under control, chill out, relax, hit the reset button, start over. IMHO.

3. At the dog park, at a shared water bowl,  other dogs should respect his warnings and leave him alone . That is very basic canine instinct that you are not going to train out of him. If he has his own water bowl, give it to him in the car. Or, if he can't seem to handle the dog park, stop going. It should be fun for both of you, if not, why go?

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Permalink Reply by N a t h a n & L u f f y on February 11, 2013 at 10:58pm

Yup, Luffy does the know the "off" command and he listens to it pretty well. I guess what I'm really asking for is if their is a way to condition his behavior so he doesn't mind being picked up while laying down or if i should avoid it all together?   I'll avoid the time out idea, I pretty much did that cause I had no idea what else to do, lol. Luffy and I love the dog park and we go almost every day. Luckily tho he has only shown the water bowl aggression only a couple times through out the entire year we have been going but i was wondering if their is any preventative measures i could be doing to not have this behavior explode.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on February 12, 2013 at 9:04am

My Sparty had rather strong opinions about being picked up so I just called him to me so he was standing when I picked him up.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 11, 2013 at 12:05pm

I wanted to add that Jack has snarled at me twice. He is NOT an aggressive dog, though he is a dominant one. I know he's not aggressive because he's been in situations where more than a few dogs would have bitten and he did not.

BOTH times he snarled at me, he had a highly valued found object in his mouth, another dog was circling trying to steal it, he was trying to keep it from the other dog, and I went in and tried to remove the object.

The mistake was mine for putting my dog in a corner. I instantly realized that. I did give him a verbal correction, but a better solution would have been for me to distract the circling dog, get that dog contained and out of the picture, and then ask Jack to leave the object (he always does because I've trained him to do so with treats, and followed up with physically removing the object if he does not comply, so he has learned that voluntary is better).

So, the mistake was mine and being overly harsh on the dog would have been counterproductive.

I think the situation honestly is similar here. Rather than moving him, train him to move. THEN if he does not, rather than pick him up you can give him a little nudge to remind him. It's easy to train a dog to move with a variety of techniques. With a compliant dog you can physically move them as you cheerfully give the command, and they'll learn to move themselves when they hear the command.

With a dog who grumps like yours, you can use treats as a lure; say "off" as you toss a treat away from the bed, then gradually fade the lure and switch to rewarding him after the fact.

Most dogs pick up on this quickly.

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Permalink Reply by Marcie on February 11, 2013 at 5:31pm

Becca did not like being picked up when I got her. We have worked and trained in the 11 months she has been mine. I can pick her up, but she only tolerates it. I know it stresses her, so I use commands that don't stress her when possible. "Off" is a big one. She is allowed on the couch, but if I want her off she gets off. If she shows aggression toward the cat, she gets off. "Off" was taught with positive methods, she got off and was rewarded. It works for us.

Becca also didn't like being held to get her nails done. It took 11 months, but with patience and positive training she let me do all four feet on Sunday.

Becca resource guards from the cat and you all know we have been working on it. Because I know she does this I am careful not to put her in a situation with other dogs where she may guard. The only exception has been my mothers dog. They quickly established that Becca has dibs on bones, but the lab has utter control of any tennis ball.

Good luck, let me know how things work out.

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Permalink Reply by Brooke Busteed on February 11, 2013 at 7:30pm

Does this mean Luffy won't be at the park tonight? :( Pooooor Billy!

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 12, 2013 at 10:19am

I can't post directly under another post at this computer and so this reply is to something further upthread:

"I guess what I'm really asking for is if their is a way to condition his behavior so he doesn't mind being picked up while laying down or if i should avoid it all together?"

I would say mostly avoid picking him up while lying down, but you can condition him to not be so reactive in that position. Just think about what touch he DOES tolerate while lying down, and start with that. Maybe every 10th time or so that you see him lying down, just go up to him, say his name cheerily, and touch him gently (maybe he doesn't mind his neck being scratched, say). The reward is that you don't move him and release the contact. Over time, you gradually start moving to, say, scratching his sides briefly and then walking away, and move up to rubbing his belly and then walking away.

You may see that he most likely gives a warning BEFORE the growl, and what you want to do is back off if you see this. For most dogs, what they will do is become very still and maybe stare before they growl. If your touch causes him to tense up like this, just let it go and then next time try something less threatening.

Again, the reward is the release of the pressure, your contact is brief, and he gets to stay where he is.

This way, over time, if someone accidentally grabs at him while he's lying on furniture, you don't have to worry so much. Still, it's probably best to keep him off the furniture if you have guests over.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on February 12, 2013 at 12:34pm

How are you picking him up?

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