Advice on Correcting Specific Bad Behavior
Hello Everyone,
I greatly welcome and appreciate any advice you can give me for correcting a specific bad behavior Stella has. To give some background, Stella is a 9 1/2 month old Pembroke. Overall, she is a very well-behaved dog. I have taken her to the first level of obedience and will soon be taking her to the next. She knows basic commands and I reinforce them daily. She's a little bossy and sometimes needs to be "reminded" of how to behave, but responds really well....EXCEPT for one behavior.
It's an overreaction to me putting anything on her body--specifically her harness or clothing. She does this "flail-growl," and she's snapped twice, which obviously REALLY concerns me. What's strange to me, is that in ANY other way that I handle her she's calm and polite. She is not skittish or fearful, and interacts well with people. I can do anything with her paws, open her mouth, brush her teeth, take things out of her mouth etc. Just the other day, she had a piece of string caught in her front teeth, and she sat patiently and calmly while I lifted her gums and actually took a while to get it out. A lot of other dogs would have flipped out! She also doesn't display this behavior when I put on her collar or leash. Again she sits and waits patiently. But with her harness--or some type of clothing, like a sweater or shirt, she completely freaks out! She also does it sometimes (but not all the time like the harness and shirt) when I clean underneath her after a walk.
So far, I have held her still and said "no" and tried to calm her down and try again. This last time, I gave her a "time out" and then afterward, gave her a few treats to distract her while I took off her harness. She wriggled and jumped back quickly out of it, but didn't growl or snap.
What is the best way to correct this behavior? I feel like what I've been doing hasn't been working. The treat thing seemed ok, as she is VERY food motivated, but I feel like I need a specific approach. Do I practice? What specifically should I do? Has anyone else experienced this?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Nicole
I greatly welcome and appreciate any advice you can give me for correcting a specific bad behavior Stella has. To give some background, Stella is a 9 1/2 month old Pembroke. Overall, she is a very well-behaved dog. I have taken her to the first level of obedience and will soon be taking her to the next. She knows basic commands and I reinforce them daily. She's a little bossy and sometimes needs to be "reminded" of how to behave, but responds really well....EXCEPT for one behavior.
It's an overreaction to me putting anything on her body--specifically her harness or clothing. She does this "flail-growl," and she's snapped twice, which obviously REALLY concerns me. What's strange to me, is that in ANY other way that I handle her she's calm and polite. She is not skittish or fearful, and interacts well with people. I can do anything with her paws, open her mouth, brush her teeth, take things out of her mouth etc. Just the other day, she had a piece of string caught in her front teeth, and she sat patiently and calmly while I lifted her gums and actually took a while to get it out. A lot of other dogs would have flipped out! She also doesn't display this behavior when I put on her collar or leash. Again she sits and waits patiently. But with her harness--or some type of clothing, like a sweater or shirt, she completely freaks out! She also does it sometimes (but not all the time like the harness and shirt) when I clean underneath her after a walk.
So far, I have held her still and said "no" and tried to calm her down and try again. This last time, I gave her a "time out" and then afterward, gave her a few treats to distract her while I took off her harness. She wriggled and jumped back quickly out of it, but didn't growl or snap.
What is the best way to correct this behavior? I feel like what I've been doing hasn't been working. The treat thing seemed ok, as she is VERY food motivated, but I feel like I need a specific approach. Do I practice? What specifically should I do? Has anyone else experienced this?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Nicole
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Beth on
-
If it were me, I would nix the clothes! LOL I know they can be cute, but Corgis don't really need a sweater because of their natural coat. I don't like to force the issue with unnecessary things, myself. That's your choice of course, though.
Jack frequently grumbles (but doesn't growl) when I towel his belly. He reminds me he does not like it and I remind him that I don't care for his complaining with a stern "ah-ah".
As for the harness, if she learns to associate it with good things she will probably tolerate it. Jack was not at all pleased when we first put on his car harness. He didn't fight but he just looked miserable. But as soon as he realized that putting it on meant going in the car, he loved it and now he starts crying when I get it out. What do you use her harness for? If it's for car trips, get it on her any which way and immediately put her in the car. If it's for walks, again put it on her and immediately take her someplace really fun. If she associates it with good things she should come around to the idea pretty quickly.
-
Permalink Reply by Nicole, Stanley and STELLA! on
-
Thanks Kerry and Beth! My main concern is with the harness and cleaning her off. I actually don't put clothes on her much and don't think I need to. My neighbor gave her a sweater and she wore it once so I could show it to her :) and I thought the t-shirt would be helpful when trudging through the slush, dirt, salt mixture when it's bad around here and while her full coat is still growing in. I just noticed that the times I put those things on her, she had the same reaction as with the harness. I'm mostly concerned with the harness, because I feel like it gives her a better range of motion and the instructor of her obedience class stressed that it was better for puppies, especially when learning to walk, because it doesn't put pressure on their necks/throats. Also, like you said, Beth, I have a seatbelt for the car that attaches to a harness. Also, the cleaning is something I can't avoid! And she reacted that way with the cleaning today.
-
-
For the harness, what you might do then is stop taking her out for walks with the collar for awhile. Put it on even if she fights, and immediately take her out for a fun walk. She should soon realize that harness=walk. However, Corgis can be hard to fit into harnesses correctly because of their stocky chests so make sure it fits and is not uncomfortable.
Or, you might wait to get her used to it for walking until you get her used to it in the car. Put it on, take her out and clip her in the car and take her to a favorite park or something. Then once you are there, clip the leash to her collar and let her walk wearing the harness but using the collar as your directional aid. Do that a few times and she should realize the harness is a fun thing.
For the toweling, I would only resort to treats as a last resort. Give her your stern "no" or "ah-ah" if she fights, and if she's quiet for even a split second give her a "gooooood girl". You may need to alternate quickly between your ah-ahs and good girls. Is there any part of toweling she likes? Both if mine love to have their faces toweled, so I reward them for having paws or bellies rubbed with a nice head-toweling (using the clean end of the towel).
Good luck!
-
Permalink Reply by GoGoRainbow on
-
I could understand wanting to put clothes on. When someone is coming over who has allergy problems, or if I'm taking her somewhere, I like to put her pajamas on her (they cover her fluffy back legs too) so she sheds less on everything.
So my advice is that yes you should practice. Kerry is right that you can't reward the bad behavior with a treat, but what I often do with Pooka is have a big treat (like a raw hide, or something that smells real good) and I have it with me and she knows it, then I trim her nails/brush her, and she's distracted that its there and behaves letting me do my task, and when its done, if she was good, I give it to her.
You will probably have to do lots of corrections. Or baby steps. Work with harnesses first, or maybe wrapping a towel around her? Some minimal clothes that velcro on or something with less leg involvement to start. And maybe every time she growls, pause what you're doing (don't go back) correct her and once she's calm, give her a treat and move forward.
With something like this, I think practice is your only hope. If the snapping gets out of hand, maybe try muzzling her until the training process is over? I don't know much about this, though she probably wouldn't like being muzzled either ;)
I like Beth's advice on making sure something fun afterwards is associated. Though on that note... no matter how many treats, or how much fun we have after a bath, Pooka will always look miserable in that tub (she doesn't like water being poured on her). But, its ok for a dog to look miserable, they just shouldn't be allowed to growl/snap so I'm glad you're trying to take control.
-
Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
-
I don't disagree with anyone's suggestions but are you sure she does not have a spot that is sore? It is possible that there is an area with a bruise or something that gets aggravated with the harness etc. My Sparty is very tactile sensitive and is easily irritated by brushing or rubbing. Once my husband snapped his collar on and caught some skin. It took months before we could put Sparty's collar on without difficulty. If it hurt at one time it is possible she is remembering it and distrusting it. I agree making it a fun experience such as before a walk might help. However she may just be incredibly sensitive to touch like Sparty and will only learn to tolerate stuff like that.
-
Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
-
This thought crossed my mind also or could it be rubbing someplace?
-
Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on
-
See if you can get her to react to some part of her stomach or chest by handling it, pressing it, rubbing, etc. when she's calmly sitting with you. If there's a sensitive or iffy spot, you can desensitize it (by frequently touching and treating for a calm response) and see if she tolerates the harness better.
However, I -HATE- harnesses for training or for any other function except tracking. Harnesses (and I mean this literally) train dogs to pull and misbehave on leash. Dogs instinctively lean into pressure on their lower necks and chests and any attempt to get them to obey on a harness is actually completely confusing to the dog because the harness is telling them to go and you're yelling at them to stop.
No dog - and I mean no dog - needs to be on a harness for walking. You can put a three-pound Chihuahua on a micro-prong until it is well-enough trained for a choke or a flat buckle collar. I can see a function for a very soft fabric/velcro harness on a tiny toy dog when the dog is at the park or something, so that if you need to pick him up really fast you can do so from the top of the harness, but you'd still walk home on a normal collar.
Your dog is plenty big to be on a normal collar; if you're still needing to give her leash corrections and worried about tracheal damage get a mini-prong collar (by FAR the safest collar for a dog to wear while being trained - even safer than a buckle collar). If she's walking politely she can be on a choke or a buckle collar.
-
-
Hello everyone,
Thanks for all of the advice! I checked to see if she might have a sore spot, like some of you suggested and she didn't seem to, so it just must be something about the "being dressed" action that annoys her. I had always been told the opposite about harnesses, that they were much better than collars, which is why I got one for Stella. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, I walked her the last two times with just her collar so I didn't have to worry about the harness reaction. However, she got growly when I was toweling her off (which I'll be doing after her walks until May around here!), and I did have to alternate quickly between correcting her and "good girl." I don't think that I was praising her enough when correcting her previously. Well, we just got back and by the third round of correction/good girl, she was actually moving her body around and lifting her legs up for me to clean her! WHAT? She went from super crazy "I can't stand this another second" to "Hey, can you get my back leg, you missed a spot, thanks" and was totally calmed down. And that was only after three times! I'm sure I'll have to correct her again, but it was just weird to me. I was only a little more persistent and she responded really well. Not having the harness to deal with on top of the cleaning might have contributed as well, though. Anyway, thanks again for the advice!
Nicole
-
-
It's pretty common for trainers to allow little dogs to be on harnesses during puppy K class, but it's not because they think that harnesses are actually good training tools (at least I hope not!). It's because they're used to novice/clueless owners who don't know how to moderate a leash signal and they don't want a toy dog to get hurt. If an owner gets too enthusiastic or frustrated a tug on a harness isn't going to do damage.
-
-
IMO, the key is the "good boy/good girl" part so they know what they SHOULD be doing and not just what they should NOT be doing. I have forced myself (because it did not come naturally) to follow most all my corrections with a "good boy/ good girl" as soon as I get the desired reaction. So if I say "leave it" when they are hovering around the garbage bin that's being changed, and they look up at me instead of staring at the bin, I instantly praise. If Jack is barking at something and I say "that's enough" he gets a "good boy" as soon as he's quiet for a few seconds. I say "off" if they are on the couch and in my way and as soon as they hop down, praise. Etc.
The best part of it is that it conditions your dog to look at you and grin after a correction instead of putting back the ears and looking guilty. And THAT means you now have both stopped the unwanted behavior and captured their attention immediately afterwords; they look to you for that affirmation that they are now being good. Which means if you want to follow up with a new command, you already have got them focused and don't need to nag at them to get them listening.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
