Q&A with ‘The Paw Man’ (528) – When The Student Becomes The Master Katie Elkova Hello, I have a quick question and was wondering if u could help with it, we just got a Rottweiler (around 7 months old) and she’s learning quite well, but she gets very excited when she sees other dogs and I can’t snap her out of it and she has already nipped my leg once (didn’t draw any blood or anything) from the excitement. What should I do to try and stop this from happening again? Many thanks x Paw Man The one word answer would be…….. ‘discipline’ :) How do you normally discipline this dog? What was its history before you got her? What equipment do you have on the dog when you walk her? Katie Elkova She has stopped doing that now, the only problem now is when she’s off lead and gets overexcited she has a tendency to jump and uses her mouth. She doesn’t bite though. Paw Man When you say that she uses her mouth but doesnt bite, what do you mean? Katie Elkova She doesnt bite down with force basicly Paw Man So she does bite but just gently? So now I’m a little confused……. A couple of paragraphs above you started off by saying that she doesn’t do that any more……… were you referring to the fact that she doesn’t get excited when she sees other dogs any more….. or that she doesn’t bite you any more?.... because based on what I’m reading here she is still doing BOTH. Whether the dog bites you gently or hard doesn’t change what it’s doing…. Both are still types of bite. So not only are you failing to reach the dogs threshold of discomfort when you try to discipline it……. the dog is having difficulty reaching YOUR threshold of discomfort too……… so either you or the dog has to step up and find the others level in order to make the message clear…. Now is that going to be the dog or you? Katie Elkova Yeah pretty much. Paw Man So let’s look at where you are right now…… you have set a precedent with your dog that it is allowed to bite you and it suffers no negative consequences for biting you. The fact that the dog is only biting you softly is not relevant at all….. a bite is still a bite. Katie We had her since she was about 6 months and she didn’t have much training previously as we had to teach her all the commands. Paw Man So you’ve taught her ‘all the commands’??? Methinks that a few commands to behave have been omitted? Katie Apparently they got rid of her as she didn’t get on with their dog but I don’t know the full story. Paw Man But what you do know is that you got a dog with a previous known history of problems with other dogs. What have you done to address the dog to dog aggression problem? Katie We use a prong collar and usually to correct her we yank sharply on her lead and either say no or leave it. Also we have a friend who used to own dogs who helps us train her and she is perfect for him whereas we sometimes have problems ei when we see another dog but she is a lot better than she was when we got her as now all she does is look at them (most of the time) whereas before she would pull towards them and growl. Paw Man When you deliver a correction on the prong collar does the dog vocalise? Katie Elkova No, I try and do it hard but I’m just not strong enough. Grant Teeboon Have you tried the dog on a choke chain? Katie Elkova Yeah, we found it easier to use the prong collar though, she reacts better to it. Paw Man So she reacts better to the prong collar than she does to the choke chain but she vocalises for neither of them? If the dog is not vocalising when you administer an aversive then you are failing to deliver an aversive, which means that the dog does not perceive any negative consequences for that act…. Which means that it will continue to do that unwanted behavior. There are several options open to you at this point; 1. Learn to use the choke chain or prong collar correctly because I strongly suspect that you have not been shown the right way to use either. 2. Step up to the use of a Remote Training Collar, but in doing so you MUST seek out professional assistance on how to use this device correctly. The idea of ensuring that you use any of the mentioned equipment correctly is critical here….. because any piece of dog training equipment used wrong will not work. You mention that your dog used to lunge and pull toward other dogs but that now it only looks…….. with the implication that the ‘looking’ behavior is now OK or at least under control? Wrong. That ‘looking’ is what I call ‘perving’ or ‘looking with evil intent’. Your dog’s primary means of communication is not vocalisation, but rather it is body language. And the ‘way’ in which your dog looks at other dogs can in fact be quite provocative. For example, if you are having a conversation with a male and his eyes are focused on your chest and not on your face then you know EXACTLY where his mind is don’t you :) Well the same can be said for a dog that is looking at another dog ‘the wrong way’. This behavior alone also needs to be extinguished because it is provocative to the other dog and causes rapid escalation down the wrong behavioural path. By way of a human parallel, I know that when I am with my wife, if I look at another woman ‘the wrong way’ my wife delivers a swift aversive that works surprisingly well…….. I think I have taught my wife a little too well…… (when the student becomes the master) :)
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 04:26:51 +0000
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