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April 29, 2011

I have a well behaved dog, but everyonce in awhile she does the 'zoomies' and I'm not sure how to handle it. What do you advise?

Full Question:
I've looked in every subject line I could think of on the Discussion Board (which has a wealth of information), for my particular problem. The answer is probably there buried in other discussions, but I decided to go straight to the 'horse's mouth'.



I have a 17 mo. Siberian Husky that is CGC and Therapy registered, and we are also training in Agility along with Competitive Obedience. With that said, she is quite smart, responsive to training, and eager to learn new activites. We run/speed walk no less than 2 1/2 to 4 miles a day and living in Florida that's not an easy feat this time of year with all the rainfall. Lately, I've been encountering a bad recall response when we're out training at the agility field where after 15 minutes she decides to jump the fence and do the 'zoomies'. Of course, I'm really concerned that she'll get hit by a truck. I do try to keep her active attention between turns with various treats, games, etc. so her eyes are on me.



Here's my real question; The instructor got ahold of her after one of the run-outs and tried to wrestle her down to 'submit'. Which didn't happen, my dog appeared to be fighting for her life, so I intervened and grabbed her by the jowls and removed her from the trainer (who was getting bit) to the van. Since she was a little puppy, getting her to go limp in submission has never happened. The closest I could get to that was for her to lay on her side, but her body was stiff. How neccesary is it to get your dog to 'submit' by going limp on the ground??



I have ordered the E-collar along with the DVD.



Please advise further.



Thank-you for your attention,
Shirley
Cindy
Cindy Cindy's Answer:
Wrestling an animal to the ground to submit would not be what I would recommend for this (or for just about anything). I do agility and I see this type of behavior in a few dogs and usually these dogs have done the “zoomies” and had a blast getting chased around and it becomes reinforcing to him. I am so glad to read that you have ordered the ecollar and video.



For now, I would hold off on any activity that required her to be off leash and I would work on rebuilding the recall response with food and toys, and make her WANT to be with you. If this means you cut her meals in half for a while and she gets a lot of her daily food from your hand during training then that’s what I would do. I would also be working with the ecollar after you watch the DVD and get her acclimated to that. Muscling dogs into submission usually does nothing but make them less likely to come to you in the future. I’d probably have thumped that agility instructor had they done that to one of my dogs.



Don’t get in a hurry to “test” your recall off leash and without an ecollar. Retraining this can take a long time but you want your dog to realize that it’s always going to be more reinforcing to come to you, and that running around gets her nothing good.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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