May 11, 2011
My dog refuses to wear his collar. What do you suggest?
Full Question:
Hi Cindy,I recently sent you an email about my 4 month old Dachshund absolutely refusing to wear his collar. I really do hate to write to you again regarding the same problem, but I really am pretty desperate right now.
When the collar goes on him, he refuses to do anything. He won't eat, drink, pee, poop, play, or do ANYTHING at all. All he does when it's on is go in his kennel and lay there the entire time. You suggested that I handle this problem with "marker training." I bought the tape from your company "your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months," which I found very helpful. I also read the article about marker training. I think this is an incredible way to train dogs, in fact, after the first training session with my pup he was sitting and laying down and performing the "touch" command. It has been very useful and he has picked up very quick on the commands that I want him to do. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked that great with the collar training. The only thing that it has accomplished it to get him to where he's not scared of the collar. He doesn't run and hide anymore when I pull it out and put it on him, but as soon as it goes on he refuses to do ANYTHING. He runs away, rolls over, scratches, whines, and then runs in his kennel and does not come out unless I drag him out of it. He won't perform any of the commands, he won't even take his favorite treat from me. I've tried ignoring him thinking that he will get used to it, but after 3 days of lying in his kennel with no eating, drinking, peeing, or pooping I took it off of him. As soon as it comes off he's back to his active puppy self and eats, drinks, pees, and poops, and plays, and does all of his commands. I've been taking it off once a day to let him to all of his "natural" duties, but as soon as it goes back on him, he runs in his kennel. I"ve been trying this method now for 1 1/2 weeks, but I see no progress whatsoever. I am so frustrated and aggravated about this situation because I've never encountered anything like this before in a puppy. I have asked everyone I can possibly think of, have spent money on websites that say they can answer "any dog training question you have," but noone can seem to help me with this issue. I am pretty much desperate right now and will try anything at this point. Please offer me more advice if you possibly can.
Thank You so much for everything. The leerburg website is wonderful and I have it saved in my "favorites" because I refer to it very often.
Please help me out,
Casey
Cindy's Answer:
If your puppy isn’t responding then you haven’t broken it down small enough increments for him. What type of collar are you using anyway?
If this was my puppy all food would come from my hand, from now on.
Obviously something has happened that has made your puppy think that a collar is bad. There is not going to be an easy fix, since he’s been allowed to mope around with the collar on, then you’ve dragged him out (very negative thing that just reinforces in his mind that the collar brings bad things) You’ve had anxiety about the collar, and he does too. You are supposed to be his leader and you need to be more matter of fact about it.
You can bet if I sense your desperation and frustration through an email, your puppy is picking up on it big time. This will only make the problem continue and become a neurosis. Be creative, think outside the box.
If this was my puppy, he’d see the collar ( or piece of string or whatever I decided would be easy to tolerate for the first step), click & treat. He’d eat his food one piece at a time, from me when I had the collar in my hand. Then I’d put it near him, click and treat. I’d get this dog to beg me to put the collar on, and when I finally would put the collar on, I’d click and treat and take it off immediately. I’d make everything good happen when the collar is around him or on him. When he doesn’t have the collar on, he’d go in his crate… no attention, no food at that time. Use reverse psychology.
If you understand marker training, this will make sense to you.
Cindy
If this was my puppy all food would come from my hand, from now on.
Obviously something has happened that has made your puppy think that a collar is bad. There is not going to be an easy fix, since he’s been allowed to mope around with the collar on, then you’ve dragged him out (very negative thing that just reinforces in his mind that the collar brings bad things) You’ve had anxiety about the collar, and he does too. You are supposed to be his leader and you need to be more matter of fact about it.
You can bet if I sense your desperation and frustration through an email, your puppy is picking up on it big time. This will only make the problem continue and become a neurosis. Be creative, think outside the box.
If this was my puppy, he’d see the collar ( or piece of string or whatever I decided would be easy to tolerate for the first step), click & treat. He’d eat his food one piece at a time, from me when I had the collar in my hand. Then I’d put it near him, click and treat. I’d get this dog to beg me to put the collar on, and when I finally would put the collar on, I’d click and treat and take it off immediately. I’d make everything good happen when the collar is around him or on him. When he doesn’t have the collar on, he’d go in his crate… no attention, no food at that time. Use reverse psychology.
If you understand marker training, this will make sense to you.
Cindy
User Response:
Hi Cindy,I just thought I'd fill you in on the progress with my Dachshund and his collar training. It's been one week since I got the advice from you and I am happy to say that he is now wearing his collar and actually cooperating. He's still not quite as active as when the collar is off, but he now obeys commands, eats, drinks, plays a little, and runs around when the collar is on him. It's amazing how quick it worked. The part about putting him in the kennel and giving him no attention when the collar was off is what really bothered him. Once I got him desensitized to the collar, I would not let him step out of his kennel without the collar on. I would make him sit right by the door and wait until I got it on him. Once he realized that, he was completely fine with it, and now I don't even have to tell him to sit. He now comes out just far enough for me to reach his neck, sits and waits until the collar is on.
After it goes on, he runs around and plays. No more whining or moping around from him. Thank You so much for the advice. I should have already known how to do this, because I am a psychiatric RN and very familiar with all of the operant conditioning and other methods of psychology, but sometimes I guess you need to hear it from someone other than your self to help pull it out of your brain. Thanks again for the wonderful advice. I will definitely be buying more from your company and using it quite a lot for all of my future needs. Your site is by far THE best one I've ever come across, and that has been quite a lot with this little problem I've been going through. You were the only person that responded to me with a logical explanation. I will most definitely be referring other people to your site as well.
Your loyal customer,
Casey
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