April 19, 2011
When my friends 8 month old pug had an accident in the house he corrected it so hard that now it rolls on it's back and pees when he calls it to him. What can he do to fix this problem?
Full Question:
A friend of mine told me he is having problems with his 8 month old pug mix (male) he said he corrected him to hard after he had an accident in his house and now it seems every time he is corrected (and he claims even when he isn't corrected) but his name is called, he rolls on his back and begins to urinate. How do I help him break this? I value your opinion. Thank you for your time. Is there any book on the market you recommend that will help me understand dog behavior better?Sincerely,
Rick
Ed's Answer:
No book, but my Basic Dog Obedience video is excellent. Getting your ass kicked for something when you are not sure why you got corrected screws a dog up. People who say "HE KNEW HE MADE A MISTAKE as soon as he saw me" are wrong 99% of the time. What dogs are very good at is reading body language. They know when their owners are pissed and it only takes a split second.
What really happened here is the owner probably screwed up by not taking the dog out enough and not using a dog crate enough while the dog was in the house. Actually this is pretty obvious. Had the OWNER done things correctly this would not have happened - it's always easier to blame the dog for our screw ups. If a dog is not 110% house trained it should be in the crate when not being played with. Just because the dog is a toy breed does not change this.
I have articles on my web site about how to house train a dog. Look in the list of training articles on my web site.
The dog is a soft dog - recovery from a hard correction is going to take time, training and praise. The dog needs to learn that when he gets called he is not going to get kicked around. Right now he does not know that. So call the dog and give it a treat - after about 100 times it should start to regain confidence. Normal training with tons of praise also helps the dog forget.
The bottom line is that your friend found out the level of correction that puts this dog into serious avoidance. He should NEVER USE THAT level again.
Now we see how smart this guy is. Because it's going to take brains to correct this problem.
What really happened here is the owner probably screwed up by not taking the dog out enough and not using a dog crate enough while the dog was in the house. Actually this is pretty obvious. Had the OWNER done things correctly this would not have happened - it's always easier to blame the dog for our screw ups. If a dog is not 110% house trained it should be in the crate when not being played with. Just because the dog is a toy breed does not change this.
I have articles on my web site about how to house train a dog. Look in the list of training articles on my web site.
The dog is a soft dog - recovery from a hard correction is going to take time, training and praise. The dog needs to learn that when he gets called he is not going to get kicked around. Right now he does not know that. So call the dog and give it a treat - after about 100 times it should start to regain confidence. Normal training with tons of praise also helps the dog forget.
The bottom line is that your friend found out the level of correction that puts this dog into serious avoidance. He should NEVER USE THAT level again.
Now we see how smart this guy is. Because it's going to take brains to correct this problem.
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