December 16, 2013
Our new puppy hates all men. He seems very fearful of them. We've also had some problems with him going to the bathroom in the house. What can we do?
Full Question:
Hi,I have a question on our new puppy...his name is Toby and is 9 months old. We recently got him free from another family. He's a great dog, just having small issues with him. #1 and main issue, he hates all males (human). He can't stand my boyfriend (he lives with me) and this is from when we picked him up. He shakes uncontrollably with fear, barks, howls, growls and will even bite him when he goes to pet him, walks in from work, is anywhere around. We've tried giving him treats when he's calmed down to show he's being good, but to no avail. Today he pooped inside. He knows it was a bad thing cause he hid under the bed. I canned him and he came out trembling. I brought him to where he had made the mess told him that's a no-no then put his leash on took him outside he stopped trembling and pee-peed in the grass and I praised him for being good. I'm starting to think the husband from the couple I got him from may have abused him by hitting him for bad behavior. What can we do?
Ed's Answer:
A couple of comments here, the pooping issue first...
Unless you catch a dog pooping or peeing within 2 to 5 seconds of the actual act it is 100% impossible for the dog to associate any kind of correction with the actual event (peeing or pooping in the house). The dog may act nervous when you go to him but its because dogs are MASTERS of reading body language. He knows you are upset but he absolutely does not know why or what caused it. This simple fact has been proven in many many experiments with dogs.
If your boyfriend is serious about wanting to get along with this dog than have him learn to train the dog with markers. Here is an article I wrote on the subject. If we had the dog we would be doing the work in the following DVDs (or streaming videos that we have produced:
The Power of Training Dogs with Food
The Power of Playing Tug with Your Dog
In regards to the dog's attitude towards other men, we don’t ever allow strangers (male or female) to interact with our dogs unless they know and understand how to train with markers. We don’t let strangers touch or talk to our dogs and we ask them not to even look at the dog. If the dog acts in the least bit nervous we work on engagement exercises, which are covered in the videos above.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
Unless you catch a dog pooping or peeing within 2 to 5 seconds of the actual act it is 100% impossible for the dog to associate any kind of correction with the actual event (peeing or pooping in the house). The dog may act nervous when you go to him but its because dogs are MASTERS of reading body language. He knows you are upset but he absolutely does not know why or what caused it. This simple fact has been proven in many many experiments with dogs.
If your boyfriend is serious about wanting to get along with this dog than have him learn to train the dog with markers. Here is an article I wrote on the subject. If we had the dog we would be doing the work in the following DVDs (or streaming videos that we have produced:
The Power of Training Dogs with Food
The Power of Playing Tug with Your Dog
In regards to the dog's attitude towards other men, we don’t ever allow strangers (male or female) to interact with our dogs unless they know and understand how to train with markers. We don’t let strangers touch or talk to our dogs and we ask them not to even look at the dog. If the dog acts in the least bit nervous we work on engagement exercises, which are covered in the videos above.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
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