Hello all,

As you may know from my other thread , I'm working on deepening the bond and trust between me and my 19months JRT. I got 3 weeks off work, so now is the perfect time to work on tightening that link !

I started ground working from scratch, even though he's crate trained. I let him tethered to me wherever I go in the house. When I can't do that, he's in the crate. When I work, it means he's in the crate from 9am to 6pm. I know this is a lot for a Jack Russell... but he's not ready to have a free pass in the house yet.

Here are the activities I'm trying to do on a daily basis with him:

• 5-10min of grooming
  
• 15-60min of "fetch"
  
• 20-30min of biking
  

I just got him a Holly-Roller yesterday. When he's tethered to me, I let him play with it. While this has nothing to do with bonding with me, I don't want him to get bored to death because he's forced to either sleep or watch me work on my computer. I'm I defeating the purpouse of thethering by doing this ?

I'd like to have more suggestions of games/activities that help improve bonds between a dog and his owner. When I play fetch, we both have a great time, but he's reward is the ball... not me. I never throw the ball unless we got eye contact tho. And I'm using the game with treats for motivational training (sit-yay-toss, down-yay-toss)

I go biking with him mostly to burn his excess energy. While I'm confident he enjoys the run, I don't think he's associating this with me at all, because he keeps looking everywere except at me when he runs.

Please rule out swimming and "digging/hunting" for now. He hates water, and the last thing I want at this moment is to develop his animal aggression.

Thanks for your recommandations !

On last thing: when he's tethered to me, I randomly call him for some "that's fine" petting.

Hi. When my GSD was a pup, we tethered him to the nightstand by our bed (put his bed on the floor next to my side) so that he would sleep near us, get lots of my scent at night. I had read this in the Monks of New Skete book on the topic of bonding. Now, at nearly 20 months old, he sleeps on his bed at the far end of our room (no longer in crate at night since he's so good at staying in his place). I do think that all of that "being in the den" at night has been part of developing a great bond with him. The other thing I do is just lounge around with him for 10-15 minutes each evening (other than the grooming)-- I get off the couch, sit on the floor next to him and pet him while he lies down calmly. If he gets too excited/playful (he is just a puppy brain still), then I send him to his bed (there's one in the living room too) and I sit back on the couch to do my own thing. He has figured out that he will get lots of mommy-time like this if he is calm -so it's a win-win for us, he gets more lovin' and I reinforce calm behavior. Hope this helps!

The biggest thing is exercise. Dogs travel as a pack, and follow the leader. Him focusing on everything but you means he is NOT respecting you and not paying attention to you. I like Cesar Milan's first book 'Cesar's Way' in which he explains how to 'master the walk'. It starts from the second you have the thought to walk the dog, and focuses on keeping the dogs attention on you in a calm manner. While on the walk (or bike ride) the dog MUST be able to listen to every move you make.

My 9yr old husky/shep runs 20 mins on the bike, so maybe you need to do a little more for a young jrt. I think he would LOVE skateboarding/rollerblading as well. I would recommend training his heel on a walk first, then bringing it to the bicycle. I first trained mine to stop and sit at EVERY corner and he quickly whenever I stopped, he sits. This keeps him in check as to his focus on me. Cesar talks about a dogs 'traveling mode' where the head is down, focusing and the tail is in a neutral position. If my guy has too much energy it takes about a mile for him to get into it, but if I put a backpack on, he IMMEDIATELY has to focus on carrying the weight and the head goes down walking. This is kind of a sign of submission, I see it as more a sign of focus. Anyway, that focus is what you want to drain MENTAL energy as well as physical. Also, having your dog follow and focus on you is probably the biggest bonding experience I can think of. After about 1 mile focusing, he gets free time to sniff/pee then goes back to the following position. But always leave the house and enter the house with him following me, since YOU control the walk.


I read your other post, and am confident you got wonderful responses (I didn't read them though) I think draining both physical and mental energy will reduce the nerves and anxiety. I think when you say you have not est a bond, you DO have a bond, he trusts you but it seems that he doesn't see you as 100% leader, and feels he must take over the role at times. I say this because of the biting and other signs you mentioned. This was SOO hard for me once I realized I was NOT my dogs leader. In a dogs relationship with you one is the leader and one is the follower. ALL THE TIME. If you go into a weak moment, your dog will take over. It's nature to them, it's what they do.


So my thoughts are a bit jumbled, but I hope you got the idea. I REALLY like Cesar's Way because it explains HOW dogs think. You'll learn the difference btwn sit and sit calmly (this will help with petting) and how to master the walk.

Good luck, you are clearly a caring owner, and have the commitment to make him more balanced!

Francis,

For deepening the bond I think it's important to understand the principal that undergirds all relationships, whether that be a dog or a person the principal is the same.
The principal goes something like this: No risk no (relationship) intimacy. This is why relationships can be very challenging because it's in the working through that area of risk (if done correctly) that your bond is strengthened. So this begs the question as to how to apply this to the dog.
I'm not sure most trainers really understand the principal because they just usually learn the how to from someone else and don't try to find out the why. If you've ever watched the Flinks DVD on drive grip and focus you'll see how he does this. While he gets the dog to go into drive with the ball he allows a bite and then quite often will either play a game of tug or use a calming technique with the dog. The calming technique is the way he calmly strokes the dog.
Within this simple exercise is this principal. The dog quite often will begin to mouth the ball at some point which indicates something in the dog is not quite comfortable with the situation, (some like to use the word conflict). As you work through this with the dog correctly the dog will soon stop the mouthing and begin to build a better grip on the ball and having worked through the element of risk the dog has now developed a deeper bond with the handler. So here you can see that principal at work. The way to deal with relational problems is to work through them, not around them.
If I remember correctly Bernard said something like this " this builds a better relationship with the dog than if he/she were to sleep in your bed".

I think any activity you do with the dog will add to the bond. It's more about creating your position of leardership then playing games.
We often try to hard to become our dog's best friend.
That comes with time and fair treatment. Note that doesn't mean spoiling the dog, letting the dog have it's way, etc.
Trying to hard to be a buddy can be counterproductive to leadership.
What your doing to this point is fine. Relax and enjoy the dog.

Your tag line reminded me of another fun way to increase/build a stronger bond and also reinforce leadership and obedience. Teach tricks. They are sooo underrated! I started teaching tricks to Niko a few months ago and we both have fun with it. Plus it is just a good laugh for all to see a big GSD play dead on Bang, or dip his head and put it under his paw for "Shy".

I'd like to know how you taught the "shy"... that sounds so cute! Any other good tricks up your sleeve?

Heh, I think my principal problem is anytime I do something, I fear I could be wrong. I'm getting obsessed about doing everyting straight from now on.

One example of a game he REALLY enjoys is when I slowly walk to him in a "prowl" stance (think Mr. Burns from the Simpsons). He can run around me for 10minutes straight if I do this. Or I start running, he chases me, then I turn around and chase him (he runs away) then I take off and he catches me up...

Then I hear it's a bad game to play with a dog because it makes him figure out I can't catch him if he really wants to get away. I personally feel it's a pretty good bonding experience because it's only between him and me. This is actually one of the rare occasions I'm his full center of attention. No treats/toys involved. And most of the time, he will happily comply on a recall even if I suddendly stop playing and tell him to come (he sometimes get a treat then). So I'm not sure if/how this is really can be a problem. Of course, if I wasn't in my fenced backyard I'd have him on a long line to remind him I actually CAN get him back whenever I want.

Then when we play this game, he eventually jumps around me, and "bites" the air while looking at me. It's a behavior I'm not sure how to interprete. Could it be a "gotcha!" assertion ? When he runs after me, I sometimes suddendly turn around and feing to try to "catch" him. Sometimes I think it's his own way of doing the same.

My GSD loves to play chase like that as well. Like you, I stand in the center and initiate play. We only do this in one location (front yard around a water feature), so he associates the game with that location. Like you, I also interrupt the game and call him to me and treat him for that; I also make him sit, down and hold the down, etc. Then we can play again. I have not seen any negative impact on his recall and since you have him on a long line, you're staying in control too. It would be interesting to hear if the pros on this blog think that this could cause problems later (like running from us at some point).