Quote: richard seward

Our company had a GSD drug dog that we were training for school inspections. He would shut down at the sight of polished floors and was a real problem. We started him on smooth concrete warehouse floors with a toy and some treats. Next, I sat on a small tile floor with some Beggin Strips (the smell really attracts the food behavior) and placed one about 6 inches inside the floor, then increased the distance. It took several tries and a calm attitude on my part (no vocal command or coaching), and he did fine. Then, moved to playing with a toy (kong on a rope) and that became the dog's focus. He's doing fine now, but every now and then will hesitate on a polished surface. When he does hesitate now, I take the kong and move his attention to it rather than the floor environment.

Hope that helps.

I like this transition to progressively shinier floors.

If someone doesn't have the right timing or attitude, this looks like a great alternative to "flooding" the dog with the object of its fear.

You can go to the natgeo website and watch any of the past episodes. I don't have time right now to search for the right one, but here's the website so they can find it. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/dog-whisperer

That episode does show the entire procedure on how to get a dog to walk across the tile floors. It takes time and practice, along with a confident attitude on the part of the owners! They can't feel sorry for the dog, or think he can't do it - the dog picks up on that big time. It's like a child that gets hurt - they take their cue from you on how upset they get over it!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2588379129552689906#

Here's the Ceasar video with the Great Dane.

 Quote: Richard Seward

Our company had a GSD drug dog that we were training for school inspections. He would shut down at the sight of polished floors and was a real problem. We started him on smooth concrete warehouse floors with a toy and some treats. Next, I sat on a small tile floor with some Beggin Strips (the smell really attracts the food behavior) and placed one about 6 inches inside the floor, then increased the distance. It took several tries and a calm attitude on my part (no vocal command or coaching), and he did fine. Then, moved to playing with a toy (kong on a rope) and that became the dog's focus. He's doing fine now, but every now and then will hesitate on a polished surface. When he does hesitate now, I take the kong and move his attention to it rather than the floor environment.

Hope that helps.

This is really good, Richard. And a non-Cesar Millan could do this (without flooding), as Michael posted.

Laura, how old is the dog?

The problem is that there's no way to know exactly WHY the dog is afraid of the floors, because he is a rescue. All it would take is one past negative experience that happened on the tile floor to cause this behaviour. (please note i am in no way saying anything negative about rescue dogs, my present dog is a rescue and he has his own little quirks)
My previous dog, in his later years, developed a diversion to hardwood or any un-carpeted floor after taking a nasty slip on one that caused him to splay his back legs to an extent that it caused him some pain. He was older and had severe arthritis in his hind end which is why it caused him pain. But he associated the pain with the floor and after that would not walk across that type of floor for the longest time. It didn't bother me so I took my time with and put down some runner's in the kitchen for him. I gradually lengthened the distance between the rugs so that an area of the hardwood was exposed and he would have to cross over it in order to get to the other rug. I used treats & praise and just kept increasing the distance between the rugs until they were both at opposite ends of the floor. It took about a month or so.
Mind you he did still hesitate when he came to shiny flooring and he definately did not move quickly across them. But he got over his fear.
Sometimes there is not quick fix.
Ceasars method will work for some, but not for all.



Edited by Wendy Lefebvre (11/10/2009 12:11 PM)
Edit reason: added in info

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Richard Seward

Our company had a GSD drug dog that we were training for school inspections. He would shut down at the sight of polished floors and was a real problem. We started him on smooth concrete warehouse floors with a toy and some treats. Next, I sat on a small tile floor with some Beggin Strips (the smell really attracts the food behavior) and placed one about 6 inches inside the floor, then increased the distance. It took several tries and a calm attitude on my part (no vocal command or coaching), and he did fine. Then, moved to playing with a toy (kong on a rope) and that became the dog's focus. He's doing fine now, but every now and then will hesitate on a polished surface. When he does hesitate now, I take the kong and move his attention to it rather than the floor environment.

Hope that helps.

This is really good, Richard. And a non-Cesar Millan could do this (without flooding), as Michael posted.

The question being asked in the first place is a good indicator that flooding might not be in the poster's friend's experience level.

Nothing at all against the poster or their friends.

ookokokok I gotthe answer. make the carpet narrower and narrower each day until its paw wide. and if that don't work then you can sell him to the circus as the only tight rope walking dog in the world

You guys are awsome! Thank You for all your tips and for the video. We will try and see what works. Thanks.