Just to be sure that she does know sit, go back and marker train it from every possible position. You might find that she knows sit when she is in front facing you, when she is on the left, ect.

But you may also find that "sit" dosent mean anything when she is two feet in front of you, behind you, facing away fom you or on your right.

I was amazed to find that my dog, who will down from a stand a hundred feet away from me, didn't really know sit.

I a version of this as well . . . we just moved from a rural home to a more suburban home and my dog can now see people on the street, mailman, etc. I found that instead of trying to distract her from their activities, so she won't bark, I say "look" and stand at the window with her, rewarding her for quiet looking.

It's working wonderfully.

I've also added "it's just a guy" which I got from some other thread on the forum, and that has turned into sort of a calming phrase for wherever we are where she feels uncomfortable with someones presence.

New here to the forum. I have had some problems in the past with my dog Tanner. I use the "leave-it" command as soon as I see his ears prick up and brow furrow to break his concentration on far away objects I don't see right away. When we are in sight of people and other dogs and I notice he's getting excited to greet them, I turn around and walk the other way, make him sit and focus and then try the approach again. Sometimes we have to try it several times but he usually gets the idea that we don't move forward until he is in a calm frame of mind. Most of his behavior is my fault. When he was young, he was extremely timid (an abused rescue) so I went out of my way to make the world a wonderful place for him. Wish I had found some of the info I now know about socialization because I wouldn't have focused on so many positive people/dog experiences. It's been hard trying to break the habits I created. We just started clicker training so I am reworking the commands he knows already and adding increasing distractions so I can get him to a point where he instantly responds to a verbal command, no matter what the circumstances are. We are making progress and I can definately see an improvement in his reacation to verbal only commands

I like Leslie McDevitt's idea of habituating the dog to a default position (Sit or Down) when they aren't getting any other direction. Jethro is starting to drop into a sit automatically when he realizes I'm not going forward without his calming down. I'm using Sit because its easier to use in all sorts of situations. Down is a bigger challenge, he will slip into it easily in the house and out on the porch, but further than that he is still reluctant.

I'm also working on the idea of four on the floor - but I'm not sure how to train it yet. Mostly we are working on Sit no matter what.

She does the kangaroo for anything that catches her interest so I wouldn't consider it an anxiety stance, she's done it to look at birds, at a tree she found interesting... I think being taller makes her feel she can see better...
Anyway we discovered part of the problem is that she has limited hearing in one ear, shortly after I got her she woke me up with being very dizzy, poor little thing's eyes were rolling in her head. When she got to the vet she was diagnosed with an ear infection, and the vet said the ear didn't look quite right. We are currently still treating the ear but don't know if the hearing loss is permanent. I have to walk her on the right (due to an arm injury) and the left is her bad ear... so chances are with the street noise she wasn't hearing me. Yesterday when i walked her and gave her a hand signal as well as verbal she was able to sit more quickly.
I'm reading through everyone's suggestions and will definitely work on the sit from different angles. she is the same in that she will sit or down quite a distance from me with verbal and hand commands but possibly doesn't understand sitting if I'm behind her.
I'll probably be singing that kangaroo song now as I walk her...Thanks everyone.

 Quote: jodi moen

She does the kangaroo for anything that catches her interest so I wouldn't consider it an anxiety stance, she's done it to look at birds, at a tree she found interesting... I think being taller makes her feel she can see better...
Anyway we discovered part of the problem is that she has limited hearing in one ear, shortly after I got her she woke me up with being very dizzy, poor little thing's eyes were rolling in her head. When she got to the vet she was diagnosed with an ear infection, and the vet said the ear didn't look quite right. We are currently still treating the ear but don't know if the hearing loss is permanent. I have to walk her on the right (due to an arm injury) and the left is her bad ear... so chances are with the street noise she wasn't hearing me. Yesterday when i walked her and gave her a hand signal as well as verbal she was able to sit more quickly.
I'm reading through everyone's suggestions and will definitely work on the sit from different angles. she is the same in that she will sit or down quite a distance from me with verbal and hand commands but possibly doesn't understand sitting if I'm behind her.
I'll probably be singing that kangaroo song now as I walk her...Thanks everyone.

Hi Jodi,

Just curious as to why you don't feel her excited kangaroo jumping to see something should be considered an "anxiety" stance? She's showing anxiety towards whatever it is she wants to look at, isn't she? I understand that it's not a typical anxiety that we talk about (JMO) but I believe it is still anxiety.

You say that you have to walk her on your right side because of an arm injury. Is her heel good enough that you can walk her on your left side and hold the leash in your right hand? I've had to do that in the past and it worked just fine - but it does depend on the dog, that's for certain. It would just give you the advantage of having her good ear towards you.

Just a quick question about her ear infection, if you don't mind. Do you happen to know what it was that they saw that made them diagnose her with an ear infection? The reason I ask is because my last dog was a springer who was afflicted with labrynthitis and the symptoms were exactly as you described. Did the symptoms subside fairly quickly? I know with labrythitis they come on very quickly and then slowly subside over days or sometimes weeks. Of course, I was also told that it would never happen again and it did, much more severely. I guess I'm wondering if the emergency vet missed something (I wasn't too impressed with them, that's for sure).

Maybe Connie or Betty can weigh in on my question?



Thanks!

Kangaroo dog, you say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ossWUo729k8

I suppose I meant to discuss the idea of over-excitement, whether due to anxiety (fear) or arousal (prey-drive, territorial, etc.). Either way, the dog has crossed its threshold from being calm enough to pay attention to you, and into fixation or tunnel vision. Aren't you describing another form of jumping up?

Skipper sproings all four feet off the ground when we get to the field and he wants the ball to be brought out for play. It is annoying and dangerous, though observers think it looks cute. I'm teaching him to Wait - which is a combination of hand gesture and word, to get him to sit back away from me and settle down. When he stops trembling I click and bring out the ball. He is getting much better at controlling himself in this situation, which I would call hyper-arousal rather than anxiety, but I think the mind-states and the solutions are similar. Basically, it comes down to Calm Down and Pay Attention to Me.

Hi Dana,
I guess because she doesn't act the same as when she is very reactive (which is slowly improving). I wish i had a video camera to show it, but she will smetimes stand up to get a better look, sometimes she will hop a few steps but when she does it she is not always reactive, I guess to rethink it she is in a state of alertness, so I guess arousal but when she is anxious or excited her hackles will go up when she kangaroos her hackles are flat... does that make sense...

Her heel still needs work, and I've tried holding the leash with my right and her walking on the left, but then I end up holding the leash with my left... I actually try to walk her on the left as long as the arm holds out, then i have to switch to the right.

The vet I brought her to scoped the inside of her ears and she had a dark discharge, the dizzy spell subsided very quickly over a matter of a couple of hours, and she hasn't had a repeat episode. When the vet did scope her ears he did say one didn't "look" right but we'd just watch it, she was treated with Mometamax. He also said it was possible a piece of wax had fallen into her ear canal but never mentioned Labyrinthitis. We didn't culture the ear so I don't know specifically what infection she had. As of now she hasn't had any repeat dizzy episodes, but the ear has been problematic and she is on another course of Mometamax. Luckily for us when this first happened (I think I'd had her for 2 days or so) it was early morning so I was able to get her in to my regular vet.
I had to bring my last dog to the local ER and I was less than pleased, and ended up walking out. My dog was taken to another clinic that was wonderful. I wouldn't allow a person to be treated like that I sure as heck ain't going to let my dog be treated like that.