Thank you all for the comments and advice.
Our dog is doing great compared to what we were told to expect with him. He does not give us any headaches, he is really easy going by now, and he loves us. While we were acclimating to each other, I read several books and this web site for information. Since we were not allowed to do anything that remotely resembles training or teaching, we just did what was logical: keep a religous schedule with feeding, walking, crating, visited the vet for a checkup, and removed all items that could trigger guarding. There was one type of chew bone that we got with him (and several of the same type). I wonder why people were buying those when he used it in a disruptive way. Anyway, I want to be smarter and there is no occassion where he has a chance to guard. Got a book called "Mine" a guide to resource guarding. I am just reading it to understand how this works and what goes on in the dog's mind when that happens. When I understand it I will talk to a trainer about it.
The vet changed his diet to allergen free vegetarian dry only. We give him only what is prescribed and during the day he gets treats for anything that he does in an approved manner. I let him lick the tooth brush but that is all he does. We tell him how good it is and keep going until he had enough. Sometimes he tries to chew it but we stop there because it is plastic and I don't want him to pull the strands off and swallow them.
We are able to bathe him and he loves that too. He came to the bathroom when I was cleaning the tub and since we know he loves water I let him in and we didn't have a problem with that.
He does not challenge us, he is not submissive, basically he follows us around, now he makes eye contact (we learned this from the Second hand dog book too). He gets lots of excercize on his walks and yes, he gets into the water to swim and he loves to dive for rocks. Nobody taught him to do this. We got ear drops from the vet which I apply with a cotton ball and he loves it. Sometimes I help him scratch his ears when he looks miserable but fortunately that does not happen too often. His ears are clean. We now limit the times when he can go into the water to 50% less than he is used to which is better than 100%. We dry his ears with a hair dryer on a low setting. He sits for the grooming, in fact he turns into position the way he likes it. Basically I don't care how he is brushed as long as he thinks he is getting the royal treatment and during this time I can assess a lot of other things and reactions, read his eyes, moves etc.
We are doing desensitisation to the muzzle and basically it look like this: I show him the muzzle and if he looks at it, or sniffs it, I give him a treat. I am looking for a type of reaction I get when I go for the leash. I know that will not happen quickly. The book says 2 weeks. I will be happy if it happens at all. He is happy and he knows what comes next. He waits for both of us when we walk him. It looks like he can't decide whom he likes more.
My boyfriend walks him more and I do the grooming and he lets me do most things. I know when to stop if I get to an iffy situation but I never get it to the point where he needs to be scolded. For example when I touch his paws because we are watching tv and it just happens to be there, if he pulls it away, I understand. If he leaves it there, I tell him he is very nice. I stroked him on the face like you do it with a good child and when he turned his head away I stopped. He no longer turns away, but that does not mean that we are stuck to his face with all our might.
Sometimes he hugs me; he sits in front of me on the couch and leans his head back and puts it on my shoulder and makes funny sounds and sighs a lot. I hug him around his neck and he never ever told me that he hated this. We hug him and put our face on top of his head and he gives us a paw for it. Sometimes he want to give kisses butno thanks with that fishy breath
He sits with us on the couch when we tell him that he can come up. He is very happy and just rolls on his back. When we are done sitting and leave, he leaves too and goes down on the floor without us telling him so. We told him only twice after I read that furniture and bed should be off limits to a biting dog (he never bit anyone but we treat it as if). My gosh, when I read that I thought we broke him by allowing him to sit alone on the couch. But not so.
He now goes to drink water when I say so and goes to bed at bedtime when I say so. Sometimes he wonders if he can stay but I just point to the crate and tell him again to go to bed. He goes in straight and that is the end of the story.
Socializing: we give treats to people who want to pet him and all people in the elevator, i.e. all people who are interested and want to do small talk. I few people scratched his head for a second after the treat and he didn't show teeth. I would say that is good progress. We are not pressuring him to accept any treates form strangers, or to allow anyone to pet him. It depends on the situation.
I guess it seems for you guys when you read my posts that we are moving too fast. But when we are in the same room most of the time and things happen almost spontaneously, I cannot help but rejoyce over the progress he made. We talk to him all the time. It just happens that he learns fast and he loves treats. I will not stop him form sitting down when we wait beause it is too soon form him to understand the command. For example before I open the door, I say sit. He sits like it is no big deal. Then I say stay stay becasue I need to use my key and I am walking in first. He seems to know that is the way it is supposed to be. I guess he must have been trained before but we almost never correct him, it is more like the pull back on the leash to sit than a jerk to tell him how stupid he is. We don't do that. He is not good with distractions and we don't push. I can see how he is expecting corrections and we are careful not to charge at him or yell at him or shake him, I just give him a little push in the direction I want him to be like a little kid.
The snarling was another story. Obviously it scared me when it happened the first time. Who wants to adopt a biting dog whithout any experience? But that was already done so we had to go from there. Sure we gave a jerk because that was not acceptable. Now I know that a NO will most time suffice. I would not know this if I had not tried different approaches. We also know what triggers these episodes and we try to avoid at all costs until we can get into training.
So no toys at home, and he can run after the ball in the park. I pick it up when he is done since he will not bring it anyway but at least he gets a good excercize. Kids are not allowed to come near, in fact we wait for the next elevator if it is full. I usually stand right in front of him and watch people and dog for a reaction. The treats come in handy this time. I do not want to correct him for something that is not his fault and I agree with you all, he needs to be set up to win not to lose.
As for the crying, I found out that one of our neighbours comes to stand outside at the door and she keeps calling his name and talks to him because she feels sorry for him. How stupid is that? He hears his name and someone is lovingly calling him yet he cannot go because he is locked up in the crate. the more he wants togo the more he will cry and the more she will not stop. I think it is cruel. I told her not to do that anymore. I know he does not cry at night, it happened only once for whatever reason. I didn't make a big deal out of it. During the day most people are out anyway and he does not cry all day - another neighbour told us.
Sure he is worried about his security and he does not like quick motions. If we scare him we correct ourselves immediately and tell him it is not his fault and a big hug. He forgives very quickly and the tail is always going. It is OK by me if he likes us more than anyone, at least he will not walk away with a stranger. He will most of the time stop fooling around with dogs in the park when we say enough and the other dog ignores him or barks at him or we need to keep going. He will come straight to us.
I really appreciate your comments. I hope this post is not too long winded but I think it gives a better picture of what is happening. If anything seems to progress too fast it is beause it came naturally and not because we put great efforts into forcing him to get used to us faster than he could handle.
thank you all
Page 4 of 4 <<234Last
Top
Previous Topic
Index
Next Topic.jpg)
