Hi, its me again. I have noticed two interesting things that have started in the last couple of weeks or so and i'm a bit concerned about one of them. I'm hoping its just a phase, please let me know your thoughts: 1) Tatti (now just 7 months) has started being A LOT more interested in smells in the park. She is totally enthralled sometimes so much that she isn't even tempted by the chicken i'm holding for her to take right in front of her. Is this just her sense of small developing do you think or perhaps a very early sign that the might be starting her first season and she is sniffing out the boy dogs?? 2) this one I am more concerned about. Tatti has always been a submissive kind of puppy when it comes to other dogs but in the last few weeks she has started to be scared of people (with no particular pattern for who/what they are doing/wearing etc). Sometimes she will happily bound up to a person and sometimes, a neighbour she has loved for months will come to the garden and she will hide behind me or start the submissive half roll over and cower away from them. We did A LOT of socialising when she was young and to my knowledge she has never had a negative experience with a human. It did start shortly after she was bitten by a dog (a grumpy collie we stayed with for a couple of days) but i'm not sure if i'm connecting unrelated dots here. Do some dogs just go through these phases? Will she snap out of it? Is there a particular way I can handle this? I tried giving a treat to the person to hand over but she didn't want to take it. Any ideas?
It sounds like she's just hitting her teenage months, where she suddenly becomes a lot more aware of her environment, hence the sniffing. She's also developing her independence, so needs to learn to make judgements about whether something or someone is a threat or not, whereas before, she would blindly follow your lead. You need to take training right back to basics to get through this stage intact. Don't necessarily expect her to behave as she has been. If she knew how to recall before, then she'll probably forget herself more often now, because the world is suddenly a whole lot more interesting than it was before. It's very easy for people to think their dogs are being disobedient or wilful as they enter adolescence, but it's really just because the world has become so much more overwhelming and the smallest thing is a far bigger distraction than it was before. So, every time it seems like she's not listening to you, keep this in mind, take it right back to basics (sometimes the very first stages of training a behaviour) and start afresh. Good luck - you may need it
Thanks Fiona, Wow, there really never is a dull moment when you have a dog is there? For every success there is a new problem or stage. For every good behaviour learned a bad one sneaks in there somewhere I honestly don't think I talk about anything other than Tatti any more...I suddenly understand parents of young children a little bit more I'll dig out the happy puppy handbook again - it seems like so long ago we did all of the basics. Our puppy class trainer also does a weekly class designated to recall from play so we might head out to that too before we head into recall freefall! Do you have any ideas on how we successfully get her through the learning to make judgements about whether someone is a threat? Do we just ignore the cowering and hiding behind us or should we encourage interaction (or something in between)?
I find a really useful thing is the "Look at that!" technique described in Control Unleashed. In essence, when there's something your dog is nervous of (that is of no real consequence - ie, not something they should be nervous of), you start off C&Ting for the dog looking at it, before they have a chance to react. Keep doing this and, in time, your dog will start looking at you as soon as she sees something that makes her nervous (so the click can be delayed until she looks to you) - she looks to you to make the decision as to whether it's worth reacting to or not. It's explained a lot more thoroughly in the book, but that's it in a nutshell. Also, I find that the way I approach the person helps the dog to realise if it's OK or not. They never react badly to my friends, whether or not they've met them before, and that's because my body language is confident and welcoming to that person. Right now, you might need to help her out by being a bit more obvious. Greet the other person warmly from a distance, in a happy tone of voice. You can even do this with strangers, though some people might think you're a bit nuts - smiling and saying "good morning!" really cheerfully as you approach. It doesn't matter what you say, because your dog doesn't understand, so you could explain what you're doing ... "Hi there! My dog is a bit nervous of people, do you mind if I stand and talk to you for a second? Thanks so much, that's awesome! Bye, now!"
It does sound like a teenage thing. At that age Cocoa developed a fixation with sniffing things, and decided that she had to bark at anyone she met who wasn't walking a dog. She retained the sniffing habit into adulthood, but grew out of the barking.
Great advice from Fiona . I try to think of a phase or problem as one and the same thing - it always comes down to training to get you through. I also think of training as being ongoing just to ensure that cues remain strong
@Tatti if it's any consolation Mabel was exactly the same although a little older than Tatti. (She can still be nervous at times) Great advice from @snowbunny, for ages I greeted people as if they were long lost friends and it worked. C&T advice spot on too. We are having building work done at the moment and we have a small area blocked off at the side of the house for Mabel to get a little outside space. Just as she went outside the central heating flue sent a small amount of steam over her head. Poor girl she was prettified. C&T soon sorted the issue. I'd rather be seen as nuts and have a happy dog. What's wrong with being a little bonkers anyway
Yes - Twiglet is right in the middle of the 'going bonkers at something and nothing' phase. Luckily it doesn't last! (Today it was a big canvas photo of Tatze which has been up for ages ) I do the 'look at me' for these times. I need to catch her before she's in full alert, hackes up and shouting mode 'tho! It started a while ago with the 'puppy on the roof' - her own reflection in the skylight! http://vid1106.photobucket.com/albums/h371/BoogiesAlbum/Twiglet 6-11-15.mp4 . .
Luffy ( now nine months old) is exhibiting similar behavior! As you may or may not know, Luffy was, for best part of 4 months, rather ill due to his panosteosis. Only in the past two weeks has he near enough recuperated. In those four months we couldn’t do much by the way of training, and it was a few days ago I found out the repercussions of this… Yesterday, I thought I’d take him out for a trip to the shops. He was rather worked up when we tried to get him into the car. On the journey to the shops, he seemed sedate. When we parked up in the car-park I thought I’d take him take him around so as to acclimatise to people. My was that a mistake. A soon as I got him out, he bolted. I was very lucky I was holding the lease – even then, I nearly went a tumbling. He went pulling here and there, sniffing this and that. He was clearly very excited. We had to cut this little trip short due to his behavior. I guess it’s back to the drawing board with the lease training. Like Tatti, Luffy seems disinterested in treats. The one thing that really concerns me is his eagerness when taking him for walks, he clearly has reached maturity which exhibits with his doggy sniffity-sniffs and his love for random strangers...!
