We adopted a black lab retriever last Tuesday so not even a week yet. She's very smart, in 72 hours she no longer goes potty indoors, we've established an area and so far so good. I taught her how to stay on her bed when she's in our room, she sleeps there all night so that's good too. She doesn't jump on the furniture anymore and a few more things we've established. She loves to learn, she just wants to please me out of all of us. There are 4 of us, wife plus two teenage boys. Here is the thing. She is a rescue from Puerto Rico Hurricane. Of course we don't know what she's gone through but we've found triggers and the main one is the leash. If I put the leash on her even in doors she won't move, I mean not an inch. It doesn't matter which leash, doesn't matter the color, doesn't matter the size but as long as it's clipped to her that's it. Doesn't even matter if it's clipped on a harness or neck collar. I've even changed the metal noise so it doesn't sound like a leash going on. She's stayed put up to 40 minutes. Once the leash comes off she does in her crate and won't look at whoever put the leash on her. She's so bummed afterwards. I have the leashes around now, on the floor, one by her food bowl, I even put one next to her while she was sleeping. She just smells them, yesterday she moved one with her paw. She doesn't really care, then you put it on and frozen...won't move. Inside or outside she won't move, won't eat a treat, won't respond to Good Girl like normal, I've put her favorite treats on the floor inches away..won't move. What can I do? Sorry for the long post but wanted to be specific.
Also want to add, she doesn't bark, well she's barked once at 4:30AM the other night when something hit our window (like a bug, it was really quiet). She's not a biter either, I mean she's teething and she chews the crap out of her toys but doesn't bite people. She is a licker, she wants to kiss everyone by licking hands or if you put your face close she'll lick. My wife who's never had a dog, never wanted a dog now has a dog and she's got such a heart for this little girl. I've never seen my wife pet a dog ever but she gets on the floor with her and talks to her. Maybe because they are both Puerto Rican girls. So here's the deal, she's so smart that we want to turn her into a service dog for my oldest is son. He's 18 and medically he's being diagnosed, hopefully it's not with seizures but if they are we want to train her to help him. He passes out and some dogs can detect seizures even before they happen. I watched one video of a dog doing chest compressions, we were in shock. It's amazing what these animals can do.
Yes, it is amazing what they can do. Including being stubborn as all get out when they want to be. You didn't tell us how old she is, but from the potty talk sounds like she is a youngster. Not everyone here may agree with this, but it worked for us. Murphy hated his leash. We tried all sorts of stuff and then just said, oh, to heck with it. We have a fenced yard and there was really no immediate need for him to be on a leash. We just left it hanging on the wall. One day, when he was about 6 months I picked up the leash to see if he had changed his mind. Incredibly, he had! I have no idea why, not a clue. The only thing we can think of is that he needed to reach a certain level of trust in us. He is a big boy (about 100 lbs) so we use a front connecting chest harness with him. He rarely pulls and if he does, it is not the arm out of the socket variety. Most of the time he walks with slack in the leash and checks to see which way we are going. Oh, one other thing! These days he will head over to his leash a couple of times a week to let me know that we are supposed to go somewhere fun. Sooo, we go do something fun. Maybe someone else has some really great ideas?
Well done for adopting her, she sounds like a lovely girl who has landed on her paws with you. I am thinking along the same lines as @T Reischl. At this point just give it time. Everything you are doing is spot on, well from my limited experience. I would take a step back and don't even try to put a lead on, but still just leave it lying around. At least for now. You may find in the next 2 weeks you have a completely different dog in front of you. I do remember clearly the organisation I sometimes foster dogs for saying just that...so much happens in the dog mind in the first 2 weeks of adoption.
Good advice and because she's learning so quickly I was thinking to break her out of it right away. My boys want to walk with her around but I guess I'll give it more time. The birthdate for her is May 21st, not sure how they nailed down the day. We live in Florida, we got hit by Hurricane Irma a few weeks ago and I've been through a direct hit in 2005 so I know she went through a tough few days. A bunch of animals have been shipped over from the major hit areas in the islands to the point they humane society has too many. She was sleeping in a kennel with two other dogs and so much chaos going on around her that I couldn't leave her there.
Just wanted to say welcome to you and your family. What have you called your girl? Or did she have a name already if her dob was known? That's a great thing you have done for her for sure. Is there no chance of finding out about her previous owner? Potentially a pretty sad story you have there. I'm sure she will settle down given a little time and care. jac
Her name is "Shelby" now, nobody had any other information about her. The Humane Society gave her a name when she got there but she was only there for 48 hours before we adopted her. Previous owner, I asked but the island is still in ruins basically so there now way of finding out. I took her in the car to pickup my son from school, she was digging it. On the way home she actually fell asleep, cars did that to me when I was little too. I do everything with her and she's coming out of her shell nicely. My wife's name is Jacci and we call her Jac, haha.
Sounds like things are going pretty darned good! About training her to be a service dog. . . keep in mind they all have different personalities and abilities just like we do. In my mind, Murphy might have been able to be a service dog. But when I think about it? Nah, I like him just the way he is. One of the fun things about him not being a service dog is that he is accessible to other people when we go places. That has two benefits, the first one is that he really enjoys people, the other benefit is mine, I get to meet new people too. We live in an area that gets a moderate amount of tourist traffic during the summer. So there are always new people around. I like that you "do everything with her"! As I have said before we have never really "trained" Murphy in a formal sense. But since he is with us virtually all of the time he has figured out what is acceptable and what is not. He also knows our schedule and we know his. It is very true that these guys want to please so by being with them they figure out what you want pretty quickly. You need do the same with him, understand what he needs and provide without him having to go through all sorts of gyrations. That builds the essential trust needed.
Hoo boy!!! What a great picture. There is absolutely no resisting that face. You have been writing about training her...I got a newsflash for you: with a face like that you do not even realize that YOUR training has already begun. You do not stand a chance. Accept your fate. She is going to be a great addition to your family, already is from the sounds of it.
She's such a good girl, well she can be a terror at times but for the most part she's really good. I gave her a bath on Sunday and of course she found dirt to roll in. I chase her out and she came back to dig just testing me. Then she takes off running full blast up and down in the yard past me. When she gives us that look though it's tough.
She loves it, turns into a total goofball and runs full blast around the yard...stops in the dirt digs for a few seconds then takes off again. She slept like a champ last night. We just have to keep working on her about the biting. When she's with me she's 100% on great behavior..she's perfect. With my wife it's 85%, she'll bite her shoes but my wife will teach her and she listens. With my oldest son she's 70%, some biting, some bad behavior so he's still working with her. Then my youngest son, well she's runs all over him with constant biting...lots of jumping on him...when he's around she gets into everything. We are teaching my son how to change his tone with her and do other things besides just playing with her. I had him take her outside this morning and work on commands. We all use the same commands.
UPDATE We put the leash on her last night. She didn't move for 45 minutes. I sat in front of her and the only steps she took was to lay on me. She wouldn't eat her treats inches in front of her nose, her tail was tucked and she was miserable. After 45 minutes I took the leash off and put it on the floor. She just looked at but still didn't move. I picked her up and brought her outside to play ball, she was herself again. The leash is some sort of trigger. In a few days I'll try it again. I want to take her for training but she turns into a statue with the leash on.
I would recommend that when you put the leash on her that you ignore her, do not look at her, do not talk to her, just go about your business. I would also give it a few weeks before I tried it. Or, here is another thought (maybe some of the "experts" can chime in), when you go out to play or whatever with her, pick up the leash, carry it along. Get her used to the idea that when the leash goes somewhere she has fun.
I am absolutely not an expert, however, I do wonder if 45mins is too long? I really wouldn't even try her with the lead right now, and when I did only for when she is doing something she enjoys, like eating, or playing and even then for the briefest of moments.
I like this idea. Perhaps just pick it up and drape it around your own neck when you go out to play with her.
Maybe an important point to remember through all of this: It will probably just pass. I was reminded of that this morning. It was time to take Murphy to the vets to get his toenails trimmed. We were out playing, came in, gave him a treat and headed over to where we keep his leash and harness. OOOOO Boyyyy! Are we going somewhere? Huh? Huh? Where we going??? Let's goooo! Then I told him we were going to see "the girls". Our vet's office has quite a few early 20's ladies working there and they just love Murphy. Telling him that made his day! He loves hanging out in the vet office, meeting people, dogs, cats, etc. Afterwards, a quick stop at McD's for a sausage mcmuffin and all is good in Murphy World. A far cry from when he hated the leash, would roll around tangling himself all up in it, not moving, etc.
UPDATE! 10-23-17 She is walking on the leash now. So I had an idea the other day, instead of me just putting her on the leash by myself with nobody else around, I'd put it on when there was a lot of people and she was really excited. My son had a friend come of and they were sitting on the floor playing with her, she was in her element. She loves to play catch with a tennis ball, she brings it right back. I put the leash on her, at first she was bummed...I had the kids sit on the floor with treats. While I was holding the leash my son called for her holding a treat, she saw it...stood up, took two steps, sat down, he called again, she stood up, took 4 steps and sat down. He called again, she stood up took another 4 steps to him where she got her treat. We all praised her! The next kid was 15 feet away, she saw the treat, she took 10 steps, sat down...looked around with her ears up. He called her again, she saw the treat and walked slowly right over to him. After everyone left I decided to do it by myself with with her. I had the training treats in my hand, she knew it. I walked her from room to room no problem. She got her treat and I praised her with belly rubs. She loved it! This morning after she ate breakfast I decided to put her on the leash hoping yesterday wasn't a fluke. Again, I walked her from room to room. When I get home I'm going to take her outside, she's never seen the front of our house before. It'll be a new World to her, she's going to be so excited.
