Ive been working on Maggie 5 months keeping feet on the ground when people pet her or are saying hi. She went from sitting to now laying and today she went right to her back but even peed some. Both people were neighbors. (neither have dogs or cats if your thinking a scent of family pet) Is there anything you would suggest? My thoughts are when I put her in sit and they are approaching to do the look at me and treat her while they pet? I obviously don't want her jumping up to greet but I really don't want her rolling on back and peeing :0 Deanne
I have had 3 bitches and to me it seems a developmental issue. I had ignored it and they seem to grow out of it. Good luck
I would think it’s over excitement that leads to the peeing...my guess would be to try to ignore her she well...
It was the first time she peed, I just didn't want to do or react in a way to make it worse. She is the most lovable thing and she was sitting so good for him I guess if I analyze myself I probably escalated it being so happy she held her sit stay ;0 lol She also won't pee yet on the walks, so that could be part of it.
Peeing suggests that she is feeling submissive towards people - that is why puppies do submissive urination (you can google it). As a result, I would not be asking her to sit and maintain a sit whilst someone that makes her feel submissive or nervous is walking towards her - it's just not a good idea. I don't really recommend people approaching dogs on leash once they are outside the socialisation period (16wks+) anyway - there's nothing to be gained from it - the puppy is outside the socialisation period so they are not going to benefit from meeting the person - and all it does, is train dogs to jump up.... I would just walk away if I saw someone approaching whilst I had the puppy and call something over my shoulder about training.... Puppies need to learn that 99% of people are not going to interact with them, when they are out in public. As a result, you want to ensure that's the case. Otherwise, the pup will grow up expecting to be able to greet everyone you pass.
Thanks for the reply. The person was my neighbor and Im trying to have her have him come into our yard so she doesn't go visit him in his. On walks I do practice the look at me if she stops or is trying to greet. I am slightly confused though, I thought the sit would be good or at least all feet on ground so she didn't jump up on neighbors? She wasn't able to get in the socialization she needed (consistently) from being on kennel rest.
Ok, but I'm not sure what the reasoning is, here? I mean - how getting him to come into your yard is going to prevent her from visiting him in his, in the long-term? All that will happen is you will build up an expectation that she gets to meet this person - wherever it is - and her insisting on meeting him forevermore.... (assuming all goes well and she continues to feel positively towards him). Well, it is good when you have complete control over the other approaching person and can instruct them to stop approaching, and turn away and it's a training situation. It tends to be completely impossible to implement if you're just letting a puppy meet random people though. People continue to approach, past the point where the dog is able to maintain the sit - the dog jumps up - and then the dog gets reinforced for jumping up. Meanwhile the owner is saying 'sit sit sit sit' 55000 times and the dog is learning to ignore them - so it tends to be impractical. Plus, it's important to prioritise the emotional needs of a dog over anything you are trying to train. Just as we don't want reactive dogs to be taught to maintain a sit in the presence of people or dogs they are scared of - so we don't want to train a puppy who is feeling nervous enough to submissively urinate when greeting someone, to maintain a sit in the presence of what they are scared of. If a dog is showing signs of anxiety or insecurity, then they need to be able to learn to feel more comfortable around whatever the thing is - that takes precedence over any training. If you are scared of spiders, it's not going to make you less scared of them if you are tied to someone by a leash and that person is forcing you to interact with them.... Basically - it's likely to go in 2 directions: 1) an excessively hyper-social dog who believes they should be allowed to greet either everyone or this specific person, always and you never reach the point of just totally ignoring the person and seeing them as irrelevant or 2) sensitising a slightly worried puppy into being more afraid and avoidant of the person - which isn't good either.
@Jo Laurens I guess I shouldn't assume because the man is an older nice person(70s) she wouldn't still feel insecure and or threatened. My goal was to get her to "know" him so she wasn't threatened. Just for the record I do not allow random people on our walks to pet stop etc and do say training and or they realize when Im saying to her "look at me", which her eye contact is getting really good and she has been able to keep walking by dogs people... practice practice read read Thanks for any and all advice!
@Jo Laurens is there an article on the neighbor thing? Recommendations on to introduce , how, when , or if not? Thanks
Absolutely, many dogs are scared of men, full stop (tends to be men, rather than women - we are not sure why!) - it doesn't matter what the man's intentions are. Really, it would be best to do this in a situation that doesn't replicate 'being on a walk in public' - because dogs generalise rapidly and come to expect similar things in similar situations. Can you pay the man a visit in his house? Or yard? Ask him to sit in a chair and not to get up, and allow your dog to decide when to come see him and when to move away. Not crowding the dog and instead empowering her, is going to develop confidence. And the situation of being in a strange house is not likely to be something you do very often, so she isn't going to generalise anything from that in terms of being allowed to go meet people on walks. Alternatively, you could invite the man into your yard and ask him to take a seat there.... Well I think it's really about - why?? None of my dogs have met any of our neighbours - I can't see any reason for them to....
@Jo Laurens she had met him another time and everything seemed fine, but it was in my yard, so maybe she was actually more comfortable there. As far as why meet the neighbors? one ...I would like to enlist their help for training as they could be the distraction, when working on different training. Well I like my neighbors (not implying you don't) and she's just so adorable they want to meet her, shoulder shrug here.
Right, well I would try to do it either in your yard or in their yard, with the 'stranger' sitting still somewhere and with the puppy off-leash and choosing when to come and visit and when to move away.
