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Friday, December 04, 2009 - 8:11 PM
I recently welcomed to my home a second Goldendoodle from Amy Lane . I currently have an 8 year old Wheaten male and a 6 year old Goldendoodle female (who is also from Amy), both with excellent temperments (extremely social with people and other animals and overall well behaved).
The puppy is being crate trained and interacts with the older dogs under supervision. He is not yet allowed the same priviledges as they are, and he is learning the "Nothing In Life Is Free" Policy. He sits for treats (something he learned in about 2 minutes time), and I hand feed him every meal (making him sit, give full eye contact for about 5-10 seconds before giving him the "ok" to eat from my hand).
When he plays with the other dogs, if they allow him (they are still working out the whole "pack" thing and showing him his place), he submits appropriately and responds rather quickly to them. He does however, like to challenge me a bit more, sometimes getting growly, snippy and "annoyed" if I pull him away from something he's doing. I don't allow the behavior by making him stop and submit to a relaxed manner before I let him continue to play. I reward him happily when he behaves appropriately and always encourage the good behaviors.
I'm constantly practicing trades, and he does very well, allowing me to take anything from him, until he discovered a pig's ear last night. I do not give my dogs rawhides/pigs ears etc because I don't believe it's great for their digestion, but I did want to see if the puppy would in fact try to guard something of higher value such as that item. His little dominant streak with me proved true, he snapped growling nastily and tried to full on bite me twice. The second time, I scruffed him as his mother would, and flipped him over, holding him belly up for about 2 minutes until the stiffness in his body relaxed and he submitted. When I gave him back the pigs ear after having him sit and make eye contact, he waited a bit before accepting it and did allow me to take it from him a minute later without a fuss.
So now that I see the potential is there, I want to be sure that I head off such behavior immediately while he's still a little pup and not a 75 pound dog. This morning I separated him from the other dogs and gave him the pigs ear to chew for 5 minutes while I got dressed. I then approached him with a handful of his favorite treats and called him away from the pigs ear in a happy tone. It took him a minute or two, and he did try to bring the pigs ear with him, but he eventually gave up, let it drop and opted to come for the treats in my hand. When I reached for the pigs ear he left, he showed a bit of intensity trying to get back to it, sniffed all over looking for it, and nibbled at it a little from my hand but didn't try to pull it away from me. I encouraged him for then sitting, gave him a couple more treats, and put the pigs ear away. I figure this is something we will continue to practice for short periods, calling him away with higher value treats and happy tones. Although he won't be getting raw hides and pigs ears on a regular basis, I want to use the knowledge to correct a behavior that may translate to other items. I don't want to ever be in the situation where someone reaches for something from him and he snaps.
My question to you is do you have additional recommendations for addressing this behavior in a 10 week old pup?
I appreciate any suggestions you may have!
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Bone Guarding
Dear Lisa:
It is always good to remember that puppies are just that – “puppies” and not mature well developed animals. We have to be careful when using certain techniques or coercion with the dog and understand what associations we are building or teaching. Any situation where we present ourselves as a threat may have a fall out later. A puppy that is “resource guarding” is responding out of prior instinctual conditioning.
In my experience, most cases where a dog lies on their back, it represents a calming signal to another dog. I have not seen a full grown dog hold another dog down for two minutes at a time. I personally have never used this technique for training. I believe a better approach is to teach the dog an appropriate behavior to then replace the inappropriate behavior – which I will explain below. I never physically get into a conflict with a dog. If a dog wants to bite - it will. I have found there are many levels of dog bite aggression and most dogs will try and warn you of their intent first.
When training a young puppy, I will start with getting the puppy to voluntarily give up toys, their bed, food, or a retrieval dummy BEFORE I ever allow them to have objects that they may highly value or covet. So, when the day comes for them to get raw bones or beef tendons (something of higher value), the puppy has already learned or been conditioned to give them up on command. Instead of needing to trade them for something else, they have already been conditioned to retrieve and/or to release an object. In addition, it is important to teach the dog to “hold” an object. If a dog has learned a good solid “release” there should be no reason it should not give up ANY object it has learned to “hold” first. All behaviors should have an “on” and “off” command. In my opinion, these two behaviors go together – hand in hand. Other examples; when I give my dog a “heel” command, I always give the “break” command to release her from the heel. Also, when I give my dog the “seat” command (to get up on an object like a chair, couch, pedestal, or when I put her in the car), I have taught her the “off” command which directs her off those objects. And lastly, I will teach a dog to vocalize or “speak” on command, so I can then use the “quiet” command to shut off any unnecessary or inappropriate barking. In other words, I teach what is appropriate so that I can guide direct or manage what is inappropriate or unwanted.
Another scenario or example is teaching a puppy not to pee in the house. I never scold or scruff a puppy for peeing on the floor. I know that a puppy has limitations with their bladder until they are at least 18 weeks old. I find that pinning or rubbing their nose in their own waste not only doesn’t work for the conditioning process but also undermines my goal of being the “safest thing in it’s world”. I want my dog to grow up and not see me as another dog or “alpha” pack leader. I simply want my dog to be well adjusted and bond with me as its caretaker, friend, and partner in life. Puppies are like a sponge when it comes to learning. I want every association they have learned about me to be positive, healthy and most of all safe.
I realize that in today’s world a lot of people watch television and hear that there are so many different methods and techniques of training. However, I will tell you that ALL training is operant conditioning. It is just that some people know how to implement the outcome more proficiently than others. I would rather use the laws of operant conditioning and a little common sense and reason, than to use coercion and intimidation. I know the long term results will be more favorable.
You are on the right track with crate training your dog. I believe it is one of the best tools for controlling a young dog’s environment. Also, try working with the puppy by itself and without any distractions. Specifically, work on the retrieve, hold and release commands. Then in a couple of months, start introducing other food type resources and other organic chew items. I can place a fresh piece of steak in my doodles mouth and she will release it to me without attempting to eat it first. I accomplished this by having a very solid foundation of the behavior first – and the dog is conditioned to release any object. I personally do not give my dog raw hide or pig ears. I have known many dogs that have ended up in the vets office for treatment of blocked intestines from ingesting these products.
My suggestion is to work with your puppy more on the behaviors you will want from him/her as an adult dog, and really build that solid foundation without being hard on the puppy. Some rules that I follow are - “I do not want respect from my dog, I want proper responses from my dog”. “I do not want to dominate, submit, or intimate my dog, I want to guide, direct, or manage my dog’s behavior humanely”. There are no short cuts or quick fix for the conditioning learning process.
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I hope this is helpful and please let us know how you and the puppy are doing.
Respectfully,
Army
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