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My two year old Aussie Cattle Dog mix Sadie is usually a very chilled-out girl when we sit on our balcony at night. But when Didi and Tico, the neighbor's dogs, walk by downstairs, it puts Sadie into a panic. Although she cannot see them, she can hear the jingling of their tags and the exact pitch makes her very anxious.
She starts with a whimper, that escalates into a whine. She walks to the balcony rails, raises her tail above her back and her neck hair goes up. The whine increases to high-pitched vocalizations like ROWRrrroWWR, but she does not bark. Her noises don't sound aggressive but do sound disconcerting.
How do I snap her out of this? A trainer I know said to ignore anxiety but redirect/correct aggression with a leash pop. I'm not sure which one this is or what I should do to handle this problem!
p.s. If it helps, I got her almost two months ago from the humane society. She had been doing better with this but it all came back last night for some reason!
Sorry, but I disagree completely with that trainer.
What you have to do is train her first to pay attention to YOU: this is most easily done with a clicker, but you can do it other ways. First hold a YUMMY treat (not garbage from the store, it has to be something SO good she'll change her behavior to get some: chicken, cheese or steak - it can be a TINY piece!) up by your face. Say, 'Look at me!' in a HAPPY VOICE and when she give you eye contact, say, 'YES' or click your clicker and give her the treat. Keep doing this (yes, cut back on her dinner) until when you say "Look at me!" in your happy voice you no longer have to hold the treat up. Say, 'Yes!' or click and give her the treat.
Now, take it on the road. Dogs are poor generalizers, meaning that when they learn 'sit' in the kitchen, that doesn't mean they'll know 'sit' in the living room. Practice, practice, practice.
Until she gets good at this DO NOT let her out on the balcony. DO NOT. NOT EVEN with a screen door. CLOSE the door completely. YOu want to avoid exposing her to the aversive stimulus until you can keep her attention, even if it's only for a second.
When she's good at this, get her out there and the second she hears the jingling, say 'Look at me!" in a happy voice (ALWAYS the happy voice, even when she fails!) give her a treat when she does and IMMEDIATELY take her inside to remove her from the noxious stimulus. Over time she should anticipate getting a treat from you and then getting removed from what upsets her. You can try GRADUALLY lengthening the time you let her be exposed to the noise, but if she gets upset, you'll know you've gone too far and you need to back track. YOu need to advance her VERY, VERY slowly. This will take weeks, and weeks. I know because MY dog barks aggressively at bigger dogs. We've been working on this for five weeks and we're finally OK with medium sized dogs. NOT the really big ones.
Do not expect her to 'Look at me!" successfully the first ten times or so you try this. Keep working with her, though. And 'Leave it!' (also in a very happy voice) is a good behavior:
Toss a yummy treat on the floor and be ready to cover it with your foot when she dives for it. When she dives, cover it, say "leave it!" in your happiest voice and reward her with a DIFFERENT TREAT from your HAND. While she's swallowing the treat remove the one from the floor. Practice this a LOT. When she's got the idea, throw the treat farther away but ALWAYS reward her from your other hand (take a fanny pack with treats when you do this). Take it on the road. Another way to teach 'leave it' is to let her see that you have a yummy treat in your hand then make a fist before she gets it. When she STOPS mugging at the treat with the hand and looks at you (and this might take a good five minutes solid!), tell her 'Good leave it!' and give her a treat from the OTHER HAND.
Another technique is using 'The bar is open!/the bar is closed.' When she first hears the noise, but before she gets too crazy, start shoveling chicken or cheese treats in her mouth non-stop (the bar is open!). When the dogs have passed, so do the treats (the bar is closed!).
Usine all these techniques you should be able to calm her (and yourself) down - and, best of all, it works! Remember, though, no matter whether she fails - ALWAYS USE THE HAPPY VOICE!
Sorry. I've got no advice but I couldn't resist. "Tarp and jello" haven't left my brain since early this morning...
Well, I do live in the same town as MLassoff currently, so maybe we can do some work on redirecting her anxiety with some jello wrestling!
Anyway, thanks for the advice Viral. Should I make sure to only shovel when she is not anxious? I wouldn't want to reward her anxiety. I know a lot of people cuddle their dogs when they are scared of fireworks or thunder and that this might only serve to make it worse. I wouldn't want to do the same thing with her.
This is not the same as cuddling during a thunderstorm. What you're doing is giving positive reinforcement for paying attention to YOU and not to what's going on elsewhere.
Remember, when cuddling during a thunderstorm, all you're doing is giving her positive reinforcement for what the dog is doing: being fearful. If she's SO fearful she can't attend to you and those YUMMY treats, you're going too fast. You need to back up and take smaller baby steps.
My GSD does the same thing with the dog's next door. I usually let her howl and growl for about 30 secs, then tell her, "That's enough" and she comes inside and lies down. I really don't think that it is something to be so concerned about that you feel you must "correct" or train your dog not to do it; in the grand scheme of things, it is not something that you should be concerned or worried about. She might just be doing it to "prove" that she is looking out for you, or she may have dominance issues with those dogs. I would allow the behavior but on a minimal basis (like above) and keep her away from those dogs. I would not use a leash or anything else to "pop" her. Just let her do it for a bit, then tell her enough (be gentle but firm) and have her lie down or go inside until the other dogs are out of view.
It sounds like your dog has strong territory issues and is responding to the possible threat to her territory. Rescued dogs already have a lot of baggage, because they've been abandoned once. I've recently read a great book by Randy Grim, "Don't Dump the Dog," where he instructs owners in how to deal with the issues their adopted rescue dog is exhibiting. It seems like your described situation applies to his fundamental equation:
1st (in every situation) get your dog to SIT, by using a piece of hotdog and holding it just above their nose (which gets their attention) and raise it back over their head -- by following your hand, the dog will sit down. Keep her sitting with the treat overhead, until she RELAXES, and then reward her with the treat, while saying "Good Chill (or whatever one word description you want to use as a consistant name for this behavior in the future).
This tracks closely with the instructions of Tamar Geller, of "The Loved Dog," another widely publicized dog trainer/behaviorist. Both are adamant that the dog should NEVER be punished -- it will only destroy their trust in you, and won't work.
2. Continue to reward her while the dogs pass, as long as she keeps her attention on you and remains relaxed. If she starts up, again, you start the process over. Continue to reward her with pieces of hotdog, and "Good Chill" until the session is over.
3. When the "threat" is passed and you are ready to release her from the command, Tamar instructs to put your arms out (like the referees calling a stop play), and say another consistent command meaning "All done."
Both trainers agree that you will need to practice this repeatedly, until your dog understands and demonstrates understanding with performance. It's probably a good idea to keep pieces of hotdog handy for training session.
Note: Randgy G. advocates shaking a small tin of pennies to get the dog's attention, and then start the training. It doesn't scare them, it just makes them curious -- "What's that?" attention.
Oh yeah, and that trainer with the leash pop -- run from that one, those techniques can be dangerous and are old (ineffective) school. All it does is create more fear in the dog. You want that girl to trust you, not be afraid of you.
You have gotten some great advice from Viralmd. Cattle dogs are VERY territorial dogs. My Jazz feels she owns the whole street , heck make that the whole State of California! She is Cattle dog X Border collie so similar to yours.She wants to know not only who is there by why if she hears or sees another living being
If she hears some one walk by she use to run and bark at the door but I would distract her with a toy ( as she loves toys of course all toys belong to her!) It soon got to the point if she raced towards the door making her grumble type noise I would ask "Where is your frog" or which ever toy and she would stop and get it and foget about the other. Outside if she sees someone dog or human on " her street" I give her the leave it and watch me command. When we visited mt parents and she would go crazy barking out the window at things with their two dogs I would get up and say " who wants to party in a happy excited voice: they would all look at me like " Party? I bet there is food" and all would follow me and I would lead them to the bathroom and the " party " would be a short time out. what was funny was after a while all I had to do was say the party thing and they would all go in the bathroom by themselves and stay until I released then so I never had to get up or close a door.
You will find that the cattle dog in your dog will allow for a very deep bond with her as they really bond to their person so be caceful about how you come and go as you do not want seperation anxiety as I have known some that jump through plate glass windows or have eaten a hole in a wall in an attempt to find their person. They are such smart amazing LOYAL dogs. Jazz as difficult as she has been ( they tend to not be easy dogs) is my once in a life time dog. She and I have such a bond as she is just so different than my other dogs. You should be able to go far with training yours and if it is not a stubborn one that training will come easy! Good luck
DandJ, I am afrid to ask about you jello and tarps
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,064,362 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dashdog
DandJ, I am afrid to ask about you jello and tarps
LOL Jan... Now it's back in my head. HAHAHAHA!!
The OP had, on another forum, suggested that two other posters could solve their dispute with a method involving a tarp and some jello. It cracked me up for hours.
I don't know about other dogs, but coins in soda cans TERRIFY my dogs. Both of them. One nut on the street was doing this and they were both really terrified. It gets their attention, but not in a good way.
If you want to get their attention in a positive way, use a little toy with a squeaker.
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