Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Negative Punishment

By

I’ve become determined to work with Delilah on her down stays.

It’s not an easy  task.

Since she likes to be in the bathroom with me I figure it’s win-win.  She gets to be in the bathroom with me and I get to work on her downs.  The trouble with this is, she doesn’t always stay in the down.

I thought well maybe the floor (being ceramic and all) is too cold and she’s uncomfortable, so I took the bathroom rug and threw it down.  She still got up.

Listen to your readers.

A couple of posts ago Jan said, “Some of the best advice I ever got was not to try to treat my kids or my dogs the same way. They are all different entities, with different needs and all of them have let me know what kind of attention they want from me.

It was hard to do but I finally learned not to reward bad behavior by giving that kid or dog more attention. Praise the good one and the other will want to copy that behavior.”

This comment really got me thinking.  When I’m in the bathroom and I put Delilah into a down stay and she gets up.  What do I do?  I go back and put her in a down stay again.

I asked myself, “What does this teach her?”

I answered, “It teaches her that when she doesn’t do as I ask, I reward her with more attention.”

Jodi Stone, you are a bad dog trainer!

Look, I don’t want to scare you or force you to burn your retinas out with bleach so try not to visualize this too much.  Today I got out of the shower, dried myself off and applied my lotion.

While I was waiting for my lotion to dry, I decided to blow dry my hair.  Since I have short, fine hair I throw a little product in there, bend over and blow it upside down.

As I’m bent over in this upside down position with my hair dryer in my hands, who comes shoving her way through my legs.

Yup.

First I laughed, because I’m dumb and can’t help myself but then I took the rug and put it on the floor and said, “Down.”

She sat on the rug.

I didn’t battle with her at all, I took her by the collar, led her out into the bedroom and shut her out of the bathroom.

Seeing as this is DELILAH we are writing about, I need to make sure there is nothing lying about that she will decide to chew up or I will need to make sure the bedroom door is shut before I banish her.

Negative Punishment.

“Negative punishment reduces behaviors by taking away or withholding something good or something the dog will work for.”

I’ve been using this technique for a couple of weeks in a number of different ways.

When she does not sit while I am preparing her meals, I stop what I am doing and wait.  My motto is “Nothing moves in the kitchen if you’re moving.”

When we are eating dinner and she is supposed to be in a down on her place and she gets up, she goes in her crate.

Last night we were watching TV and eating our dinner, it was a pretty intense show and we were both fixated on the TV.  I caught movement and realized she’d gotten up and gone over to inspect her bowl.

FAIL.

In the crate she went.

Get excited about this.

Let your mind soar as you think of the possibilities.

Dog doesn’t respond to recall = Dog stays on leash.

Child doesn’t clean room = Child doesn’t go to birthday party.

Husband doesn’t mow lawn = Wife doesn’t,,,,,,,,,,,

buy beer.

Where did you think I was going with that?

Book Update:  I haven’t updated you about my book in a while.  Truthfully, I wrote a really exciting part of the book and then I didn’t know what to do next, so I put it down for a while.  But I’ve picked it back up and my book now has 25,051 words.

TTouch

By

Yesterday I wrote how I have been giving Delilah massages and it seems to be something she really enjoys.

I was inspired by a post at Peaceful Dog, in the post Kirsten had included a link to a previous post where she wrote about TTouch with her reactive dog Lamar.

If you haven’t heard of TTouch here is a brief explanation “TTouch can help you understand and influence your animal with your heart and hands in a way that develops trust, creates a harmonious relationship, and changes unwanted behavior.”

There is something in the TTouch that releases endorphins which we all know are what helps us with our moods.

While I was reading Kirsten’s post about TTouch I realized I have been doing this with Delilah without even realizing it!

I probably do this three to four times per day, Delilah will come up to me and I place one hand under each of her ears and rub in a circular motion.  After 30 seconds or so I get a really deep sigh, like she is relaxed or content.  Which is exactly what Kirsten described.

First thing in the morning as I am trying to get ready for work, she comes into the bathroom looking for attention.  I rub her ears.

When I come home from work, before or after her massage.  I rub her ears.

After we are settled in bed, I reach for Delilah and rub her ears.  She stretches out across my feet and looks up at me.  I drop a kiss on her head and rub some more and then the deep, contented sigh.

All is right in her world.

What do you do when your dog is amped up?  Is there something special you do to help calm him/her down?

Finding Balance

By

We have a tradition in our house when we first come home.

We must pay homage to the King.  I know I’ve written about this before, but this post is more about balancing attention between Sampson and Delilah.

Delilah typically greets us at the door, while Sampson will wait at the top of the stairs.   Once the initial greeting is over and you have gone to unload your packages or put your lunch stuff away one of two things will happen with each of the dogs.

Sampson will 1) take one of his bones and lie there licking and gnawing the bone all the while pretending that he doesn’t care what you are doing, or 2)  he will just lie on the floor waiting for you to finish what you are doing and go love on him.

Delilah will 1) grab her favorite toy or bone and roll around on her back playing with the toy or 2) be all up in your stuff, pushing her way through begging for attention.

With Delilah requiring so much work and attention I often times feel like Sampson takes a back seat and this makes me feel very sad.

Like Kirsten and Lamar at Peaceful Dog, I do my best to make sure Sampson gets the attention first.  As soon as my arms are free I head on over and lay on the floor with him, rubbing his face, his ears his tummy.

For the longest time I was trying to give Delilah the same kind of attention I was giving Sampson, but it just didn’t seem to be working.  A couple of weeks (or so) ago, I read somewhere about giving little massages to your dogs.

I decided to try it with Delilah.

Instead of soft, little caresses, Delilah gets deep, stimulating massage.  I will massage her shoulders, her back and the tops of her back legs.  I also will give her a little head massage.

Delilah loves her massages, instead of rolling over and taking off like she used to do, she now stands there calmly letting me massage her.  I’ve recently started naming it and asking her if she wants her massage, so she begins to recognize what comes next.

Who knows if the word cookie, dinner or snack can get her jumping around, maybe the word massage will calm her down. 🙂

In my opinion when you have two entirely different dogs, it’s all about find balance and I really feel like I’m finally getting a handle on it.

Are there any special rituals you do with your dog(s)?  If you have more than one, have you found a balance, a way to give each dog what they need?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...