A tiny triumph

elsien

neveranymoney wrote: »

The lip licking, licking forelegs, fake yawning has to be seen to be believed, I have never met a dog like it in my life! The behaviourist hasn't seen it in full swing, scampers was far more interested in the tub of hotdog and cheese the guy had with him!
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Do you have a smartphone or camera you could record it on to show him when he next visits?
I have to say I understand exactly what you mean about the claustrophobia. My last foster was the full dog aggressive barking at the window thing, and I couldn't cope. She was absolutely lovely when it was night time, the curtains were closed, or at my mums house when she couldn't get to a window to bark outside. And when we were walking with no other dogs in sight, I was thinking "why can't she be like it all the time." When I had her all day because I wasn't working, I'd be thinking of excuses to go shopping for half an hour to get away from the stress and hassle, then I felt guilty for doing it.
You have my admiration for persevering as you are.

minimad1970

Isn't the lip licking and yawning a sign of stress? I'm thinking of trying one of the DAP diffusers for Truffle's stress. He's a funny one as well, he'll bark to come in and then when I open the door he just sits there until I say "come in then". My dog is just so polite

meritaten

lmao - my second dog meg never barked to come in - she 'knocked the door'! then the second you opened it she would barge it at top speed - you learned dam fast to stand out of her way!

trolleyrun

As others have said, you're doing better than you think, OP. It's sometimes difficult to see the changes when you're spending so much time with him.

I was talking to a rescue dog trainer the other day, and she said that they encourage adopters to change the dog's name, as most dogs in rescues have a "bad" association to their name. I'm not sure if you've already done this, or would even consider it, but just a thought.

I've had my rescue now for a year and she's still a work in progress. Luckily, she doesn't have the aggressiveness towards other dogs, although there are some dogs around here she would quite happily "sort out". Pipsqueak here has OCD, and continually comes up with new things to obsess about. It's only in the last few weeks I'm getting somewhere with the off-lead training, so it does take time. She hated cars initially, but now it's only bikes she has an issue with (traffic wise). Whenever there's a bike coming I make her stop and sit, and she's making progress with the bikes too

Keep going! You'll get there eventually. I'll send you a pm with a link to getting free kindle books Also, have you been in touch with the rescue you got your dog from? They might be able to help you with ideas and training (mine has been great!).

Ps. The lip licking etc is a sign of stress and heightened awareness, basically it's on the lowest level of the aggression scale.

neveranymoney

Am reading and running so I can't reply properly at the mo and there are lots of points here that are really ringing true. I am going to my lovely mother in laws for a slap up Sunday lunch. I am going to enjoy myself, stuff my fat little features and try not to think about dogs, dog behaviour, (pretty hard with her very spoilt lap dog but he isn't mine so I am going to be harsh and let the rest of them get on with it) and chill the heck out for two hours.

Scampers has had an hour run and then ten minutes play/training in the garden which was a bit cruddy as it is a 'good drying day' and he hates the wind. He will have the pleasure of radio 4, or heat radio depending on my mood and a frozen stuffed kong.

meritaten

'Training' doesn't have to be formal sessions in the garden! Playtime in the house is a brill opportunity for training!
eg. I wanted to teach the 'NO' command so with the excitable one - I taught it in 'Playtime'. she would get a bit excited, go to snatch toy and I would put my hand over it and say 'NO' very firmly! then follow that with 'Sit'. and make her sit. then give her a treat and the toy. this took a few months before I could just use the voice command and at first I did get a few bitten fingers!
I found 'NO' to be an invaluable command! it made both first and second dogs stop, sit and look at me for instruction! averted many a disaster!

trolleyrun

I agree with the "NO!" command. Works a treat when pipsqueak is contemplating veering off track during off-lead training. "Out!" Worked for a while, but she responds better to "NO!" for some reason.

Other thoughts this afternoon: How many commands are you trying to train at the moment, Neveranymoney? If you're trying several, perhaps try to master only a few? If this is what you're already doing, please disregard.

One of the first things I taught pipsqueak was "It's all right". It took a while for her to really get it, but whenever she was worried or anxious I told her it's alright. Usually, she would get a stroke or cuddle at the same time so she knew that the words meant "safe" in dog speak.

Another invaluable command I've found is "Leave it". This goes for anything from a toy, something disgusting on the road or her wanting to have a go at a cat/dog/pigeon. As all the various commands, it did take time, but she's got that one down quite well. Unless it's a cat - then all the rules go out of the window

There's still a long way to go, but we keep battling on. You can do it too! I've missed how long you've had the dog, but by the sounds of it, not very long. Oh, and pipsqueak is my first ever dog

neveranymoney

Lawks, another episode in the continuing saga that is scampers. I may be sounding jovial, but that is because I have stood in the kitchen, crying my eyeballs out and looking at the wee !!!!!! out the window as he happily has his Saturday bone.

From the behaviourist came nearly a fortnight ago, things have been great.

The behaviourist and I took him out on a walk, passed a few dogs and we managed to keep him under threshold. We even saw the cat from the bottom of the street and I got scampers to come to me on the second attempt (he was on lead obviously but I was behind him).

The behaviourist watched me play with him, a thing that has taken some time with the beloved squeaky ball and the behaviourist said that the dog is loving it, totally receptive to training and in the detailed email report I recieved the next day from him, he basically said he was really pleased with scampers progress, sent a few links of training vids and books and said we were doing a fine job in that respect and that he wasn't needed for that end of things but if I was to retain his services, it would've for the dog agression - he would be wanting to set up a stooge dog in the future. He also said it was completely up to ourselves as scampers walks have been 'managed' in the sense that they are at odd times to keep him away from other dogs but that eventually we would need to begin working with reactivity distances etc etc.

I bought click to calm, had managed a sit stay in the house where I could turn my back and walk away, leave the room, I was all biz that I managed to teach him to go on to the kitchen mat whilst I was boiling pasta the other night. All very basic stuff I know, but they were happy occurrences to me.

I even took him out with the kids by myself (it was bucketing down, I knew we wouldn't be awash with dogs, but baby steps!) and passed another dog with out too much fuss. Good times.

There have been loads of little blips, the wind sends him batty, out in a deserted football pitch, the slightest thing will completely knock him back but we were dealing with it. My silent mantra was 'he is settling down, in a year it will be better'. Cut to this morning.

Scampers is allowed onto our beds every morning, this is nothing new or out of the ordinary and we have never had a problem.

My husband was going to work, which as I later said to him may have ramped the dog up somewhat, but as he rightly replied, he goes to work 6 days out of 7 and there will always be something to ramp scampers up.

My husband left as normal, I was sitting on the end of the bed getting my shoes on, scampers came back up the stairs and I called him on to the bed beside me. He hopped up and lay down, not in a sleepy way, fully alert. I leant in to say something daft in baby talk - again, completely the norm and completely soundlessly, he bared his teeth and moved into my face. This was DEFINITE teeth baring, not happy, teeth showing because we are playing ball, it was top lip up and horrific looking.

I pulled back and said 'what are you doing? Don't do that!' And stood up and told him to get down. He took himself down the stairs and then was for eyed and trying to follow me . I said no and sent him down the stairs. He was mighty subdued and after about half an hour I gave him his bone simply to give myself some head space and the ability to leave the living room with the kids in it.

This literally happened in a flash, I have emailed the behaviorist and cried myself silly. I rang my husband to work and he is at his wits end. Scampers is SO loved. Our outings are never long as we don't want to leave him, my poor husband takes him out after a full shift at sometimes 1 or 2 in the morning and we have worked really hard with him. The only thing that keeps me going is the behaviorist last time telling us we were doing everything right so I know we haven't caused it.

What in gods name happens now? I'm not doing anything until I speak to the behaviourist, I just wanted to vent. My mother is coming round later and she really doesnt like animals and if the kids tell her this, she will go nuts.

If you have managed to read my tome, many thanks.

Wellyboots6

Sounds like LS to be honest, especially when he has an ear infection. He becomes a right grumpy pig!
When I first got him it was teeth for everything. If he wanted my food he would snap at me and lunge as though he was going to bite. If he wanted playing with he would force a toy on your lap and then snap at you until you picked it up. It took a lot of taking him out of the room, ignoring etc etc to get him to give it up as an every day thing.
He still does it occasionally now, if I try and grab hold of him suddenly without warning he will turn and bare his teeth, or go to grab my arm with his teeth. I know now that he won't bite unless I ignore his warning signs, but it still isn't pleasant!
With LS the incidents of him doing this are reducing greatly, and I know what causes it now so it is manageable. It is always worse if he is feeling under the weather.
Are the incidents with Scampers decreasing? Can you see a pattern in when he reacts like this? You are doing right by contacting the behaviourist.
I suppose the positive is that he isn't actually connecting, using the baring of teeth more as a warning than anything.
It could be like you say that he was wound up, and then with leaning in close above him it was a gut reaction to feeling threatened.
Just look back at all the positives he has made, you are doing so well

neveranymoney

Behaviourist has literally just texted me and is ringing at 1:30. Katy721, this is not his norm. A good while ago he very quickly bared his teeth at me when I leant over him to let him, I don think I wanted to admit that's what it was as yes, I know leaning OVER a dog isn't the some thing but I had been talking to him and hadn't startled him. He has only ever growled at us once, the first time we had ever given him a real bone and he wasn't particularly near it and my husband absent mindedly went to move it.