Post by aheller on Apr 26, 2007 15:19:12 GMT -5
Hello,
I think Charlie is having some dominance issues. He has been a little out of sorts for the last few weeks and there have been quite a few episodes of him growling, snapping and barking at my girlfriend and I. It's a little unnerving.
It happens primarily when he is being verbally disciplined for doing something he shouldn't be. That can range from telling him to stop begging for a snack, to telling him to stop nudging my hand while I type, to "stop chewing that paper towel". You tell him to stop and he will start growling a little bit. You tell him to stop growling and that leads into barking and snapping. I can usually get him to sit and then into a down-stay without much fuss, after which he will settle down and get back to normal, but there has been a few times where nothing we did would get him to settle down and we had to put him in the crate for a little while until he calmed down.
Reading through some past posts, one of the first things that I see people recommend is implementing the NILF program, so I read through Laura's NILF post and we have been taking the advice and trying to implement this program. These outbursts that I described above, are these "extinction bursts" as referred to in her post?
It also says that we should just ignore him during the outbursts, so I am guessing that we should stop our approach of getting him to sit or down-stay when he gets going. Sometimes it is damn near impossible to ignore him. It's hard to ignore a furry, 50 pound Pac-Man with teeth trying to chomp on my arm. What do we do in these situations? What we have been doing is leaving him alone in the living room (it's gated at both ends) and going into the kitchen. Is this the right thing to do?
Thanks in advance for any input!
I think Charlie is having some dominance issues. He has been a little out of sorts for the last few weeks and there have been quite a few episodes of him growling, snapping and barking at my girlfriend and I. It's a little unnerving.
It happens primarily when he is being verbally disciplined for doing something he shouldn't be. That can range from telling him to stop begging for a snack, to telling him to stop nudging my hand while I type, to "stop chewing that paper towel". You tell him to stop and he will start growling a little bit. You tell him to stop growling and that leads into barking and snapping. I can usually get him to sit and then into a down-stay without much fuss, after which he will settle down and get back to normal, but there has been a few times where nothing we did would get him to settle down and we had to put him in the crate for a little while until he calmed down.
Reading through some past posts, one of the first things that I see people recommend is implementing the NILF program, so I read through Laura's NILF post and we have been taking the advice and trying to implement this program. These outbursts that I described above, are these "extinction bursts" as referred to in her post?
It also says that we should just ignore him during the outbursts, so I am guessing that we should stop our approach of getting him to sit or down-stay when he gets going. Sometimes it is damn near impossible to ignore him. It's hard to ignore a furry, 50 pound Pac-Man with teeth trying to chomp on my arm. What do we do in these situations? What we have been doing is leaving him alone in the living room (it's gated at both ends) and going into the kitchen. Is this the right thing to do?
Thanks in advance for any input!