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Post by rescuesquad on May 30, 2008 19:32:52 GMT -5
Just a little back ground on Bonnie:
Bonnie was purchased when she was a puppy at a pet store as a birthday present for an elderly woman. The woman could not handle such an active pup so she dropped the pup off at a vet's office and never picked her back up. The Vet tried to place/sell her for four months without success and then dumped her in rescue. She is not socialized and has lived in a cage for most of her life.
She is bascially a sweet little girl and loves to cuddle with anyone who will pay attention to her, however she has one very bad habit. She is a fear biter and a resource guarding dog. She will turn into KUJO to protect what she sees as hers. I am winning the war one battle at a time but not without consequences. The first two days of her being in my home I had to get down right brutal with her. Including holding her leash high enough for her front feet to be off the ground so she couldn't attack me. I am now able to back her down and pick up the object she is guarding (it's usually something white) a toy, an envelope that she has taken out of mom's waste basket or a tissue she has pilfered from the box by mom's chair. These are precious objects to her and I am trying to show her that everything in this house is mine and she is being allowed to have toys because I say she can have them. The problem lies with the fact that she will try to protect what she has fiercely and if she bites me and breaks the skin Florida law says she has to be euthanized. If I hold her drag leash at an arms distance so she can't get to me while I am picking up the object she just sits there and allows me to have it. If I don't hold the leash she attacks... She is not protective of food just toys and her precious objects. When given a treat by hand she is very gentle and barely opens her mouth to receive it.
How can I implement this training to our mututal benefit? Please understand this may be a life and death situation for this one year old little girl!
Judy
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Post by sibemom on Jun 3, 2008 14:54:55 GMT -5
Hi Judy What kind of dog is Bonnie? I was going to ask how old but I see she is 1 year. What your doing with the leash is good, but if this were me, I would take away all toys for awhile then slowly reintroduce them. Can you body block her from going INSANE over these objects without the leash attached? I guess what concerns me is that you have to use the leash to stop this problem, and without it she reverts back to the MINE MINE MINE mindset Is she crate trained? What would happen if you would set a toy or something white down on the floor allow her to approach it and then comand her to either BACK OFF, LEAVE IT etc... could you use your body along with the comand to get her to release the object with out a fight? Give me a bit more information and i will see if I can help you. Don't give up
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Post by rescuesquad on Jun 4, 2008 17:21:55 GMT -5
Ok, lets see if I can answer these questions for you. Bonnie is a one year old sheltie. She weighs about 15 pounds and is about 12 inches at the shoulder. I do stand on the object or very close to it and give her a very stern MINE! and she will back away a little bit (maybe two steps back) without the leash attached. She will get on the furniute which is not allowed here and she understands the word off quite well. She is crate trained and if she finds a treasure she will put it in her crate and attack any one or any thing that happens to pass in front of the door. I have soft side crates here so I simply stand it up on end with opening to the floor with her in it and move it over far enough so I can pick up the object safely. Again I tell her MINE! I leave her there until she settles down and then allow her out (usually about 3 to 4 minutes) when she comes out of the crate I ignore her. Most of the time she acts just fine but if she has something she treasures she's a real problem. She plays well with the other dogs and doesn't cause fights with them and will back down if they want a toy she is playing with. Hope this helps If you need more just post and I'll try to answer
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Post by sibemom on Jun 4, 2008 21:50:35 GMT -5
Ok. Now this is just my thoughts on what I would do. I would NOT allow her free roam of your house. I would attach her to me with a leash and then I would start setting her up. I would set things out that I knew she felt were TREASURES, and then when she would go to take them I would give her a firm collar correction and at the same time the verbal LEAVE IT! If she still trys to go for the item, another collar correction but nothing verbal. I also would not tip her crate like you said you were doing, I would think that would just escalate her response to fight for the object. If she is constantly being monitered where she can not gain access to these things she gaurds so fiercly then the problem should in time resolve itself. When you can not have her attached to you I would crate her. I would also try DROP IT, OR GIVE instead of MINE! It is not the word so much as it is the sound of the word. The word MINE has the long I sound and when you try to be firm using that word it can actually stimulate excitement and with her aggresive behavior. The other words I offer are calmer and you can get very firm with them with out it sounding like a whine. Do you get where I am going with that? If you prevent her from taking things and running off to her crate with them then it will give you a chance to proof the behavior that you are looking for, thus no fight because if she can not get to anything there is nothing to fight for. I wonder why WHITE objects stem her interest That would be something to watch because that is interesting me. I hope I offered you some idea's that might help this is what I would do and it's going to take some stamina but I think it's worth a try. Keep us posted
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Post by rescuesquad on Jun 4, 2008 23:16:07 GMT -5
Ok I'll teather her to me but with six dogs in the house there are toys all over the floor all of the time. We don't have a huge toy box but all of them are spread through out the living room and dining room most of the time until bed time when I pick them back up and put them away. I did allow her one of her treasures last sunday afternoon. She had picked up one of our church bulletins that one of our cats had knocked off the buffet and she ran to her crate. As soon as I saw what she had and was guarding I simply said to her ok you can have that I have another... She shredded it to pieces right in her crate and when she was done she left the crate and didn't guard it at all. A few minutes later (maybe 10 minutes) I went to her crate and reached in and picked up the shredded pieces with her right beside me and she never once tried to attack me. I'm wondering if she had everything taken away from her when she was in her other home and didn't have toys at the vets office??? It still doesn't excuse her behavior I'm just trying to understand her so I can fix it....
Judy
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Post by sibemom on Jun 5, 2008 7:25:20 GMT -5
Judy, I know it's going to be hard to keep the toys away from her but that is what you need to do until she understands that you will not tolerate this behavior. I also would keep talking to a minimum. When you allowed her to keep that church bulliten you lost some ground. I know it's easier than getting into a confrontation with her but she has no right STEALING THINGS. If you did not allow her to have something then she should not have it. She needs to understand that YOU GIVE HER THINGS, she can not just take them and you will take ANYTHING away from her that you so choose. I don't think the issue of wether she had toys before or not makes any difference. I would understand if she was aggresive to food, if she had been starved but you say she is not. I have not seen her but this sounds like she has used this behavior to GET HER WAY so to speak and by getting aggresive over items she has scared people away and thus has been allowed to claim things that she should not have. Do your best that is all you can do.
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Post by rescuesquad on Jun 5, 2008 20:07:54 GMT -5
The toys are all put away and Bonnie and I spent the day joined at the hip. When I went out to mow the lawn she was crated. I did set her up this afternoon by taking off her leash (she loves her leash) and when she picked it up I gave her a stern command of "leave it" She dropped the leash and stepped back two steps then walked away.... As I said before I'm winning the war one battle at a time. Now if we can only curb her fear biting.. I have started working with her on basic obedience and she is now sitting on command.. I'll start on down tomorrow and then work on a wait, then a stay! She's a smart little cookie and I think that's about 90% of her problem.
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