[churchillthedog]

Hey everyone - I have a few questions for you regarding one of my dogs.

I got Daisy, a 5 year old boxer [maybe cross] about 6 months ago, and overall she is a good dog, but she has some issues.

First off, and most frustrating for me - she HATES going for walks. Something awful must have happened to her on a walk that she relates with it. We get about 20 feet out of my yard and she freezes up. She grabs her leash in her mouth and tugs and won't do anything but go home.
It's weird because she gets excited to go for a walk but then once she gets out there we get into the issues. I have only successfully walked her around the block twice - every other time she will freeze up.
This is the issue I would like to most address as I love taking my dogs for walks, and she NEEDS the exercise.


Second we have the anxiety/separation issues - she will defecate/urinate when left alone [despite being let out beforehand]. She is not left alone often [I am home all the time since I'm unemployed and only leave an hour or so at a time less than 3 times a week]

And 3rd, random defecation despite being constantly let out [to be preventative, rarely out more than 5 minutes]. I walk into another room and she will silently slip into another on the way and leave her mark.

She is also incredibly dominant, if that has anything to do with it.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Elana55]

She just sounds under trained and under socialized to me.

I would get a crate for the house breaking issues... or tether her to me so she cannot sneak anywhere. Your dog just needs to be house trained. She may have BEEN house trained in another house, but dogs do not generalize behavior to new locations so she is not house broken in a new house. Start over. Get her on a feeding and going out schedule. If you have to go anywhere, crate her. At night, crate her. Get the DVD Crate Games from www.dogwise.com to learn how to crate train a dog.

When she pees or poops outside, tons of praise and FOOD reward. Get hot dogs.. quarter them lengthwise and then do cross cuts. One hot dog = 60 or more treats! And they are CHEAP compared to dog treats.. and dogs like them better.

If she pees or poops inside, and you catch her, interrupt and take her out.. praise and food rewards for finishing up in the right place. Do not put her nose in it or punish her if you find she has left you a gift somewhere. All that will do his scare her. I am not saying you do this.. just saying it in case.

I assume you have a yard. Work on loose leash walking in your yard. Work on other things like sit, heel (and she sits when you stop, which you have to train) and coming when called. When she is good at this stuff in the yard (2 training sessions a day 15 minutes each) take her out of the yard. Use the treats and see if things imporve.

Go to this site and read:
www.clickertraining.com and consider learning clicker training. It is all postiive and it is likely something this dog has never been exposed to. You may work wonders doing this.

Get this book (and it is available cheap and used):
"the Complete Idiots Guide to Positive Dog Training" by Pamela Dennison.

Oh yeah.. and toss out the dominance stuff and turn off "the Dog Whisperer" because that is entertaining to watch but not what you want to do training your good dog.

 

[churchillthedog]

She just sounds under trained and under socialized to me.

I would get a crate for the house breaking issues... or tether her to me so she cannot sneak anywhere. Your dog just needs to be house trained. She may have BEEN house trained in another house, but dogs do not generalize behavior to new locations so she is not house broken in a new house. Start over. Get her on a feeding and going out schedule. If you have to go anywhere, crate her. At night, crate her. Get the DVD Crate Games from www.dogwise.com to learn how to crate train a dog.

When she pees or poops outside, tons of praise and FOOD reward. Get hot dogs.. quarter them lengthwise and then do cross cuts. One hot dog = 60 or more treats! And they are CHEAP compared to dog treats.. and dogs like them better.

If she pees or poops inside, and you catch her, interrupt and take her out.. praise and food rewards for finishing up in the right place. Do not put her nose in it or punish her if you find she has left you a gift somewhere. All that will do his scare her. I am not saying you do this.. just saying it in case.

I'll have to get a crate for her, but I will crate train her asap.
Aside from giving her food I have the rest correct, I'll start giving her food when she comes in, I already praise greatly for it.

I assume you have a yard. Work on loose leash walking in your yard. Work on other things like sit, heel (and she sits when you stop, which you have to train) and coming when called. When she is good at this stuff in the yard (2 training sessions a day 15 minutes each) take her out of the yard. Use the treats and see if things imporve.

I live in a townhouse complex and my yard can be distracting for her, we've been working in the basement and she is getting better there, almost time to go to the yard

Go to this site and read:
www.clickertraining.com and consider learning clicker training. It is all postiive and it is likely something this dog has never been exposed to. You may work wonders doing this.

I've been seriously considering this, she is very food-driven so once I associate the clicker with treat she should be incredible with it.

Get this book (and it is available cheap and used):
"the Complete Idiots Guide to Positive Dog Training" by Pamela Dennison.

I'll check my local used book stores/library

Oh yeah.. and toss out the dominance stuff and turn off "the Dog Whisperer" because that is entertaining to watch but not what you want to do training your good dog.

Don't watch it, probably a coincidence I mentioned dominance - I have never seen an episode more than the South Park about him, lol.

Thanks a lot for your advice.

 

[Elana55]

I'll have to get a crate for her, but I will crate train her asap.
Aside from giving her food I have the rest correct, I'll start giving her food when she comes in, I already praise greatly for it..

Not how it is done. Give her the food as she is pooping or peeing or immediately after. Waiting until she comes in or comes to you is too late for the dog to relate the pooping or peeing action with the reward. Feeding her when she comes in means (to the dog) "Oh goody! I get food when I get back in the house." Pooping and Peeing are totally forgotten by this time.

Dogs do not make time relatsionships well. You need to food to go in the dog as close to the behavior you desire happening. Go out with her, and stuff food in her the MINUTE she does her duty (either one).

My neighbors probably think I am nuts.. I have been known to stuff food in one end of the dog and saying "GOOD DOG!!!" while "processed food" has been exiting the other end....

I also have a house broken dog.

 

[Cracker]

I just wanted to second Elana's advice.
Also...you don't want to reward the coming back in with food..for timing and proper communication the reward comes RIGHT WHEN the voiding outside happens. Which means you need to right there (possibly with the dog on the leash) and reward her handsomely. This is so she associates the reward with the right behaviour. The reward should be delivered within 1-2 seconds of the behaviour you are rewarding. Once you get into the clicker training you will see the importance of timing, as the difference it makes in the dog's learning is amazing.

LOL Elana and I were typing at the same time. Great minds..yada yada.

 

[churchillthedog]

Thanks to both of you, through my short time lurking I have come to respect both of your opinions highly

My neighbours already think I'm weird, so this will be nothing new - and it actually works out well for me now because I have recently put in a garden and am out there making sure the hounds don't make their way over my shady dollar store fence.

It will also help her to spend more time on the leash as well - and for the future getting her to defecate while on the leash before we walk