Hello everyone. I come here looking for advice on how to get my 2 year old german shepherd/German Pointer mix from crying/whimpering when in unfamiliar situations. I feel as if I've tried everything and nothing seems to be working.
First a little about my girl. I got her as a puppy and she was always pretty naughty, while I know that is to be expected her behavoir went above and beyond normal jumping and puppy troubles. I live in the center of Prague but have access to a large park only two blocks from my house. For those of you who don't know, the czech republic is an extremely dog friendly city and you can take your dog almost anywhere here. To bars, restaurants, even to the supermarket. This city is full of very well behaved dogs and most aren't even leashed. Enter my little girl Jedi. She's extremely (I've had dogs before, and I mean that, extremely) hyperactive and nervous. Every time she leaves the house she looks around as if she is experiencing everything for the first time, even though she is walked at least three times a day.
No matter what I do I can't for the life of me get her to heel. I've tried turning around when she pulls, I've tried pinch collars (which worked for about three days), and I've been to three different dog training courses, and even a dog psychologist. And nothing. It's as if she's literally hasn't progressed at all. I'm still keeping up with it however, and she gets at least 30 to 45 minutes of running every day, and two 10 minute obedience sessions.
She is quite good at obedience and quickly jumps into every trick I want her to do. She can even learn new tricks very quickly after only 15 to 20 repetitions. The main problem I have now is her whimpering and crying, heeling, greeting and jumping on strangers, and an inability to sit still. For the life of me I can't get her to do these things. Currently she goes to the park for a run, which is followed by about a 15 minute walk (she will heel sometimes after a long run, but that's probably because she's just tired, and walk slower). I then take her to a circulating door (she hates swoooshing and scraping noises and Im trying to desensitize her to it) and then I take her to the metro station where she has to lie down and get accustomed to having a lot of people walking around her. But during this whole time in the metro, or when we have visitors, or when she's in any uncomfortable situation she will start whimpering and crying. I know that the conventional advice is that she just needs to be exposed to the things she gets nervous about the most. Well, I've done that for over a year now and she hasn't improved at all. Literally, she's exactly the same as she was before.
Currently when she starts whimpering I will kind of touch her above her leg, and make a quick shush sound. But she doesn't shush. In fact this last christmas we had the family over, and while I can get her to stay on her spot while company is over, I just can't get her to shut up. She cried for over 6 hours on this occasion.
So to sum things up. What is the best way to get a crying dog to stop?
It is really unfortunate that she is unhappy because Prague is such a great city to have dogs in. There are parks everywhere, and 99 percent of dog interactions I've had are non agressive, well adjusted dogs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
First a little about my girl. I got her as a puppy and she was always pretty naughty, while I know that is to be expected her behavoir went above and beyond normal jumping and puppy troubles. I live in the center of Prague but have access to a large park only two blocks from my house. For those of you who don't know, the czech republic is an extremely dog friendly city and you can take your dog almost anywhere here. To bars, restaurants, even to the supermarket. This city is full of very well behaved dogs and most aren't even leashed. Enter my little girl Jedi. She's extremely (I've had dogs before, and I mean that, extremely) hyperactive and nervous. Every time she leaves the house she looks around as if she is experiencing everything for the first time, even though she is walked at least three times a day.
No matter what I do I can't for the life of me get her to heel. I've tried turning around when she pulls, I've tried pinch collars (which worked for about three days), and I've been to three different dog training courses, and even a dog psychologist. And nothing. It's as if she's literally hasn't progressed at all. I'm still keeping up with it however, and she gets at least 30 to 45 minutes of running every day, and two 10 minute obedience sessions.
She is quite good at obedience and quickly jumps into every trick I want her to do. She can even learn new tricks very quickly after only 15 to 20 repetitions. The main problem I have now is her whimpering and crying, heeling, greeting and jumping on strangers, and an inability to sit still. For the life of me I can't get her to do these things. Currently she goes to the park for a run, which is followed by about a 15 minute walk (she will heel sometimes after a long run, but that's probably because she's just tired, and walk slower). I then take her to a circulating door (she hates swoooshing and scraping noises and Im trying to desensitize her to it) and then I take her to the metro station where she has to lie down and get accustomed to having a lot of people walking around her. But during this whole time in the metro, or when we have visitors, or when she's in any uncomfortable situation she will start whimpering and crying. I know that the conventional advice is that she just needs to be exposed to the things she gets nervous about the most. Well, I've done that for over a year now and she hasn't improved at all. Literally, she's exactly the same as she was before.
Currently when she starts whimpering I will kind of touch her above her leg, and make a quick shush sound. But she doesn't shush. In fact this last christmas we had the family over, and while I can get her to stay on her spot while company is over, I just can't get her to shut up. She cried for over 6 hours on this occasion.
So to sum things up. What is the best way to get a crying dog to stop?
It is really unfortunate that she is unhappy because Prague is such a great city to have dogs in. There are parks everywhere, and 99 percent of dog interactions I've had are non agressive, well adjusted dogs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you