Some of you may have seen my post on the General forum about the stray dog who has apparently (unexpectedly) made himself mine.
Well, since we've decided to keep him, we've also decided to look into some private one-on-one training for him. He's incredibly, incredibly fearful. He will come to us if we have food in hand, he loves being taken out for a walk, he's very happy to play with my other dog, and when we pet the other dog, he hovers nearby as if he wishes he had the courage to try it himself. However, if you so much as move in his direction, even by accident, he sprints for his crate. I've never seen a dog this terrified of being touched, no matter how slowly you move or how much you wait for him to come to you.
So, we feel a little out of our league trying to deal with him alone and have decided to enlist professional help. I called the top two trainers in our area, as rated by an annual local poll by a local newspaper (their ratings are usually pretty reliable). One is very focused on positive-only clicker based training, which sounds great, but she's incredibly, incredibly expensive - someone prohibitively so. We could afford her group classes, and might try them out when we reach that point, but right now I don't think he can handle that many people at once. The other trainer seems happy to do positive based training and clicker type training, but they (a married couple) also advocate using a very low level remote collar. I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of using the "shock collar," even though they claim it's at the lowest possible setting and it's just enough to get his attention, nothing more. I mean, I can't even tap this guy with the tip of my finger, and they think he'll be okay with a tap from a collar? Other than that though, they sound fantastic, they come really highly recommend and well reviewed with great results, and they seems very passionate about what they do. Additionally, they do a free hour-long consult with no obligation for more sessions, which, honestly, compared to the high price of just one session with the other trainer, sounds like it's worth at least giving a try.
So... what would you do? This isn't an expense we were expecting (he literally followed me home while I was walking my other dog, and basically I just couldn't turn him out), but we feel like we need help. On the other hand, I don't want to screw this up and just make him more fearful. Would it be acceptable to ask these trainers to try trying him without the collar first, and only add the collar if they really feel that it's necessary, or is that the amateur questioning the professional? They seem friendly and were very understanding of our concerns about the collar, but also very persistent in trying to convince us that the collar would be fine and wouldn't frighten him. Right now we have a consultation scheduled with them for Monday when they will come to the house, meet the dog, and discuss with us what plan they would recommend. I doubt they'll try to put the collar on him on the first session (especially since we're not trying to discourage any bad habits, just build good ones), so I figure it's worth meeting them at least, since it's free, but I'm still nervous.
I mean, anybody who mentioned things like dominance, alpha dogs, or smacking him on the nose would automatically be kicked unceremoniously out the door, but this I'm less sure about.
Also, just generally... any advice for acclimating and training a fearful new dog? We're doing all of the moving as slowly as possible, not forcing him into anything, giving him his space so he feels comfortable, definitely no pouncing on him or grabbing at him, sitting on the floor so he can come to us, etc., etc. Books to read? Websites to peruse? I know much of it will be a matter of time, but any tips or success stories would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Well, since we've decided to keep him, we've also decided to look into some private one-on-one training for him. He's incredibly, incredibly fearful. He will come to us if we have food in hand, he loves being taken out for a walk, he's very happy to play with my other dog, and when we pet the other dog, he hovers nearby as if he wishes he had the courage to try it himself. However, if you so much as move in his direction, even by accident, he sprints for his crate. I've never seen a dog this terrified of being touched, no matter how slowly you move or how much you wait for him to come to you.
So, we feel a little out of our league trying to deal with him alone and have decided to enlist professional help. I called the top two trainers in our area, as rated by an annual local poll by a local newspaper (their ratings are usually pretty reliable). One is very focused on positive-only clicker based training, which sounds great, but she's incredibly, incredibly expensive - someone prohibitively so. We could afford her group classes, and might try them out when we reach that point, but right now I don't think he can handle that many people at once. The other trainer seems happy to do positive based training and clicker type training, but they (a married couple) also advocate using a very low level remote collar. I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of using the "shock collar," even though they claim it's at the lowest possible setting and it's just enough to get his attention, nothing more. I mean, I can't even tap this guy with the tip of my finger, and they think he'll be okay with a tap from a collar? Other than that though, they sound fantastic, they come really highly recommend and well reviewed with great results, and they seems very passionate about what they do. Additionally, they do a free hour-long consult with no obligation for more sessions, which, honestly, compared to the high price of just one session with the other trainer, sounds like it's worth at least giving a try.
So... what would you do? This isn't an expense we were expecting (he literally followed me home while I was walking my other dog, and basically I just couldn't turn him out), but we feel like we need help. On the other hand, I don't want to screw this up and just make him more fearful. Would it be acceptable to ask these trainers to try trying him without the collar first, and only add the collar if they really feel that it's necessary, or is that the amateur questioning the professional? They seem friendly and were very understanding of our concerns about the collar, but also very persistent in trying to convince us that the collar would be fine and wouldn't frighten him. Right now we have a consultation scheduled with them for Monday when they will come to the house, meet the dog, and discuss with us what plan they would recommend. I doubt they'll try to put the collar on him on the first session (especially since we're not trying to discourage any bad habits, just build good ones), so I figure it's worth meeting them at least, since it's free, but I'm still nervous.
I mean, anybody who mentioned things like dominance, alpha dogs, or smacking him on the nose would automatically be kicked unceremoniously out the door, but this I'm less sure about.
Also, just generally... any advice for acclimating and training a fearful new dog? We're doing all of the moving as slowly as possible, not forcing him into anything, giving him his space so he feels comfortable, definitely no pouncing on him or grabbing at him, sitting on the floor so he can come to us, etc., etc. Books to read? Websites to peruse? I know much of it will be a matter of time, but any tips or success stories would be much appreciated!
Thanks!