Follow a class – week 2
I like it when they laugh.
In a week one class, there usually isn’t a lot of laughing going on.
Sometimes someone who’s been doing dog forever and is there, doing the right thing by the newest one, will laugh at my silliness. She’s relaxed. Having fun. But most everyone else is rather tense in a week one class.
So the fact that I had them laughing at me, each other and the dogs last night was a Very Good Thing.
One of the hardest tasks I face is to get people to remember that what they have on the other end of that leash is a bundle of joy.
Fun.
Stress Relief.
Your companion on life’s journey.
Don’t worry so much about doing things ‘wrong’. Usually what you are doing won’t matter in the long term – and if it does matter – we can fix it!
As I tell them -for the next fifteen or so years – who else besides this dog is going to love you enough to pee themselves when you come home?
I mean, now that is real love.
All cookie??
Despite the all-cookie-all-the-time training methods my company insists on – I’m not totally opposed to a collar pop now and then. I don’t think a squirt of water in the face is particularly upsetting to a dog. I’m pretty sure being told ‘no’ occasionally will not damage their psyches. Or even – gasp – being put in the crate for a Time Out! Life goes on and they will be doing the same thing again in short order.
Dogs are amazingly forgiving creatures. They realize we are only human and thus will make mistakes, have silly whims and ideas. They will not hold a grudge.
Some dogs simply will not respond to cookie wave in front of nose. The books can say ‘yummy treat!’ all they want and sometimes it simply does not work right then. Does not mean positive reinforcment training doesn’t work -because it does – just that at that moment in time, you need more than a treat or click to get their attention.
I was working with an eight month old lab pup a while back. Walking him around the store and he was doing his puppy thing. Jumping and wagging and wiggling and being a puppy-fool. At one point I reached down and grabbed his tail and gave a little yank. Got his attention, did something else and we walked on. A groomer who saw me do it, came up later and said, seriously, ‘what method was That??’
“That was the Know-your-dog-method” I told her. And its true – wouldn’t have worked for Many dogs – but for that dog at that moment – it did. And once we have the attention – we can move on to learning.
Coprophagy
Yeah, well, you try to pronounce it because I mess it up every time. But what it means is ‘my dog eats poop make it stop!!!!!!’
This has come up a few times in the last week and its always whispered shamefully to me.
I try to reassure people that dogs don’t attach moral judgements to pee or poop the way we do. In fact – the conversations that mommy dogs have with each other Never include the question ‘and when were they potty trained?” because they don’t worry about it. Its a Non Issue in the dog world.
Pee and Poop are like bits of messages they leave each other. They are very interesting to other dogs. Dogs lick up pee. They sniff and then pee over it. They eat poop. They really are dogs. A totally different species.
But back to making it stop.
Not allowing them the opportunity is a good thing. Scoop it up, keep them on the leash and away from it. Teach them the leave it command and use it early and often.
I’ve heard sprinkling something nasty on it will help too but I figure if you are close enough to sprinkle something on it – just pick it up!
If they are only eating their own poop – change dog foods to a higher quality brand will often help. They are eating the undigested food sometimes.
Using a product ‘coprophagy prevention’ on their food will generally cure it. Follow the directions on the bottle. It makes the poop taste bad to them. Go figure.
Redirect – give them something for their mouths while they are out. A favorite squeak toy is good – squeak to distract and toss when time.
And try not to let it gross you out too much – or let them french kiss you too soonafter they’ve been outside.
