How NOT to Raise a Monster

Heya,

It's been a good week that I haven't posted a real entry in my blog (being a busy birthday girl and all, ahem!) and I am overdue!

I have been spending the last few weeks bonding with Yoda and I must say our relationships is growing stronger every day. We run into people or neighbours and almost everyone is astonished that we have only been together for a month because of how obedient, calm and in tune she is with me, always looking back at me and making eye contact, they all just assume I must have had her for a much longer time.

The truth is we meet people walking their dogs who complain that though they have their dog for 1 year, 4 years, 8 years...their dog doesn't listen to them, or they bark anxiously, they are hyper, or even that they try to bite if the owner approaches!!!

They tell me that I am lucky to have a good dog, I tell them that she could have also been a devil had she wanted. It is really in the ownership and how you handle your dog. I think most people don't like hearing this because it places the responsibility on the owner. Of course it is easier to blame the dog....

One of our friends recently got a puppy and their puppy cries all night and day. Then they tell us that they leave it loose in the home and they have friends with their adult dogs come over almost every single day since the day they brought the puppy home, "in order to socialize it".

Well no wonder the puppy is stressed!!
Poor pup just got taken from her mom and home and isn't given the chance to adapt to her new family and home, but instead she is thrown into a busy, scary, new place full of free-roaming strange dogs every day and strangers coming and going. Also, how is she supposed to be calm when she isn't given the time to bond and form a trusting relationship with her new parents BEFORE getting to know strange dogs and random people? She doesn't trust her owners or see them as leaders! Of course the poor pup is overwhelmed and cries incessantly!

Also, it is not a good idea to allow a puppy free reign of the home, but rather to slowly introduce her on-leash to every room and relay the message that every new room is your territory and that she is being invited in with permission. This allows the dog to respect that you are the parent and respect what is yours from the very beginning.

This is how we introduced Yoda to our home, slowly, on-leash, room by room, behind our lead. Our master bedroom is the only room which is off limits and so, we have never shown it to her or allowed her in. She understands that we have set a psychological boundary for her to not enter that room, because she only ever entered rooms from the get-go with our explicit permission. 

Now that she has earned her freedom to move freely about the house, even if the bedroom door is open, she has never even attempted to cross the doorframe (though she has sat just behind it, looking in curiously, she known not to enter, because she respects my space).

Of course, if you have been reading my blog, you know we went through a whole 2 week cocooning period and in the 3rd week, Yoda was only introduced to my mother and my best friend. By that time, she already knew to look to me for guidance and I was able to get her to listen to my commands, which I started teaching her from Day 1.

Although we are together for over a month, I still choose to hand-feed her. I now ask her to look at me and only feed her once she has made eye contact with me. I find this is a special time where we bond and she learns to connect with me mentally in order to be rewarded with her food. Maybe she would have growled or snarled had I allowed to have unrestricted access to meals, rather than recognizing I am the parent that provides it and whom she should respect. However, I did not give her the chance to develop any such guarding, protective possessiveness. 

I was told this is cruel because I control her and keep her dependent on me with food. Almost everyone in life keeps you dependent on them with resources, including your boss with your paycheck. I think it is cruel to allow a dog too much freedom and lack of structure which leads them to feel anxiety, stress and thus, act out. I find I have only seen positive reactions from making mealtimes interactive. Besides, I like to be associated with doggy food and other good stuff!

I try to gently educate people I meet who tell me their stories, but most people don't accept tips easily. I wish they would read more books or educational websites for their dog's sake.

I won't say that Yoda isn't just the most perfect dog ever and that I am purely blessed and lucky to have found her!

But I do think that a large part of why she is such a good dog is because I have given her a quiet, stable environment with a lot of consistent discipline, obedience training, daily exercise and of course, love. She feels calm because, for her sake, I am controlling the pace at which is introduced to new people, dogs and exciting stimuli. I am trying to set her up for success and ready to redirect any unwanted behaviour as soon as it happens.

So of course, when we are out, she sits quietly beside me, waiting for my word before we start off again or waiting patiently while I talk to someone, because she sees me as her leader and she feels confident with me. She doesn't need to cry or bark or jump in anxiety, because she doesn't need to worry about anything.

Mama has it all under control.

The Crate is Great! - How I crate trained Yoda

Although Yoda is almost 3 years old and is fully housebroken we decided for various reasons to crate her during the day while we are out of the house and at night when she sleeps for at least the first 2 months since we adopted her.

Reasons to Crate

1. to make sure she avoids getting hurt while we cannot supervise (many dogs get electrocuted by chewing on wires, etc),
2. as a way to promote housebreaking (many dogs have accidents after being re-homed),
3. since we knew nothing about her at first, it was a good method to prevent bad habits from forming while we could not supervise and verbally correct her,
4. as a training method by using earned freedom as a reward, 
5. to allow her a safe den associated with good stuff where she can retreat anytime she feels anxiety.

Crate Training

Let's just say that the first few days after we came home, she wanted nothing to do with her crate. 

Dogs love routine and structure and if we were going to enforce house rules, we were going to have to start crate training from day 1.  But how?

Treats are the solution to all of life's problems

As with all things, the best way to succeed with training your dog is to make them love doing what you want them to do. Forcing doesn't create a long-term internal changes in us, and it doesn't work with dogs either! Love, patience and lotsa treats are the key! 

As a clean paleo eater, I always have some natural peanut butter at home and we all know just how much dogs looooove PB!

I tried putting some treats in the crate, but clever Yoda, would slyly grab them and bring them outside to eat them in all her splendor and glory. But her mama had to outsmart her somehow.

I took a spatula and smothered some PB on the very back grill of Yoda's cage so she would have to actually enter into the cage to get some and trust me, she ran in before I could ever ask her to!

Baby Steps

While she was in there, I didn't close the door or leave the room. She would look hesitantly up at me wondering if I would leave, so in order to ease that anxiety, I just stuck around with the door open and let her go in and out of the cage at her leisure. I also went in and out of the room myself with the crate door open.

Eventually, while she was in the crate, I closed the crate door and hung around for a while. She was SO engrossed in getting every delicious lick of peanut butter, she didn't even notice I had left the room.

Consistency is Key

After a week of using the words "Go in your Crate!" in a super happy fun time voice, she would run in on command. Now she goes in with a simple point of the finger in the direction of her crate.

I still give her a treat after I close the door and she has sat down calmly in the crate.

Other important tips

Sizing of the Crate

Yoda came with a 31" crate and I understood after a few days why we were having a hard time getting her to accept her crate. For an (underweight) dog at 52lbs, she clearly needed a 36" crate, so we bought her a new one and she is definitely much better able to stretch out, lie down comfortable and stand up fully, which has made the crating experience much easier and pleasant for all.

Location, Location, Location

Dogs, as social animals love to be around their people and in the center of the action.

DO place the crate in a busy part of the house where there is normally a lot of life. This will be easier on your dog psychologically, even though you are gone then.

Do NOT place the crate in the garage, an isolated room or the backyard where the dog never normally hangs out, or else the dog will feel like it has been cast away or thrown out.

Feeding Meals in the Crate

Associating the crate with food will also encourage your dog to seek out her crate. I handfeed many of Yoda's meals in or around her crate and she has a kong filled with treats that she only gets when she is in the crate. This way crate = yummy exclusive stuff!

Water

Always provide your dog with fresh water in their crate, unless they are not housebroken, in which case you should not crate more than 2-3 hours and only as part of housebreaking training.

Special Toys

Providing your pup with a few special toys on rotation that she only gets once she is in the crate is another great method to get your dog to love being in her crate and to stimulate their brains and keep them occupied.

Do Not yield to the Dark Side!

At first Yoda sometimes whined or cried when we would leave the room. 

Do. Not. Ever. Give. In. To. This.

As heart-breaking as it is, whining, crying, or barking out of anxiety are not behaviours that should be encouraged. By consoling a dog that whines or cries, you are reinforcing their whining because they got what they wanted by whining! 

Dogs also interpret a master that pities them as being weaker than them.  Remember that dogs need calm assertiveness.

Pity = Weakness. Weakness = more anxiety in the dog. More anxiety = More whining. 

In order to avoid this vicious cycle, we enforce a no look, no talk rule when she whines and we only pay attention to her once she is calm. This way she has learned than whining will not get her out of anything and that acting calmly and quietly will work.

It has been one month since we got her (Happy One Month Gotchya Day Yoda!!!) and Yoda is very well behaved and has shown no destructive tendencies so we have just started allowing her to sleep on her dog bed outside of the crate at night.

Our goal is to work on her obedience training until she is fully responsive and reliable and then she will be allowed to be free in her doggy-proofed room during the day while we are at work with only occasional crating. Full freedom of the house is not something we will ever allow because of the potential for getting hurt or the risk of getting into trouble.

Do you crate your dog? How did you crate train them? Any feedback or tips that I could add? I love to hear feedback!

How Yoda (has almost) Mastered the Walk

One of the key things in being a good dog owner is providing your dog with lots of opportunities for exercise, especially going on long walks which cater to your dog's instinctive need to migrate by walking together with her pack. Daily walks allow your dog to release mental and physical energy but also provide your dog with positive attention from her favourite people and a chance to bond with you doing something she loves!

Leash-pulling

If your dog pulls while walking, the best way to go about un-teaching leash pulling and re-training to heel is to exercise your dog first by running and playing together in a yard. Then, once your dog is calmer and more focussed, you can treat the walk as a training session until your dog learns to walk properly. Short, fun walking training sessions using lots of loving positive reinforcement are always most effective and leave your dog with a fond memory of it.

When we first adopted our Yoda, she was a major leash-puller. Her whole life she had probably associated  pulling with getting somewhere faster so we had to teach her that when we walk, we walk her, rather than the other way around.

How we stopped leash-pulling

But what if you are city-folk like us without a fenced-in yard to exercise your dog and can't go to the dog park? Other than playing inside the house or outside with a training lead, you really have no choice but to go for walks. So, how do you ''do the walk'' properly?

I admit the first few days walking Yoda were a bit challenging. Ok. Challenging.

Being a pit, she is incredibly strong and tolerant of pain, so she had no problem strangling herself at the end of the leash after every single step. 

Pulling = Stopping

• We started out taking short walks only around and in front of our duplex so she could get accustomed to the new environment bit by bit. If we took a step and she pulled at the end of the leash, I froze. Basically pulling on the leash = me transforming into a tree. I would wait until she looked back at me and loosened up on the leash and then I used some positive reinforcement by giving her a small treat or praise and then I'd start walking again. Two steps and she was at the end again. Repeat. It took about a 4 days for her to realize that loose leash = moving and pulling = stopping. 

Walking ahead = Stopping

• At that point, I upped the ante ante and began walking up and down the block. I also refined the walk training by requiring her to stay closer (within a 2 foot box next to my left leg - like a loose heel) in order for us to keep walking. Whenever she happened to be by my side, I would give her a treat. If she walked ahead *prior* to there being tension on the leash, I would either stop and wait for her to come back to my left leg or do an about turn and walk the opposite direction. Again. And again. It took another 2-3 days for her to stop walking far ahead.

Pre-walk routine

• We then added a pre-walk routine before leaving the house. I never allow Yoda to exit through a door before me, but for the first few days as soon as I would walk out, she would bolt out past me. I changed my approach. I used a non-marker sound in a calm assertive way (like ''psshhh'') to signify that I wanted her to calm down and asked her to stay back and sit while I put on my shoes and opened the door. I then stood at the door looking around and held the leash close and asked her to sit. We stayed like that for about 2 whole minutes. It allowed her to practise some impulse control and look for my signal before starting off. 

• We now do this pre-walk routine and she actually anticipates it and sits in her spot calmly waiting for my sign even if the door is open. I find this sets the stage for the walk and it has greatly improved our walk experience once we are outside the house.

Combining our prep routine and the heel training, walks quickly became enjoyable! By the second week we started walking around the block and she was more or less consistently walking by my side or just slightly ahead. The problem came whenever she saw a squirrel, a cat or another dog and she would pull at the end of the leash again. 

Use of a head collar

I started using some redirection and distraction methods to recall her back from the end of the lead when she was too engrossed by a squirrel etc. (such as running in the other direction or catching her attention with stinky liver treats) but I was a bit concerned about any possible injury to her windpipe in the meantime while she is still learning to walk on the lead.

I decided to use a Halti as a training aid along with positive reinforcement until her walk becomes solid.

I read about harnesses, but pits are so strong and they can just get accustomed to it. We were recommended to use a choke collar or a prong collar, but I *refuse* to use a choke collar on my dog!!! I decided to give the Halti a try since it is not a punishment based leash and it was a safe option on my dog. I am sure the Gentle Leader is equally effective, though there are some differences between the two.

All I have to say about the Halti is that it is AAAAAA-mazing! She immediately stopped running to the end of the leash despite any distraction. The leash (litterally) gently turns her head to the side so she knows that if she moves forward past me her head will turn to the side so she chooses to walk back closer to me. 

Killer Training Combo

With a super combination of the Halti, clicker training, lots of treats and consistent  stopping if and when she pulls, within 3 weeks Yoda is now walking long distances over many kilometers LIKE A CHAMP perfectly by my side without any pulling, yanking, dragging or wayward sniffing. She also consistently makes eye contact at the sound of a kiss and comes to sit by my side whenever I stop.  

I have even started some walks without the Halti, continuing to use the clicker and start-stopping and although at first she thinks she is a free bird, within 30 seconds she remembers that ''ooooh yeeeaaah'' I expect her to walk beside me and then she does not pull anymore. :) 

It's only been 3 weeks and for a dog that was probably never exercised, let alone walked much at all, she is improving in GREAT strides (pun intended)! It is only upwards from here! BOY, am I PROUD of her!!

How did you get your dog to stop pulling and walk by your side? I would love to hear your stories!