Several problems at once, please help

well, parts of the rest of the day went really well :smile2: It took an hour and a half but I hand fed him dinner and made him work for it. We did sits, downs, and when he wandered off to get a drink, recalls. I also gave him praise and he managed to get a belly rub for a really good down. I got my new Madan brush today so I fed him some treats while I brushed him. BTW that brush is absolutely great! I got a huge wad of undercoat just from the outside of his front leg, and only from below the elbow.

I took him upstairs later and we worked on crate and wait training. He picked up on wait from the very first time. Even when the cat walked by he waited. The big test will be tomorrow morning when he has been in there all night.

The down side to the evening was his walk. He lunged towards the neighbor's house, barking his fool head off, before I could get him going the right way. We worked on heels, especially sitting when I stop. Plenty of treats and praise given. He doesn't pay great attention to me (smell-o-vision is better) so I do about turns when he gets ahead of me.

As soon as we got within sight of the apartment he got anxious, and at ten yards away he started lunging again. He didn't pay a bit of attention to me, even with treats in my left hand.

I do think it is a fear reaction because when we first got him he was afraid of the neighbor's dogs. I am really nervous about this getting worse or me screwing something up by doing the wrong thing. He does really well with the dogs at 4-h even though there are about 25 of them. Doesn't mind the weenie, the GSD, or even the border collie pup.
 
just re-read everyone posts and wanted to fill you in on the chewing/toy situation. Jake will be 3 years old on June 14th so I am guessing that he might not have had a lot of toys in the past.

We do have the egg shaped treat dispensing toy from Wally World, 3 bones, 3 stuffed animals, 2 balls (1 large, 1 small), 2 rope toys, 1 nylabone, and 3 good sized bones. I picked up some cheap edible rawhide type things at Krogers that they love.

I hate handling the things but I'm going to have to give in and get rawhides :rolleyes2: Hopefully they will last a little longer.
 
I am with tired dog is a good dog!
IF there is any way you can let him full barrel run somewhere, chasing a ball or something daily? .. maybe with a long leash if his recall isn't the greatest?
Also for treats when you are coming home HIGH VALUE treats, to up the ante, if he is that anxious try that when you are getting close to apartment... for Toffee it is cheese... he cannot resist it

Plus it will take time, small steps for the things that frighten him.. may I also highly recommend clicker training, the dog really starts to focus on you more and more and more as you go along...
 
I am going to give you guys daily updates so that you can correct anything I get wrong.

Another good day! Jake remembered the "wait" game and was good coming out of his crate. Ate his breakfast while working on sits, downs, and recalls. First walk went ok. Found out he will pay attention if he knows i have his canine carry outs. Pay attention while bouncing around that is. Got away from the house ok then went around the lake. Coming back towards the house I switched back to the high value treats. It went something like this. Forward two steps, a little anxiety, reminded him of treat, bounced a few times, then sit and treat. The neighbor's had the blinds down so that helped. When we got within about 5 yards of the door he lunged and barked again but I reminded him that i had the treat so he bounced a few times then sat and got his treat. Second walk went the same except we helped catch a neighbors chihuahua! Jake was bouncing on the end of the lead wanting to play and the chi came up to him, sniffed noses and got caught.

Third walk went about the same except he saw a big dog and went into fear aggression again. The other dog was on a tie out with her owner there so I explained what was going on to the owner, got the good treats out, got him to sit, treated and walked on. Same routine as before as we neared home.

No chewing today even though he wanted to eat my snuggie. Told him no, gave him a toy to chew on then praised him.

Hopefully this is progress?
 
That sounds like great progress, and I love that he has met a little friend - it will make him feel happier to be there if theres a chance of seeing a buddy. Its also interesting that he is okay with the smaller dog. My Tully is the same, she is much more confident playing with dogs smaller than her and it takes a long time for her to trust a bigger dog.

Good idea enlisting the help of the other bigger dog's owner - I found many people are really willing to help if you explain to them (esp when you have a cute dog!).
 
sorry i didn't post yesterday but Murphy's Law struck and i wasn't able to get it together enough to post.

The last walk of the day we went around the lake then past other apartments. Jake saw a cat that he lunged at and then the dog in that apartment barked and Jake went off. I could not get him to pay any attention to me, even with the good treats. I had to wait for the cat to finally run off before I could get him under control. From that point on he barked and lunged at every dog he saw, and they were all indoors. I ran out of treats before we made it to the door so I ended up picking him up and bringing him in. He didn't even bark when I held him.

Then while cleaning out the ferret cage Fern, the ferret, got between the cage top and bottom with the weight of the cage top on her neck. She started breathing again and stayed in either Meg's arms or mine for several hours until we decided that she was ok. Luckily she is fine with no signs of any breathing problems.

On today's walks he showed fear aggression of any dog's that were inside. He met a maltipom named Biscuit and that was fine. He likes little dogs. I decided that I am going to change my route so that I can avoid most of the dogs until he gets over this. This will also mean that he is not approaching the neighbor's dogs head on.

Our last walk went well. i think he is beginning to trust me more since he actually whined a little as we got close to the house. We backed up a few feet, he ran around in a circle around me, then sat and got treated. We waited a few minutes then moved up a couple of feet until he whined again and then repeated the circle, sit or down, treat, and wait. I think this shows progress as he only gave a few half-hearted lunges the whole time. I said "NO" and he would circle.

I think we would have gotten all the way home ok but Meg came out and even with treats I can't compete. The three of us went in without a major lunge!

Still doing great indoors, and still playing the wait game in the crate. One question, is it possible to train him to roll over on his side for grooming, and how would I do that?
 
Good to hear your dog is doing better.

About lying on his side to groom, Noah would do this for me, basically because he didn't like to stand to groom. It started when he was a puppy. I would get him to lie down, get him on his side and then start grooming. If he started to get up, I would gently hold him down and tell him to stay. This worked most times. When I was ready to do the other side, I just flipped him over. It took a bit of work, but eventfully he would lie still for me. He hated getting groomed and this is the only way I could get him to stay still long enough. He had a full thick heavy coat which made it difficult to groom. If I had him stand, he always ended up sitting or lying down anyway.
 
Both of my dogs are groomed on the floor laying on their sides. I trained them the same way Emmasmom did her Noah. They rarely even try to get up now and will sometimes fall asleep while I'm brushing.
 
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