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TRAINING OUR PROBLEM DOG
Shari L. Coxford © March 2008

Dakota didn't come to us as well behaved as our other dog pound dog...

Adult dogs, especially ones who've been abandoned by their owners, have unique needs. Dakota came to us as a problem dog. Here's her story, and some of the techniques we've used to retrain her...


The decision to adopt a second dog
(And what the dog experts would have told us had we asked...)

First, we did not set out to adopt a dog that day. We had been discussing it for about a year. Our other dog was getting older and we had been debating the issue, do we adopt another dog while we still have Gypsy Rose? Do we wait until she passes away?

Our assumptions:

  1. Gypsy Rose, the perfect dog, could help us train a new dog to be perfect.
  2. The new dog would be good company for Gypsy Rose, who enjoys being around other dogs.
  3. Gypsy Rose would regain a bit of her youth having a new dog to play with.
  4. It would be easier for us to adjust to a new dog if we were emotionally invested in the new dog BEFORE Gypsy Rose passed away.

Word of warning... our assumptions were not all correct.

We had visited the dog pound a couple of times and none of the dogs appealed to us. A dog is a lifelong commitment and we need to feel comfortable with our choice. We hadn't yet made a decision on whether to adopt a dog or wait. We hadn't even fully decided whether to adopt an adult dog, as we'd done before, or a puppy. Then it happened, without warning. We went to Petsmart to buy dog food for Gypsy Rose, and they were having Pet Adoption Day...

Immediately we were drawn to Dakota. First, she was a short haired dog and after battling Gypsy Rose's long hair for many years, short hair was appealing. I'd always loved the idea of having a Husky, but didn't want the long hair. As you can see, Dakota's coloring is very Husky-like, but her hair is short. They told us she was an Australian Cattle Dog mix, we're guessing the mix is Husky. Dakota was very calm and her eyes shined with intelligence. We took her for a test walk and again, she was calm. They told us she was housebroken, crate trained, and good with other dogs. Add her very striking coloring and we were hooked.

We adopted Dakota and took her into Petsmart for food bowls and a collar and leash. Some lady came up to us and commented: Isn't that the dog from the dog pound? I saw her there with her sister and boy, did she look like a handful! To this day I wonder if that lady was her previous owner, hanging in the background to see the fate of her unwanted dog...


Did they say housebroken?
(Also known as grab your mop...)

Our house is carpeted, almost every inch of it. We don't have a big room to put a new dog in that isn't carpeted. Nor did we have a fenced yard. So our choices were: the garage, a small bathroom, a carpeted room. As all of our dogs become indoor dogs, we brought her immediately into the house. And the first thing Dakota did was to squat and pee on the carpet. I hauled out the carpet shampooer (thank god we have one!) and shampooed the spot immediately. While I was shampooing, again she squatted and peed. This went on for the first two hours. We were off to a good start. So much for their assurances that she was already housebroken.

Dakota is what they call a Yo-Yo dog, shuffled from home to home until she met us. She'd been at the dog pound twice, plus two other places that we know of. We were her fifth home in 7 months. She had no idea who we were, what happened to her old home, or what to expect from us. She was pretty stressed and we were careful not to immediately come down on her and stress her more. In addition, Dakota came to us malnourished. Her rib bones were sticking out pretty noticeably, she'd only been at the pound a couple of days so they weren't at fault, her previous owners had failed to feed her enough. Dakota had some serious issues with trusting people. In her short life people had not been very good to her.

What does a stressed dog do? It pees.


Did they say good with other dogs?
(Gypsy Rose was not amused...)

Our theory that this would be great fun for Gypsy Rose was shot down pretty quickly. Once Gypsy Rose realized that Dakota was butting into her domain permanently, she was NOT amused. Gypsy Rose had been an only dog for over 10 years. The concept of sharing her attention, her space, her toys and chewies, this did not make her happy. Dakota didn't help. She went out of her way to butt in front of Gypsy Rose for attention, food, everything. And she tormented Gypsy Rose mercilessly. Dakota was a wayward teenager, Gypsy Rose was an old fogie, not the best mix. So much for her being "good with other dogs". That shot down two of our assumptions.

Gypsy Rose, who had literally been the perfect dog for many years, started misbehaving. Dakota needed a LOT of attention as we were training a problem dog, and Gypsy Rose didn't appreciate this young upstart taking over her revered place in the house. Instead of Gypsy Rose being a good influence on Dakota, the exact opposite happened. Another assumption shot down.

In addition, this made us feel guilty. Gypsy Rose in her last years should have been basking in glory. Instead she was wallowing in misery. Look what we'd done to her, our perfect dog who did not deserve this.


Focus on her good qualities
(Amid the chaos, there is hope... Amid the hope, there is chaos...)

But amid the chaos, we saw hope. Dakota showed some very good signs. She was eager to learn. She slept thru the night loose in our bedroom without peeing, without bothering Gypsy Rose, and very quietly. She did not bark. We were able to approach her while she was eating and she was not aggressive, even with her history of not getting enough food, she did not warn us away, snap or growl at us. This was a good sign. She was not a bad dog, she was simply a dog that had never been properly trained. Another good sign was on her second day when I gave her a bath outdoors, she was pretty calm about the whole thing though it was obvious she didn't like it. Here I was a total stranger giving her a dog bath with a water hose, and she was pretty good about it. Very good signs indeed.

Remember that we weren't prepared for her, hadn't set out to adopt a dog that day, and we were winging it. Three days after adopting her we had to go to work... What to do with Dakota? She wasn't ready to be left loose in the house, we didn't have a room in the house to confine her that we trusted her in, and we hadn't gotten a dog crate for her, never having used one before. That left the garage. We confined her to a portion of the garage and off we went for the day. We anticipated that she'd potty in the garage so we put down some paper in case she'd been paper trained previously, and we left her with food and water.

Bear, my husband, got home first. Nothing could have prepared him for what he walked into. Dakota had pooped everywhere. Not only had she pooped, she had managed to smear it all over her, the floor, her food bowl, her water feeder, and the toys we'd left for her. Welcome Home!

You have to see this from Dakota's point of view. Most people don't see it from a dog's perspective, and that truly helps in training your dog and understanding them. Dakota had been bounced from home to home for 7 months, had been at the dog pound twice, and we were total strangers to her. She'd only been with us a few days when we left her in the garage. She had no idea if we were coming back, or if this was another abandonment. She had no reason to trust us. Dakota had to learn to trust in her new family unit, and this would take time.


First order of business, potty training...
(The very job we'd been hoping to avoid...)

Potty training a Yo-Yo dog is a very challenging task. They are highly stressed from being bounced from home to home. They live in the fear of it happening again. And what does a stressed dog do? It pees.

Dakota had the secondary problem of being a nervous pee-er. If she was stressed, she peed. If she was excited, she peed. If you raised your voice one iota, she peed. If she was mad at you, she peed. If the urge struck, she peed. While putting the leash on to take her out to pee, she peed. Every time.

Housebreaking this problem dog was our first big challenge. We used food to bribe her. Dakota's history of not enough food gave her an insatiable craving for food. Even after eating her regular portion of dog food she acted like a starving dog, fixated on food. We used this in her training. We bought a bag of dog food different from her normal food, with bigger pieces and a different flavor, and when she peed outdoors, we'd give her a piece of food as a reward. This was in addition to her normal portions, so it was extra for her. You'd think it was a nugget of gold or a piece of steak. She learned very quickly to pee outdoors, anything for that piece of food. Trouble was, she still peed indoors.

The dog experts pretty much all agree that it's better to train your dog with a reward system than a fear system. So we tried to focus on the rewards. We made it clear that we were not pleased when she peed indoors, but we had to be very careful not to yell, because the slightest raise of voice stressed her out and made her pee again. It was difficult. Even when she knew we were taking her out, she'd get excited and it just came out before we could actually get her thru the door. We gave a stern NO when she slipped up, immediately took her out and if she peed again outdoors, she got a reward.

The dog experts also agree that almost any new behaviour is learned in a couple of weeks. We did not find this true with Dakota, even with her level of intelligence it took many months to totally retrain her to pee outdoors. While she quickly learned to pee outdoors, and to pee on command outdoors, she still slipped up every time she was excited or stressed, which was often those first few months. She had to learn to trust us, to trust that this home wouldn't be yanked out from under her, to trust that even if we were displeased it did not mean she'd be dragged off to the dog pound. Yo-Yo dogs come with mental baggage and this affects their training curve. With every week that passed her slip ups were less and less frequent. She was improving. Today, eight months after adopting her, she has learned to hold her pee even when highly excited, though on occasion if she is highly stressed she'll still have an accident.

How often do we take her out? I get up a lot during the night to go pee myself and initially, I took her out those times, too. Gradually I took her out less and less during the night. Now, after eight months, I don't take her out until I'm up for the day. She holds it all night until I get up. Even with Bear getting up before me and leaving for work, she holds it waiting for me. Once I do get up for the day I immediately take her out to pee, she's been good enough to hold it all night and not wake me, so I don't delay her once I'm up. Then, within the first hour of getting up I feed her, and take her out for pee and poop. If it's a work day, she then goes in the crate for the day, otherwise, I take her out a couple of times midday.

Initially, her pee problem was so bad I had to restrict her water. I couldn't leave a full bowl of water all day as I did Gypsy Rose. Dakota drank like she ate, as if she were a dog in a desert. Now I can be more liberal with it though I don't leave it full all day. How much does your dog's water bowl hold? Dakota's bowl holds about two big 8 oz. glasses of water. If I filled it full three times in a day, that would be six big glasses of water. Think about how much you weigh, and how much your dog weighs. His bladder is going to be smaller than yours.

Immediately after dinner I take her out. Once again mid-evening, and finally just before bed. I'm pretty sure I can cut back at this point, I just haven't dared to push my luck. As time passes I take her out less and less. Gypsy Rose only needs out three times a day.

Dakota eats very quickly, ravenously. I mean she doesn't leave that bowl until every crumb is gone, and she eats in about two minutes. She snuffs it up. And then we immediately go out for potty. She now automatically goes to the door to go potty after eating and sits there waiting for me to put the leash on and take her out. She started doing this about 4 weeks after we adopted her. Dogs are very good at learning your routine. The routine itself does not matter, and there is no right or wrong routine. Whatever your lifestyle is, your dog will learn the cues and he will adapt.


Second order of business, who's the boss?
(Who's the boss, you or your dog?)

In most households the dogs and owners would answer this question very differently, and it's the key to successfully training a dog. Who dictates feeding time? Who dictates when it's time to get up? Who dictates playtime? The Boss, that's who.

Dogs who wake you up from a sound sleep to take them out or feed them, these dogs are Boss Dogs. Their owners have allowed them to dictate the rules and in the natural order of a dog pack, the Boss Dog doesn't have to obey anybody. Even if a Boss Dog learns Sit, Stay, Come, Speak, he will only obey the commands when he wants to. He is King of his Castle and you are there for his amusement.

So our next order of business was to establish ourselves as Boss in the pecking order of Dakota's dog pack. There are very subtle things you can do to solidify your role as Leader of the Pack. Feeding time is the perfect place to start. You should dictate when feeding time is. Our schedules vary thru the week and we don't get up at the same time every day, so feeding time is sometime after we get up. Sometimes it's before we shower, sometimes it's after. Dogs will easily adapt to varied feeding times. Dogs who tell you when feeding time should be have been allowed to be the Dictators of their home, and it doesn't have to be that way.

When feeding time comes, it's important that the dogs are NOT allowed underfoot while you're filling the bowls. The dogs are banned from the kitchen until given permission to enter. This establishes YOU as the boss. You control the food, you are King of your Castle. This is one of the easiest lessons to teach a dog.

Here's how it works: while you are filling the food and water bowls, the dog must stay just on the other side of the doorway. If she comes into the room, stop what you're doing and escort her back out. Every time. Use the command STAY. At first you'll be doing a lot of escorting, but dogs figure out very quickly that the food isn't going to become available until they stay put. This is a strong motivator. Don't give in and your dog will learn this lesson quickly. The dog is sitting in the doorway at a distance, you put the food and water bowls down, and if she comes running you immediately pick the bowls up and set them back on the counter. Escort the dog back out, tell her to STAY, and try again. Dakota had this one down in less than a week. She will now wait until given permission to enter.

So how do you send the message to STAY in the doorway? I started with Dakota in the doorway with me blocking her entry to the kitchen while telling her to STAY. I said STAAAAY, drawing the word out slowly and hypnotically with my hand up in front of her face, palm out in the Stop Sign position. I faced her and slowly backed away so that I could keep eye contact with her. If she started to follow me I walked toward her, walking into her to force her to back up if necessary until she was back in the doorway. Dogs respond to body language, it's the natural language of dogs.

Be prepared for your dog to make a game of it. I run INTO the kitchen and Shari SHOOS me back out, then I RUN BACK IN again... what great fun! Be persistent, be firm, and eventually you will prevail. Remember, do not put the food bowls down until they sit in that doorway waiting for your permission, and immediately take the food bowls back up again if they enter the room without permission. Stand in front of the bowls with your palm still up in the stop sign position, maintaining eye contact with your dog. When you are ready to give permission, put your hand down and say OKAY (or any other permission word you choose). Eventually you won't need the hand, you'll simply go about the business of preparing the food and they will wait for the word OKAY.

The main reason dogs go to obedience training and then fail to obey even the simplest command is not because they don't understand, but because an Alpha dog doesn't have to obey anybody but himself in a dog pack. He is Boss. So if you don't also establish yourself as Alpha in addition to any obedience training, your dog simply might ignore you because you aren't the boss. He is.


A brief word on crate training
(I'm not a big fan, but it did help...)

I'm not a big fan of locking a dog in a box. Gypsy Rose has full run of the house and she's a dreamboat. We did end up getting a crate for Dakota for when we had to leave her. It worked a lot better than the garage. I don't know why they call it a dog crate, it looks like a cage to me. Dakota may very well have been crate trained as we were told because she has never once pottied in her crate, and she's very calm and resolute as if she knows what to expect. We got a good size one for her not knowing how big she'd get and wanting to be able to use it when we travel with her if need be. Ours has a divider so you can make it smaller inside if it's too big for the dog. We never had to do that. Unlike Gypsy Rose, who is so well behaved that people welcome her into their homes, we'd like to teach Dakota to travel but initially, she may have to spend time in the crate at other people's homes until she learns to respect their homes.

As of this writing we've had Dakota for eight months, putting her at 15 months old, and she's made incredible progress. We're ready to start letting her loose in a room while we're away for short periods. She does so well in our bedroom and associates it with sleeping and calmness that initially that will be where she stays. I've put her in there and shut the door leaving her there while I am home a few times, for short periods. She just sleeps. I think she's ready for this next very big step in her training.


Subtle reminders that you are Leader of the Pack
(Heads I win, tails you lose...)

You must win at games. Dogs in the wild play games not only for fun, but to establish (or challenge) leadership. If you are playing tug of war, in the end you better end up with the toy in your hand. In all games you must win. You can give the dog the toy back after you've won it, but you absolutely must win it. This is critical.

If your dog is laying in the doorway and you want to walk thru that doorway, the dog must move. In the natural order of the dog pack, lesser dogs move out of the way of Boss Dogs. If you are sidestepping your dog, you are sending a clear message that you are lesser in the pecking order. You've told him he's the boss.

If the dog in your way, move him out of the way with the command MOVE. Physically move him as you're saying it. If he's laying down, rouse him up and out of your way. If he's on the sofa and you want to sit there, move him off physically and use the word MOVE. Before long all you'll need to do is say MOVE and he will. It may feel rude and from a human perspective it is. But in the dog world it's simply the natural order of things. Boss Dogs are always given clear passage, lesser dogs always move out of their way.

The hardest one to master is the staring contest. Dogs stare each other down as a challenge for bosshood. The first dog to look away loses. What makes this hard is knowing when you're in a challenge stare versus your dog simply looking at you. A well trained dog is supposed to look to you often for signals and feedback.


Begging at the table and pestering for attention
(More Boss Dog tactics...)

Boss Dog strikes again. There is nothing innocent in the dog world. Almost every action in some way boils down to posturing for position as Top Dog - Leader of the Household. Remember the rule about feeding time? You dictate the terms? Rewarding your dog for begging sends the message very clearly: Dog is Boss, Dog Demands Food, You Will Comply. You have been Assimilated. You are now his personal butler.

The same holds true with pestering for attention. If your dog is rewarded every time he pesters you for attention, even if you don't want to give it he pesters and gets it eventually, he's getting the very strong message from you. He makes the rules, he dictates the terms, he wants attention, you give it, he rises up the ladder to Bosshood.

While we are eating the dogs are not allowed to bother us. They must stay at a distance and not make eye contact. (We're still working on the eye contact part with Dakota but she has stopped begging at the table.) You may need to get up several times and escort the dog to a safe distance issuing the STAY command. If you are persistent it will work. They key to all dog training is persistence and leadership. Establish a rule and enforce it, every time. Not sometimes here and there, but EVERY time. Your guests must also follow the rules. If you don't slip your dog food while you're eating, neither should your guests regardless of how they treat their own dogs.


When praise backfires
(Bless her heart, she was really trying to please me...)

In the retraining of Dakota, I tried to keep everything so that she would have chances for praise, and tried to avoid any situations that I thought would set her up for failure.

She and I had a lot of quality time together and I had the opportunity to praise her a lot. We had a breakthrough one night at dinner. I had leftover steak from the night before. I was the main person of interest. I'd been working hard to break her habit of begging at mealtimes. This particular night she ignored me for awhile then suddenly, the light bulb came on and she focused on me. I had food. She wanted some. She came pestering for food and I very sternly told her to go away. I did not get up this time. We'd spent many previous nights physically escorting her to a distance so she was getting the message, but it wasn't fully hammered home yet. I repeated it several times in a very stern voice and after a minute she went away and laid down and I praised her highly. She misunderstood the praise. She thought the praise was permission. She jumped up with a wagging tail and came running to pester again, so I had to tell her again to go away, and she did. It was almost funny the vicious circle it caused when I praised her.

We weren't the only ones she pestered for food. I had to play referee when feeding her and Gypsy Rose because her first instinct was to push Gypsy Rose away and eat it all herself. Some folks will allow the dogs to work it out for themselves but Gypsy Rose was elderly and I did not want her bullied or going hungry. So I became Lord of All Mealtimes. I stood between them and stopped Dakota every time she attempted to bother Gypsy Rose with a stern NO and physically propelling her back to her own food bowls. She didn't like it but she did get the message. I still watch over feeding time but can do so from a distance now.

I believe that part of Dakota's bullying for food stems from her history of not getting enough food. I don't know if her previous home had other dogs but the lady at Petsmart had mentioned a "sister" so there is a chance that she had to fight for food. If her previous owners let the dogs fend for themselves and her sister was a bully, that might be why she didn't get enough to eat. Her owners didn't care enough to ensure that she got a proper share of food.

I stand lord over feeding time and now Gypsy Rose has even begun to stand up for herself and issue a warning when Dakota approaches her bowl. My intervention taught a lesson to Gypsy Rose as well as Dakota. I was sending the very clear message that Gypsy Rose is higher on the ladder than Dakota. Gypsy Rose started to understand this and stop cowering at Dakota's many bully tactics. She's even begun to play with Dakota though I had to oversee that initially as well. Dakota would roughhouse and I had to send the message for her to play more gently.


Your tone of voice
(This is not an option!)

I praise the dickens out of Dakota when she does good or follows orders, and when I give an order it's very stern but not angry. My tone of voice expects obedience. This is very important. You shouldn't be begging or wheedling for obedience. Your voice should never sound like you're saying Please. This is not an option. I actually say that to Dakota if she's not obeying a command. My voice becomes stern and I say: This is not an option! I repeat the command and she usually obeys at that point. My saying those words out loud helps me to get the right tone. I am reinforcing myself mentally, putting myself into the proper state of mind to expect obedience.

People are amazed at our other dog. She is so good. So incredibly good. She knows over 80 commands. Dakota is a raw recruit. I think of her as being in boot camp with me as Sarge. Every waking moment I have to be Sarge.

Your tone of voice sends a strong message. Talking to your dog in a high pitched voice sends its own message. If you want a quick way to propel your dog into high excitement, talk rapidly in a high falsetto and watch how quickly your dog revs up. We use high falsetto for rambunctious play (now that we can actually play that way with her) and we use it for praise. A low, almost growly tone sends a message of displeasure. Think in dog speak... dogs growl as a way to send a message to each other. Your tone should reflect your message.


Dogs learn even when you're not teaching
(They are smarter than a 5th grader...)

One very important factor in Dakota's training is that for the most part, I've not handled her in anger. I've handled her with simple stern-ness, sort of like an old fashioned schoolmarm who means business. I just simply expect her to obey me. I don't hope she does. I expect her to. I have very high expectations and I proceed accordingly. I do not assume she is dumb. Never assume your dog is too old or too dumb to be trained.

Dogs are highly intelligent and can learn anything you want to teach them. They are capable of understanding body language, hand signals, and many many words and commands. I talk to Dakota as if she understands every word and people hearing me think it's crazy. "She doesn't know what you're saying, why are you talking to her so much?" It's very simple: with repetition, many of the words that are now gibberish to her will later become clear. I say the same things in the same circumstances.

For example, when we're done outdoors and are going up the stairs to the deck, I say UP. Initially she didn't have a clue what I meant but eventually she realized that going up the stairs and the word UP were connected. I do this consistently, saying words that I associate with certain actions every time we do them. And almost every action should have a word or phrase associated with it.

Sometimes she's on a leash on the wrong side of me with my hand behind my back. I say OTHER SIDE and move her back around me to the other side, and eventually she learns that OTHER SIDE means she should be on the opposite side of me. Or you point to a place and say GO OVER THERE moving her to the spot you are pointing to. She will learn that GO OVER THERE means go to the place your finger is pointing at. The more you talk and show them what you want, the more they will learn from you.

A dog who knows a lot of words will be not be as bored, and will be a lot less likely to cause you problems. Dogs are smart and you need to give them things to think about besides how to get into trouble.

Because our other dog Gypsy Rose knows so many words, every time we talk, even if it's not to her, she is listening. She is always listening and if she hears a word she knows her ears perk up. She pays attention closely to see if she should be doing something or if we are just talking. Once she sees nobody is paying attention to her she goes back to sleepyland or whatever.


It's harder with two dogs
(Who are you talking to?)

It's harder with two dogs. When I spend 30 minutes trying to teach Dakota something, Gypsy Rose is obeying every command I am giving to Dakota. That distracts Dakota. Her focus moves from me to Gypsy Rose and it's challenging to keep her attention.

We had a lot of jealously problems. Jealous dogs bring a whole new set of problems into the mix. Both dogs were extremely jealous at first. Gypsy Rose simply went off to sulk. Dakota however, nipped at Gypsy Rose, seeking her out and tormenting her. It was pretty bad initially. Dakota was such a bully that Gypsy Rose cowered in the corner and wouldn't even walk past Dakota, and I didn't want Dakota to be the Alpha dog. Gypsy Rose was so miserable she started to get snotty with us.

It's hard to have two. Really hard. I didn't expect this level of difficulty. Dakota would actually be doing pretty well except that with the two, she simply couldn't do it, Gypsy Rose was too big of a distraction. Dakota was young and full of spirit and energy, wanting to do things that we didn't want her to do, and Gypsy Rose taunted her, egged her on to troublemaking. Gypsy Rose intentionally egged her on to do those things we were trying to break her of. Like a bad influence, our Perfect Dog did everything she could to instigate the other dog to be a Bad Dog. I think she realized she could get Dakota into trouble and that's why she did it. That's my theory, but many folks would say that's putting a human behaviour onto a dog and that dog's don't think that way. All I know is that Gypsy Rose did this during our Time Out training attempts. If Dakota got in trouble, she'd get Time Out for awhile either in the bathroom or her dog crate. This gave Gypsy Rose peace and having us all to herself. Dogs are smart cookies and I stand by my theory.

Most people would just let them battle it out for themselves but I know who'd get the crappy end of it and Gypsy Rose didn't deserve that. Dakota was young and scrappy and knew a lot of dirty tricks and Gypsy Rose was old and mellow and used to a peaceful existence. In addition, I didn't want Dakota making herself Alpha Dog over Gypsy Rose so I intervened, attempting to teach Dakota that it's not okay to nip at Gypsy Rose or jump on her or push her away from her food. My goal was to teach Dakota to respect Gypsy Rose, saying NO and physically stopping her in the act to demonstrate what I mean. It took a long time for her to embrace this concept and we had to resort to some more radical training tactics. She got more fun out of being bad than any deterrent could override.

Now, eight months later they're getting along pretty well. Gypsy Rose is happy again and my interventions are usually just a warning from afar. This was one of the hardest things for Dakota to learn and took the longest. We tried a whole slew of different tactics before resorting to the Big Guns. We tried praise and reward. We tried a squirt bottle of water. That was actually very effective except that Dakota figured out very quickly what distance it could squirt, and she'd stay just beyond that distance. And god help you if you tried to catch her after a wrongdoing. That dog could run like the wind and figured out she could run circles around the table and not get caught. They make cartoons out of some of the training methods we tried.

Another failed effort was rolled up newspaper. Another failed one was shaking a can full of pennies to get her attention. We tried time out in the bathroom. We tried time out in the crate. We literally went thru months of trying different techniques to stop Dakota from bullying Gypsy Rose. Within two weeks of pulling out the Big Guns she's stopped her bullying and they are now becoming friends. (More on the big guns in a moment...)


Know what your dog was bred to do
(And give them outlets so they don't make their own...)

You've got to understand that for Dakota, nipping is the natural order of things. She's part Australian Cattle Dog. That means she was bred to herd cattle. She was bred to run fast and hard and nip at the heels of the cattle to herd them in a particular direction. She was bred to move in fast, nip at the heels and move away again quickly to avoid getting kicked. This is in her nature and it produced challenges of its own. Know what your dog was bred to do and understand that this will impact your dog's behaviour.

We've taught Dakota the command NO TEETH. Sometimes we allow her to follow her natural instincts and sometimes we issue the command NO TEETH which means she has to stop using her teeth at whatever she's doing. We've done this for her as a way to stay in control, but at the same time offer circumstances where she can be the dog she was bred to be. We play teeth games with her offering her an outlet, but we stay in control. She is happy, we are happy.

Some dog breeds are bred to dig, to hunt rodents and dig them out. Others are bred as herding dogs, to herd sheep or cattle. Some dogs are bred to protect. Some are bred to find things. Each breed has very specific personality characteristics and if you take the time to learn about your dog's breed, this will help you understand your dog and handle them accordingly. Find legal things for them to do to follow their natural instincts. You're going to say no to THIS but give them an allowable alternative. For a digging dog, maybe you create a place specifically for them to dig, one allowable place, and make that place fun. Bury things for them to find.


If one training method fails, try another
(Resorting to stronger tactics...)

One thing you'll discover if you talk to many different dog experts is that there are many different ways to train a dog. Watch the dog training shows on TV. I know of three in our neck of the woods: Good Dog U, It's Me Or The Dog, and Dog Whisperer. Sometimes they have the same training methods, sometimes their methods are different. Read dog training books. Take a class with your dog. Learn how to be a good teacher and be flexible with your training method. Sometimes a particular training method simply doesn't work for a particular dog.

I've noticed on the dog shows that the issue of a dog pulling while you walk him sometimes needs stronger tactics. They show you how to retrain your all too eager dog. I won't go into that here, you should be watching some of these shows for tips. My point here is that they sometimes resort to special collars when the preferred method fails. Sometimes a big dog can be dangerous if he's pulling you so hard and you're not strong enough to control him. He can pull you down causing you injury in his eagerness to go somewhere in a hurry. People have actually broken bones when their dog takes off and they fall hard to the ground. We haven't resorted to special collars for walking, but we have resorted to special collars for other things.

Dakota was a problem dog. The first thing she did on a leash was to grab the leash and chew it in half so quickly that she was off and running free before we knew what she was up to. You're standing there looking at something while the dog is busy chewing the leash in half. It can happen very quickly. Dakota knew a LOT of dirty tricks.

She did the same thing when we attempted to tie her out on a 50 foot rope while gardening in our unfenced backyard one day. She chewed through the rope in less than a minute and was off and running. My assumption was that she was so quick to do this, she'd done it before we ever got her. She ended up with a new, chain leash. Unchewable. And we had to abort any hope of Dakota having any amount of freedom in the backyard. We did attempt to put her out with a long chain when we were out with her but she ran hither and yon like a madman, reached the end of her chain running at full speed, did a flip in midair and landed hard. We were afraid she'd break a leg so we had to nix this option as well. We had no way of allowing Dakota happy time outdoors.

We fenced the backyard (six foot fence) but even this did not solve the problem. First, Dakota would not obey commands running loose in the yard that she normally would obey in the house. Second, the dog trainers use 30 foot leashes to train a dog outdoors, but Dakota's habit of chewing through a leash nixed that plan and a 30 foot chain is hard to handle. Third, she found a way past the six foot fence and was off and running...

Dakota was a problem dog. For every thing we tried to do for her, she created a challenge. Nothing was simple. We needed big guns. Very big guns. We resorted to a shock collar for outdoors training and for stopping her from bullying Gypsy Rose. We got a good one that has options for sound only and 9 levels of shock. This has been a godsend. Within two weeks she got the message that obedience isn't just when we're in a 10x10 room, it's anywhere we are. We rarely have to use the shock buttons, the sound warning is almost always enough to get her attention and stop what she's doing. This is something new (we just started this about three weeks ago) and we look forward to weaning her off of it eventually. The shock collar has allowed us to let her run loose in the (fenced) backyard, and allowed us to let our other dog loose in the backyard at the same time. Initially she took advantage to bully Gypsy Rose to the point where they couldn't both be out together. Now, they not only can be out together, but have actually started to play with each other. Gypsy Rose is finally enjoying having a buddy.

We've had to resort to some bigger guns with Dakota such as the dog crate and the shock collar but neither are permanent. They are simply training tools. Most things she learned without the big guns through praise, rewards and persistence. She made a lot of progress on those three things alone. There were just a couple of things that she resisted training on, getting more fun from being bad over being good. She's ready to start being weaned from the crate except for traveling. And the shock collar is a brand new tool, so the training needs to get set in a lot more before we can wean her off of it.

My word of advice is to not put a time table on it. If your dog is improving, then it's working. Even if it's working slowly. Only if you're not seeing any improvement at all is it time to try a new training method.


How long does it take for a dog to learn a new behavior?
(Or... when can I stop pulling my hair out?)

It depends on the dog, their age, and the behavior. Dakota learned to wait in the doorway while I put down her food in less than three weeks. Potty training took a lot longer as she had several issues relating to peeing. Most dog experts claim that it takes two weeks to potty train a puppy and six weeks for an adult dog. For Dakota, it was much longer than six weeks. While she did learn fairly quickly to pee outside, she still had accidents in the house for a long time when she was excited or stressed. Our gauge for her progress was simple, how long between accidents? If your dog is going for longer and longer periods between potty accidents, or whatever the behaviour you're trying to stop, then he is improving and you are making progress. Let that be your gauge rather than a timetable.


Reading your dog's body language
(You want them to understand English? How about learning a few dog words?)

Dog's have a lot to say if you learn to listen to them. A dog's body language speaks volumes of words. You just need to learn to interpet. I won't begin to go into the many, many variances of a dog's body language. Whole books are written on the subject. But a few brief things to watch for:

Tail: Is it held high? Slumped down low between the legs? Wagging fast? Wagging slowly? Held stiffly straight out?

Hair on the back of the neck: Is it standing straight up on end? Dakota's does this when she's in aggressive mode toward Gypsy Rose.

Breathing: Soft and easy? Fast and hard? A dog's breathing actually changes in accordance with their emotional state.

Tongue and mouth and whiskers: Is the tongue hanging long out of the side of the mouth? Usually a dog in very happy play mode does this. Is the mouth closed, lips almost pursed, whiskers pushed forward? A dog's mouth can tell you a LOT.

Stance: How is your dog standing? Still, alert, watching intently, tail held stiffly out? Shoulders raised high, head held low? How far apart are the back feet? Close together and relaxed, or far apart in an attitude of readiness?

Ears on a prick eared (pointy eared) dog: Standing straight up? Facing forward? Sideways? Held flat against the head? Twitching?

I'm not offering up interpretations for you. Just be aware that every part of a dog's body has a story to tell. If you pay attention, you'll see that your dog's body language is very consistent. Start noticing how his body is when he's happy, angry, stressed, in trouble, alert, aggressive, passive, bullied, bullying, scared... you'll start to see patterns.


How does your dog say No?
(And when should you let him?)

My dogs both sit down as their way of saying No. Sometimes it's a bad thing, they're saying No, I'm not gonna and you can't make me! Sometimes it's simply No, I don't need to go potty, we can go back inside. Dakota initially would grab her leash in her teeth. When I took her out for potty, she'd pee and if I tried to continue to the poopie spot sometimes she grabbed the leash in her teeth and refused to move. I took this to mean that she didn't need to poop and we could go back in the house, and so far she hasn't pooped in the house after sending this message. I hated to encourage the word No as initially I wasn't sure if she was being defiant, or whether she really didn't need to go poopie. She would not budge once she grabbed the leash in her teeth. She absolutely would not move further. The moment we started heading back toward the house she beelined for the house, pulling hard, wanting back inside very badly. I don't think she spent a lot of time indoors in her previous life so she was initially very panicky about not being indoors. It is the only place she wanted to be. She stopped grabbing the leash once I changed to a chain one and switched to sitting down as her way of saying No. Unlike potty training for pee, potty training for poop went a lot faster.

Initially Dakota pooped three times a day, now she's down to two. Once in the morning and once in the evening immediately after eating. Eventually she'll probably go down to one. Gypsy Rose only poops once a day but I don't remember how old she was when she transitioned.

With Dakota, I had to balance my desire to fortify my Alpha status versus some of her unique needs and panics from her previous experiences. I didn't want to push Alpha if the issue wasn't Alpha, but was simply her panic from old unhappy memories. Once she has learned that she is safe here those memories will fade and so will the issues they produce. Dakota was a Yo-Yo dog, we were her fifth home in 7 months and she had scars from all that abandonment.

Then there's the bad No. The No that says: I'm not gonna and you can't make me! This other No she tried for awhile required my intervention. She didn't want to go to bed at night. We all go up to the bedroom but once she realized that this was bed down for the night, she refused to go into the bedroom. She wasn't sleepy. She laid down in the hallway, a dog's favorite way of saying No, I'm not gonna. No amount of pulling would budge her and I had to literally carry-drag her in. I know ideally you are supposed to make them do it on their own but sometimes you simply have to bully your way thru it. A good size strong dog cannot always be pulled. And a strong willed dog cannot always easily be talked into things. She is both strong, and strong willed, and scrappy. She learned many dirty tricks in her other life for getting her way. She is scrappy and resourceful. She is very intelligent which makes her both trainable, but can also make it harder to train in some respects.

A dog has to WANT to learn. You have to make them want it, which can be a challenge. She wants to eat, so she learns the food routine. But she doesn't want to go to bed for the night, so she knows the night time routine but doesn't want to do it.

She didn't appreciate being half dragged into the bedroom with us every night but after a few nights of not letting her get her way, she stopped laying down in refusal. She still sometimes drags her feet and sometime we have to get behind her and propel her along a bit, but overall she's gotten the message that bedtime is when we say it is, period. She's going to end up in the bedroom one way or another, so she might as well come along on her own. She's pretty good about it now.


Dogs aren't as dumb as they want you to think
(If I play dumb, I'll get my way...)

Many people mistake a dog's refusal for being a dumb dog. Oh, my dog is just dumb, he can't learn. But people don't realize that there is a big difference in a dog knowing what you want him to do, and actually doing it. Dakota knows without a doubt our bedtime routine. She knows many of our routines now. Some she honors happily. Others she plays dumb. She looks at me with a blank stare and I know she knows the routine but is simply pretending dumb because she doesn't want to do it. Dogs do that a lot and people misunderstand it. Dog plays dumb, dog gets his way, SUCCESS! Boss Dog wins again!


The Not Enough Food mentality
(Are you feeding him enough?)

Dakota is always hungry. She just stays ravenous all the time as if we weren't feeding her enough. I'm feeding her exactly what the pet food maker recommends for a dog her age and weight, for this brand of dog food. They are not likely to recommend too little. They wouldn't make money that way. She has gained a good bit of weight since we adopted her from the dog pound. Dogs don't gain weight if they're not getting enough to eat. You cannot trust your dog to make decisions. Just because she's staring at you woefully with big, sad eyes, doesn't mean you should give her more.

I believe that Dakota's ferocious hunger is more mental, more a byproduct of her old life. Hadji, our wild cat, was that way when I got him, too. Very focused on food.

Hadji came from a world of wild outdoor cats, homeless cats, and my friend fed them. She collected scrap food from work and brought home a big bucket of food scraps every day. She would dump the bucket in a big mound on her front porch and all the cats would converge on it. No bowls. No rules. The bigger, stronger, bullier cats ate. The smaller, weaker, wimpier cats got pushed away. Hadji was a very tiny kitten so he got pushed away a lot. I adopted him very young.

He came into my home with this Not Enough Food mentality and he was overly focused on food for a good long while. He never felt satisfied that he was getting enough and he was paranoid when he saw our other cat eating, as if afraid she was eating his portion and he would go without.

Eventually, once he realized that every day he got fed like clockwork and that no other cat would push him away from his bowl, that he would always get food to eat twice a day without fighting for it, he settled down and relaxed. He stopped being so focused on Not Enough Food.

Dakota came to us with her ribcage jutting out so it's a good bet that she came to us with the Not Enough Food fearfulness, and her actions have mirrored Hadji's exactly. So I feed her as directed, and eventually she will stop acting as if she were starving. Some dogs will overeat if left to their own portions. I believe she is one of them.

Obviously if you're dog acts as if he's starving and you know he's not, you need to check him for worms or other problems. Dakota did have worms but we're not sure if she had them when we adopted her, or caught them a month later when we had to board her for a week. I hate boarding for that reason. I didn't want to board her but we'd already planned the trip and she was not ready for it. We'd only had her a month and she wasn't good enough to stay at a friend's house or to stay at home and have the neighbor girl look after her. Gypsy Rose went on the trip with us. Today, so would Dakota.


A final word on consistency
(How not to blow it...)

Many people fail this miserably. Give a dog an old shoe to chew on and then not understand when he chews on your new shoes. You must be consistent. If you don't want your dog to chew on shoes, then ALL shoes should be off limits. Your dog's allowable toys should not be similar to forbidden items in your house.

Also, be careful not to send mixed messages. Dakota sleeps all night, doesn't bother us or Gypsy Rose, and is quiet. It was one thing we didn't need to train her on, she came that way and I wanted her to stay that way. So I was very careful about what I did with her in the bedroom. I didn't want to teach her something "new" that might backfire. I do not pet her from bed because that would encourage her to bother us in bed, most likely in the wee hours when she is wide awake and we are still asleep. I do not play with her in the bedroom or allow dog toys in there even during the day. Your dog learns from everything you do. We can do many things with Gypsy Rose that Dakota isn't ready for. Eventually we will be able to lighten up a little, once she's solid and has been for a long time, some of the rules can be more relaxed. But right now, everything we do sends a message, and it's important to send the RIGHT message.

Sometimes it's hard to be consistent. One of our jobs was to teach Dakota what she was and was not allowed to play with or chew on. Most things in the house were new to her and she didn't have a clue. One night we were watching TV and she came trotting into the living room carrying an empty milk jug. The sight of Dakota with that one gallon milk jug dangling from her mouth was so funny we couldn't help but laugh. She was so innocent. She trotted in to show it off as if she'd found the coolest thing and wanted to share it with us. She did not know that the milk jug was not a legal toy. We had to stifle the laughter and muster up a stern tone, and take the milk jug away with a firm NO. She tried again a couple of times other nights and we steadfastly stifled the laughter and sent the NO message. She doesn't bother milk jugs now.

For a long time we couldn't play hard with Dakota in the house, games like go get the ball were out of the question. Anything that got her too excited also made her pee so we had to lie low for awhile. I couldn't tell you exactly when it changed. But it did. We can get her excited in the house now and she won't pee. Don't set your dog up for failure if you know something will make her fail.

And lastly, your rules should reflect your lifestyle. Everybody's lifestyle is different. Dogs are very adaptable. There is no right or wrong set of rules. We don't allow our dogs on the sofa. They are big dogs. In my life before dogs I did allow cats on the sofa. They were smaller and it worked better. Just remember that as Boss Dog, you are allowed your choice of where to sit, so if Fido is in your way, he must move. The rules you set forth in your home should make YOU happy. Dogs will adapt to any set of rules you put forth. So choose your house rules to fit your own lifestyle and ensure that your dog ownership will be joyful. Just be consistent with whatever rules you do put forth, and you'll be okay.

Part II - Potty Training an Adult Dog


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