Hoobie has had horrible medical issues since being very young. Even as a baby, there was not enough milk for him and another, and they needed to be bottle fed. For Hoobie's future owners, the medical problems were on their way to being horrendous. The most prevalent being various food intolerances and a thyroid condition that went midiagnosed for too long. There is a whole team working behind Hoobie's physical and mental well being.
The combination on young dogs in particular of a chronic illness and the fact that they are learning what to fear and what not to fear, can do a job on the temperment of the dog. The owners did start working on this early on, when they saw the problem developing, but the right answer did not appear from some of the people that were hired. However, the training the owners did with Hoobie has been very helpful in keeping me safe, while I am working on changing his perceptions of the world.
The thing that is very important to understand about Hoobie is that he learned to fear hands, especially, early on. This is because treatments were being done that were detrimental to his health, but Hoobie did not know why he was hurt whenever hands came near. Hands became a control that was not often welcome. Then Hoobie learned that growling and biting keeps hands away. It keeps hands from opening and closing crate doors, from pulling him out towards the bad stuff, from stuffing stuff in his mouth, and on and on. Hoobie has an intense hatred of hands, and of being touched in general, but he mostly sees the hands as the bigger threat.
The thing to understand about a thyroid condition that was not found, is that it is painful from head to toe. Touching or being touched is painful from head to toe. So as a young pup or dog, every single time someone touched him, most likely, pain was involved not pleasure, though that was the intent of the people trying to touch him. It seems like this may have been solved now, and in working with Hoobie I try to be on the look out for the chance that this might not be so.
So how make hands positive when Hoobie hates hands? How to make touch positive when he sees it as a threat? Remember now also that due to his painful issues with food, food isn't really a reward and when it comes with a hand, Hoobie feels biting the hand is a bit more important (because it may bring pain) than taking the food.
Simply stated, and I will try to write more on this, is to work so that hands provide other rewards when used, and they are limited in use until Hoobie starts to intiate contact with them himself. Also, not to reward any bossy or demanding acts, because he also knows how to use his teeth to get his way. You want to start rewarding calm, accepting, and trusting behavior. In order to be able to reward that, you must also be that(trustworthy and calm) in some way. In this case, it meant redefining what my goals were right away, to step back and take even babier steps (not babying the dog, but small steps towards something) to reach the end goal. Also expecting a certain behavior or lack of a certain behavior before Hoobie gets a reward, which are very simple little things right now. As the trust level between us grows, so do the rewards.
With Hoobie, this can be quite time consuming, because if he does the correct behavior on any pass, then you have to do a reward. The protocol for taking him out of the crate is quite lengthy now as it is tied into his training, and keeping it the same and stable right now before we totally change it up on him is what is building the trust. And if he gives the wrong behavior, you need to wait him out until he calms down, and then leave. If he does the right behavior but is also trying to demand or boss, he gets squat because part of the behavior I want to extinct is the entitlement. So if I pass by the crate, there is an awfully good chance that I won't be seen for 5-10 minutes if he gives the wrong behavior, and a half an hour if he does the right one LOL. You gotta give him the reward when he takes the initiative and does the right one, because the whole point is trust or elicit the hands THEN good things come. So right now, it's Hoobie not growling at my hands and moves towards me to inspect when I hold them near the gate entrance, and also I can't open the door if he starts growling.
Closing the crate door is the more problematic thing. He hates being alone for one, so I have to be careful with this that he isn't just trying to get me to stay with him there all day!! So I am still experimenting with that. Since it seems likely that he backs down when the door is open, and it's the act of closing the door that sets off the panic mode, I have started by letting him bark at me when he first goes in. Then he gets tired of that, and I have noticed that if he feels a bit better he will go for the food or water bowl. Then I calmly place my hand on the crate door. Hoobie is normally looking for that, so he will spin around and start growling. When he stops, I close the crate door so so slowly. This is different than any other dog I trained, and it's because I know why he is afraid of the hands and the crate door. If I were to slam it on him, I loose trust and this is exactly what he fears (and then come the needles or whatever). If he is not going to rush at me and try to hurt me, then I can take my time closing the crate door to show him that it's no big deal. He still is getting very upset about clipping the crate door back closed, and that will be next on the list as far as changing his crate behavior. This will also help in changing his outside the crate behavior, but isn't even half the solution as yet.
I can tell that Hoobie still would very much like to bite me, but he's trusting me more and more with these tasks. It's important not to loose his trust at this point, as he has had so many years of being proven wrong:( His owners have been amazing at trying to solve the problems and deal with Hoobie over the years. You can imagine what life might be like on a daily basis with him, and the danger he presents to known and unknown people right now. So let's put all our good thoughts Hoobie's way, and hope for a good outcome. This is going to be a loooonnnnnngggg training assignment.
Have a friendly dog for me to train LOL!! Just kidding. No really!! Call Maine Dog Trainer, Robin Rubin, at 207-361-4395 or e-mail for Maine Dog Training Services at mannerly_mutt@yahoo.com. Also providing New Hampshire Dog Training Services, and Massachusetts Dog Training Services.
The combination on young dogs in particular of a chronic illness and the fact that they are learning what to fear and what not to fear, can do a job on the temperment of the dog. The owners did start working on this early on, when they saw the problem developing, but the right answer did not appear from some of the people that were hired. However, the training the owners did with Hoobie has been very helpful in keeping me safe, while I am working on changing his perceptions of the world.
The thing that is very important to understand about Hoobie is that he learned to fear hands, especially, early on. This is because treatments were being done that were detrimental to his health, but Hoobie did not know why he was hurt whenever hands came near. Hands became a control that was not often welcome. Then Hoobie learned that growling and biting keeps hands away. It keeps hands from opening and closing crate doors, from pulling him out towards the bad stuff, from stuffing stuff in his mouth, and on and on. Hoobie has an intense hatred of hands, and of being touched in general, but he mostly sees the hands as the bigger threat.
The thing to understand about a thyroid condition that was not found, is that it is painful from head to toe. Touching or being touched is painful from head to toe. So as a young pup or dog, every single time someone touched him, most likely, pain was involved not pleasure, though that was the intent of the people trying to touch him. It seems like this may have been solved now, and in working with Hoobie I try to be on the look out for the chance that this might not be so.
So how make hands positive when Hoobie hates hands? How to make touch positive when he sees it as a threat? Remember now also that due to his painful issues with food, food isn't really a reward and when it comes with a hand, Hoobie feels biting the hand is a bit more important (because it may bring pain) than taking the food.
Simply stated, and I will try to write more on this, is to work so that hands provide other rewards when used, and they are limited in use until Hoobie starts to intiate contact with them himself. Also, not to reward any bossy or demanding acts, because he also knows how to use his teeth to get his way. You want to start rewarding calm, accepting, and trusting behavior. In order to be able to reward that, you must also be that(trustworthy and calm) in some way. In this case, it meant redefining what my goals were right away, to step back and take even babier steps (not babying the dog, but small steps towards something) to reach the end goal. Also expecting a certain behavior or lack of a certain behavior before Hoobie gets a reward, which are very simple little things right now. As the trust level between us grows, so do the rewards.
With Hoobie, this can be quite time consuming, because if he does the correct behavior on any pass, then you have to do a reward. The protocol for taking him out of the crate is quite lengthy now as it is tied into his training, and keeping it the same and stable right now before we totally change it up on him is what is building the trust. And if he gives the wrong behavior, you need to wait him out until he calms down, and then leave. If he does the right behavior but is also trying to demand or boss, he gets squat because part of the behavior I want to extinct is the entitlement. So if I pass by the crate, there is an awfully good chance that I won't be seen for 5-10 minutes if he gives the wrong behavior, and a half an hour if he does the right one LOL. You gotta give him the reward when he takes the initiative and does the right one, because the whole point is trust or elicit the hands THEN good things come. So right now, it's Hoobie not growling at my hands and moves towards me to inspect when I hold them near the gate entrance, and also I can't open the door if he starts growling.
Closing the crate door is the more problematic thing. He hates being alone for one, so I have to be careful with this that he isn't just trying to get me to stay with him there all day!! So I am still experimenting with that. Since it seems likely that he backs down when the door is open, and it's the act of closing the door that sets off the panic mode, I have started by letting him bark at me when he first goes in. Then he gets tired of that, and I have noticed that if he feels a bit better he will go for the food or water bowl. Then I calmly place my hand on the crate door. Hoobie is normally looking for that, so he will spin around and start growling. When he stops, I close the crate door so so slowly. This is different than any other dog I trained, and it's because I know why he is afraid of the hands and the crate door. If I were to slam it on him, I loose trust and this is exactly what he fears (and then come the needles or whatever). If he is not going to rush at me and try to hurt me, then I can take my time closing the crate door to show him that it's no big deal. He still is getting very upset about clipping the crate door back closed, and that will be next on the list as far as changing his crate behavior. This will also help in changing his outside the crate behavior, but isn't even half the solution as yet.
I can tell that Hoobie still would very much like to bite me, but he's trusting me more and more with these tasks. It's important not to loose his trust at this point, as he has had so many years of being proven wrong:( His owners have been amazing at trying to solve the problems and deal with Hoobie over the years. You can imagine what life might be like on a daily basis with him, and the danger he presents to known and unknown people right now. So let's put all our good thoughts Hoobie's way, and hope for a good outcome. This is going to be a loooonnnnnngggg training assignment.
Have a friendly dog for me to train LOL!! Just kidding. No really!! Call Maine Dog Trainer, Robin Rubin, at 207-361-4395 or e-mail for Maine Dog Training Services at mannerly_mutt@yahoo.com. Also providing New Hampshire Dog Training Services, and Massachusetts Dog Training Services.
1 comment:
Robin,
You`re description of Hoobie along with the compassion you obviously have for dogs in general and Hoobie in particular is very re-assuring for Carole (Hoobie's Owner-Mom)and me.
We are gratefiul to have found you and wish you patience and good luck.
Regards,
Jean
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