house line?

portgirl123

any one no where my daughter can buy a house line? she rescued a little terrier couple of weeks ago from a bad situation, dont want to go into to much details here. amyways my daugher is married but no kids as of yet, which with this little guy is a good thing. the problem with him is that 90% ofthe time he is fine but it is at times like he has a split personality. he has a very bad guarding issue. esp with shoes. if they drop a pair of shoes on the floor he will jump on them and even if someone just comes into the room or moves where they are sitting the teeth are stripped and he will growl something awful. now she hasnt gone near enough to him to see if he will do anything, she aint that silly. Also he hates people coming into the house, he will bark and growl at them. usually within 10 mins he will stop but with some people he just takes a dislike to and will carry on. they are at the moment getting visitors to drop treats to him. Also dislikes nearly all other dogs. while my daughter hasnt got any others her friends do and she also minds my dogs if i go away.
She phoned a behaviourist yesterday who says he will try and get out asap but could be a week or more. he recommended the treats and the house line. we live in the offaly area so can travel to offaly, laois and parts of kildare to get a line. any other advise would be great. in sure theres other things i have forgot to mention i will post when/if i remember

Vince32

Your local pet store should have something of that nature, or alternatively you can use thin cord or rope attached to the leash and not the collar.

Have your guests toss him a treat or two, he needs to associate new people with something "good". Don't let them pet or feed directly to mouth until he stops the snarling and growling completely ( 7-14 days) Then Introduce new people slowly allow hand sniffing only while the dog is muzzled, building trust is a hard feat to accomplish take it easy and slow, and never punish or raise your voice.

If it behaves badly, ignore it completely and by ignoring it I mean, look up! is it going to rain?!" hold your gaze over its line of sight or eye level, if it behaves well, give it lots of praise and treats, try to teach it that your way is nice and friendly and his way is boring and isolating, he will choose your way because its nice and comfortable, warm and full of attention.

When ignoring your dog, its important to set a limit, like 1 minute or 3 minutes, but always do the full amount of time, If you need to correct the dog again during its "time out" do so without making eye contact, and non aggressively, it's important that the dog never feels threatened.

Over a week or two (if you stick to it) you'll see the dog want to get the praise and rewards.

Remember the muzzle, no hand to mouth contact until your certain it won't respond aggressively, and follow through on your "ignores" until the time elapses, and further correction takes place with no eye contact.

Give it time, and alot of love and attention, it will come around in a matter of weeks if not days.

portgirl123

thanks vince for that, its what she has been doing on advise from the behaviourst. whats the best way to deal with the guardung? can guarding be got out of the dog or will it always to some degree be a issue?

Vince32

This is classic when a new dog arrives in a new home, the dog will always try to establish itself as the pack leader, "top dog". It is up to you to deny the dog that position and claim it for yourself.

If the dog is "testing the water" it will think it can always get what it wants from the behaviour that is working for it. So the objective is to passively and non aggressively remove it from "power", If it is guarding a sock, take it away and put it in a place it cannot reach, or a shoe, or anything else, make the "rule", "you can, When I say so", make it wait 20 secs for its food, Always win the games of tug, to assert your dominance.

You Start the Game
You End the Game
You Win the Game

It's not a perfect science, the animals personality, demeanour, and previous treatment will all play a part in "the dogs mindset", if anything, be its friend, not its boss, if it does sometime you don't approve of, remove the dog from the situation. When you claim its "space" as your "territory" it will eventually become submissive to you. How long this takes, depends on how you handle its aggression.

On the guarding, dogs are alot like people in the sense that they always want what they can't have. For this I would suggest a squeaky, something you can play tug on, along rodent shaped toy, or a squeak bone larger than it could choke on.

Make the toy "golden" by playing with it yourself, biting it, squeaking it, and don't let the dog have a go until she loses interest in the shoe or what she is guarding. It will take some days to build in the response but eventually you will convince it stop guarding stuff.

To make a toy really "high value" only take it down once or twice a week and allow short play time with it, the dog will want it more and more because it can't have it, this makes you the "boss" of the toy and the "boss" of the dog's play time.

Just remember the rules,
reward good behaviour - Treat, Praise, petting
Ignore bad behaviour - ignore the dog, remove the object (with a grabber or stick if need be, don't put your hand where it could be bitten, if it is a dominance battle, chances are it will try to snap at you. )

Get a book on obedience training, and treat it like day 1 for the dog, sit, stay, for the first few days, then build up to lie down, heel and fetch over a course of a month or so.

Also because it is in a new environment it will naturally be nervous and insecure, play games, leave squeak toys for it to play with and build the trust up, it goes both ways you need to trust him, and he needs to trust you.

portgirl123

thanks vince,
from what ive seen of him and what my daughter says 90% of the time he is such a sweetheart and we do know he came from a horrible situation so i suppose the trust is a big issue.
he isnt nuetered yet my daughter was waiting till after xmas to get this done, for 2 reasons cost and she was waiting for him to settle would this make much difference

DBB

Sigh. OP, the dog is not being dominant. The dog is resource guarding. These are not the same thing. Resource guarding is not motivated by a desire to be dominant, it is motivated simply by the dog having particular value in certain things, and often having a history of having such things forced from him, thus making him feel that he needs to protect the item.
The dog is no more being dominant than I am if someone tries to take something I love off me! Or when a child tries to take a beloved toy off another kid and gets a puck in the nose for his troubles! Nobody calls these kids dominant, yet they are motivated by the same needs that your new wee dog is.
You won't teach the dog to give up prized objects by insisting on taking them off him, you need to teach him to enjoy giving prized items up.
OP, I have a protocol on how to go about helping a dog who is resource guarding which I'd be happy to email to you if you'd like to PM me your email address!
Vince, with all due respect, whilst much of your advice is good, I would thank you not to state incorrect and potentially harmful information that rescue dogs are trying to assert dominance or take over the world. It's hard enough for us rescuers to rehome dogs these days without having to battle against such misinformation put out there about rescue dogs.

PS A houseline is nothing more fancy than a light lead. Such leads are widely available in supermarkets and pet shops. For safety, never leave a houseline attached to a dog unless under supervision.

portgirl123

thanks DBB i have sent you my email address. from the brief conversation my daughter had the behavourist did mention resourse guarding

Sigma Force

Make sure the dog behaviourist uses only humane methods of training. Good on your daughter for taking the little guy on.