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Havers Dog Behaviour Blog


Badly behaved bear coated Shar Pei

In Groby with the bear coated Shar Pei and working on their behaviour outside the house today and their behaviour on the lead and they certainly do need work on their lead behaviour.

Excitement levels are far too high when outside when they see people and other dogs, they do not recognise the lead as a restriction, they see the lead as a battle and something they resent as they can't to what they want to.

But there was no reaction from the owners, the dogs are not used to the person on the end of the lead doing nothing and their behaviour started to change.

They began to walk with the person on the lead, not be pulling to get where they wanted to get to or towards another person or dog.

All this was done on the grass area right outside the owners house. There was no need to go for a walk because a walk would only have meant continued escalation without the opportunity to relax and unwind.

The walk would have also have lasted too long and we would have exceeded their ability to cope.

Small sessions during which they can be calm is the best approach and doing the sessions close to home is best because of they do overheat or are not coping, straight back into the house for a break and a rest before doing some more.

Less is definitely more when it comes to behavioural training with dogs.

They can only concentrate for a defined length of time so we need to be aware of that and adopt our training accordingly.

As ever, departure shapes the behaviour on the walk so repetition prior t departure will drain energy, change anticipation and result in a better walk with better behaviour when outside.

It can be tempting to rush departure in the belief the walk will clam them down but this is not always the case, rushing onto the walk can actually further elevate the dogs so when they see further stimulation, they go beyond their ability to cope even earlier, owners get stressed even earlier and the walk goes wrong even earlier.

Being patient and calm when your dog isn't is the greatest challenge and one you will need to work at consistently if you are to achieve change.

These two also came on my group dog behaviour walk for the first time on Saturday and they coped remarkably well, their owners commented it was the longest time they had spent in the company of other dogs and it was the best they had behaved.

I will take that as a very good start. Need help with your dog? Give me a call, I will be happy to help you!