A few questions..

[thepointingheeler]

Hi, I recently adopted a three-year-old female German Shorthaired Pointer/Australian Cattle Dog mix. She has a nice temperment, but has a few rough edges that I'd like to try to work on and will address here.

She is excitable around other dogs. Never aggressive, but very curious as she has inherited the pointer nose. When she meets them, she sniffs them. I do find that given a minute or so to "explore" a new dog, her excitement will go down a little. I'm curious what might help this..I'm thinking a combination of socialization with other dogs via group obediance classes and general discipline in the sense of making sure I can get her to sit and stay around other dogs.

She also has the tendency to jump up and is quite mouthy, though I know the mouthiness is the Heeler in her. I've tried a technique of turning around and saying "OFF", then telling her to sit. It has been SOMEWHAT effective, but I'm curious about perhaps a more efficient method. The mouthiness is something I tend to give no praise to, though if she actually BITES, I say "NO!". She rarely actually clamps her mouth down, it's mostly a playful thing that I know isn't AGGRESSIVE but certainly don't want her to be in the habit of doing, especially with strangers.

She is extremely food oriented and will grab food out of my hand if I'm not watchful. I would very much like to use food as a reward and motivation for conditioning her but her concentration on the food is so high it's hard to get her to focus on anything except the food. I've thought that hiding the treat until she obeys a command and THEN revealing it and giving it to her MAY help.

In general, she is a very distractible dog to her senses and am curious as to how I can gain her attention more, such as around other dogs, around food, when she's off-leash, etc. She doesn't completely know "COME", only doing it when she chooses.

I know she will be tough to work with, but I see definite potential in her, and am willing to work with her provided I feel I can really make a difference. I know she is old, and thus will be harder to train, but as long as I can have assurance that I CAN train her, I will stick with it.

ANY advice or tips on ANY of the above comments would be greatly appreciated. I am relatively new and am looking forward to seeing what people have to say. So far, I have had a mantra of classical conditioning with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. Any advice on what you have known to work would be great. Thanks

 

[sam]

Congrats on the new dog. A three year old is perfectly capable of learning anything you are capable of teaching her. Cattle dogs are smart though and somewhat independent- you have to be smarter.

If I was you, when the dog is mouthing me I would say "OW!":yikes: as if it hurt , turn on my heal and walk away, giving the dog no attention. Whatever you do, sound serious like it hurt, not like it's a joke or a game. The dog needs to learn that teeth on skin=all fun stops, people go away and leave you all alone.

As for being excitable and mouthy around food, that's normal if she hasn't been shown any different. I would check out Sue Ailsby's decription of "zen" teaching a dog to be calm and behave around food. The dog just needs to learn that the only way to get food is to be polite and have self control. Being obnoxious around food never gets rewarded- it makes food go away. Having self control is rewarded, calmness and polietness is rewarded. That's not hard to teach. Here's Sue's site:
http://www.dragonflyllama.com/ DOGS/Levels/LevelBehaviours/TL26Zen.html
Sue's site has a really nice description of training basic obedience and breaks it down into levels which is really nice.

Taking her to a manners class is a great idea.

For the jumping up I think it's more useful to say nothing than to say "off" When you talk to the dog, you are ackowledging them. If the dog jumps up , turn sideways preferably preventing the dog from even making contact. Turn back to face the dog repeat until the dog tries something else-- usually they sit. It often takes 3 or more tries. Be patient, keep your mouth shut and let the dog learn from the consequences. Adding the verbal stuff just distarcts the dog from what you are showing them by your actions. Immediately praise / pat and treat the sit- if the dog pops up turn away again and repeat. Dogs are social creatures. Greeting rituals are very important to them. They just need to be taught that sitting politely is how to get a human to greet and ackowledge them- jumping up doesn't work. I would not pat the dog at all in general until she sits at this point, just wait. Dogs learn this super fast if you are consistent. They sit- you praise and pat and give them attention.If they aren't sitting nicely they are invisible. Pretty soon your formerly rude dog is running up to you and sitting politely for petting. They love it because they have figured out how to get you to pat them and aren't getting scolded anymore; you love it because you no longer have a dog who jumps up or that your have to always say "OFF" and "SIT!" to.

I'm not sure from your description what's going on with other dogs. I think it's ok to be excited to see other dogs. Knowing how to play nicely with other dogs is a skill they learn (or don't learn ) in puppyhood. From what you wrote, I'm not sure what it is that your dog is doing with other dogs.

 

[thepointingheeler]

Thank you for your response. I've been working on getting her to sit when she jumps up and not acknowledging her, and it seems to be working. I've also been using this approach when training her, and I seem to be making progress.

When she is arround other dogs, she immediately runs towards them and pulls the leash VERY hard and begins to whine. She then gets excited and begins to get energetic; essentially she wants to just go and sniff the dog. I'm glad it isn't out of aggression, but I would very much like to find a way to get her to be much more calm around other dogs and not tug on the leash. This is why I think maybe training in the presence of other dogs might be of help, but any other advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.