Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Negative Punishment

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I’ve become determined to work with Delilah on her down stays.

It’s not an easy  task.

Since she likes to be in the bathroom with me I figure it’s win-win.  She gets to be in the bathroom with me and I get to work on her downs.  The trouble with this is, she doesn’t always stay in the down.

I thought well maybe the floor (being ceramic and all) is too cold and she’s uncomfortable, so I took the bathroom rug and threw it down.  She still got up.

Listen to your readers.

A couple of posts ago Jan said, “Some of the best advice I ever got was not to try to treat my kids or my dogs the same way. They are all different entities, with different needs and all of them have let me know what kind of attention they want from me.

It was hard to do but I finally learned not to reward bad behavior by giving that kid or dog more attention. Praise the good one and the other will want to copy that behavior.”

This comment really got me thinking.  When I’m in the bathroom and I put Delilah into a down stay and she gets up.  What do I do?  I go back and put her in a down stay again.

I asked myself, “What does this teach her?”

I answered, “It teaches her that when she doesn’t do as I ask, I reward her with more attention.”

Jodi Stone, you are a bad dog trainer!

Look, I don’t want to scare you or force you to burn your retinas out with bleach so try not to visualize this too much.  Today I got out of the shower, dried myself off and applied my lotion.

While I was waiting for my lotion to dry, I decided to blow dry my hair.  Since I have short, fine hair I throw a little product in there, bend over and blow it upside down.

As I’m bent over in this upside down position with my hair dryer in my hands, who comes shoving her way through my legs.

Yup.

First I laughed, because I’m dumb and can’t help myself but then I took the rug and put it on the floor and said, “Down.”

She sat on the rug.

I didn’t battle with her at all, I took her by the collar, led her out into the bedroom and shut her out of the bathroom.

Seeing as this is DELILAH we are writing about, I need to make sure there is nothing lying about that she will decide to chew up or I will need to make sure the bedroom door is shut before I banish her.

Negative Punishment.

“Negative punishment reduces behaviors by taking away or withholding something good or something the dog will work for.”

I’ve been using this technique for a couple of weeks in a number of different ways.

When she does not sit while I am preparing her meals, I stop what I am doing and wait.  My motto is “Nothing moves in the kitchen if you’re moving.”

When we are eating dinner and she is supposed to be in a down on her place and she gets up, she goes in her crate.

Last night we were watching TV and eating our dinner, it was a pretty intense show and we were both fixated on the TV.  I caught movement and realized she’d gotten up and gone over to inspect her bowl.

FAIL.

In the crate she went.

Get excited about this.

Let your mind soar as you think of the possibilities.

Dog doesn’t respond to recall = Dog stays on leash.

Child doesn’t clean room = Child doesn’t go to birthday party.

Husband doesn’t mow lawn = Wife doesn’t,,,,,,,,,,,

buy beer.

Where did you think I was going with that?

Book Update:  I haven’t updated you about my book in a while.  Truthfully, I wrote a really exciting part of the book and then I didn’t know what to do next, so I put it down for a while.  But I’ve picked it back up and my book now has 25,051 words.

W.T.F./W.T.F Hoo Wednesday

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Here is your W.T.F./W.T.F (Woo The Eff) Hoo for this past week.

Please note this post is not meant to make light of the despicable deeds described here, only to make fun of, ridicule, bully and just plain beat the shit out of the idiots who commit these heinous acts.

This for me is all kinds of WTF.

A man in CT admitted to choking his dog to death, after the dog urinated on his leg and then bit the man.

First I want to say I’m thankful that I found this article after the man’s hearing.  Otherwise I’d probably be sitting in a 4 x 6 cell asking my husband to put a chip in widget on this blog in order to post my bail.

For the record I would have been in his face screaming I’d bite you too if you choked me when I peed Motherf*cker.

Siriusly you know this sick SOB was probably housebreaking the dog by punishing him, no wonder the dog bit him.  Personally I’m thinking the dog was too nice to this piece of human filth.

Alex Wullaert W.T.F. is wrong with you?  Did your mother potty train you by choking you when you peed.  You are a sick piece of work, I pray there’s a special place in hell set aside just for you.

Sadly in CT he will probably get a $500 fine.

In his defense, he did say he threw flowers in the water where he disposed of the dog.

Flowers?  Wow.  If someone does me a favor by choking your ass and throwing it in the lake, I’ll be sure to toss flowers in for you too f*cker.

In other CT news a man was charged with killing a black bear after he saw the bear go into his garage and then into his backyard.

My big question here is where did the bear get the garage door opener Cory J. Maitz?

Hmmm Unless……wait for it……the idiot…..left his garage door open.  In that case, I believe it’s your own dumb fault Cory that the bear went into your garage.

But wait.  You told the police the bear had left your garage and was in your backyard, why then did you shoot the bear?  Apparently the bear was leaving, so why?

And now let me tell you, you’ve ruined it for the rest of us.

Because when someone asks us, does a bear shit in the woods?  We have no answer because YOU Cory J Maitz shot the bear.

Go f*ck yourself a-hole.

This is a definite WHOO the f*** HOO.

The USDA is finally stepping in and proposing regulations to breeders who sell puppies over the internet.  The proposed regulations will require those who breed more than four females and who sell their puppies electronically (whether it be via e-mail, telephone or over the internet) to open their doors and allow people to see the puppies before they purchase them.

As with most new laws, I imagine some tweaking will be required on this one as well.

How was your week?  Anything make you scream W.T.F! or W.T.F. Hoo?

TTouch

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Yesterday I wrote how I have been giving Delilah massages and it seems to be something she really enjoys.

I was inspired by a post at Peaceful Dog, in the post Kirsten had included a link to a previous post where she wrote about TTouch with her reactive dog Lamar.

If you haven’t heard of TTouch here is a brief explanation “TTouch can help you understand and influence your animal with your heart and hands in a way that develops trust, creates a harmonious relationship, and changes unwanted behavior.”

There is something in the TTouch that releases endorphins which we all know are what helps us with our moods.

While I was reading Kirsten’s post about TTouch I realized I have been doing this with Delilah without even realizing it!

I probably do this three to four times per day, Delilah will come up to me and I place one hand under each of her ears and rub in a circular motion.  After 30 seconds or so I get a really deep sigh, like she is relaxed or content.  Which is exactly what Kirsten described.

First thing in the morning as I am trying to get ready for work, she comes into the bathroom looking for attention.  I rub her ears.

When I come home from work, before or after her massage.  I rub her ears.

After we are settled in bed, I reach for Delilah and rub her ears.  She stretches out across my feet and looks up at me.  I drop a kiss on her head and rub some more and then the deep, contented sigh.

All is right in her world.

What do you do when your dog is amped up?  Is there something special you do to help calm him/her down?

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