Ar-r-g!

Callen has been testing my patience in many areas of her household training. I get so frustrated with her when it seems like I’m repeating and repeating myself. Even if I’m telling one of the other dogs “No” her name comes out connected to it because I’m constantly saying no to her. It’s like a never-ending litany of “no, Callen”, ”stop that Callen”, ”I said STOP Callen”.

I’ve not had such a tough dog before. Maybe it’s more like stubbornness, or wilfulness, or just plain naughty, but Callen is different from any other dog I’ve had before, not just border collies but the Malamute, the Irish setters, the numerous mixed breeds. With all those other dogs I was able to train away a behavior by stopping it with a ‘no’ and a bit of physical correction like a scruff shake or removing the object of temptation or even just moving the dog.

But none of this is making much of an impression on Miss Callen. Oh sure she’ll stop when I say something but will go right back to what she was doing before I interrupted her. Callen is almost 8 months old now and should be past the point of destructive or unwanted behavior. I’m really not expecting too much from her. For instance when she’s lying under my recliner with a multitude of Nylabones and antlers within reach, she really does know she shouldn’t use the chair leg or the recliner’s fabric as a chew toy. Really. She does know better. But she does it anyway.

She also should know that I find teeth on skin objectionable. I started training this when I still had all the puppies here. I used conventional methods like squealing or saying ‘ouch’ whenever teeth touched skin. I removed myself from the game when she used her teeth on me. I scolded and offered her a toy as a mouth guard. I scolded more firmly. Nothing made much of an impression. I am now trying taking her to the ground in an alpha-roll coupled with telling her no. I will NOT tolerate a dog that grabs my hands, my pant legs, my sleeve while playing with me or trying to get me to play with her. Teeth on skin or clothing is unacceptable. I just haven’t found a way to convince Callen of that.

This morning she met the Wrath of 1000 Demons because she revived a gross behavior – poop eating. As a puppy she would poop and then turn around and eat it . . . still warm. Y-U-C-K!!!!! To discourage that I followed her around and told her ‘no’ as I scooped the poop and disposed of it. After a while she quit turning and sniffing it as it dropped out. I thought I had broken the habit. Well apparently frozen poop-cicles are very tasty as she was chowing down on some this morning.  I told her ‘no’. She looked at me and then started nibbling again. I told her ‘no’ again VERY firmly and pushed her nose away from the turd. She picked it up and started to munch. I grabbed her by the scruff (the turd dropped out of her mouth) and then put her on the ground with her nose touching the frozen turd and held her there while summoning 1000 Demons down upon her. I then put her in the house and poop-scooped the yard.

Sigh.

BUT on a high note, yesterday I pulled out the clicker and some treats and decided to restart her heeling training. I’ve been thinking about what and how I want to do this as the little bit of the Choose to Heel protocol I started last fall didn’t seem to make an impression on her (go figure). My problem is remembering to break it down into tiny parts. I tend to expect too big of a chain too soon. So all I introduced yesterday was getting her to follow my hand (with treat) into heel position. She did great! Nice straight sit at just the right distance from my side. She did it with or without the treat as I faded the lure quickly when she showed me she could do it.  I then asked for one step in heel position and a hands-on shaped automatic sit. She was clearly confused by the hands on sitting so I lured her into an at heel sit and quit. I didn’t want to ruin the joy at the successful first part of the session. We did a couple more ‘find heel’ and quit to have a party and some wrestling. (Unfortunately she grabbed my hand with her teeth and I had to correct but it didn’t ruin the game that time.)

I was VERY pleased with her effort and the results. I need to really focus on one tiny part at a time before trying to chain the whole thing too quickly. The fault in that is mine and not Callen’s!