Tasha, Kibeth, Jojo And Dolce

GreytMusic

New Member
Hey guys. I'm brand new here, but I'm an avid dog lover for life.

I currently own 3 dogs: 2 greyhounds, Kibeth 10, and JoJo 9, as well as 1 border collie mix, Dolce 2.5

I'm a recently-made professional dog trainer working toward various certifications. I got into dog training more formally when I rescued Dolce. Dolce lived with a Korean couple for a year in their backyard 24/7, and his social skills needed work. I tried the Cesar Millan thing, and came up lacking -- it led me to +R. I've done a ton of research, and now Dolce's got his CTDI Novice, Intermediate and Advanced Trick Dog titles. His social skills are growing leaps and bounds, and I'm very involved in helping my clients build a positive bond with their dog and overcoming issues to become beloved companion dogs.

Primarily, though, I'm a music teacher. I teach for a private school in Southern California, coach a Youth Orchestra, and I am a self-employed violinist. I think my degrees in music performance allow me to train dogs in the more creative end of the spectrum.

I have invented what I call The Natural Way of Dog Training. Developed from Native American beliefs, it's geared toward using the dog's natural drives and the human's need to bond to form a harmonious partnership. You can see my website here.

I'm here to look for clues how best to get Dolce's CGC. We need to overcome one last obstacle: dog-dog reactivity. He gets along great with his select group of doggie friends. Unfortunately, all new dogs are suspect, and he lunges, barks, and growls unless I am able to throw treats his way to dissipate the anxiety.

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jackienmutts

Honored Member
Hi and welcome! All your pups are just beautiful, and I just adore Greyhounds! Two impressive sites - I love your dog site esp, looks like good stuff. (y)

First, so glad you've made the transition from the CM world to the land of +R. Hooray!! (y) :D You've come to the right place for loads of suggestions for Dolce. I totally understand your journey, both of mine are rescues - my boy thinks the whole world is a fab place, my girl is dog-reactive so we've been on quite a journey. My boy has his CGC, not so sure we'll ever complete that with my girl - altho it's a goal. There are loads of threads on the subject, so feel free to look them up, loads of reading to keep you occupied. And loads of people to offer suggestions, ideas, etc. Feel free to jump in conversations, ask any questions you like, and plz post pics anytime - we love them! :D
 

Adrianna & Calvin

Experienced Member
Hi Tasha

If there was one message to spread to people with reactive dogs around the world, it's that distance matters. If you're close enough that the dog is snatching treats, still puffed and stiff looking at the other dog, you're too darn close. One thing that really helps is to go away -- turn around and run if you have to. I like the burning-house analogy -- if I tried to hand you money while we're standing in a house on fire, your focus would still be on the imminent danger--what does money matter when you're about to catch fire? So if a dog won't take treats, or will take eat them without being able to re-focus on you, you're too darn close.

Increasing social distance (i.e. running away!) helps both by relieving the tension of being Too Close to a threat, and also tells the dog that she can count on you to get both of you the heck out of a sticky situation. Many, many dogs are reactive on leash but not off, and this has a great deal to do with the fact that dogs have very little choice in terms of movement when they are on leash. If you think about it, if any of us were forced to be too close for comfort with something we were afraid of, we'd certainly increase our efforts to try to scare the spider/snake etc away since we can't get away ourselves.

I'd strongly encourage you to rent or buy Grisha Stewart's Organic BAT dvds, plus get her book and join the yahoo group (functional rewards) once you've read it. We all know how to train in an ideal world -- use CC at a distance under threshold, slowly increase etc., but the real world means that dogs pop in and out of view all the time. BAT can give you some tools to work through this.

Also out there is Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed puppy book (not just for pups) and she's got some good ideas on how to deal with triggers. One of her more famous training games is 'look at that' which teaches the dog to point out her triggers to you for a reward. This has the extra benefit of slipping the dog into 'working' mode which can use the power of your relationship to help mitigate her anxiety. So instead of "OMG a big black dog!" the dog says "look ma! look!". Of course this means you're also supporting the dog by not forcing her too close, and getting out of dodge if she's in 'housefire' distance.

Hope this helps. As Jackienmutts said, there are a lot of threads with good ideas here, please feel free to wander around and post wherever.

Best,
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Welcome Tasha:) ! So glad you made the switch from the CM way(y) Positive Reinforcement is the ONLY way to train our dogs. They are our companions and I sure wouldn't want anyone I knew to try to dominate me, so why should I do that to my beloved Best Friends Ever - my dogs!

Love your beautiful dogs, Greyhounds are just so sweet and gentle :love: (hate the racing though).
Loved your web sites too:love: Share your love of music through dance, great help with Dancing with Dogs:D Ra Kismet adores that and is learning a new routine. And music does work with dogs so well, soft classical calms, loud music excites. To put it briefly!

I too learned a lot from an old American Indian, their ways are wonderful and I have the Chief Dan George words on a beautiful wolf graphic. The words are so true!

One of my boys, Ra Kismet, threw a massive Over Reaction Tantrum (there's a thread on the forum) , after a dog attacked him without warning (dog jumped the fence and was ready to bite me or Ra Kismet). He wasn't harmed physically (thank goodness his agility kept him out of harm until finally the owner came and got her dog) but it left a deep mental scar. That was just over a month ago and using all help from A & C, Jackiemutts and so many others (thank you ALL), Ra Kismet can now walk past dogs behind fences with little or no reaction. He will now actually 'reset' himself quite easily! This does depend on how the other dog is reacting of course and we're not pushing it with very rowdy dogs - walk the other side of the street with those. And he almost made the BIG one, dog on sidewalk close but not too close with very little reaction, just more a turning of the head, not the screaming, lunging, biting carry on at all.

The people here are wonderful in the way they all help you when you have a problem.

Also we all share the funny things our dogs do, so jump right in with that side as well:D

A & C echoing Jackie, your welcome was beautiful and so helpful too(y)
 

Dogster

Honored Member
Welcome!!!:D So glad you converted from CM's evil ways... I am in love with your dogs, especially your greyhounds!!!!:love::love:They're gorgeous!!!:love: I really like both of your sites, especially the dog training one!!! I believe that if everyone trained with positive reinforcement, the world would be a better place.:) Please stick around, hope to see you around here a lot!!!
 
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