Training: Guarding

Renee, our dog trainer visited again yesterday. This meeting was to work on Guinness' guarding issue (guarding of me and my husband when another dog is around) and his lack of manners when greeting another dog. We borrowed our friend Domino the boxer to come over to demonstrate to Renee how Guinness behaves.

We worked with Guinness alone and kept Basil in the kitchen. With harness and leash on, we walked Guinness outside and tried to keep him focused on ME by feeding him treats from my hand one after the other. Just TONS of treats. If he was facing the Domino, turn Guinness' body using the leash and walking in a circle while feeding him treats. Allow Domino to get closer and continue to do the same. Now, walk him in a circle and have Domino follow and tightening the circle a little at a time. Then we did parallel walking where I walked Guinness down the block with Domino walking about 5-6 behind. At the end of the block, we turned and now Guinness is behind Domino. We walked pretty close to Domino so Guinness could get a whiff of him. Then, we went into the backyard and let them run around while dragging their leashes. After a few laps, we introduced Basil into the mix. Guinness did do his chasing off the other dog and giving him a pull on the neck as a warning. Domino has a lot of energy and Basil and Guinness just don't appreciate that. They tried calming him and themselves by ignoring him and eating grass which is a good thing.

In conclusion, my husband and I "just" have to keep play dates short and sweet. Find dogs that are the right match. ie. A lower energy dog and/or a smaller dog. Alternate play time: Bring one dog out for the play date, then put him back inside and bring the other out for play time. Start by doing the greeting outside and do the parallel walking. Keep play dates outdoors. especially when a high energy dog is involved. Never indoors and not in small spaces either. One side of our yard gets very narrow along side of the house. Fence that off so they can't run down that way. This was something I wanted to do anyway so I'm glad someone agreed with me. Pay attention AT ALL TIMES. When you're not watching, fights happen.

The thing I have to get over is that things just aren't the way they "used to be". If it means they need to stay home or that company can't bring their dogs, then that's just how it has to be and I can't put pressure on them.

Other things mentioned that we need to work on:

1. Sit/Stay or Down/Stay - I need to firm up the stay part of it. I also have to practice doing it from the outside of the baby gate. The boys do it on carpet, but when it's different they don't respond as well or at all. Put a carpet tile inside the kitchen so it's not cold or slippery.
2. Desensitize them from the hat. Hubs put on a new hat yesterday and Basil just freaked out. I'm not sure who started it but they got into a fight over the excitement. Basil was on top of Guinness' back and was pulling on his ear until he yelped. Basil was punished for a minute by putting him the bathroom. Desensitize them individually: Put treats around it. Bend it, fold it, move it around and more TREATS. Put the hat on and remove it immediately: quick off on off on and more treats.
3. Again with the crazy barking when guests arrive - keep one dog behind the kitchen, keep the better listening dog outside. Keep feeding treat after treat when the company arrive. Tell him to sit/stay! He must have a job to do. Ask company to go along with the training by ignoring them as well. If he breaks the stay, make him come back and do it again.
4. Ideally of course I want to be able to answer the door and have the boyz sitting in their position and not moving an inch without my say so and NOT have to stand there feeding treats to them hoping he won't go crazy. One thing I was doing wrong was I was going from step 0 to step 5. I expected them to stay when I went outside and back in. Instead, I have start small with one step at a time. Work with one of them at a time since one seems to distract the other into breaking the stay.

It's a good thing I have a 4 day weekend to start working on all this.