Well, the dog trainer gave up and gave me my money back.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I finally decided, yeah, I need professional help. This thread kind of convinced me that I really needed somebody else to come in and help me with my dog. He’s 14, but very spry and looks perfectly able to live another 6 years or so. He bites people sometimes, his greatest aspiration is to one day kill my cat, and now he pees on the floor. Yeah, okay, we weren’t consistent when he was a puppy, but it’s never too late, right?

Well, evidently, yeah. It is.

I tried Bark Busters, because the people at my vet’s seemed pretty impressed with a demonstration the guy had given there. They did seem awfully negative-reinforcemenet based, and I feel a little weird throwing bags with chains in them and yelling “BARHAH!” (oh, wait, confused it with Urban Dead), but whatever, I mean, what I do isn’t working, right? My dog just didn’t give a crap about any correction the guy tried. Chains and BARHAH, so what? Check chain on leash, why should I care, huh? “Uh, we should be seeing some submissive postures…” Yeah, right. I don’t think my dog knows any submissive postures. We followed the cat around with the dog on a check chain and the chain bags and the BARHAHS, and the dog just. didn’t. give. a. shit.

Finally, the guy says, ma’am, I’ve trained hundreds and hundreds of dogs and never seen this. Even when the cat wasn’t around he was uncorrectable. He said he’d seen some dogs that were, say, so dog-aggressive that they couldn’t be corrected when there was another dog around, but none that just couldn’t be corrected at all. Meanwhile my dog was all, “are we done?”

I’d been all excited about finally getting my dog repaired. Guess it wasn’t meant to be. I mean, there’s probably somebody around with different methods, but this is really, really discouraging and I don’t know that it’s worth the time and money if it isn’t going to work. Is my dog honestly incorrigable?

(I’m going to try the BARHAH thing on my boyfriend, though, next time he leaves the seat up or doesn’t put his dishes in the sink or something.)

2

Let us know the results! :smiley:

3

Well, you’ve seen it here first, folks. You really can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But I don’t think you’re alone. Think of him as a career criminal on four legs. He’s incorrigible. Give up. :frowning:

I hope that didn’t cost you too much.

4

Didn’t cost me a thing except an hour of my life I’ll never get back. I guess they need to change their website from saying “We can train any dog!” to “We can train any dog except Haplo please don’t call us again lady.”

5

Call the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan. I watch his TV show all the time. It’s always something the people are doing wrong, not the dog. Once he corrects the people the dog has a “miraculous recovery.” It’s on the National Geographic channel. This is his website and this is the shows website.

6

You know there’s gotta be outtakes of dogs the Dog Whisperer just strikes out on, man. (I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong, that’s why I hired a professional!) But I bet he isn’t nearly as successful as he always is on TV.

I’d pit my dog against him any day of the week.

7

Is your dog’s name Stranger?
Strange for short?

8

Have you read Marley and Me? Think your dog is bad, think again!

9

And does he climb on roofs?

10

That would actually be terribly funny. They’d have to do it with a star (“We can train any dog*”) and the fine print at the bottom of the page.

11

Honestly? Call up the local obedience club. People who have been doing this for ages. Look for a positive-reinforcement based class. Hell, let me know where you are, and I can try to refer you to someone.

As for Cesar, well… some of us in the dog world have issues with his general approach. He has caused plenty of damage already, with alpha rolling done by novices who end up with pretty bite wounds to the face…

12

Thing is, I don’t think we can go to a class - he’s really not trustworthy with strangers. (At least not with me around - he’s everybody’s favorite at the vet’s) I kind of feel we need one on one training for problem dogs, and the local obedience club doesn’t seem to do that.

13

My aunt borrowed a friend’s copy of that book from a friend. My aunt’s dog ate the book. I love the irony.

14

I have to second Elenfair’s suggestion. I found a trainer through an obedience club and she came to my house (so you wouldn’t have to worry about other dogs around). It’s not that uncommon.

My trainer used positive reinforcement rather than the correction collar. Her methods worked wonderfully with my dogs. It may be that your dog will respond better to that type of training. Dogs vary in what works for them. As mentioned, my dogs (shelties) did wonderfully with positive reinforcement. My brothers’ dogs (basenjis) did not and needed correction-based training. One of my parents dogs (a lab) didn’t do well with correction-based methods at all but became a very good doggy when they used positive reinforcement with him.

My trainer was more expensive than the class (about $75 a session 5 years ago), but well worth it. Getting the individual time focusing on my dogs and their own, peculiar personalities made all the difference. Plus, I think someone giving one-on-one training is more likely to look on a difficult dog as a challenge rather than a disruption to a large class.

15

Sorry Zsofia, I didn’t see that your local obedience club didn’t offer one-on-one training recommendation. Have you checked with your vet? They may be able to give you a referral.

16

Sheltie owner- me too! Tell, me- my sheltie barks a lot at cars driving by, kids walking up the path by our house, school buses etc- did the trainer help with any behaivors like that?

Also, our dog barks at the microwave and the carrot peeler- does your sheltie have weird fixations too?

Our dog is as sweet as can be, but man, we’d love to curb the barking!

Sorry for the hijak!

17

Tell us again why having a dog that bites people, wants to kill other animals snf pisses on the floor is something to have around? :dubious:

18

Bark Busters has been trying a cookie-cutter approach - I don’t know of a reputable organization that respects them. Do try your local club for referrals - IF your club knows what positive reinforcement is. (Some are still in the dark ages, I’m afraid…) I know that our club does one-on-one help, and small “problem dog” classes, apart from the usual classes.

Please don’t give up on your dog. And don’t believe Cesar Milan… his approach is not only cookie-cutter, but dangerous for humans, dogs and their relationships.

I’ll ask around on some other boards and see if I can find you a good trainer… May I ask what general area of South Carolina you are in?

19

Shelties are always going to bark. Everything I’ve read about shelties says they bark a lot. That’s a huge understatement. I had only limited success curbing barking. That’s probably not what you want to hear.

My trainer did help me teach the dogs “quiet.” That works when they get going, but it doesn’t keep them from barking if they haven’t started up yet (e.g. I can’t put them out in the backyard, say “quiet” and expect them not to bark–it doesn’t work that way).

Also, “quiet” doesn’t last all that long. For some reason, they figure “quiet” means “don’t bark at the delivery truck anymore” but not “and don’t bark at the squirrel that runs by 30 seconds later either.” :rolleyes:

They will refrain from barking if they’re in a sit/stay, but it’s not 100% reliable. The younger one was once so eager to bark while in a sit/stay the he wet himself with the effort of trying to restrain his barking. Plus, it’s not like I can keep them in a sit/stay during the entire length of a DVD or a night of reading.

Mine don’t have odd fixations, but they do bark at anything that makes noise: the vacuum, the lawnmower, etc. They don’t bark at the microwave, but the do bark at electric can openers. If there’s a heated discussion at my house, they’ll start barking. I guess they figure we’re all making noise, so they’re going to play along.

20

I think it was Roger Caras who said that Shelties like to engage in recreational barking. All the ones I’ve known do. :eek: