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Adorable (Unadoptable) Howie & the Train Your Dog Challenge

I mentioned back in Primed for the New Year that I planned to participated in Something Wagging’s Train Your Dog Challenge, but as of yet, I haven’t given you any more information. That changes today.

Let’s start with the reason that Howie is not currently adoptable. As sweet and loving as he is, we haven’t gotten his snapping issue under control. He does not snap at people often, there are specific circumstances when he does. Those are when we do, accidentally, actually hurt him (I’m okay with him snapping in this circumstance, though it’s not preferred), when he’s startled, when he’s keyed up, and when he’s nervous.

He is much better than he used to be, but there’s still at least two snapping incidents every week, and that’s just too much for him to really be adoptable. I am hoping that by training him to some hand signals, we may actually be able to circumvent the startled, keyed up, and nervous issues.

Up until this point, we have not worked on any training with Howie. While all of our dogs have known hand signals to some extent, that’s because we use them without thinking when saying commands, but we have only consciously worked on the voice commands before. Since Howie is mostly deaf, that’s not really an option. And unlike June or Larry who will jump at us for a treat or to get the leash on, Howie is pretty calm and docile. We haven’t felt the need to teach him to sit or lay down for a cookie. But I think there is a need, so into training we’re going.

How do I think this will help with the snapping issue? Well, if Howie gets accustomed to looking at us for the hand signals, he is less likely to be surprised or startled, because he will be paying more attention. What we have found is that after he snaps, we can go back to doing the exact thing that caused the snap without an issue, because now he’s paying attention and realizing it doesn’t hurt, instead of reacting out of the fear it will hurt.

This will hopefully also work to help him calm down and feel comfortable in cases when he is keyed up or nervous. If he’s keyed up, that generally means it’s Larry’s fault. Either Larry is bouncing off walls because someone just got home, or he’s barked at Howie for having snapped. That keeps Howie keyed up and it’s harder to get him to calm down enough to accept petting again. If he has a command that gives him something to do, beside respond to Larry, I am hoping that will calm him more quickly. Same if he’s nervous- there’s nothing like having a command to follow (and being praised for it) to help a dog feel more confident and less nervous (at least in my experience).

The goal to start is simply to teach Howie sit and down commands. The down command is actually going fairly well. Sit, not so much. Instead of sitting to look up at my hand, he just backs up, and trying to hold one hand in the command (with treat) while using the other to gently push his butt to the ground is a challenge of coordination for me.

5 Responses to "Adorable (Unadoptable) Howie & the Train Your Dog Challenge"

Pamela says:

January 17, 2013 at 11:10 am

I bet that working on your training goal with Howie will really help. You've done a great job paying attention to figure out what the problem was. Many people would just react to the snapping without asking why.

When we were fostering a fearful dog, my trainer suggested teaching her to go to a place. I used a towel as her mat and carried it with me on a walk. The towel became her safe place to go. And it helped with the sit.

I had a tough time teaching Cherie to sit on cue. But once we introduced the "go to your mat" cue, she learned to sit on her own.

I can't wait to read about your progress at the end of the month.
1. ErinShanendoah says:
  
  January 17, 2013 at 12:43 pm
  
  I could see finding some sort of a mat for him to bring to the dog park. The challenges mostly come with getting his attention. I'm hoping that learning to look at us for hand commands means he looks to us more often, which should help keep him calm.
Jodi says:

January 17, 2013 at 12:00 pm

One of the dogs I follow has a reactive dog (not saying yours is) she has taught him some 'tricks' one is 'bubbles' where the dog opens and closes his mouth without making sound. This is his favorite trick and when she thinks he is about to react, she will ask him for bubbles which generally diffuse the situation.

One of my favorite commands is LOOK, now you're paying attention and I can work you in another way. 🙂 Good luck with your training, I'm looking forward to the post where you share how well it went.
1. ErinShanendoah says:
  
  January 17, 2013 at 12:47 pm
  
  We use the "disengage" command with Larry. It's long, but that helps keep his attention on us that much longer and makes it easier for him to separate from whichever dog he's having an issue with. (We hadn't had to use it in a long time, but it came up again on Tuesday.)
  The biggest issue with Howie is the fact that he's deaf. I can't give him a command if he's not already looking at me. In the house, he can actually hear (or sense otherwise) a loud clap, and we use that for getting his attention. I actually have to start rewarding that, too, as it kind of freaks him out when he can hear something. At the dog park, we haven't had much luck with the clap. I don't know if that's because it's harder to hear in the wide open space or if he would just rather keep sniffing. I should probably add clapping as a "look" command and see if I can get him to respond to it outside.
bringingupbella says:

January 17, 2013 at 4:05 pm

I think it's so awesome that you have worked to understand what sets Howie off. At one point, all deaf dogs were considered unadoptable and unstable because they had the potential to snap if startled. We're learning more about how to work with them now and that alone has probably saved so many lives.

Our Beau went deaf and we learned a hard lesson in it as we had only taught him voice commands. Not a lot of help when he can't hear you any more. Bella is learning everything in duplicate – voice and hand signals. One trick we did learn with Beau was that he could feel vibrations. So even if he couldn't hear us coming, in certain situations, he could feel it. We stomped around here like idiots at times until we all got used to how much he could feel with how much effort depending on what room he was in.

As Pamela mentioned, we also trained Bella to "go to mat". We have the benefit of having no other dogs around that can pester her but her mat is her own and she knows no one will bother her when she's on it. We can see her visibly relax when she's on it and we use this in her reactive agility class every week. Even in class, if she gets too stressed, she'll go over to her mat to tell us she needs a break. (I guess it's like how some dogs use a crate.)

I can't wait to read how your training goes. And I can't tell you how much I admire you're sticking with Howie. I know how difficult it can be to work with a dog who snaps.

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