Chapter 7 - Motivating Your Dog To Honor And Obey You

You've worked hard to retrain your shelter dog and you're hoping that she will reward you with years of good behaviour and best buddy-ness. Maybe you've reached a stumbling block and you're wondering if there is really hope?

I've taken you through some of the worst moments we've had with our shelter dog Dakota such as our first days with her, peeing all over the house and chewing things up but one of the key factors in retraining a dog is to also focus on the happiness of your dog.

A happy dog is more likely to try harder to please you and obey your rules. A well adjusted dog will have fewer stress issues to cause bad dog behavior. Most dog pound dogs are not well adjusted and you can help them through some of the mental issues that manifest into bad behaviors.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

First you must understand you are dealing with an abandoned dog and this can cause separation anxiety issues for them. They live in fear of being abandoned again especially if you are yelling at them. If you put them into an environment that reminds them of the dog shelter or that makes them feel alone such as a garage or far corner of the backyard they will usually reward you with excessive barking or digging or chewing. They might even chew on themselves causing bare spots.

When we first put Dakota in the garage on our work days she barked all day long. As soon as we brought her indoors into a dog crate for our workdays the barking stopped and we haven't had a problem with it since. The garage upset her. The house made her feel safe. The crate solved part of our potty problems as well (though not all of them).

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Dogs are meant to be Man's Best Friend and you wouldn't stick your best friend alone and forgotten somewhere. Most dogs do best by their owner's side as part of the family. So how do we treat our newest family member and keep them smiling?

One of Dakota's first happy moments was the potty treat. Once she got the hang of pottying outdoors we turned the potty treat into a game that was fun for her. She didn't get the treat immediately after peeing outdoors, we waited until we were back in the kitchen. She had to sit in the doorway where we'd trained her to sit waiting for us to feed her and then we'd toss the potty treat for her to catch. So she got the treat and a game and learned the word "catch".

This was a fun moment in her day. Feeding time was also a fun game. We taught her to wait in the doorway for permission to enter. This wasn't a cold, hard command. I often made a game of it and tested her at the same time. The release word was "Okay" and I'd sometimes chatter off a string of words she'd have to listen to before saying Okay. Sometimes I'd try to trick her and rattle off a string of similar words like Oklahoma, Oh say can you see, and O Christmas tree. We'd taught her to specifically wait for the word Okay so she'd sit all excited with tail wagging and happy face. She had to listen and think. This was mental stimulation which is just as valuable as physical stimulation for a dog. Once I said the right word she'd come flying into the kitchen at full speed to her food bowl.

Sometimes we changed out the potty treats using dog biscuits or raw baby carrots to add a bit of diversity to her routine.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Remember that a dog is a pack animal. In the wild, a dog does not live alone. He lives in a pack with several other dogs. They hunt together, sleep together and entertain each other.

When a dog is abandoned by people, this goes against the very nature of his being a dog. You are supposed to trust your pack. It throws his psyche into turmoil for his pack to disappear without warning. One day they're here, the next day POOF. What happened? The dog has no idea.

Shelter dogs have abandonment fears. Their previous family let them down, took them to a cold, lonely place and left them and never came back. Even a dog who was given from one family directly to another will have the fear of losing their people. One day they had people, the next day those people were gone forever. You cannot expect a dog who was previously abandoned to trust in you, to trust that you'll be there tomorrow and next week and next month. You have to build that trust slowly.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

I acknowledged Dakota every time I walked past her unless she was sound asleep. If she was sitting I'd reach out and touch her head gently as I passed by, just a brush of my hand. If she was laying I might bend down and touch her, or maybe just say something as I passed by or I'd look at her and smile. Dogs are able to read our moods and emotions just as we can read the moods and emotions of people we see. Facial expressions send your dog messages just as words and actions do.

I was letting her know that she was part of a family now, not an abandoned dog. I'd tell her, "You've got people." It didn't matter if she understood the exact words, she heard the soft tone and took it as a happy message of some sort. Words don't always have to be about giving a command.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Dakota is a high energy dog, part Australian Cattle Dog and part Husky, two breeds accustomed to being on the move most of their waking hours. Ideally we should exercise her hard every day. By hard I mean some sort of running exercise, not just a walk around the block. In a perfect world she'd have owners who'd do this for her. But it's not a perfect world and we do our best for her.

We try to take her out for a game of fetch at least twice a week. Throw the ball and she chases after it, bringing it back for me to throw again. This is great exercise for a dog and it doesn't wear you out. One of our dog mantras is: A tired dog is a good dog. I can attest that this is the utter truth. The more often we run Dakota, the fewer dog problems we have with her in general. It even carries over into subsequent days.

Sometimes we take her out to just walk around the yard and check out the world or sit on the upper deck for awhile where she can take in the sights and smells and sounds. She has an eagle eye view of the neighborhood from the upper deck and this is stimulation for her. It's also a break from boredom. Dogs get bored and a bored dog is a bad dog.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Most of our evenings are spent indoors in front of the TV. This is not particularly fun for an active dog but there are things you can do to compensate. We play the Go Find It game almost every night. First we send her up the stairs to wait while we hide something. If she comes down before we call her we shoo her back up the stairs and tell her Stay. We might hide a single rawhide stick or we might hide several dog biscuit halves.

Then we release her from her Stay and she comes flying down the stairs (usually missing a few steps along the way) and goes flying around the room with pure joy in every move. She loves this game. It has the added bonus of something to eat at the end and for Dakota, food has always been a big thing. She originally came to us malnourished so she had food issues as one of her special needs.

When we first taught her the game we had to help her along a bit and show her where some of the treats were hidden. She also watched our other dog and initially followed Gypsy Rose instead of looking on her own, watching Gypsy Rose get all the goodies. But before long she figured out the Go Find It game and started sniffing around the room looking for the hidden treats.

Some of the hiding places were behind a table leg, behind a big chair, right up against the couch ruffle where it wasn't immediately noticeable, sometimes sticking out of something if it was a rawhide stick, under a throw rug, on a windowsill, anyplace that wasn't immediately noticeable.

When the dogs have found all the treats we tell them That's It, You Found It and give a hand signal to end the game. It doesn't usually work and they sniff around a few minutes more before giving up the search. Eventually they flop down in happy relaxation.

This gives them an adrenaline rush at the beginning of the game and mental stimulation as they search for the dog treats. They must use their special dog talents to find the treats which is also stimulation for them.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Five days a week Dakota spends several hours laying around or looking out the window. There is no special stimulation or fun for her those days. We don't give her chew toys if we aren't at home to keep an eye on her so she doesn't even have that. Yet we've brought her to a place where we can trust her alone for as many as 9 hours alone outside of the crate.

The stimulation we offer her in the evening makes up for some of the boredom of the day. We offer fun games, treats and laughter in the evening whether it be a game of ball, go find it or some other game. We give her something to look forward to.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

The living room is littered with dog bones so when there's no game and we're just watching TV she picks up a bone and starts chewing on it. Rawhides we bring out for awhile and put away again if she's ingested a certain quantity. She doesn't get them every day as she once did. Ditto for hooves. We used to leave hooves around but the hooves that have been coming out lately tend to shatter a lot so unless we're going to keep an eagle eye on her we don't dare give them to her.

Kong toys didn't make it. Dakota is an expert chewer and even the mighty Kong toys did not survive her teeth. Any plastic toy that she could pull pieces off of got quickly nixed as we didn't want her swallowing plastic.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Even the perfect dog might occasionally slip up. Our dog Gypsy Rose literally is the perfect dog. She is incredible. We trust her alone in anybody's house or hotel room. We trust her outdoors off a leash. We trust her to hold her pee and poop until she's about to burst and then hold it some more. We trust her not to chew on anything, no matter what or where it is. We trust her with children and even babies. She's that good.

But she's had a couple of big baddies through the years that we forgave her for immediately. One year on New Year's Eve we went to a party and knew we'd be spending the night. We put Gypsy Rose in the garage with some newspapers to potty on, a big watering jug and a bowl full of food. The neighbors shot off firecrackers right next to the garage and she frieked out so badly that she chewed a huge chunk out of the door frame trying to get into the house. She was petrified. Our dog who doesn't chew destroyed the door frame that night. But we understood that the circumstances were not normal and we took care not to leave her alone in the garage on any holiday that people would shoot off firecrackers. Sometimes even the best behaved dog will have a bad moment.

Is Dakota perfect? Not by a long shot. She still gets into trouble a lot but the nature of the trouble isn't as mission critical as it once was. She rarely pees in the house anymore and she rarely chews something up. Most of her trouble times are related to picking on our other dog or not coming when we call her outdoors. We're still battling those two battles with her.

But she's progressed to where we can leave her alone in part of the house for many hours, we've taken her on a several hour road trip" to visit friends, and she does obey most of our commands. She has learned a lot of words and she's great fun to have around. Pretty amazing for a dog who came to us as the dog from hell.

Chapter 1 - Training Our Problem Dog
Chapter 2 - Potty Training An Adult Dog
Chapter 3 - Dealing With Dog Chewing Problems
Chapter 4 - Training Your Dog To Be Home Alone
Chapter 5 - Proof That Any Dog Can Be Trained
Chapter 6 - Interviewed for Victoria Stilwell
Chapter 7 - Motivating Your Dog To Honor And Obey You
Follow Dakota on Twitter
Bad Dog to Best Friend: Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Article copyright 2007 gypsyware.com

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