A few dog questions

[Aka mommy]

This is my first dog and since dh was away for 7 months with Army training, it fell on me to train and raise our puppy. Now he is over a year and doing great. He is the love of our lives But i have a few concerns that I wanted to get input on.

First - when do you begin transitioning from crate to free roam (if you don't believe/approve in crate training, please refrain from replying)? As my kids get older we are gone from the house more and more for longer periods of time. It's been hitting the 6 hour mark on thursdays and fridays and while he has free roam at night in one room I still feel guilty. Our backyard is not an option. The back gate cant be locked and it is short enough that if he really thought about it, he could jump it. He's just never thought to. Plus he has major anxiety when he hears other dogs. I was contemplating putting the kid gate up at the end of the hallway, and his crate at the doorway. This would give him 2 hallways to roam and the kennel to go into if he wanted. I could leave his food and water at the end of the hallway. Any thoughts on this? I am afraid to leave him with free reign as he occassionally will try to chew on towels and still eats through his beds if they are ever left in his kennel when we leave.

Second - I'm due at the end of June. How do you socialize a dog with a newborn? I'm not sure he's going to be able to sleep in our room anymore and have some fears about him reacting negatively to the baby crying. Any books on this? He is a saint with our 4 and 6 year old and he knows he's the dog and they are the humans, has never bit or shown any aggression towards them. Do i just train him in the same manner we did with the girls?

And lastly - what to do about his anxiety when faced with other dogs. It seems to be the worst when dh takes him out for a walk or to our dog park. Its to the point he only will take him in the dog area if he's the only dog. He get's really tense, the hair stands on the back of us neck and he barks like crazy. He's scared 3 owners of smaller dogs, according to dh. I've not experienced this with him. When we are out and on walks, he barks and i tell him no and reinforce our commands of down-stay. It works well, though he is still very alert. He hasn't had any one on one interaction since my parents ridgeback died 2 months ago. But he always did fine with her. Is this just a matter of socializing or could it be a breed thing and he needs to be kept away from others? We don't know what he is, we rescued him. I think pitt/ridgeback, dh thinks boxer/shepherd. So i dont even know. His temperment in all otehr aspects is calm and peaceful. Everyone we know says he is incredibly well behaved and trained for a one year old. But i want to help him not be so anxious, and dh is at a loss as to what to do.

Thanks

[somegirl99]

Originally Posted by Aka mommy

First - when do you begin transitioning from crate to free roam (if you don't believe/approve in crate training, please refrain from replying)? As my kids get older we are gone from the house more and more for longer periods of time. It's been hitting the 6 hour mark on thursdays and fridays and while he has free roam at night in one room I still feel guilty. Our backyard is not an option. The back gate cant be locked and it is short enough that if he really thought about it, he could jump it. He's just never thought to. Plus he has major anxiety when he hears other dogs. I was contemplating putting the kid gate up at the end of the hallway, and his crate at the doorway. This would give him 2 hallways to roam and the kennel to go into if he wanted. I could leave his food and water at the end of the hallway. Any thoughts on this? I am afraid to leave him with free reign as he occassionally will try to chew on towels and still eats through his beds if they are ever left in his kennel when we leave.

I see no problem with only giving him limited room to roam. As long as he can stretch out, has water to drink, a soft place to rest, and something to entertain him, he should be fine. It does sound like he has some separation anxiety (the chewing on stuff when you leave). Maybe you can try giving him with a stuffed kong or something similar only when you are gone?

Originally Posted by Aka mommy

And lastly - what to do about his anxiety when faced with other dogs. It seems to be the worst when dh takes him out for a walk or to our dog park. Its to the point he only will take him in the dog area if he's the only dog. He get's really tense, the hair stands on the back of us neck and he barks like crazy. He's scared 3 owners of smaller dogs, according to dh. I've not experienced this with him. When we are out and on walks, he barks and i tell him no and reinforce our commands of down-stay. It works well, though he is still very alert. He hasn't had any one on one interaction since my parents ridgeback died 2 months ago. But he always did fine with her. Is this just a matter of socializing or could it be a breed thing and he needs to be kept away from others? We don't know what he is, we rescued him. I think pitt/ridgeback, dh thinks boxer/shepherd. So i dont even know. His temperment in all otehr aspects is calm and peaceful. Everyone we know says he is incredibly well behaved and trained for a one year old. But i want to help him not be so anxious, and dh is at a loss as to what to do.

You might find this article interesting: http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/42/97/

[russsk]

Does your DH scold him or jerk his leash when he sees another dog? That could continue a reactionary cycle, where your dog associates being scolded or jerked with other dogs. We adopted a dog with this issue (among many others) and we found it helpful to use a harness with him (no pressure on his neck) and to cheerfully turn in the other direction when we saw dogs. On the advice of a trainer we started with a head halter, though I think that worsened the problem because he associated the other dogs with pressure on his face, which he hated. FWIW, he was excellent with other dogs off leash at the dog park; it was the walking with a leash that triggered the problem.

[beanma]

Have you taken him to puppy or obedience classes? They're great for socializing with other dogs in a controlled environment. The trainer guides the class and part of that is helping you through dealing with issues like this. Highly recommend looking into it.

[SoulCakes]

Transitioning from crate to free roam really depends on the dog. I think your hallway idea is a good one - he needs to start transitioning sometime, and it's a good first step. Try to keep laundry out of reach and leave lots of yummy chewies, and see how it goes. Then you can experiment by increasing his roaming space by, say, an additional room a month.

Socializing with a newborn: don't quote me on this, because we may have just gotten really lucky with our dog and newborn. We simply let the dog sniff the newborn here and there, kept the baby out of our dog's reach, and went about our lives as normal. Our dog, Sasha, couldn't have cared less. My sister's dog, on the other hand, is super protective of the baby, follows him everywhere, sleeps by his bed, etc. Again, just take it a sniff at a time, never leave them alone together, etc. You'll see how he reacts, and you can take it from there. If it's a negative reaction, you may want to consult a professional to see if you can aid the transition.

Socializing with other dogs: Honestly, I haven't had much luck socializing an adult dog with anything. We overload on the socialization while they're puppies for this very reason. You can't go back in time, though, so you're just going to have to go slowly... if a friend of yours has a comparably-sized dog (no miniature breeds, please!), ask if s/he'll bring it to a park (NOT to your own house!) to hang out with your dog. See how that goes. Gradually extend the amounts of time they spend together until they're getting along well, and then start introducing new dogs to the mix. I know I've already said this a thousand times, but take it slow! If you overwhelm your dog it'll only make him more afraid of meeting a new dog.

Good luck! And if you need help, contact a behaviorist - they should help you out with the socialization issues.

[Aka mommy]

Thank you for all the input! DH does yank on his choke collar. He's 95 lbs and dh is overly corrective with him and i felt like he was feeding into the 'agression' with his own fear. We have a remaining training session with our behavioral trainer that i just found out about and they work with socializing, so im going to hope dh can set this up asap.

I've not taken him to puppy training classes because we had the above, and he's great with his training. BUT we have a friend with a dog the same size as our Koda and we have been meaning to get together. I've been putting it off due to being pregnant. something i can't afford to do if i want to help him, clearly!

Going to have dh come and read all these suggestions as well! Thank you

[russsk]

Originally Posted by Aka mommy

Thank you for all the input! DH does yank on his choke collar. He's 95 lbs and dh is overly corrective with him and i felt like he was feeding into the 'agression' with his own fear. We have a remaining training session with our behavioral trainer that i just found out about and they work with socializing, so im going to hope dh can set this up asap.

I've not taken him to puppy training classes because we had the above, and he's great with his training. BUT we have a friend with a dog the same size as our Koda and we have been meaning to get together. I've been putting it off due to being pregnant. something i can't afford to do if i want to help him, clearly!

Going to have dh come and read all these suggestions as well! Thank you

In my limited experience, this kind of correction can definitely cause a problem like this. Is your trainer a behaviorist? Does he/she advocate the use of a choke collar? I would seriously look into more gentle methods of training, such as clicker training. It sounds like this method is not working for your dog. I would suggest changing the dog's associations - right now he is associating seeing another dog with a harsh correction, which just feeds his behavior. He has learned that when another dog comes around he gets corrected, so he acts aggressively to make the dog go away and the correction stops. Rather than correcting him, try to anticipate the outbursts, and give him something else to do instead - for instance, a sit-stay, with treats and lots of praise. Then when the dog passes, release him and go about your walk.

This is what our behaviorist told us. Our dog had a lot of issues, and it wasn't a fix for him, although it did improve his behavior. We didn't use corrections with him, but we did have him on a head halter to keep him from pulling and that created the negative associations for him. Before we switched to this method with a harness, he would FLIP out whenever we saw another dog, twisting and biting his leash until he was free. It was scary.

[somegirl99]

I'm a big fan of clicker training too.

It's not a "how-to" manual but Karen Pryor's book Don't Shoot the Dog does an excellent job explaining why and how it works so well.