Positive Petzine

Thanks Aiden, What i need to know now is do i have to take the clicker every where i go or can i just condition her by playing red light green light (stop when she pulls, walk when leash is loose) also, i like to really WALK for my own exercise but how far can i ask her to go between breaks to sniff and explore...and what do i do if while sniffing and exploring she tightens the leash...(just so you know, I AMMMM hopeful and full of enthusiasm since finding this wonderful site! I want to have fun with her but know how quickly some bouncy dogs learn to pull!)

>>and the first night as transition from the intense social and physical contact of the litter, you want her to sleep alone, locked in a box?!<<

Hi Bill, a comfortable crate right beside the bed is a long way off social isolation. You make it sound like pup is torn forcibly from the litter then, without any attempt to bond with pup, thrown in a cold, dark box in the basement!

This is more like bringing a human baby into the world. Baby is fed, cuddled, then wrapped in blankets and put in a "plastic box" right beside mother until it needs a feed or it's nappy changed.

There are a lot of possible contributors to separation anxiety. I doubt crate training in the manner described is one of them. I certainly don't know of any causal link.

However I very much agree with your concept of "creating a confident dog which can then tolerate being alone".

>>I have not any experience with the idea of standing still until the dog stops pulling work out very well. How is the opposition reflex dealt with, and where and what is the reinforcer and how does the dog associate it with stopping?<<

I think you would have to become familiar with the method in order for me to answer these questions. The most basic explanation is positive reinforcement for loose leash, extinction or negative punishment for tight leash. Loose leash is heavily reinforced, and we teach the dog very quickly to come back if we stop.

I'm sure there are a million ways to make a mess of "don't let a dog go anywhere on a tight leash" but they all come back to inconsistency (breaking the rule). So that's where I focus the message. As for making it quick and painless, that takes a bit more finesse.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

Hi, well Kiwi cried for her friends for 2 nights then settled. She sleeps in her crate next to me. I spent some time training her to enter the open crate on her own and now she is very content to do so.. she will not sleep in my bed as an adult, so tempting as it is, I am not having her sleep in bed now. She is doing remarkably well with the loose leash!!!! Now my question is when we meet people -or especially DOGS who cause great excitement and pulling, am i just making her reactive and frustrated by not letting her go see them until she lets the leash loose? Or is there a better way?? People are so NOT understanding they just want to bend down and pet her.
By the way--I am borrowing your allusion and telling my staff her food dish and crate door are majical-they dont hit the floor or open unless she is sitting--they didnt believe me but I told them Kiwi believes it and showed them. They then asked "How do you manage to get such calm dogs" (Smug smirk---until Kiwi humbles me!) Thanks for your help!

Hi Bill,
I just would like to comment on your comment: "When I started dog training in 1983, separation anxiety was non existent." I beg to differ.
I have a few years of experience in this business. The first time I saw SA was as a Vet Assistant in 1969, one of the women I worked with, was moving with her 3 legged dog. (that I actually rescued from the street with a bad leg injury and she ended up adopting) The second day after she had moved in the new apartment, the dog literally Dug himself out of the house! He was crate trained (and comfortable) because he had spend 2 months in the hospital and then another several months living a normal life in this gals home. He Freaked Out and my Vets called it Separation Anxiety! The unfortunate part is that there was no known "Cure" for this very dangerous behavior and he was never the same in that place. So in our, then, ignorance he had to be destroyed. So it has existed for quite sometime it's just in the last couple of decades that progressive trainers and sometimes vets with drugs, have been able to heal this behavior.
Most of my cases of SA are rescue dogs that have been traumatized by being lost, dropped off in scary places, then left alone by new owners, before they have been able to get their bearings, or learned that they will be OK. Please understand that there is a process to healing these dogs. Fortunately, I have not met many at all, who were crate trained properly and with care, to teach them how great that dog-room is, who have serious SA. That is my experience and that of other trainers I have talked with about this subject and what can be done to keep it from happening? It's hard to get shelters to change the scenario from cold hard and noisy prisons. Yes I see some owners who because they see the dog as a human, built the behavior into the dog. I have also seen it develop in dogs that were poorly bred or just had the temperament for it.

Thanks Aiden I must go to bed now! Bea
K9sbehave.com

>>Dogs have not changed, but the circumstances of how they are kept, pressures they are subject to, and emotional demands placed on them are heavier now.<<

Again I beg to differ with this comment. It seems to me if dogs had not changed, they would still be looking and acting more like original canids. Yes humans have changed the way dogs are dramatically so, to suit their needs and fantasies, as I've said before dogs are a mirror of ourselves. They are more like us then any other Kept animal. In this respect they MUST change in order to live with us in our changing world.
And so must trainers change, they way they look at and handle the care and training of dogs and other animals. I also suppose I could look at the terrible way dogs can be treated by humans, to equate the terrible way humans treat humans also. But I don't want to go there for this discussion.
The bottom line is Dogs change Because humans change. Humans and Dogs insides might not have changed much,(except for what we have done to brachycephalic dogs poor things) but our brains must keep up with our societal changes in order to survive. Dog are great survivors!
K9sbehave.com