Painters in the house and NO BARKING

[rudy]

Sharing a quick little victory story to encourage everyone...

I have three painters in my house and there is NO BARKING - well, Rudy is barking but that's fine.

I took Lou outside as they were coming/going getting set. With the guys in view we pushed, "speak", climbed my outdoor garbage can to work out some panic. And, I like to shut the handle part of the leash in the car door as a way of posting him up to do some bite work. WOW did he bite.

Inside I did a little bit of pushing but mostly he's on his box. A painter walked about 10 ft from him and he stayed quietly on his box.

Granted, I am not doing any type of direct interaction with them. He doesn't go up to them at all... since they are here to paint and not dog train

If LOU can get to this point ANY DOG can. Seriously.

[Mel]

That's fantastic! I like the trash can 'box' and improv with the car door! Yay Lou and rudy!

[Sang]

We need a "like" button.

All kidding aside, that's awesome!

[Chris]

Wow that is so good, well done, keep up the good work

[rudy]

Well, it didn't last. LOL

(Long post... there is a question at the end though)

We were fine until the boss was leaving and stopped in the door to bring me up to speed on their progress.

This is typical for Lou everywhere. He is fine until we are spoken to - then he goes nuts.


I asked the guy to give me a second so I could help Lou: I was getting him to fight me to keep on the box, even pulling him off at time to get him to fight back on. After 3-4 mintues of this I gave up LOL I just closed the doors and Lou sat on his box doing his whining/moaning sound.

Then when we went out to train he was FULL OF ENERGY, emotional that is. He was a handful. I had him posted up as bikes went by - we were creating a rucus so they slowed down and that cranked him up even more. I was in front of him w/ tug toy and he bit and yanked the heck out of it - but he was growling. Then the normal routine: push, speak, fight to get on a wall

Then we ran into some dogs off leash at the park and the dogs ran up to us - I kept Lou headed forward and kept going. I HATE being the person who asks people to put their dogs on a leash!

We got another shot at the end: the man with the overly friendly retreiver came by. The retriever is intact and Lou is not, so it really sets him off. We've been around this man/dog before so he knows we are in training. I shut Lou's leash in the car door so I could tug wiht him. The man and dog stood about 20 ft away and watched, which was great.

When he is energized, Lou will bite and tug but then he releases and I have to work to get him to bite again - work as in antagonize him with the toy and sweeping his feet with it - it's a rope toy wiht a plush ball attached.

I do the Panic Down stuff with Lou but it doesn't hold - he jumps right back up.

He did box work/panic climbing a LOT. And still I could tell by his tail that we were no where near emptying out his battery. Even after a 2 mile/8 min mile run at a heel his tail was still high...

So here's the question:

What is the order of things to do under these situations?
Do we push first? Do we Panic Down first? Do I offer the tug first?

[Indy]

I usually start out with pushing, but only before I introduce any kind of intensity or distraction. I use pushing just to get things flowing.. get the pipes open so to speak. Once I get a couple of good, direct pushes I move onto the other exercises.

If Nelly starts to get overwhelmed, that's when I'll introduce the box work so she can objectify the balance problem she's having. If she's able to give me a good bark I won't do the box as I want her focused in her gut (in hunger).

As for the panic down, I've only done that around minimal distractions so far. The reason being that because of the intensity of the energy, I feel like it needs to be softened and focused before she can totally ground herself in a down. If there is whining, groaning, etc -- to me that would indicate the dog is holding back energy, so it might be better to do more speak, tug, and/or push in those situations. When she's completely "plugged in" with me, I'll do the panic down so she can experience high intensity while down while totally focused.

So to be more succinct, we do: pushing -> speak -> tug -> obedience -> speak -> repeat