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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Also Ben remember this could take weeks or months. When we worked with Shadow, our first Lab and a very severely abused dog we had to address a laundry list of fears.....fear of men, fear of wooden objects, fear of raised hands or voices...it just went on and on. She was so traumatized she was mute for months, then for years afterward would gag when she barked (we can only assume she was severely beaten for barking).
Because we didn't know any better back then we did baby Shadow too much at first. Eventually we did get the message that it wasn't helping her and put a stop to it. If she exhibited fear behaviour, we would just say "don't be silly Shad" and go about our business. This worked better than anything and over a long period of time Shad lost her fears. She did always cower if hands moved too fast or hide if voices were raised. We were never able to get her past that but then I can only shudder to think how badly she was treated prior to us adopting her.
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
baby is fortunate to be with you! yup, you need to be a good pack leader, that's for sure. all the advice you've been given is what i would have said as well.
watch 'dog whisperer' on tv. honestly, it'll change the way you view dogs and really assist you with baby.
no touch, no talk, no eye-contact - that's how people meeting her for the first time should behave. if they sit with their back to her... it allows her to smell them without feeling intimidated by their eye-contact.
:hug:
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Thanks for all the really good input, I'm quite impressed. Time to put it all to good work!
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
oh and i know... and trust you will! :hug:
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Quote:
Originally Posted by recycling goddess
no touch, no talk, no eye-contact - that's how people meeting her for the first time should behave. if they sit with their back to her... it allows her to smell them without feeling intimidated by their eye-contact.
:hug:
I totally forgot that point...and I can hear Cesar's voice saying it in my head now. :-P
When I meet new dogs who are unsure of me, I often turn my back on them to allow them to come up to me unthreatened. I think that would work great for strangers meeting your girl.
A lot of the Horse Whisperer stuff about body language and round pen work applies to dogs too. You can use your body language even from a distance to "push" or "pull" a dog. Leaning in and stepping forwards will back the dog up, and leaning backwards and turning away will draw the dog towards you. The first time I saw this demonstrated, we had a guest lecturer and they brought in one of our class horses that he had never worked with before. Without ever touching the mare (she was loose offlead in the round pen), and only using body language, he was steering her through figure eights in a just a few minutes by "pushing" and "pulling" with his body language.
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
I saw a special on a horse whisperer on tv Jess and I about fell over. I could not believe he was controlling a horse he didn't know, without lead or halter, without words by things as subtle as a drop of his shoulder or a turn of his body. It was truly an amazing thing to watch.
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
I have some words of encouragement. My mom and I adopted one of her dogs from a shelter a few years ago (I still lived back home, then.) She was the most timid, fearful thing; she was afraid to even get into our car, and I had to physically lift her in, and even being her up the stairs! She literally had been slinking back in the kennel, to the point that you could hardly notice her; this is that drew my mom to her, actually. We both figured that she would not be as adoptable as the tail-waggers in the other cages.
We gave her her "den" which was a crate with a nice pillow in it. Granted, my mom had her other dog, who was outgoing. But in the months following us getting the new dog, she opened up to people and long story short, she is almost too friendly and will attack a person with kisses!
My point is, there's hope. I would personally be more upset if she exhibited aggressive tendencies. I think that it seems a tad bit harsh for them to reject her because she is timid. :(
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Quote:
Originally Posted by frankykeno
I saw a special on a horse whisperer on tv Jess and I about fell over. I could not believe he was controlling a horse he didn't know, without lead or halter, without words by things as subtle as a drop of his shoulder or a turn of his body. It was truly an amazing thing to watch.
Isn't it an amazing thing? It is stunning to watch in person as well. I once watched out trainer/farrier get into a pen with a semi-feral stud colt. The colt had been pretty terrified, as he had been raised by a semi-wild herd and only recently bought at an auction and taken to the world of barns, stalls, and pastures. Within minutes, he had him trotting, head down, being attentive to him and exhibiting mouth-licking behavior; indicating that the horse is thinking rather than reacting. The horse did have a halter on, and the trainer was able to clip a lead on and in short order had that horse obsessed with him in a good way and obedient!
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Quote:
Originally Posted by slartibartfast
I totally forgot that point...and I can hear Cesar's voice saying it in my head now. :-P
When I meet new dogs who are unsure of me, I often turn my back on them to allow them to come up to me unthreatened. I think that would work great for strangers meeting your girl.
A lot of the Horse Whisperer stuff about body language and round pen work applies to dogs too. You can use your body language even from a distance to "push" or "pull" a dog. Leaning in and stepping forwards will back the dog up, and leaning backwards and turning away will draw the dog towards you. The first time I saw this demonstrated, we had a guest lecturer and they brought in one of our class horses that he had never worked with before. Without ever touching the mare (she was loose offlead in the round pen), and only using body language, he was steering her through figure eights in a just a few minutes by "pushing" and "pulling" with his body language.
Awesome post :) I wanted to add; the ability to control a horse, or a dog for that matter, off-lead is a great thing. There have been many times when I averted disaster by moving one of the horses using body language. I have one mare that freezes up if she spooks; moving her at this time was crucial once when she was standing on my foot! But she moved when I cued her to, and I still have ten toes.
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Re: Baby the pitbull and the holiday blues
Wow, alot of great information to absorb. She's managing being in public now, you can tell she doesn't like it, but my arm is in it's socket more than out now that I'm being more careful as to how I present myself and everything goin on around her.
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