Meet Sammy! This terrier cross is a new and young addition to the household, where he lives with Bailey the older cock-a-poo and Ziggy the chow mix. All three dogs have very different needs and personalities, so the big challenge for Sammy's owners is controlling their dogs' environment.
Sammy had been showing extremely reactive behavior towards people when they try to physically handle him. A routine visit to the vet turned into a very stressful episode for poor Sammy. Sammy's owners had the good sense to understand that he needed some help adjusting to their busy household.
Sammy's reaction to the vet was clearly fear based and so playing games like the Name Game with him was perfect to help build a bound between him and his owners as well as accustoming him to being physically handled. The Name Game is an exercise in which you help build a positive association to when your dogs name is being called. You can also use this game as an Ask Strategy, to elicit a different behavior when your dog is showing signs of apprehension. We also talked about creating confinement areas for the dogs to help control and manage situations like when visitors enter the house and when the dogs needed to be separated from one another.
For help with your multi-dog household, visit Zen Dog Training Online.
No comments:
Post a Comment