LGD pup - gate conflict UPDATE pg 6

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
that's probably true.
and thanks for the vote of confidence.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

haven't figured out how to do that effectively as the dogs and the goats are the same size.

Dogs are far more agile than goats.
You should be able to make a barrier the dog can go over or under that the goats won't bother to try.​

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
Dogs are far more agile than goats.
You should be able to make a barrier the dog can go over or under that the goats won't bother to try.

clearly you haven't met my roof-and-tree-climbing, slide-sideways-through-the-rails, crawl-on-their-belly-like-a-snake lamanchas!

but probably they won't work that hard unless I give them a good reason, so I'll give some thought to what I can arrange...

 

[zzGypsy]

thought I'd post an update on the door growling.

so about a week after this thread petered out, I decided some intervention was called for. someone mentioned that Turk is probably insecure. he does seem more confident if I'm there than if I'm out of sight. and he does look to me for confirmation when there's something new going on and he's trying to figure out what to do. so I spend about 20 minutes working on this with him. goats inside the run, me on the inside with the goats, calling him through the dog door, then sending him out again. me on the outside with turk, goats on the inside, me sending him in (ok, more like stuffing him through the door

) then calling him out again.

did this work with him one time, then figured I'd let him work on it on his own for a bit. so that was about 3 weeks ago.

yesterday I sat inside the kennel for a while and just watched the goats and the dogs come and go from the outside runs to the inside runs...

no growling.
no gate blocking
no standing on one side of the door and hesitating to go through. dogs and goats both in the inside run. dogs coming in and going out, no big deal. goats staying inside the run with the dogs more, not just blowing out of there, although they're still watchful.

overall much much better.
yay!

thanks all for your help and support!

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Sounds like he was being insecure, he just needed someone there to show him that going in and out was ok. He might have figured this out on his own eventually, but doing this kind of conditioning/training just bonds you closer and makes him trust you more. You're doing a great job with him!

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:

see that's me doing my equavalent of wagging...
love it when I get an attaboy

 

[Shayna]

That's wonderful that the training has helped! Great work, it will be very rewarding!

 

[watchdogps]

Great job! I have found that LGD breeds do sometimes need to be "forced" to do something. Not in a mean way, just in an it-wont-kill-you way. They can be very hard to coax if they are unsure, so sometimes you do have too physically placethem. Done calmly, it is usually effective the first time.

 

[zzGypsy]

YAY!
love it when it works, thanks for the support and the attaboys!

watchdogps: had turk to the vet for a check up a while back as he was off his food - turned out to be worms... easily treated, but knocked the appetite out of him pretty fast. anyway, taking him in to the vet's office, he basically turned to jello - took 3 of us to get him from the car into the building because he would just go limp and slither out of what ever hold we had on him... the vet just laughed... she said , yeah, the LGDs don't do buildings...

big difference in the personalities of Seka and Turk - Seka will just go off and explore something new in their environment. she gets low and crouchy sneaking up on it but she'll go forward. turk will too, but he's much quicker to jump back, and to look at me for clues. he's quick to stand at the fence at alert, and to bark at strangers, but he'll fade off the fence if approached more quickly than Seka. I've had good success working with insecure rescue dogs, I think I just need to take that into consideration in working with him.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
There's more proof to you that Turk is the less confident and more environmentally sensitive dog of the two -- I've been saying that all along.