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Building Confidence

Wed, 05/28/2008 - 04:33 — darthmobius@net...

I recently adopted a 2.5 yr old female bullmastiff. She is a great dog- house broken, create trained, solid on all basic obedience commands and very affectionate with her new family. Unfortunately, she is rather skittish in new situations and around new people - not exactly the fearless confidence the breed is supposed to project. She will often urinate if approached too quickly by a man (she's more comfortable with women) and will stop dead in her tracks if spooked by a shopping cart or other loud moving objects. She'll bark when someone knocks on the door, but will not approach the door.

Any ideas on how to build her confidence and bring out the calm fearless confidence she is supposed to exhibit?

Comments

Thu, 05/29/2008 - 14:00 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

Targeting for nervous dogs

Hi, "calm, fearless confidence" is something that very few dogs have these days. In days gone by it was important for certain breeds to have this, but now dogs are mostly judged and bred on appearances. This has lead to a general decline in the number of dogs displaying the traits their breed was originally known for.

Mind you, even a shy Bullmastiff is a good deterrent and in this litigious society where we give unreasonable license to people who want to intrude on our property almost any character trait is better than an aggressive one. That said, the original Bullmastiff "ideal" temperament is almost perfect for home security, because they were bred not to bite but to hold and bark. Even back in the day, very few dogs would meet the "ideal" anyway though.

But let's not lament the loss of good genes or debate the merits of different temperaments - let's look at how we can train the dog you HAVE to have as many of the character traits you want as possible. You quite correctly want to start with reducing the skittishness, a confident, happy dog is a much stronger foundation to work from.

This might sound crazy, but you need to read this article:
http://positivepetzine.com/node/79

It teaches you how to train a dog to touch a target.

Why is this important? In more examples than I care to mention targeting has been the fastest and most reliable solution for a shy or nervous dog. Teach her to touch the target stick reliably, then give it to a male friend and have her target it. The friend then starts holding the target stick further and further down the stick until your dog is targeting his hand.

You can also use the stick to direct your dog to touch objects that frighten her. Go easy, ALWAYS set your dog up for success.

Write back if you have any questions.

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

Sat, 08/23/2008 - 03:29 — naomi_abroad@ho...
naomi_abroad@hotmail.com's picture

Application to dog-dog fearfulness/skittishness

Hi Aidan,

Is there a way to apply the target example to dogs fearful of other new dogs. I rescued a doxie who is super sweet and loving but seems fearful of new dogs and he exhibits this by barking and lunging at the other dog or, if in the off-leash dog park, he actually will chase the dog away and try to nip the back of the rear leg. My bet was that he wasn't socialized in his prior home.

When we rescued him from the miami animal shelter he had had been hit by a car and had a broken pelvis (They were going to put him down due to his injuries) so it was understandable when we noticed that he feared loud noises and passing cars (he would retreat and hide). We've since worked through that and, when he healed, took him to the off leash dog park with our other dogs. He was a little fearful in the park but it demonstrated itself as tail between the legs and hiding near us. After a few exposures with no negative experiences he started to have some fun.

Unfortunately, one day we walked into the park and he was attacked by another dog. No physical damage was done but it seems that since then his approach to new dogs has been to bark and lunge immediately, even with dogs that are totally calm AND, to make matters worse, it has also progressed into barking and nipping at unfamiliar humans who reach down to let him sniff their hand.

It seems like it is a coping reaction hoping that the new thing backs off and leaves him alone but I am stuck because I do not know how I should try to correct this and I don't want to reinforce it. I would imagine that setting up a controlled situation could be an option but these are people that I do not know and, since it doesn't happen with familiar people, it's challenging to get the behavior from him.

I thought maybe you could recommend some creative uses for the target that would help build his confidence.

Thanks,
Naomi

Mon, 08/25/2008 - 16:08 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

re: Application to dog-dog fearfulness/skittishness

>>I thought maybe you could recommend some creative uses for the target that would help build his confidence.<<

Certainly! Nearly ANY targeting would help his confidence, just because it is a simple behavior that "keeps him Operant" and he is very likely to succeed at it. Target your hand, target something in the environment, target a target stick etc

Keep him, as Sue Ailsby calls it - "in the game". This is very easy to do with a simple behavior like targeting so it's a good candidate.

If it were me I would stay away from the dog park. There aren't many dogs who thrive in that sort of situation. Those that do do well, those that don't are better off without the experience.

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

Tue, 08/26/2008 - 00:08 — naomi_abroad@ho...
naomi_abroad@hotmail.com's picture

targeting

Thank you Aidan. I will work on some of the targeting with him. He is a super sweet dog. I just wish he could exhibit that behavior in every situation. It's not all bad - we do have 1 other dog and she is a saint and must exhibit so much confidence and balance that when this little 12 pound dog walks into the dog park she plays with dogs from bull mastiff size all the way down to mini chihuahuas and has never had a confrontation - thank goodness :-)

I can certainly second the point about off leash dog parks and look forward to the day when I do not have to go to one but, living in metropolitan Miami, in an apartment with no yard and 3 dogs gives me almost no other alternative. The dogs aren't allowed on beaches, there are no mountains, no hiking trails and basically no place where a dog can run around off-leash except the dog park. In the meantime, we try to go to the park when it is less congested and if we see triggers we turn around or keep Buddy (the Boston) on the leash inside the park (not sure if this is a good idea either but...).

Thanks again!
Naomi

Tue, 08/26/2008 - 00:09 — naomi_abroad@ho...
naomi_abroad@hotmail.com's picture

Your Book

I also wanted to ask if there is a table of contents for your book anywhere on the site. Thanks, Naomi

Wed, 08/27/2008 - 11:37 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

re: Your Book

http://positivepetzine.com/pos_pet_col_2

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

Wed, 08/27/2008 - 11:37 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

re: targeting

>>I can certainly second the point about off leash dog parks and look forward to the day when I do not have to go to one but, living in metropolitan Miami, in an apartment with no yard and 3 dogs gives me almost no other alternative.<<

Hmmm, move? I feel so spoiled, I live by the beach, dogs are allowed, and I have no shortage of hiking trails within 5 minutes drive in any direction from my house (except into the water, obviously).

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