How To Train Sensitive Dog?

[Guest songbird2220]

Hi Everyone,

 

My husband and I adopted a sweet male greyhound in May, and for the most part, he's been a pretty easy addition to our family. He will turn 5 next week and retired in December from the racetrack. He doesn't chew furniture or destroy any of the soft things he steals (just hides them in his crate or he lays down on top of them in one of his many beds) but he does get into things that are dangerous sometimes and when we scold him, he gets very upset and runs away and sulks in his crate, sometimes for days before he is back to normal. I've caught him trying to eat marbles from a game off our kitchen table (when he never counter surfs), ant traps off the kitchen floor, even batteries from remotes (after he opens the doors on our entertainment center to get the remotes and chews the battery doors off the remotes to get to the batteries).

 

How do we get him to understand that the things he's going after are dangerous without making him so upset that he hates us? My sister had a dog when we were teenagers, but I spent most of the years I lived at home afraid of him so I don't have a ton of previous pet experience. My husband had a husky/german shepherd mix with his first wife and has a lot more experience with dogs than I do. Blaze (our hound) generally responds well to both of us except for when he's scolded, when he runs to his crate and hides, and often won't come back out even for meals.

 

Thanks for your help!

[BatterseaBrindl]

You need to dog-proof your house....

Don't leave the game with the marbles on the table.

Put child-proof locks on your cabinets. Put the remotes in the locked cabinets.

Absolutely no ant traps on your floor

[Batmom]

Here, we don't scold. At most, an "Aah-aah!" to get the dog's attention, and then redirect to an acceptable activity. For the types of things you've mentioned, we dogproof.

[Guest songbird2220]

The game we were playing and it was above his height and we were sitting right there, so I didn't think he'd go for it. He only goes after those marbles, not anything else on our table. He doesn't go after any other kind of game when we have game nights either. When we store it, it's on the top of a 6 foot shelf because it doesn't have a box. The batteries he gets from inside our tv stand, which was closed and I put tight bungee cords on the handles to tie the doors together so they can't be opened. I often have trouble with them myself. I'm still not sure how he gets into it. He's also gotten remotes out of closed drawers, so I'm not sure what else to do to dogproof. Any ideas?

 

We live in a basement apartment so we have bugs, especially around his food corner of the kitchen even though we wash his bowls every day and vacuum up the food dust he leaves. What else could we use to treat the bug issue that he won't play with? I don't want ants to hang out in his food bowls, but I don't want him eating ant poison either. It's mostly ants and spiders, and he seems to be afraid of both of them. He's learned if there's a spider in his way to go fetch my husband to kill it for him but he doesn't quite know what to do about the ants.

[greysmom]

Greyhounds have very "soft" personalities, in general, and rarely need an actual harsh word to have them get the message. As Batmom suggested above, a sharp "Aah-Aah!!!" or similar syllable of your choice, should be enough to stop the behavior when you catch him. Once he stops and looks at you, praise, treat, and redirect him to a fun activity that's OK for him to do - a toy, a chew, playing tug with you for a minutes.

 

If he's a real houdini hound at getting into things you can invest a few dollars in child-proof cabinet and drawers locks. Money spent on them can save you thousands in emergency vet costs later on!

 

As far as the insects are concerned, most of the commercial baits at the stores are peanut butter and borax - not really poisonous unless the dog eats a LOT of it - like pounds of it, I think. But there are sprays out now that are safe to use around animals that don't smell horrible. Or you can do some online googling for "natural" repellants like cinnamon and borax. I assume you've already told your landlord about the pests????

[GeorgeofNE]

You say the thing about bugs in your apartment like that's normal. I've lived in four basement ("garden level") apartments and I've never had bugs! I'd call the landlord. Most commercial sprays are actually quite safe; and it's safer to have a pro treat (when you inform them you have pets) than try to do it yourself.

 

My dog is super sensitive too. I try not to raise my voice because for him, it's too traumatic and he shuts down and doesn't learn.

 

I can't imagine why your big guy is so interested in your remotes, but you need to put them up higher! Marbles look like a toy, so I get that. Get rid of the ant things--mint leaves on the counter should repel ants, but see my first comment, above. It's not acceptable to live with bugs in your apartment and your landlord needs to deal with that!

 

Great you have a spider hunter though!

 

I guess you can try to redirect him when you catch him. There is no point in trying to discipline him after the fact. As you've already seen, all you're doing is scaring him. He's not going to put "I found this bitchin' clicky thing to play with while you were out!" with being disciplined hours later.

[krissy]

If your dog is that interested in inappropriate items and can break into storage, then I would muzzle him when he's not supervised. You may need a "muzzle keeper" as well to help keep it on if he's good at getting it off. Otherwise, I'd crate him when unsupervised if you can. My two younger dogs are crated or muzzled whenever they aren't being supervised. The one just tries to get into food and likes to destroy paper/plastic (but doesn't ingest anything thankfully), the youngest destroys almost anything she can get her teeth on and will often ingest pieces). The youngest is 18 months and the other is 5, but neither will probably ever really be trustworthy to leave loose without a muzzle on. That's just who they are and the safest thing is to contain or muzzle them for their own safety since they will pick up all sorts of random things... and we can't remove everything from our home!

[Guest songbird2220]

Thanks everyone! Our landlords are aware of the bug issue and have just said it's typical for the apartment and haven't been willing to do anything to resolve the issue. We don't even have screens for our windows, so this has been an ongoing battle. I'll keep asking for help, and in the meantime will look into natural remedies. I'd never heard of the mint leaves thing, and it's growing like weeds outside so that is a very easy first step, thank you!

 

We keep Blaze crated when we leave the house, so I should clarify that he's getting into things while we are home and with him. Rarely he will respond to a sharp "ahh-ahh" or a firm "no" when he's getting into something dangerous, but most of the time he will ignore us unless we go to take it from him, and the rush to take it away is part of what scares him and makes him go hide. On days I work from home and he's allowed to be out in the house, he just sleeps all day, but on weekends or evenings when my husband and I are both home, he tends to be more mischievous.

[Batmom]

For ants, I use Terro liquid (borax and sugar based, no peanutbutter to attract dogs), and tape some cardboard up around where I put it so the dog can't lick it up, step in it, etc. It wouldn't kill the dog if he ate it -- you only put out a few drops at a time. They make plastic bait stations but I've always had better luck putting drops of the liquid on floor/counters near where they seem to be coming in.

[turbotaina]

OK - you need to train him to "out" or "give" an item so the taking away isn't traumatic for him. Start with something low value (say, a sock or a low value toy). If he'll take it in his mouth, fine, but if not, just set it in front of him, take it and give him a delicious treat. When he's giving up reliably, add a cue word (such as out or give). Work up to more desirable items. Basically, you want the act of giving up the item to be rewarding for him. I've probably over-simplified it here, but it's not difficult. If you search this forum you should find plenty of training tips for it. And then you end up with my dogs, who think it's hilarious to steal my shoes and then expect a treat when they bring them back

[EllenEveBaz]

On the ant thing -- your landlord doesn't sound like the type to keep up the outside of the house, either. If you're able and willing, try to weed and move all the growth/mulch at least 6 inches away from the house foundation. A foot away is better. That really helped one place I lived.