Pip Progress: Love My Piper and Positive Solutions to Behavior Issues

Did I mention I love this dog?

I got myself a little project dog, but she was exactly what I was looking for. Most pet owners would not want a Pip. I love her and she makes me proud. I love seeing her personality evolve and develop into the exact one that I wanted from a dog. My ideal dog is a wild-eyed, silly-eared, tall-legged demon of a dog who is quirky and smart like a herder but has the spit and fire and cuss of a terrier. Independent, but handler focused. Aloof, but sweet. Pip is all of that. When she's comfortable at home, she is all of that. And, more and more in public, she's starting to show her true personality, as she's not being suppressed by her anxiety and fear.

But now that her fear issues are starting to get less pronounced, other issues are coming to the fore. Issues normal to her breed mix type such as biting from overstimulation, barking, chasing after movements, actually hitting the end of the leash a couple times, jumping on people, etc. Most people would be tearing their hair out by now. The people in my household and I are ecstatic to see these changes, as this means she's feeling more comfortable.

I'm a dog trainer and I love my job. A little project dog like Pip is just the best match for me. I'm not as interested in earning titles and excelling in dog sports (at least not yet) as I am about figuring out dog training. I love figuring out what works for real issues that pet owners deal with every day and how to solve them quickly and elegantly using positive training techniques.

I'll give an example. One of Pip's issues which have come out now that she's no longer completely suppressed by fear is simply being overstimulated/overexcited at certain points during the day. And when she gets overstimulated, she bites. Hard. Most people would have grabbed her muzzle. Or grabbed her and forced her to do what they wanted. They would have said, "NO" and probably squirted her with water or yelled at her and said, "You will not bite me." And that's the more gentle things they would have done.

I didn't do any of that. Rather than simply reacting to what she was doing and use punitive methods, I thought about what she was doing, why she could be doing it, and created an approach which addressed the reason. Look at how quickly and easily the issue is solved:

I make sure to train my dogs so that they have a useful foundation so managing behaviors like this and working through them is easy. Why does this work? Because I taught Pip the following things:

1. Crate as a calm place/settle

2. Listening to cues even when excited (trained this using high-value toys)

3. Building a habit of choosing me

If you teach your dog correctly, behavior issues, even ones which other people would deem serious offenses are extremely easy to deal with. Also, less than 10 days since the behavior issue of biting me after walks first started, Pip no longer bites me after walks.