I rescued a 1 1/2-2 year old Lab/Staffy in July of 2021. She had spent her entire life in a crate, in a kennel in a warehouse with 200 plus other dogs. She came to us with ZERO experiences and was afraid of almost all the sights and sounds of modern life; cars, garbage trucks, leaf blowers, wood chippers, snow plows and so on She was highly reactive and lunged and very afraid of all dogs and strange men as well The first year was a rough go for us both and I spent a lot of time working with her teaching her the basic commands klike; coe, yes leave it,, no wait, up, go potty harness on, sit, stay and so on. W e worked on walking on leash healing giving her lots of exercise walks and training She is extremely smart and understands the words I used to communicate with her which helped us both a lot TIP 01: What I found that worked well for us was daily exposure to the things that scared her. This meant daily exposure with treats for good behavior. TIP 02: I took Ginger up to the large pieces of equipment that once terrified her I taught her to "Smell it." It was like once she smelled the fearful item and saw that it did not jump out and hurt her she began to accept the piece of equipment without fear. TIP 03: When my rescue was afraid of the cyclists, runner etc zooming by us on the bike trail I would sit her down, place my body between hers and the scary thing and tell her "Calm Girl" and give her treats when she was calm. She also learned that the fact I was between her and the bike (for example) showed her that I had her back that I was not going to let anything harm her and she soon adjusted to this. She likes to lay in our sunporch facing the bike trail and watch the tourist go by; bikes runners, skateboards and strollers and so on. She is now uch less afraid as these activities becoe a normal everyday occurance. TIP 04: Ginger is Lab/Staffy and high energy so I bought a 30 ft horse lunging leash and I take her to the open field space in the am and let her run out a bit sniff and hunt her mice. She gets a lot of brain stiulation on these runs This is her favorite time of the day. She exercises and then sleeps well as well as having her brain challenged
Inspector Anthony is an absolute treasure ❤
I rescued a 1 1/2-2 year old Lab/Staffy in July of 2021. She had spent her entire life in a crate, in a kennel in a warehouse with 200 plus other dogs. She came to us with ZERO experiences and was afraid of almost all the sights and sounds of modern life; cars, garbage trucks, leaf blowers, wood chippers, snow plows and so on She was highly reactive and lunged and very afraid of all dogs and strange men as well The first year was a rough go for us both and I spent a lot of time working with her teaching her the basic commands klike; coe, yes leave it,, no wait, up, go potty harness on, sit, stay and so on. W e worked on walking on leash healing giving her lots of exercise walks and training She is extremely smart and understands the words I used to communicate with her which helped us both a lot TIP 01: What I found that worked well for us was daily exposure to the things that scared her. This meant daily exposure with treats for good behavior. TIP 02: I took Ginger up to the large pieces of equipment that once terrified her I taught her to "Smell it." It was like once she smelled the fearful item and saw that it did not jump out and hurt her she began to accept the piece of equipment without fear. TIP 03: When my rescue was afraid of the cyclists, runner etc zooming by us on the bike trail I would sit her down, place my body between hers and the scary thing and tell her "Calm Girl" and give her treats when she was calm. She also learned that the fact I was between her and the bike (for example) showed her that I had her back that I was not going to let anything harm her and she soon adjusted to this. She likes to lay in our sunporch facing the bike trail and watch the tourist go by; bikes runners, skateboards and strollers and so on. She is now uch less afraid as these activities becoe a normal everyday occurance. TIP 04: Ginger is Lab/Staffy and high energy so I bought a 30 ft horse lunging leash and I take her to the open field space in the am and let her run out a bit sniff and hunt her mice. She gets a lot of brain stiulation on these runs This is her favorite time of the day. She exercises and then sleeps well as well as having her brain challenged
Thank you for your work and for sharing your tips!
What’s your go-to tip for training a dog?
Share below! 🐶🐶🐶