A few Questions

[babyjoemurphy]

Murphy had been with us for 2 weeks tomorrow. He is 2 1/2, obiedience trained and came from a very loving home (no abuse or mistreatment at all) He listens very well most of the time unless he scoffed something and doesn't wanna give it back. I guess that would be one question, How do you get things out of a EM's mouth when he doesnt't wanna release it? Even with treats or "trade up" he closes his mouth and looks at you
I have started teaching him to look at me when I give a "watch me" command and he is doing so well with it. He gets half a treat when he does good. He is a ball hog and through that I am trying to teach him to release it, at the same time as using the "watch me". Again treats when he does good. He goes for a walk in the morning and at night. Its too hot mid day here in Ontario lately to even have him outside for too long. So he sleeps and snores and sleeps. When we walk him he likes to lunge at bikes, buses, strollers, and sometimes people. He is good at getting his attention back but not before the people have had a heart attack. I would say his outbursts last about 20-30 sec. TOO LONG FOR ME. Again he gets treats once he makes eye contact with us.
Now here is my questions
1- Getting things out of mouth when being stubborn. I work on release even when he isnt being stubborn
2- the lunging thing, trying to desensitize his but he goes into the "red Zone" as Casear Milan calls it
3- Murphy seems to puke a lot, yesterday he puked 2 times. It was all kibble and treats. Am I giving him too many treats (today he only gets praise and maybe carrot pieces) or its gonna be a day off. He eats 3 meals a day
Now here is why I worry about the puking. I just lost my best friend( I called him my son) Moses to a flipped stomach(bloat) 2 months ago. So I am freaking. And yes I had him to the vet to try and save him.
4- should I be moistening Murphys food before he eats it(again bloat)
5- How long after he eats is a good time to walk him, maybe we are walking him too soon after eating. Its usually before he eats in the morning(his choice) and after an hour after he eats at night
He was just to the vet 4 weeks ago and had a clean bill of health but he also had an ear infection in Dec, March and has one now. Maybe it is the ear drops?

 

[Tiger12490]

Drop it is all repition that's all... lunging have you tried a prong collar he lunges you pop him give a stern leave it..puking try elevating his bowl and putting a can in it or give him a scoop at a time with a min for him to catch his breath after each one.. eventually he'll learn to slow down when he learns the food isnt going anywhere ..I always kinda make my pups food a soup it makes him take his time because he has to drink in between bites and it allows the food to expand in the bowl rather then there stomach filling them up quicker and reducing bloat... you can walk right after I wouldn't hike for 9 miles or run an agility set but as long as your dog isnt zooming around there fine... although I wait 30 to try and get him to pee from the water he drank...honestly at that age he should tell you when he's ready to go out

Tapd on my skyrocket

 

[babyjoemurphy]

He has no problem going outside, he is well mannered and will give a bark at the door to go out. Something he just started doing. I think he is getting use to being here now. We have a prong collar that was with all his stuff, I think its a prong collar. My husband calls it a pinch collar. Maybe that is what will be used tonight to see how he does with it. As for his bowls, they are up. We left them the height that they were at his old house. Maybe I'll try higher. I will also try and put water in his bowl before he eats. Problem is he sometimes doesn't eat when I put it down. He is still adjusting. He will still go with only dinner some days, others he eats all 3 meals. I could be wasting alot of money on mushy kibble lol. Maybe I can add something to his food like a gravy so he eats it right away. Will see by the end of the day if its the treat giving or not that makes him sick. Elimination.....Love this game!
As for the drop it, I was told that the more he ignores my command when I say something the more he will keep ignoring me later. I have him sit, and he still does nothing but ignore me

 

[Smart_Family]

You can add raw egg, cottage cheese or plain yogurt occasionally but I wouldn't do it all the time because then they get used to it. Both at work and at home we try to get at least an hour before and an hour after walks before feeding them.

 

[Tiger12490]

Ye that could be a lot of mushy food if he doesn't eat it haha and with drop it become more forciful ask only once if he understands the command... then manually make him drop it pull up on the collar slowly with steady pressure until he drops it re give command, praise... seems like he's just settling in ..pushing your buttons seeing what he can kinda get away with

Tapd on my skyrocket

 

[babyjoemurphy]

I've tried to pull up on his chocker, after asking and he still just pretends like he has nothing. I will have to work on the drop it xtra hard everyday. If I catch him on is way to taking something thats not his I say "Leave it" and he will sail on past it, but if he gets it before I realize...FORGET IT! I will try an egg tonight, let it sit with some water and then feed Mr. Murphy
Thanks guys

 

[seeknoxrun]

Knox lunged quite a bit - he was SO excited and over stimulated that he just lost his mind. He HAD to meet everyone, sniff everything, and do it all in record time. We'd had him on a choke chain when we started working with a professional trainer for some issues we were having with our younger pup. She saw me struggling with Knox and recommended a pronged collar. My first reaction was "absolutely not".

But I researched training techniques and watched some training videos, and finally decided to give it a try under our trainers supervision and in combination with our positive reinforcement training. I swear to you, three hard "snaps" on that sucker and Knox got the picture. Even though I rarely have to use it, we still have it one him for walks and in public as a reminder, and we're working on transitioning him off of it.

Word of caution: some dogs (generally very high drive or aggressive dogs) don't do well on the pronged collar. When you combine a highly excited/agitated/aggressive dog with a hard correction with a pronged collar, the dog might react aggressively. He could turn on the handler or displace that tension and frustration onto another dog or person. I would only use it with the help of a professional.

 

[Marrowshard]

Use caution with a prong collar and please make sure it fits right. We were also given a prong collar when we took Oscar in and it took a distressingly long time for me to figure out I was using it wrong. Lunging at anything while you're walking is unacceptable regardless of how long it takes to get him "cooled off" again. We take Oscar to a trainer who showed us how to make a correction with the prong. You can't just pull upward or give a gently tug.

Leerburg Prong Collar How-To-Fit

As for the puking, Oscar does that too if his treats are too rich. We can't ever give him Beggin' Strips or very fatty things. Even chewing bones have to be pretty well stripped before he takes them or he'll throw everything up later. Is there a reason you feed him 3 times a day? Convenience? As long as you're providing a lot of fresh water for him I shouldn't think you'd need to moisten his food and adding gravy could just prompt him to throw it up (if he's got the same kind of touchy tummy Oscar does). We gave up on using a water dish and just bought a flat-backed calf bucket. It holds a few gallons at a time, is a breeze to clean, and is meant to stand up to a load of abuse. And since it's a bucket instead of a dish, the water level is already high enough off the floor he doesn't gulp a load of air when he drinks.

~Marrow

 

[ruby55]

I've tried to pull up on his chocker, after asking and he still just pretends like he has nothing. I will have to work on the drop it xtra hard everyday. If I catch him on is way to taking something thats not his I say "Leave it" and he will sail on past it, but if he gets it before I realize...FORGET IT! I will try an egg tonight, let it sit with some water and then feed Mr. Murphy
Thanks guys

We use "leave it" for don't pick it up, drop it, don't touch it. It's a generic command meaning stop what you're doing. It works really well, because we don't abuse it. When I say "Leave it." in a stern voice, they know I mean it. and even if something's in their mouth it comes out. If he already knows "leave it" maybe you could try that. Might work.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Good idea to use "leave it"I will try it. I use his ball to re-enforce drop it and I am hoping he will use drop it to give up his bad habit of closing his mouth and pretending

 

[Marrowshard]

Something else we found worked with Oscar: when we were training Drop It, we'd use a stick or something he wasn't superattached to but still kinda wanted. When he did drop it, we'd reward while holding the stick, wait a bit, then give it back. That way, he learned "just because I let go doesn't mean it goes away, I might get it right back". It made it easy to transition to higher value items since he'd already figured out that Drop It wasn't always a life-shattering surrender of a favorite toy/treat.
Like ruby55, we taught Leave It as well. We use both commands depending on the situation. If it's something he tries to grab without permission, like a roadkill bird or a horse apple, it's Leave It. If it's something like a toy or bone he isn't supposed to have in the house, it's Drop It. It definitely takes time, but really helps to use a lower-value item for practice first.
If Murphy's food-motivated, you might consider clicker work, if you haven't already.

~Marrow

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Murphy is very much motivated by food but, he seems to puke after using his treats. So I took dice on giving your dog a carrot once in a while. First I gave him a full carrot to see how he would tolerate it. 24hrs later with no other treats I used a couple baby carrots to see if he would train for them. Yup he did. No puking it 35 hours so far. The treats came with him but I don't know if they were used for training. So now I have to find other things he will like. I tried using his nibble but he just spit it out. Last night he got one of his slobber towels, wouldn't give it up. After trying to get it a few times with drop it, pill up on floor, then a trade he still refused. So I took his tug toy, put it on his back and he decided he didn't like that and released the towel. So off to tugplay we went.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

marrowshard- I decided on feeding him more smaller meals due to the fact of Bloat. After loosing our Sheppard to Bloat I really want to avoid anything that might cause it again. And read that smaller meals that are already expanded are better. We knocked out his biscuits for 24 hrs and no puking. We used carrots instead.
Murphy has 3 bowls of fresh water at all times. 1 in the house and 2 outside. Good idea on the bucket. I change his water as soon as he finishes drinking out of one and worry that he is taking in water. I am thinking of making him dog treats but don't know a good recipe. Do you have any suggestions on a good treat that won't give him upset stomach. He loves to be rewarded with food and since we are in training with him I need alot of it

We have a trainer coming in tomorrow morning to assess Murphys lunging, and to assess the issue with our neighbours Sheppard being vicious when he sees Murphy

 

[ruthcatrin]

Toys can be used for rewards if nessecary.

What are the treats that he came with?

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Old mother hubbard mini treats, at home I use toys but on our walks its treats

 

[ruthcatrin]

We used a technique similer to Marrowshead's on Apollo. Specifically using less than HIGH value items, then making him preform (sit, down, stand, depending on the situation) before giving it back. Then using a higher value reward on things we couldn't give back.

Treats: every flavor has grains of some kind, and every flavor except the peanut butter has chicken, so yah, I could see the treats totally being the issue. Do you have a food dehydrator? You can make your own treats from pretty much any meat and a reasonable selection of vegi's with a dehydrator, and they aren't even messy to stuff in a pocket.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Yup my stove dehydrates. I am going to do meat, sweet potatoes. What other things can I do? We actually just gave him a chew bone and my husband went to pet him and he put his fur up and growled. Something he has never done. My husband took him from the collar sat him down and showed him he was not going to take his chew bone. Murphy made eye contact, Hubby re assured him and pet him. His fur went down and he relaxed. So we now know that chew bone is something he REALLY wants. He is not food aggressive so it took us by surprise

 

[ruthcatrin]

Resource guarding, basicly food aggression, but over something else. Bones are a common trigger. You'll need to stop that NOW. But I'll let someone else explain it, I've only ever dealt with it in pups, not full grown dogs. On the otherhand you maybe able to use that bone for really high value reward in the future.

Forgot you were the one with the stove. Cut some of what you're dehydrating into small bite sizes before drying and see if that'll work. My dogs adore home-made jerky treats and they work very well as training treats for my two.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

I will start a new thread about the bone incident. I figured it would be used as a high value reward for him. Thank you so much for everyones help