Behavior help needed please

[rdlawrence912]

My 12 week Corso is having a heck of a time leaving shoe laces, one particular blanket and pants legs alone. Any attempt (even while being calm and assertive) is met with escalation of the behavior. She gets plenty of exercise I think (about 2 hours a day at the park split up over the course of the day and always gentle playing at home.) I would really appreciate a good behavior resource so I can give my new bestie (or should I say, Beastie) the happiest, most balanced life I can..

 

[musicdeb]

Need to teach her "leave it." Place the item in front of her after making her sit. When she goes for it, tell her leave it. Once she leaves it, treat her. Have you started other basic commands with her? She needs to learn look at me/focus, sit, stay, come, leave it and drop it. Training should be about 5 mins a day for at least couple more weeks and then train her until she see she's getting bored. Teach one command at a time. Once she masters a command, move onto a new command while still maintaining all former commands.

Until she learns leave it, remove all attractions from her reach. She should learn it pretty quickly.

 

[DennasMom]

I agree with Deb, "Leave it" a necessary command, for sure - it comes in handy everywhere!

Have you tried re-direction? When she grabs your pant leg (or anything else you don't want her to grab), just look at her and give her a firm "no". Then get a toy and make it dance... when she drops your pant leg and goes for the happy toy, praise! Good Girl! Good Toy!

You can also start naming the toys, and eventually you can have her go get different toys by name.

Part of the training process is to make sure she knows what you want her TO do, and not just what NOT to do.

She might also be grabbing stuff just to get your attention and reaction, so the escalation is her celebration that what she did worked (for her, anyway).

 

[musicdeb]

Good points, Tina. I forgot about re-direction.

 

[rdlawrence912]

Thanks guys.. I have only had her for 4 days, but so far we are doing well with come, sit and leave it and find ball(leave it mostly, unless it involoves my pants leg lol) I just started the focus command today. I hit on the rediretion by intuition. Seems to work alot better than just telling her leave it. Cant believe how smart my gurl is....spooky! We are gonna start formal training in the next couple weeks along with puppy kindergarten. Looking forward to it!

 

[musicdeb]

Glad she's doing better. Keep on keeping on...