|
"They can be very sensitive dogs". . . I agree with Barb. "As far as teaching her to sit, have her stand next to you, on lead, with her head facing front. Give her the sit command, (have a treat in your hand) and then take the treat, put it in front of her nose and slowly bring it up and backwards. this should get her to lift her nose up in the air and as her head tends to come up and backwards, her butt should hit the floor. At this point you give her the treat and give her lots of happy voice praise. Good sit! Keep repeating the exercise. A few times each. For a few minutes at a time. Pyrs bore easily", and I did this with Emmett and it worked out well; however, on the days that I gave more treats I gave less at meal times. Hi out there. Our family has recently adopted a 2 year old female spayed pyr. She has been working on a sheep farm for the past while, but her previous owners they found that she was too socialized and kept leaving the sheep. She is great with our kids, adores the attention, but we have a few wrinkles to iron out. Perhaps you could help! Welcome...you have come to the right place :o) This has been a great resource for us with Emmett our adopted rescue Pyr. 1) When we groom her, which she seems to absolutely love, she often gives "love bite" which I feel should be discouraged. Any thoughts? As long as it is not hurtful ... Emmett feels like he is helping when he does that * I think...lol* ,and then he goes after his butt. LOL... It's too weird. He turns himself inside out to help groom the hair on the top of his butt, and with this fast, itty, bitty, biting thing. 2) She doesn't know how to play with people, and tends to jump on us (her claws are sharp, and she's very big.) The kids want to play with her, but don't know how to do so. She played baseball with us the other day (getting excited and running around), and knocked our 3 year old over in her excitement. She also puts a paw onto a person (usually their leg) when she wants to be petted. I've got bruises all over my legs, and I get nervous when I'm in shorts. When we tell her no, she'll turn her head aside, but continue to do it. If I get quite adamant that I mean no, she thinks it's an invitation to play (translate wrestle). Suggestions? Emmett was that way when we got him, and I don't know who suggested it, but it worked... When they jump put your hand on top of their head, and give a No command. Then, have them sit, and then just keep reinforcing down, or no. Then if it persists stop him, and sit down with him...we would sit down and have him lay down beside where we were sitting. It put him into a rest mode. Now he has stops jumping as soon as we put our hand out flat like we are going to put it on his head. Emm was doing body slams a week ago, and seems to have gotten over that phase. 3) We'd love to be able to go hiking and access the wooded area behind our home without restricting her to a leash (which gets twisted around trees, or tugs our arms out when she spots a rabbit,) but Bonny will not come when called. She'll also hang out in the yard for a short while with us, but then decide she wants to explore and trots away. Attempts at training, (I'll call her and then go get her, release her and call her to me -- then she comes to me, I praise etc. then increase the distance) have now started to backfire, because the last time she left, she left galloping, looking over her shoulder. I do not punish her (including confining her right away) when she does run. Should I be? We can't let Emmett off the leash yet. It is a slow process for that one. He about rips my arm out of the socket when we go for our walks in the park, but on the way home he goes back to the heel Command. I would love to let him off the leash like Melvin when we hike, but we aren't there yet. Jeff my husband takes him when we hike...he is the only one that could handle him if he's tried to take off. Hubby is 6'5" and 275...and can handle taking Emmett without seeing the chiropractor afterwards...lol. Home stuff is handled, but if we are on a hike it is his Dad that gets to train him. He just get so excited. It will just take some time, and we'll hopefully get to take him off the leash. Praise has always worked well with Emmett. Oh! No! Emmett! In a shameful voice seems to work well with him too. We are new not only to Pyrs but also to dogs. We'd love advice! Jeannie |