Re: [pyrnet] Behavior Question - Need Help!

["Amy Bailey" <newbailey@comcast.net>]

Marilou,

This sounds so familiar!  I think most of us, at least the ones with "house
dogs",  have had this kind of thing happen.  It is scary because what if a
car came along.  And embarrassing if a neighbor comes along who wants to
help because they think the dog is ill.

A small dose of "Boot Camp" will help.   You won't need the full treatment
and may only need to use it for a few days but it will help.  Judith posted
this link a little while ago.
http://www.sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/alpha.htm.  Misha just needs to
know you are the leader.

If it is possible, ignore her when she decides not to move.  She is enjoying
the attention while you try to get her to move.  If you can read a magazine
for a few minutes while you wait, she may decide that it is time to go home.
After all Mom is ignoring her and that's no fun.  The easiest way for me to
get Sweetie into the house when she is running in the fenced yard is to walk
away from her and to sit down on the steps.  She runs to me.  Other wise I
could chase her all over the yard and get no where.

These dogs are very smart, but we can be smarter.  They are not Golden
Retrievers and do not live to please us.  They are a challenge but worth
every minute.

Good Luck,   Amy who has learned a lot from Charlie and  Sweetie (and Jascha
before them)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marilou Oyler" <utlkn2me@gmail.com>
To: <pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [pyrnet] Behavior Question - Need Help!


> Thanks to everybody for their comments and suggestions, particularly
> to Amy and Cheryl who I think have pretty much hit the nail on the
> head.  Misha's and my honeymoon is over, and I'm going to have to
> learn how to deal with her stubbornness.
>
> What happened this evening:  I thought that I'd be smart and take
> Misha for a long, tiring walk BEFORE it got dark.  Everything went
> fine, we walked for about 30 minutes UNTIL we got to where we had to
> turn the corner to come back to our house, which is one house down
> from the corner.  Misha just stopped in her tracks, wouldn't move, in
> the street!  I finally coaxed her around the corner and about 20 feet
> further and she stopped again and this time laid down before I could
> stop her.  And there we stayed for about 15 minutes, with Misha laying
> in the street (luckily not a busy one), and with me doing everything I
> knew to try to get her up.  Finally, when I think SHE was ready and
> having totally nothing to do with me, she stood up and I was able to
> push/pull/carry/cajole her into the house.
>
> It sounds funny to describe it afterwards, but it is really
> frightening for her to be out in the street like that and for me to
> know that there is absolutely nothing that I can do to make her move.
> I don't want to have to stop with our walks because I fear for her
> safety.  It doesn't take a psychologist to figure out that she didn't
> want to come home, but I also tried to get her to come with me *away*
> from our house, but she wouldn't budge for that either.  And if we are
> going to walk, at some point we will always have to come back to the
> house.  I know that she was very tired and thirsty tonight by the time
> we finished our walk (we had a busy day), but it still wasn't enough
> incentive to get her to move and come in the house.
>
> We have taken a lot of walks around the neighborhood over the last
> month and she's *never* acted like this before.
>
> One bright note is that I'll be moving in a couple of weeks where
> hopefully it will be a better situation, where we can walk safely
> later in the evening and/or I can leave her outside if that's what she
> prefers.  Don't know if that's going to help with the walks, though.
>
>
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