Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Problem Solved

Hi Everyone,
I am so Excited, I have finally been able to have some company over without Linus on a leash. This is a HUGE breakthrough for My Wife and I and Linus. My Nephew came over yesterday and we knew he was coming, so I did the Crazy 8's (see below) He came to the door and I make Linus sit. His ears perked up and he was looking around but he didn't bark like a lunatic. I walked him to the door and he tried to jump up on the door once and I make him sit again. I opened the door and Linus just sat there?????? He didn't jump, he didn't bark, Nothing. He just sat there, so I told my nephew Brian to walk closer and he did next thing I know he started sniffing Brian and Brian reached down to pet him. Linus let him pet him and Linus just laid down on the floor and rolled over on his back so Brian could scratch his belly. It was awesome. I mean seriously you have know idea what this means.... We might be able to keep Linus after all. This sit, stay, fetch E-Book is unbelievable I can honestly say I would Recommend it to anyone. I will continue to keep you updated as to Linus's progress but I can definatly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Linus Update

Hi Everyone,
Just an update last time we talked I had just Purchased Sit, Stay, Fetch From http://www.sitstayfetchebook.com/ and I was going to put it into effect and see If I could train myself on how to train Linus. At First glance the book looked great there was a lot of info in each chapter. In Fact there is 186 pages of great info in there. It covers everything from choosing the right dog or puppy to common obedience and advanced obedience training.

I was up till 3:00am reading the book the first night after I downloaded it and I started using the techniques mentioned in the book the next day. I am happy to say I have seen vast improvements in Linus' dog training. I thought he was listening well before now he is like unbelievable.

Tuesday I opened the sliding door and he bolted out right between my legs and strait for the street I saw a car coming up the street fast as I live on a bit of a main road. I yelled for him "LINUS DOWN!!!" He Stopped dead in his tracks and laid down on the ground. He is not great yet with the "Come" command so I said "you want some bacon" (Begging strips his favorite) and he came running back into the house and right to the "Surprise closet" I know it's Corny but that's what we call it. We keep all his food toys and treats in there and man let me tell you if you say, "lets go see what's in the surprise closet" he knows right where to go.


As for his Aggression I have to say things have gotten better. Not 100% but definitely better after one week with the books lessons has been better than 5 weeks with the dog trainer. If someone comes to the door there are 3 scenario's. If they just come and knock on the sliding door he will run like mad smack his head into the door and bark at them. If someone comes and rings the doorbell he will run like a crazy freak as fast as he can right into the sliding door and I am always listening for the glass to break. He will whack his head on it and bark like crazy. But if you know someone is coming here is what I do...


I put him on the leash and start walking him around in the other room doing figure eights, this gets him focused on me and not the door. Then when someone comes to the door he will try to run to the kitchen and I will stop and make him sit right there in the living room. once he calms down I will walk him into the kitchen. ( I go before he does) Then I make him sit in front of the door with my guest standing there, he will get a little crazy but then he will calm down. I open the door and back away and invite them in. I make sure he sits the whole time and if he tries to lung or stand up I make him sit again. This seems to be working well. After about 10 Minutes he calms down and just lays on the floor like no one was there. It is a huge improvement.


Although, this technique is a little bit of my own, and a little bit of the Dog Trainers Getting him to the point where I can successfully do this and actually have control, That I owe all to the Book. I have to say I am very pleased with this purchase thus far and I would have to recommend the book. Now I am able to control Linus in any situation and that is something I have not been able to do as of yet. Yes, he is still a crazy nut and no I don't trust him to be off the leash when people are over nor do I trust him to let other people pet and play with him, but I finally see some hope now and I think this Book might actually be a god send for Linus.

I will keep you updated.
Check it out http://www.sitstayfetchebook.com/

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

A Cheper Plan of Attack For Linus Dog Behavior Problems.

Hi Everyone,
I am back to to ell you of an exciting find I made last night. As I said yesterday My feeling about Linus' dog behavior problems is that in part we are the reason he acts the way he does when someone come over. I say this because when the dog trainer is over he is a bit of a different dog than when she is gone. Once she leaves he seems to go right back to having those crazy dog behavior problems again. So I think I have found my last ditch effort to save him and I am excited about it.


I spent most of the night researching the Internet last night after starting this blog for Dog Aggression problems, Self Dog Training, Dog Problems, Dog Training, anything I could find and I found a lot of information that I think will be helpful, however I also found this book called Sit, Stay, Fetch. It is an e-book that I purchased and was able to download it immediately. It's kind of cool I never downloaded an E-book before and it was real easy.

Anyway I spent most of the night reading it. In fact I was up till 3:00am reading it so I am exhausted. Anyway I couldn't put it down. My Internet research showed it to be the most popular downloaded e-book about dog training and dog obedience on the Internet. The opening page says,


"I GUARANTEE that SitStayFetch will FIX ANY dog behavioral problem that you have!
If YOUR DOG has behavioral problems, such as digging, biting, being aggressive towards people and/or other dogs, jumps up on people, chews things, isn't housetrained, or whines a lot, then I urge you to bookmark and read this webpage! Here's why..."



Immediately a statement like that grabbed my attention. I don't know maybe just a good sales pitch but he said over 56,080 people have had success solving these problems with his book. So I guess only time will tell.

So far I am quite impressed with this book, there are a lot of great things in here and it is laid out very nicely. It is laid out like each chapter is a course with sub courses in it. For example the first chapter is called Dog 101 and it talks about Dog ownership, selecting a puppy or dog, selecting a breeder, dog groups, and responsible ownership. Then moves on to D102 (chapter 2)


Anyway, there is a huge section on dog aggression and training and that is what I need. I spent last night reading from the beginning as I don't want to skip anything that might be valuable. I will be working with Linus every day now more and more on his basic obedience and aggression training. And I will post to let you know how I make out.

You can find the book here at http://www.sitstayfetchebook.com/
Jeff

Monday, March 3, 2008

My Mission to Solve my Dog Training Problems

Hi everyone,
So My wife and I recently adopted a dog named Linus, he was 11 months old and he is a Rat Terrier mix. The first couple of days things were great, I have to admit he is quite cute. Then my brother came to visit. When he came to the door Linus Started barking and jumping on the slider door and going crazy. I let my brother in and Linus attacked him. It was like he was a totally different dog. He bit my brother on the hand and actually drew blood. It was the weekend of the Super bowl and my brother was just coming over to watch the game.

I yelled at him and grabbed the leash and put it on him, He was growling and barking and finally I had to put him in his crate upstairs to watch the game with my brother. As time went on this continued every time we had company over I had to put him on a leash and hold him back. My wife and I were at a point where we were saying to ourselves that if we couldn't get this dog trained then we would have to take him back to the pound and they would possibly have to put him down. We would never want to see that happen to any dog and at this point we were quite attached to Linus and we were not willing to go that route, at least not yet.

We decided to hire a professional dog trainer and see if a dog training could help out with this crazy dog Aggression. We found a Dog Trainer who was recommended to us through a friend and we hired her to come and work with Linus 2-3 days a week for an hour each at $40.00 and hour. She had some great tips and things for us to try and begin Linus' dog training. Not all the training was for this one Dog Aggression problem. Our dog trainer incorporated training in general. She said it was important we focus on dog obedience training first in order to get Linus to be able to cooperate with training for his dog aggression.

We started using the simple obedience tips the dog trainer told us to use and they seemed to be working pretty well. Linus was listening to us better and following simple commands like Sit and Down. But we still were having this issue with his dog aggression. Although I have to admit that Linus is a more well trained dog as far as normal dog training commands are concerned after 5 weeks of private dog training lessons we have seen little results as far as his dog aggression getting any better.

It seems that when our dog trainer is over we can have guests over and she is able to control him, he will be on his leash and he will still bark and growl but after about 5 minutes of our guest being there he will calm down and just lay down. This in itself is a huge improvement over how he was before and we are pleased however, once our dog trainer leaves forget it....

It seems once our dog trainer leaves and is gone for a bit if someone comes over he turns back into a nut case and barks like a crazy dog. My niece came over last week and he went after her and made a nice scrape on her ankle. She was brave and said it was OK but her eyes filled up and now she is to afraid to come over. I am not sure what we are going to do. We have spent over $500.00 in dog training for Private in home dog training lessons and although he overall is a better dog the one problem we wanted solved is still quite evident.

My feeling right now is that if we don't solve these crazy dog problems and fast we will have to have him put down, we just can't take the chance. I find it quite funny that he was so much better with the dog trainer there and when she was gone he turned into a crazy dog. This makes me believe it is more us than the dog. We must be doing something wrong and I am on a mission to find out what it is....
 
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