LaunchesKayaks

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

How did you assert your dominance? I don’t want to be rough with my dog and make him more anxious.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

I’ve tried that and he would just get very scared. I don’t want him to be scared.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

How should I do that without being rough or scaring him? I don’t want him to regress psychologically. He’s improved so much in regards to his anxiety, and I don’t want that to get messed up.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Yeah. We are going to be at my parents until at least January. My ankle/leg got super fucked up. The accident was also traumatic for my dog. I was screaming with pain when it happened and had to drag myself inside to call for help. My boy got so scared that he ran off into the woods. I wouldn’t let my mom call an ambulance until she got him back. She said he was so scared he was shaking. Throughout this whole ordeal, I’ve cried a lot and I’m sure it makes my dog upset. He has been up my ass since I got hurt and does his best to comfort me.

My parents also have two dogs and one is an anxious mess, which doesn’t help my boy. The anxious dog freaks out over the littlest things and has to be consoled constantly. My parents’ dogs also love to sneak in and eat my dogs’ (I have a goldendoodle puppy as well) food. My dogs also had a very strict routine before all this happened and it’s completely different now.

I’m going to make some toys for my dogs to keep my hands busy and hopefully help my boy. All of his fave stuff is at my house, and my parents haven’t had time to grab it for me

My little sister has also been getting very frustrated with all of the dogs running around and/or misbehaving. She has autism and doesn’t understand that yelling at them and lecturing them doesn’t help. In fact, yelling and lecturing makes my beagle very upset. I’ve been working with her to try to make her understand what is and isn’t appropriate behavior towards the dogs. I’ve been helping her with how to recognize what the dogs need to do in situations where they are being crazy. Sometimes they need a nap, or to run outside, or they’re hungry.

I’m going to call my vet today and see if they think upping his Prozac temporarily will help at all.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Oh yeah. I’m not going to do anything to traumatize my dog. I just didn’t know if there are ways to assert your dominance in a non-aggressive way.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

I’m not going to be violent with my dog. He has enough issues. I wanted ways to get this behavior stopped in a way that has positive reinforcement or some shit.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Ive been having my little sister take him and the other dogs out to play several times a day. My boy sleeps most of the day though lol

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

He just had a checkup and everything is fine. I’m 100% not taking the tough guy route.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Lol she’s not because the dogs don’t even listen to her

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Thank you so much for all the advice! I’ll definitely try out what you said. He just got a checkup and the vet said he is fine. He could probably use more exercise, but I physically can’t take him out because my leg is messed up. My sister is in charge of that during the day until my parents get home.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

I’ve found that talking to him calmly when correcting other bad behavior is more effective than being firm. He really doesn’t like when people aren’t chill. Lil dude has made huge improvements with his anxiety since I got him, and I know we can get through this as well. When I brought him home, any kind of precipitation would send him into panic attacks. I had to get him a raincoat so we could work on getting him used to rain and all that. Now he’ll go outside in the rain, but wants back in as soon as he finishes his business lol. It’s just gonna take time for this current issue. I have so much time since I’m laid up, so I can work on training constantly.

I’m looking into trainers, but there aren’t many around me that are affordable or have good reviews. I live in a rural area that has the “be the alpha” mentality when it comes to animals. I get judged a lot by other dog owners around me when I say that I don’t hit or yell at my dog. They say he’ll walk all over me, but he’s a good boy. He listens really well for the most part, aside from when his nose gets the better of him.

I’m going to try trading him stuff and teaching him to drop stuff and see how it goes. I told my sister to come get me or my mom if he has something he shouldn’t. My sister has a hard time grasping how to behave around animals, so I want my mom and I to do the training at first soy sister doesn’t get bit again. I’d rather get bit. My stepfather is a bit extreme with some things, so the rest of us have been downplaying the resource guarding so my stepfather doesn’t get mad and get mean with my boy or want him put down.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

Thank you so much for the advice! I’m looking into trainers. My boy knows “leave it” when he is actively trying to get something he shouldn’t. I think I’m going to use “drop it” when he has things in his mouth. I don’t want him to get “leave it” confused after taking almost a year to learn it.

LaunchesKayaks, 1 year ago

The room I’m in isn’t good for fetch or stuff like that. I’m going to see if my parents can help me into the yard tomorrow so I can play with all of the dogs. My sister said she made up a new game with them that they love but won’t go into more detail lol.

I’ve given my dogs kongs, but the beagle loses interest if he can’t easily get the stuff out. If I make the kings easy, he’ll eat it all in 30 seconds. The puppy isn’t food motivated and just ignores the kongs.