Our trainer would 100% say that the trauma of seeing you knocked on your ass is making him feel like he has to protect you.
Disagree with “dominance” like some harsh insistence on it, but he needs to relax, and it’s impossible for him to do that if he feels he must protect you. He has to know you can protect him, and take care of him.
Can you get professional help? It really helped us. Getting the whole family on the same page and using the same training strategies will help so much. And don’t worry, behavior can be modified.
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.
If I had to distill the training - there are dominance elements, but CALM and firm is the vibe, and giving them opportunities to be good. He has us sort of bark at the dog as a general “look at me” then pet them for paying attention, and a high pitched gentle “free” or “whee” to release them. Maintain a 2 foot bubble when eating or working from home, don’t let them cuddle up to me. I always made them wait until I walk through a door but he said make them wait until specifically released. So there is some dominance based discipline in there and it does help, but never violence, never use hands to correct them only voice or leash. Nothing that makes them afraid of you will make them respect you.
It was expensive as heck because we have 2 dogs but lifetime support and I can see it’s working. We didn’t have a free for all before the training either - always had standards of behavior for them, heel when walking, etc. We are trying to get to the point they can be walked together and not freak out even if another dog on a leash barks at them. It’s a long road but improving all the time.
I guess one good thing about being injured is plenty of time with the dog to work it out. And yes behavior problems after a traumatic event are normal as heck. Stay consistent, and manage the environment as much as you can at first, don’t give an opening to misbehave, reward with attention when they do what you want.
ETA: it really does depend on the dog. My daughter’s dog is just not emotional, he may ignore what you tell him to do but doesn’t freak out, like, ever. A little kid wanted to pet him at the park and literally screamed in his face and he just sat there, it didn’t phase him. So she can be quite rough with him and he is fine with it. Just “oh, THAT’S what you want, OK.”
There's a bit of odd advice there. Not letting your dog cuddle with you and barking at them is very weird. Check your trainers qualifications. Leash corrections is a red flag too as is dominance based nonsense.
Barking is an overstatement, lol. But a rough noise to get their attention, a soft and high pitched word for praise and plenty of cuddling just on my terms, not when working at home.
It’s certainly working, can’t argue with results. Both dogs are calmer and behaving better, easier to train now. Not as reactive.
It's just all very weird. The thing is, there's things that work short term but ruin your dogs confidence and bond which cause bigger issues in the long term, punishing the dog falls in this box. I mean, you can train your dog by kicking it every time it does something wrong if you like, it might work, but it ruins your dog. A lot of these fake trainers fall into these things and cause real harm.
Ah. There is no punishment built in here, unless you consider removing attention to be punishment. It’s positive reinforcement when they do something right, the happy words and pets. Ignoring them sometimes to convince them you are ok and so are they, not reassuring them. Odd, sure, but not at all mean. They don’t seem ruined, I probably just am not explaining it right. Certainly not kicking them, what the heck?
We replaced liquid laundry detergent with powered , replaced shampoos and soaps in bottles with bar soap etc. And bought netting bags to replace plastic bags
I started using those “eco sheets” for my laundry and they work just as well. The big win is the container is the size of your hand and is made of cardboard
We switched to these also, and they work great. We also tried this with dishwasher detergent, though, and didn’t have as much luck. Maybe it was the brand we chose.
A lot of the takeout places near me are exclusively handing out cardboard and biodegradable based utensils. Which is the better solution systemically imo
My dog used to resource guard pretty bad - we would always trade him. If he had a chew and it was time to given it up, offer him something different in exchange. Reward him when he grabs the new item you give him.
If it’s a food bowl, trade him a treat for the bowl. We used to use the “find it” game by throwing treats and he would run for those and then we could grab the item we wanted.
If you can find one in your location we have been trying to shop more at a package free stores. We have found that the cleaning products which we have purchased are generally similar in price and work just as well if not better than we used to use. After living in a city that charged for bags at the grocery store we have gotten used to using a reusable bag for all grocery trips even though lots of items still have the single use plastics in packaging. For those we try to reuse that plastic as small garbage can liners or other uses but most get thrown away.
We have been trying to reduce our consumption in general (the high costs of goods has helped with this). We have been trying to only purchase the high quality long last version of any item instead of the cheapest one available. This has been difficult since the high quality is more expensive and its difficult to find what items are actually worth it instead of a brand name. Overall it difficult but being mindful of it has been helpful
i have high blood pressure and was smoking while they sorted it out with medication. when it was finally under control the doc suggested i keep it in the cocktail, needless to say it definitely lowers your blood pressure.
Ultra anecdotal, but I once had issues because I was setting the language of a comment. Didn’t get an error, it just wouldn’t post. Something to look out for.
Health related items are probably one of the few appropriate times to use plastic. I think that’s a pretty common opinion. The medical world uses a lot of plastic to saves lives, compared to cocacola which uses single use plastic to save money and make us unhealthy
CBD generally doesn’t do much without THC. That being said, putting chemicals into your body is putting chemicals into your body. Better to use something that has peer reviewed research behind it imo.
I will add that therapy effectiveness depends more on the quality of the provider and your relationship with that provider than the type of therapy you engage in (CBT, DBT, etc). Just like medications, sometimes it takes a few tries to find the right fit. Medication will be most effective when paired with therapy and vice versa.
Lack of research into THC is wholly due to moral panic. Weed was criminalized and legislated into the ground preventing it from being researched (not eligible for research grants or normal funding).
I can easily say it helped with my anxiety. So one anecdotal data point in support.
This happened a few times with friends. They just dropped like a rock and then were pale for a few hours. It’s not uncommon but I would avoid smoking if it keeps happening. Being knocked out for 5-10 minutes is a long time. Passing out is generally considered a medical emergency.
Just because your parents have dogs doesn’t mean they can offer a safe environment or know what to do with them. All the changes and the environment posed for your dog are incredibly stressful for the dog. Please be compassionate that your dog is going through more than you even though you literally broke your leg and probably experienced the worst pain in your life. Changes in living situations are the biggest adjustments for dogs ever.
Please don’t listen to people suggesting anything with the word dominance, pack mentality, wolf study, punishment or anything forcefull. All of that is guaranteed to make things worse.
A certified trainer (CCPDT and the various acronyms associated, the dog academy, anyone force force free) will get you on course faster than any website or book.
If you want your dog to make it out of this, your dog has to be a priority, make it your part time job.
My quick advice if you can’t afford a trainer and will only look up free internet advice from strangers:
Start with giving them something low value to chew on in a distraction free room. Have 10 minutes worth of super high value treats. When they are chewing the low value, walk up to them and give them the treat. Let them chew on the low value again. Repeat. Try for 10 minutes at a time. Adjust value of chew and treat so they don’t react when you walk up to them.
Next session, If they start wagging their tail when you approach. Try making it harder by taking the item for 1 second then, give them the treat then give it back. Ramp up duration or value of chew and items as progress is made
All of this has to be a happy and joyful affair. You are using a happy and friendly puppy voice the whole time. The dog has to feel good about this the whole time. So make sure you and the dog are in as good of a place mentally when doing it. This will all be harder if the dog doesn’t have other prerequisites like a leave it or drop it command.
There are so many ways you need to modify the above strategy for your particular dog that I can’t stress enough how valuable you’ll find a certified force free trainer to be. A vet check might also be suggested by the trainer. I think my advice is barely scratching the surface of what to do and how to do it, I haven’t even met your dog so what do I even know? Very little!
If you need proof that force free methods are a way, the AVSAB statements are quick and easy to read with tonnes of source citations: avsab.org/resources/position-statements/
I take a prescribed medication for my anxiety, along with the support of talking to strangers about what my stresses are and that definitely helps.
I’ve used CBD for a 6mo period of time and I feel that it didn’t help the situation, but masked it during times when I would be exposed to my stressors. So if I used something throughout the week, that meant I’d have a breakdown/meltdown over the weekend where I could just eat a tub of junk food and binge watch a show. I really thought it was helping ke, but like any substance you develop a tolerance.
So I just stuck with weed, but eventually the same problem would come up where I was just masking it, but I was high and smiling all the time. Productivity kinda dropped but boy did reading become fun again.
I really hate pumping my body full of pills, and I’m not going to lie and say it’s not masking it either, but I feel like the mask is a constant while I work out my issues it a healthier way vs. just kinda sitting around in a fog.
What’s comical is that I’m finding out my cause for anxiety seems to be coming from what I think ADHD is? My inability to focus on projects and see them to completion is a HUGE stressor to me, making me anxious all the time. I think once I’m in a better headspace I’ll transition to looking into that deeper in hopes that my assumption is correct.
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