siberian_wolf Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 SIBERIAN WOLF - Thanks for the link to your thread. It's reassuring to know I am not on my own. Keyser is 18 months old so also an adolescent. My heart goes out to you, but hopefully we will both come through this and have our lovely dogs back to their old selves. By the way, I'm in Birmingham. One thing to remember on this forum is you are never alone! We are all here to help each other in the best way possible The behaviourist Im going with lives in Dorset, where I do, on her website it says she can travel but I think Birmingham maybe too far. If you are interesting in searching for a reputable behaviourist I can ask ours when we see her and see if she knows anyone worth contacting up your way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
infinitykate Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 Hey and welcome to the pack! Sorry to hear that you're having so much trouble with your sibe! I haven't read through everyone's replies yet, but I want to give you the best piece of advice that any trainer ever gave me and that is: Step back, take a deep breath, forgive yourself and your dog for yesterday's frustration, for what happened this morning and what happened five minutes ago. If you're trying, you're not failing. Sibes are strong willed at the best of times and down right insolent at the worst and it can be very frustrating. I know that for me, what worked with my parents Malamute is that I would just walk, run, roller blade, bike, whatever until he was tired. It will probably take you an hour or more, but it will make her a little more docile and easier to cope with. I know that the walking is really hard right now, so that can be frustrating, but sometimes one good day of a TONNE of exercise will get rid of all that extra pent up energy, and then it's just an issue of maintenance. I see this with Finn a lot. If we do short walks all week, by the end of the week she has so much extra energy that she gets destructive and just generally will be a little brat, and it take a good long walk to bring her back to any sort of level where she's walking well on leash, and behaving in the house. So much easier to do one big walk to bring her back to a managable level and then maintain her at a 30 - 40 min walk (she's still a pup so I can't do more than that with her now). Another thing to consider is that you might want to look into a vest. We used to use one with my parent's mal, and it was super helpful. The fact of the matter is, the dog is meant to pull and run and get a LOT of exercise. We started the mal off with about 1kg in his vest, and then upped it over a period of a few weeks and it really helped because A) it made him feel like he had a job and the walks had an exponentially greater impact because he was getting more exercise in the same amount of time by bearing a little weight. As for a pinch collar or e-collar, I've never used one on a dog personally, but I know many who have, and they are commonly used here. When we went to puppy class with my fav trainer, she made all the humans wear a pinch / pronged collar and showed us how a check on it felt so that we understood what it did. I can tell you that it's not painful at all, but it does certainly get your attention. My brother uses an e-collar with his dog, (doberman), and he tested it out on himself first so that he knew what the shock was that he was using. I'm sure it feels different to a dog but to the same degree, if it packs too much of a whallop to a human, it's DEF going to be too much for the 130 lb dog. I highly reccomend finding a trainer or puppy class that you're comfortable with. Any time I've ever gone to obedience, if there has been 'problem' dogs the trainer has GLADLY done an extra half hour / hour troubleshooting with that person either before or after classes. Sometimes knowing you're not alone is helpful too. So, take a deep breath, forgive, forget, and put one foot in front of the other. All you can do is move forward, and if you're still trying, then you haven't failed. Husky Hugs from Finn & I and please keep us posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siberian_wolf Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 excellant reply kate, added to rep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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