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Post by Bella's Mom on May 10, 2014 7:02:14 GMT -5
While Bella was in the hospital she loved everyone. Even the new people she's never met before. When at home or out on a walk with me she won't let anyone touch her or get too close to us. I had someone mention she's too protective of me. Now I believe it since she was so nice to everyone when I wasn't around. I always knew she was a love ball its nice to have had it proven. She got kicked out of training class before it even began. They said she was too aggressive with her barking. Everyone but one person called her aggressive..the one person was the one to say she was just overly protective of me. Trying to work with her by introducing her to friends while out on walks. I'm not sure what has made her so hyper protective of me. We have made some progress last year she wouldn't share a sidewalk and this year she is very nicely as long as they keep their distance. I'm in rescue so I'm use to being the protector...Bella isn't a rescue and she seems to think she's the protector of us all. She's my first personal pit...had one in rescue that attacked me and sent me to the emergency room. Was afraid of them until one day I was in the vets office sitting talking to someone and felt my arm go up and a dog snuggle against me. It was a pit bull. My love for them returned that day. My friends got me Bella. I'm semi-retired from rescue..no longer bringing them into my home. So they got me the dog I always wanted (well a brief time after the attack I didn't). Any way to calm her protectiveness of me? She won't even let another person hold her leash if I'm there...she will fight to get out of her collar. I've had her since she was 6wks old. She's my baby. What did I do wrong to make her so hyper protective of me? How do I undo it? Everyone says its a bad thing.
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Post by RealPitBull on May 14, 2014 7:32:31 GMT -5
So Bella's been fine with people she doesn't know and only seems to have an issue when she's with you?
Ok....well, the first thing I would do is, at home, do what I call "forced separation" and spend some time apart from Bella as well as ignoring her, especially if she attempts to solicit attention from you. It doesn't have to be long spans of time that you do this, but just sporadically throughout the day so she learns to be a bit independent and not "need" you so much. You'll also maybe do some fun crate time (give her a treat to gnaw on).
Ask her to "sit" for everything she wants (food, pets, attention, leash on, etc).
Practice the "Look at that" game while you are out on walks. I'd do this to START and then work forward. The LAT game is simple. Here's how it works:
“Look at that!”
For some dogs, anything that moves is a source of amazement. And sometimes even fear or nervousness. These are dogs that look at stimuli in the environment – cats, dogs, people – and either become reactive/aggressive, or ‘zone out’. These are the dogs that can benefit from the “Look at that!” game.
The game goes like this. You’re out with your dog, and something in the environment catches your dog’s eye – before your dog has time to react or space out, click and treat. Your dog’s concentration will zoom back to you. After you treat, your dog may look BACK at the person/dog/whatever. Guess what you do? Click and treat again. And so goes the game.
What you are doing is teaching the dog that a) it’s ok to look – but just for a second, and b) the thing in the environment is actually a cue that a nice goody is coming his way.
This accomplishes several things. It keeps your dog from becoming overly focused on something and it also helps him become more comfortable about things he might be somewhat nervous about. Soon various stimuli will be about a game you play with your dog and not about the stimuli themselves.
NOW, about the CLICKING part. I do something called clicker training which you may or may not have heard about. Basically you use a little plastic clicker to let the dog know she did the "right" thing. When you CLICK the clicker, you give your dog a piece of food. There are tons of books on the subject but for starters I'd recommend the two following: Clicker Training for Dogs by Karen Pryor and Clicking With Your Dog by Peggy Tillman.
If you have any questions, just ask but these are the things I'd start with.
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Post by Bella's Mom on May 14, 2014 13:00:48 GMT -5
Thanks so much!
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