February 23, 2003
Another winter day in Canada, another 15 centimetres of snow.
At least my snow pup was having fun!
7:00 p.m.
During the past few weeks, Dusty has developed a behavioural quirk that's really bothered me. The quirk is this: when I pick her up, she growls. Here's the strange thing: she only does this when I pick her up - when other people pick her up, she's quiet.
I've really been knashing my teeth over this. I've looked through my dog books to no avail and even asked friends. No dice.
Last night, I sat down with the pup for a play session and really thought it through. My train of thought went something like this:
- Why is she growling? It could be that the growl is a warning, something like "I don't like that" or it could be a fear-growl, "I'm afraid of being up so high, please don't do this."
- What can I do to make her stop? Initially, I would have to use negative reinforcement (taking away something she likes) to discourage the growling behaviour, then use positive reinforcement (giving her something she likes) to reinforce non-growling behaviour.
- How can I respect my dog's need-for-space/fear while still getting the behaviour I want? I decided to use a command, 'Up,' to alert Dusty when she was about to be hoisted, and to give her plenty of praise and encouragement.
I started the process last night. Instead of our usual evening training session, we did the 'pick-up-the-puppy special.' I spent about 20 minutes on this project. The first time I picked her up, she growled. I growled back, put her on the ground and left the room, closing the door behind me. She cried. When the crying stopped, I came back into the room and gave the 'up' command, picked her up. She growled and I went through the same routine again.
This happened one more time before I could pick her up without the growling. At this point, I started praising her profusely and started giving her treats when she was in my arms. We must have done this 15 times.
So far, so good. To reinforce the new behaviour, I've been picking Dusty up periodically and giving her treats. When I pick her up to take her outside, I use the command and she gets the treat. She's grumbled once or twice outside and since leaving her there is not an option, I've used a firm 'NO!' and not given her the treat in those instances.
I'm really happy with her progress - 24 hours later, she rarely growls when picked up.
In other news, we had yet another snow storm here (this doesn't really qualify as 'news' though - it snows a lot here). Dusty loved playing in the snow and I have yet another bunch of Dusty-playing-in-the-snow photos for my collection. Sadly, the weather is going to remain cold for now. So much for an early spring (mega sarcasm!).