I have a question about a trainer's method that came by last Saturday. She offered her help (like I told in another thread) to see if she can prolong my boy's stay with me and perhaps better the situation so much more that my family could take care of him while I recover my health. It's a bit idealistic, but as I'm having great difficulties with the rehoming process, this is a good midway solution. At least as long as I still manage.
We started working on his biting. Whenever he gets too enthusiastic, he bites. In the trainer's words, "this is what you guys have taught him, he does not know how to ask for attention, so he bites". She does not want me correcting him, ever. Her method is to simply let him bite me and just wait until he stops. When he stops (not because his attention deviated to something else) I need to reward him (I also need to reward him whenever he does approach me in the right way). The thing is, he bites freakin hard (doesn't draw blood). It's pure masochism to just stand there and not make any sound at all. She told me to just curse in my head...
So yesterday I decided to throw this idea out of the window and start walking into another room if he bites, because it was too much (not reacting also seems to feed his behavior, it just ups his drive). This works fine for me, but my sister is too petite to walk to another room while he's pulling her trousers. After some failed attempts she decided to follow this trainer's advice and put on double clothes and a jacket. Madoc's drive was already super high at this point so he immediately jumped at her arms, pulling her full force. It was too painful for her to just keep quiet standing there, so I had to intervene, because at this point he was just playing tug. I had to grab him with force and put him next to me. He barked a few times, but didn't do anything else. I then picked his tug toy and played a bit. Gave it to my sister and she also played a bit. This way I kind of redirected his attention, but it was far from good.
He starts with a soft bite, but whether you give attention or not, he just increases his force. He doesn't do this very often though. You can see when wants to do it and at that point I just need to redirect immediately to a toy.
The trainer told me this same method worked with a Dutch Shepherd she helped train. And that, when done properly, it teaches the dog that it does not get any attention if it bites.
My boy is 15 months. For the people who haven't followed me: I haven't done nearly enough training due to health problems.
Has any of you ever heard of this method? Is it any good? Should I just continue to do what I'm trying to do now?
We started working on his biting. Whenever he gets too enthusiastic, he bites. In the trainer's words, "this is what you guys have taught him, he does not know how to ask for attention, so he bites". She does not want me correcting him, ever. Her method is to simply let him bite me and just wait until he stops. When he stops (not because his attention deviated to something else) I need to reward him (I also need to reward him whenever he does approach me in the right way). The thing is, he bites freakin hard (doesn't draw blood). It's pure masochism to just stand there and not make any sound at all. She told me to just curse in my head...
So yesterday I decided to throw this idea out of the window and start walking into another room if he bites, because it was too much (not reacting also seems to feed his behavior, it just ups his drive). This works fine for me, but my sister is too petite to walk to another room while he's pulling her trousers. After some failed attempts she decided to follow this trainer's advice and put on double clothes and a jacket. Madoc's drive was already super high at this point so he immediately jumped at her arms, pulling her full force. It was too painful for her to just keep quiet standing there, so I had to intervene, because at this point he was just playing tug. I had to grab him with force and put him next to me. He barked a few times, but didn't do anything else. I then picked his tug toy and played a bit. Gave it to my sister and she also played a bit. This way I kind of redirected his attention, but it was far from good.
He starts with a soft bite, but whether you give attention or not, he just increases his force. He doesn't do this very often though. You can see when wants to do it and at that point I just need to redirect immediately to a toy.
The trainer told me this same method worked with a Dutch Shepherd she helped train. And that, when done properly, it teaches the dog that it does not get any attention if it bites.
My boy is 15 months. For the people who haven't followed me: I haven't done nearly enough training due to health problems.
Has any of you ever heard of this method? Is it any good? Should I just continue to do what I'm trying to do now?