A little background info:
We adopted Poppy, a Schnauzer-Poodle mix, last June from an excellent rescue group called Hopeful Hearts. She has shown signs of mistreatment like running away when being approached, hiding under the tiniest spaces, cowering when a hand approached her...
My main goal was to make her feel safe and to be able to trust us! It has served us well so far. She stays when we approach her, she did not feel the need to hide under the furniture for a long, long time. Except last night, when I was running a bath for myself, and decided to give our other dog her yoghurt because she is on Antibiotics right now. I called them both for their treat (Kefir yoghurt), but Poppy thought she is going to have a bath and started crawling under the bed...
Asides from that she has so much trust now, that I can take her sweet little face between my hands and kiss the top of her head! She snuggles with us and places herself belly up during the snuggle moments, even if just for a short time.
With summer coming, where people will be spending time in their back yards again, I think it is time to work on her not so desirable behaviours, such as barking at the neighbours, their guests, and especially their dogs! I am so glad to have found this forum and been introduced to the idea of counter conditioning.
The reason for my post is:
Just this afternoon she was barking at the little dog, that lives just across from our back yard. So I walked up to her with some soft dog treats that I could turn into small pieces and got her attention. She stopped barking and sat down, so I gave her a treat. We stayed there a few minutes where she turned at times to bark at the little dog, as well as at the two young children who got curious and came to watch. And everytime she turned her attention back to me and sat down and stopped barking she got a treat.
My question is:
Once I had her attention should I have moved away from the fence and in effect lure her away from it? Or is it a good idea to condition her right there where the trigger is the strongest?
There are other barking issues she has, like people passing by our house, barking when she hears a noise (knocking, walking on the floor above her, car doors, the sound of car remote locks...), barking at guests inside our house when they are moving about, even if they have been here for hours...so you see, there are lots of areas that I need to work on with her...
I apologize for the long winded post!
We adopted Poppy, a Schnauzer-Poodle mix, last June from an excellent rescue group called Hopeful Hearts. She has shown signs of mistreatment like running away when being approached, hiding under the tiniest spaces, cowering when a hand approached her...
My main goal was to make her feel safe and to be able to trust us! It has served us well so far. She stays when we approach her, she did not feel the need to hide under the furniture for a long, long time. Except last night, when I was running a bath for myself, and decided to give our other dog her yoghurt because she is on Antibiotics right now. I called them both for their treat (Kefir yoghurt), but Poppy thought she is going to have a bath and started crawling under the bed...
Asides from that she has so much trust now, that I can take her sweet little face between my hands and kiss the top of her head! She snuggles with us and places herself belly up during the snuggle moments, even if just for a short time.
With summer coming, where people will be spending time in their back yards again, I think it is time to work on her not so desirable behaviours, such as barking at the neighbours, their guests, and especially their dogs! I am so glad to have found this forum and been introduced to the idea of counter conditioning.
The reason for my post is:
Just this afternoon she was barking at the little dog, that lives just across from our back yard. So I walked up to her with some soft dog treats that I could turn into small pieces and got her attention. She stopped barking and sat down, so I gave her a treat. We stayed there a few minutes where she turned at times to bark at the little dog, as well as at the two young children who got curious and came to watch. And everytime she turned her attention back to me and sat down and stopped barking she got a treat.
My question is:
Once I had her attention should I have moved away from the fence and in effect lure her away from it? Or is it a good idea to condition her right there where the trigger is the strongest?
There are other barking issues she has, like people passing by our house, barking when she hears a noise (knocking, walking on the floor above her, car doors, the sound of car remote locks...), barking at guests inside our house when they are moving about, even if they have been here for hours...so you see, there are lots of areas that I need to work on with her...
I apologize for the long winded post!