I was at a Home Dog Training session with a new client in Dahlonega yesterday. I was working with Zoey, their one year old Wheaton. She was having some issues with jumping, not paying attention, and jumping on the furniture. By the end of the visit, all these problems were completely solved. Before I leave any dog training session, I always ask my clients if there is anything else they want to discuss or anything else we might have missed working on that day. Yesterday was no exception. I asked my clients if they had any other dog training or canine behavior issues that needed to be addressed that day and they had one more thing. It seems that the wife’s mother likes to bring her two dogs over to their house about once a week. These dogs are not house broken and always leave little “pee-pee” accidents around the house and leave “poopie accidents” on the front porch. Although Zoey is 100% house broken and always goes outside “in her place”, every time the other dogs come over, she seems to have accidents in the house.
Dogs are a social, pack animal and will often respond and react to the actions of other dogs around them. When the other dogs leave their “accidents” in Zoey’s world, they are also leaving their smell and a form of canine ownership. Zoey does the only thing that she can do to counteract this intrusion into her area by removing the other dogs’ smell with her own.
As I “dug down” into this situation, I also learned that one of their friends likes to stop by with his two little, six year old girls. Every time they come over, the girls yell and scream at the sight of Zoey. Although she is normally calm around everybody else, he gets very agitated every time the little girls come over. He is also starting to show similar agitation towards anyone who stops by and talks in a loud voice.
As our conversation continued, it seemed that one of the husband’s employees stops by once a week to drop off his time card. He is always bringing his seven year old son. The son loves dogs and he plays with Zoey the entire time they are by. The problem is that their play is a little rambunctious and Zoey normally ends up nipping and jumping on the little boy. The boy doesn’t mind it and it is very hard to stop this from happening.
With all of this said and done, the solution does not reside with Zoey at all…
- The other dogs are coming into Zoey’s home and marking her land.
- The little girls are coming into Zoey’s home and causing a crazy distraction that naturally increases her adrenaline.
- The little boy is playing roughly with Zoey.
My answer was simple and consistent across the board:
- The mother can’t bring her dogs over.
- The little girls stay home or in the car.
- The little boy stays home or in the car.
None of these activities are Zoey’s fault and really went against the “house rules” of my clients anyway. I think they were just trying to find a “third party” to confirm the answers they really wanted to hear. Zoey is a great dog and getting rid of these inappropriate influences will to a very long way to making sure Zoey sees my clients as her protector and will keep their house a lot calmer.
Sometimes you just need to enforce “tough love” and “house rules” when it comes to other dogs, your guests, and family members.
Please call Robin or me at (770) 718-7704 if you are in need of any dog training help. Find all our phone numbers, text addresses and email contacts at Dog Training Help Center Dahlonega Georgia.
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