Stopping a Dog From Biting People Who Pick Up Her Sister

For this Omaha dog training session, we used counterconditioning to stop 4 year-old Welsh Terrier Mary from attacking anyone who picks up her sister Rhoda (Left).

We started the session off by discussing the dog’s daily routine. I learned they didn’t have any rules, didn’t know many commands, could demand attention from the guardians on command and could probably use a little extra exercise.

I suggested the guardians start an exercise journal and suggested some creative ways to burn off their excess energy. I also showed the guardians how to add the special twist of the leash to give them more control on walks.

Next I suggested a number of rules and ways to enforce them. This will be an important part of their rehabilitation process. As a dog behavior expert, I have seen many dogs who were confused into thinking they needed to protect the other dogs, humans or home due to a lack of rules and structure.

Id like to see the guardians taking turns teaching the dogs some basic commands, with one guardian doing the teaching the first week and the other doing so the following week. If they each commit to teaching 4 new commands, the dogs will have a number of new ways to be redirected and also feel better about the authority and leadership of their new humans.

I started them off by teaching the dogs to focus on the human on command. This is a great way to get the dogs attention away form something they may react to.

I may have to start advertising myself as a Welsh Terrier trainer due to how easy it was to get the dog to focus.

I showed the guardians how to use counterconditioning to stop Mary from attacking people who picks up her sister Rhoda.

Stopping a dog from biting someone to disagree is obviously important for any dog guardian. This biting behavior is likely a result of the dog’s lack of rules and structure in their former home. That’s why we spent so much time on that aspect early on in this in home dog training session. With enough practice, Mary should learn its not nice to bite people who want to pick up her sibling.

Towards the end of the session, I showed the guardians how to claim the area around their door to stop them from door dashing and escaping into the neighborhood. Once they teach the dogs to stay back from the door, they can move on to the next step, training them they can only go through the door with permission. This was pretty important as these dogs have some dog aggression issues.

Im hopeful that the dog behavior tips I shared in this session will stop the dogs from being dog aggressive, but if that behavior is still present a month after this session, I told the guardians to call us to schedule a BAT training session to address that issue.

To help the guardians remember all the major themes from this session, we shot a roadmap to success video. Unfortunately I got a telemarking call (No i dont want a new credit card!) that interrupted the video near the end. I made sure to give the guardians my personal cell number so they can call me about anything that got left out due to the video stoppage.