Can you help with Woody part 2?
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Well I got so much help with my last question, I am hoping I can get some with this problem. Woody loves to go for a walk, she begs all the time to go. Problem is once she is out, she doesn't want to go home, and will stop and freeze and I cannot get her going again. When she figures out we are heading home, that is when the freeze happens, she literally will not budge unless I walk in a direction that is not towards home. The first time she did it was half a block from home, next time a block, each time it has been a little farther from home....I think because she is learning the different paths we take. Today she did it a mile and a half from home. Took me ten minutes to get her to move, and then she pouted, walked as slow as she could, and stopped feet planted intermittently all the way home. A walk that should have taken an hour and 15 minutes took 2 hours and 15 minutes. In the past if I walked away from her and turned my back to her and not look at her, she would give in and come. But that doesn't work anymore. Another problem is she has been abused, beaten, so when she does this and I get frustrated and walk back to her ... she can tell I am not happy, and she will back away from me. So then I feel I need to pet her to make her not feel afraid of me, but I also feel when I do this I am teaching her she will get positive reinforcement for bad behavior. What do I do????? I am afraid to take her anymore.
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I would be tempted to ignore the behavior and just keep walking. She likely won't appreciate being dragged. If she gets up and takes a couple of steps, stop and praise her, then continue. That's the "tough love" approach. Another would be to just pick her up and carry her home.
If that doesn't work for you, try this: take her out for her walk, go one block from home, turn around and head back. If she cooperates, pass the house and go in the opposite direction for a block, turn around and head back. If she tries her refusing to move tactic, let her sit there for the normal amount of time you would walk, do not coax her, do not acknowledge her existence. I'm guessing she will get up at some point and show a willingness to move. If she does, walk her past your house and continue, extending the distance if she cooperates, but don't go too far from home until she earns the privilege by abandoning her "sit down strike".
I have one further thought. What happens when you arrive home? Could it be that there is something she finds uncomfortable about returning, something she dislikes about her home? Maybe there is a way to make her anticipate a pleasant end to your walk, e.g. make her dinner time happen at the end of the walk, and don't feed her before you go out, so she is hungry when you return.
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@eeeefarm Once we are home she is fine, a happy girl, yes that is when she gets fed, right after we get home from the walk. After she ate she then begged all evening for my attention and to go for another walk. I love the idea of going past the house during her walk!!
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@fernrn1 said in Can you help with Woody part 2?:
@eeeefarm Once we are home she is fine, a happy girl, yes that is when she gets fed, right after we get home from the walk. After she ate she then begged all evening for my attention and to go for another walk. I love the idea of going past the house during her walk!!
It's a tactic we use with horses, for the opposite reason. If you are schooling, they want to be finished with it and leave the ring. Therefore it is useful to never ride directly to the gate when you are done, but to go past it, then either dismount or turn back to exit. It can save inexperienced riders from a "gate dasher" situation that could be dangerous.
If your actions become too predictable, a canny critter will find a way to take advantage. Your job is to think one step ahead of them, and find ways to keep them guessing about your intent.
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I agree the comments below - try to reach out/ find a dog trainer that you could contract to help you. Also I was thinking along the lines of horse example - can you walk around your block - so maybe you would normally walk the equivalent of 3-4 blocks just try the walk around your block so it changes it up so you can get Woody used to walking past your house multiple times that way Woody won't know when the walk is done. It will probably be toughest the first few times but you can reassure Woody the walk is not finished and take her past the home and to get her used to walking back towards the house.
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This doesn't seem like a big behavioral issue to me. On a 0-10 scale I'd give it a 3. I like eeeefarm's approach. I'd probably act all excited at something in the direction of where I wanted to go and then give her a treat when she started moving.
FWIW I'm not a fan of dog trainers. Half are below average and the average isn't great. I'd suggest trying to remedy this yourself before going that route. This response may be because I've seen this behavior many times.
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@donc said in Can you help with Woody part 2?:
FWIW I'm not a fan of dog trainers. Half are below average and the average isn't great. I'd suggest trying to remedy this yourself before going that route.
Given the globe shape of this planet and time zones, the best answers have been given before I get up in the morning !
I especially like eeeefarm's suggestion of passing the house several times before actually going in, to throw her off guard.
But DonC has the right of it. Unless you can find a behavourist who actually knows Basenjis and has worked with them a great deal, you are better off NOT using one.
A poor, or even a mediocre trainer can easily do more harm than good so if you DO go that route, pick one who has trained multiple Basenjis over a period of years. We have covered this thread before here - training a Basenji is not like any other breed, and in any case, a good trainer will only ever train you to work with and train your dog.
Actually, I think this is something you can overcome yourself, with time, patience and using some of the ideas expressed here.
But I have one caveate - do not 'drag' the dog, she will just dig in, lie down and you won't be able to budge her. And you could cause hilarity in passers-by.
A short, very sharp, yank on the lead to get her on her feet and moving. Then relax the lead. If she lies down again, another sharp yank to get her up, and relax it. Until she learns you will go on doing this until she does 'come quietly' - follows you home !
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@zande said in Can you help with Woody part 2?:
But I have one caveate - do not 'drag' the dog, she will just dig in, lie down and you won't be able to budge her. And you could cause hilarity in passers-by.
A short, very sharp, yank on the lead to get her on her feet and moving. Then relax the lead. If she lies down again, another sharp yank to get her up, and relax it. Until she learns you will go on doing this until she does 'come quietly' - follows you home !
Yes, this is better than my advice, and more along the lines of what I would actually do. I was hesitant to suggest it because you risk the person not understanding or applying the technique correctly, most often because of hesitancy, lack of decisive action.
I agree about dog trainers, even those that are Basenji savvy. As you say, they need to teach you to train your dog. When I was young I trained dogs for people. The dogs would do whatever I had taught them, for me. When the owner took over the results were less certain! Sometimes the training stuck, but with a wily dog it didn't take long before they figured out the owner wasn't really in command, and then things would fall apart. Best if the owner applies the training, with direction if necessary from a "coach".
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Thank you all. With your advice I have made a few changes.
First I am incorporating walking past the house during the walk, yesterday three times. And by the end of the walk she had no idea we were going home!! So it helped for yesterdays walk for sure, and I plan to keep doing that.
Second, she seems to only like/trust me. My brother lives with me and she will not let him get near her. He gives her lots of treats to try to win her trust, she will get close enough to take the treat, but that is it. --It hasn't worked in 3 months. So I told him no more treats all the time. She only gets treats with training or for reward for good behavior. I got her a big bone from one of the suggested sights, and she has that she can chew on.
This change has made a difference in her as well, for the good.
I am learning just as much as she is -- we are learning together. -
It is the owner who needs to make the adjustments necessary to obtain a desired behavior. Sometimes it is hard to figure out the "work around" and, it is incredibly easy for an owner to unintentionally reward an unwanted behavior. You can't be "sloppy" with a basenji - they train us well!
I adopted my b-boy about 3 year ago. He wants to decide which direction we walk. Sometimes, that's okay with me, other times it is not. He puts on the brakes and refuses to budge. At first I dragged him a bit. Not good. Treats don't work. Then, I tried giving a quick jerk/release. Not good. (If you try this, please be careful not to cause damage to your dog's neck!) What works for me is I just wait for him to realize I'm not going to give in (this takes A LOT of patience). Sometimes, while I'm waiting for him, I talk to him about why I want to go in a specific direction and tell him what's in it for him... people walking by think I am absolutely bonkers trying to verbally reason with a dog, but it works for us. Sometimes, he completely refuses to budge, so I pick him up and carry him for a bit. Usually, when put him on his feet, he will walk on. I noticed that if I walk to get behind him, he takes a step forward and once he makes that first step, he's more likely to move forward, When he does, I praise him like crazy. Sometimes, especially in dim light, he will stop, stare, hackle and refuse to move forward - at those times, we simply turn around and walk in the other direction because I trust that he sees or smells something that he finds dangerous.
One thing I consistently do that might help Woody is I always feed my b when we get home after we walk. That way, he has something to look forward to (i.e., going home is good!) I'm sorry Woody is taking so long to warm up to your brother. Maybe your brother needs to work with Woody on some very simple command like sit, or look at me, giving her high value treats or her dinner when she obeys. That way, she may begin to see him as more of a leader and provider of treats than someone who scares her. It needs to be brief, daily consistent to sink in. Patience. You might have to let your brother be the sole source of all good things (like treats and food) and only if she makes a step toward him. A trainer once advised my neighbor to smear peanut butter on her husband's arm in an attempt to get their new rescue to like her husband better. It didn't work.
I'm so glad to hear you see a difference for the good and that you are learning as much as she is. Yay! Please keep us posted on what works. Maybe you can help me with my stubborn b.
