Ace’s tennis ball obsession was at its worst recently.
We were on a 45-minute road trip, and he whined the entire time in the car because he knew there was a ball in my bag.
When I finally took the ball out, he was so fixated it appeared he was having a seizure (he wasn’t). His head shook to the point where his teeth were chattering. He was drooling, staring and trembling.
Once we reached our destination, my dog could not stop whining because he knew the ball was in the car and he wanted to go find it. I did take it out a few times, hoping to run him silly. But even after 20 minutes of sprinting, Ace would recover and begin whining.
Note to self: Leave the ball home next time. And never use it to try and tire out my dog. This only makes him more obsessed.
Obviously most dogs do not have this kind of ball fixation. But most dogs do have some kind of behavior issue.
Dog training every day
How many of us actually take 15 minutes per day to work on a particular problem with our dogs? Anyone?
There are a few things I’d like to work on with my dog: improving his respect for “come” and “stay” in all situations, helping him relax in the car and of course having an “off switch” around a tennis ball. He has also been doing much more of his nervous, “I want something” whining.
Over the last year or so, I did several “30-day challenges” where I worked with my dog on specific goals such as loose-leash walking. These challenges all turned out very well, but my dedication rarely went beyond those 30 days.
Recently I’ve been thinking about two of my past challenges. One was to work on my dog with his tennis ball obsession. The second was to visit 30 places to help my hyper dog relax in all situations. Let’s just say we still need some work in these areas!
This fall I’d like to start a new 30-day challenge. This time the goal is to practice obedience and getting Ace to be calm in different locations.
My dog needs to learn that it’s OK to take breaks while playing (retrieving), and that every off-leash walk does not have to involve finding a stick. He has become more social and confident in the last year – good things – but it also means he doesn’t respond well to my commands in social situations. I have not been very good at reinforcing what I want my dog to do.
I have a well-trained dog in my own backyard. I have a well-trained dog in my living room. But is my dog well trained and calm in all situations? Hardly. He cries when we get to his favorite parks, and he can’t relax once someone is holding a stick, ball or food in front of him. If a new person or dog shows up at our door, he breaks from “stay.”
In Ace’s defense, he did pass the Canine Good Citizen test with no problem. And I do consider him a calm dog as far as sporting dogs go. I get comments all the time on how calm he is.
It’s not that I want a dog that sits mechanically and holds his head at the perfect angle. I just want a dog that responds to basic commands, knows how to be calm and doesn’t forget everything he knows at the sight of a tennis ball!
Teaching my dog to be calm
Getting Ace to be calm and to focus in new situations is a matter of patience and practice. Lately I’ve really been working on eye contact with my dog, and using more positive reinforcement dog training like using treats.
I will go back to practicing calming exercises with Ace around a tennis ball by asking him to ignore the ball, relax and make eye contact. We’ll do this at home and in other areas and hopefully with other people. Apparently there’s nothing as exciting as our friend Justin holding a tennis ball!
Ace and I will visit more places, not just to visit but to reinforce loose leash walking, obedience commands and focus. Walking Ace every day will continue to be important, but missing a day’s walk should not be an excuse for Ace to whine, pull or ignore basic commands. It shouldn’t be an excuse for me to be more lenient with him either just because he didn’t get a walk.
I would like to improve Ace’s reliability with “come” and “stay” no matter where we are or what’s going on. He’s regressed in many areas simply because I don’t work with him as much as I used to. We will have to get back into dog obedience classes in Fargo later this fall to keep us on track.
Most dog owners and their dogs if they do any training together at all will eventually reach some kind of plateau. Whether it’s after a few weeks, months or a few years of training, most people get to a point where they simply stop and don’t expect much more from their dogs. Ace and I have been at this point for the last year or so, and now I’d like to get to the next level with him.
I realize I expect more out of Ace than a typical dog owner expects from her dog. It’s not that I want a perfect dog. It’s just that as long as I am a dog owner, I will be working with my dog. He likes to challenge me, and I like the challenge.
What are you and your dog working on?
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I have worked with my reactive Jack Russell Terrier, Stewie alot on obedience, agility and just at living. Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt is fabulous and it worked!
There is a book and also a DVD set from a seminar at Clean Run. I have both but did most of the work from the book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. IT worked for Stewie and many other dogs in our agility club benefitted from it as well.
Nancy and Stewie JRT
Thanks. I will have to look into that. I have heard about it before.
I am trying to get Gus to get out of my face when I am trying to eat. He is soooooo bad. He just stands there and acts like he doesn’t hear me. Of course, I have to be careful because he gets his feelings hurt easily (apparently this is a bloodhound thing). It is a bit comical because he uses his size to do his best furniture impression and will simply stand there.
“His best furniture impression”! Oh man… Haha! How big is Gus, anyway?
Ace can be a bad begger too. I usually end up telling him to stay on his bed in the other room while we eat.
I love your 30-day challenge idea, and I think I’m going to take that on in October! For Lucas, my 3-yr-old Shepherd mix, the biggest thing is door training; he goes nuts when the doorbell rings, when the UPS guy drops a package at the door, really anytime anyone comes in proximity of our front door. So frustrating, but the perfect ask for the 30-day challenge!
My Gus is a svelte 130 lbs of drool, hair, and silliness.
Thanks so much, Maggie! Good luck with your challenge. You will have to let me know how it goes. Ace is not too bad when the doorbell rings. But he does some annoying woofs every few seconds and does not always stop when I tell him to be quiet.
Ha! Gus is huge! And I know he’s lost a lot of weight, too.
[...] Over the summer, a woman in our neighborhood organized a pick-up volleyball game in the park. We went in an attempt to meet more neighbors. Within minutes we realized everyone (and I mean everyone) already knew who we were. “Ooooh,” they’d say. “You live in the red house. Say, what kind of dog do you have in there?” Hmmmm. We knew Lucas barked a lot – at the mailman, the UPS guy, the neighborhood maintenance people – and we know he goes berserk whenever someone comes to our door. I worked on it passively, really only addressing the situation when I happened to be in the same room when he started in. However. Finding out that everyone in the neighborhood knew exactly who we were due to his barking… well, that upped the ante. Then today, I saw the perfect motivation on That Mutt: a 30-day challenge. [...]
My pointer mix does a lot of anxious whining. I think it started about a year ago because he wasn’t getting enough exercise, but now he runs 4-6 miles a day, and that excludes our twice a day 2 mile walks and play time with other dogs. And there’s still whining. There’s not much I can do to get him to stop whining either. Its also hard to keep him calm in new situations, so I’m going to try your 30 day challenge in Oct. and take him to 30 new places. Your blog is great, thanks for all the advice!
Yeah exercise helps a TON for Ace as well. Thanks for the compliment. I hope you’ll share how your 30-day challenge works out for your dog!
I can’t wait to read more on how your latest 30 day challenge progresses.
Thanks, Marie!
Boy, you need to train that dog to be a narcotics dog. The biggest prerequisite for a drug dog is they have to be CRAZY for a tennis ball.
My dog is obsessed with the hose. She chases the water and then “bites” her way up toward the nozzle, whining with excitement. We have to take the spray nozzle off the hose and put it inside the house, otherwise she bites it, trying to make the water come out. Now she’ll stand by the chair is the basement and looks at us, or she tries to get at the nozzle if she’s inside. If she’s outside, she’ll stand by the hose caddy/faucet.
We do have her go into a down/stay at least once during pplay (which is when we say it is, not when she wants it) and spray the water all around her before letting her at it.
Yeah I’ve heard that dogs with a crazy ball obsession make ideal police dogs. I have a hard time picturing Ace doing that! Ha. But he does benefit from any kind of “job” I can give him.
Ace has a bit of a hose obsession as well. He’s not quite as bad because he won’t go looking for the water unless we’re actually using the hose. That’s good that you make your dog go into a down/stay while playing. It’s always good to make them take breaks and calm down.
Wow, yet more ideas for more posts! Now I just have to find the time to do them!
Biggie and I have reached a plateau of sorts, too. I taught him a whole slew of commands last year, and we haven’t worked on anything new in a long time. Of course, he could also use reinforcement on the old stuff, though as he gets older he is just getting better and calming himself and listening.
The main thing we work on is “not guarding” – or at least, not guarding obnoxiously. He will still stand at attention and give things the kvuasz stare down, but he doesn’t go ballistic as often as he used to. It’s the ferocious snarling and barking at boundaries (the door, a fence) that we are working on.
That being said, we taught Biggie in 5 days or less not to bark at the door when the downstairs (apartment building) buzzer goes off.
Ha! That’s awesome. I still can’t get Ace to stay on his bed when someone comes to the door. But I have not put in a fair amount of time working on this, either. I’m glad your dog has a guarding issue because then I don’t feel so bad that my dog has a retrieving obsession.