This is Fletcher. (Picture). This is Shannon, Fletcher's Trainer. (Picture) This is a Human Pez Dispenser (Picture)
Fletcher has anxiety. We need your help.
It will go against everything you’re feeling about being with a cute, soft dog. It will go against your belief that all animals love you. It will go against your basic instincts.
Please help anyhow – you are important to us.
Do not look at Fletcher. Even if he’s showing interest in you. There is actually a proper time for eye contact.
Do not talk to Fletcher. Your voice engages him but doesn’t soothe him. Yet.
Do not try to pet Fletcher. We know you’re wonderful with animals. He does not - yet. There is a proper time to pet him.
Stand to the side and be a Human PEZ candy dispensing machine. We call this “Free Food”. You dispense food, he doesn’t need to do anything at all. Food goes on the ground.
Move your arm from left to right and gently toss the food. He will get used to arm movement and food. This is important – we want to desensitize him to movement.
Do not look at him. Still not the right time. Continue conversations with the humans.
WHEN he sniffs your hand because he knows you have food, give him one in your flat hand but don’t look at him and don’t try to pet him.
When he sniffs again, look at him and ask him to sit. Wait. He probably won’t sit. Look away and throw food on ground again.
Repeat 7 and 8 as many times as necessary.
If he sits for a treat, put hand out flat at nose level. Do not try to pet. Reward him with the treat and “good boy Fletch”.
Repeat 9. If he is willing to sit for you, look at him and see if engages. If so, you are clear to pet. Do not overhand pet him. Scritch behind his ears.
It probably won’t happen. Please don’t take it personally. It’s not your fault, it’s not our fault, it’s not his fault. If we get this far, it’s a good, successful day and he won’t forget.
"The shiba has very conflicted emotions about humans. He knows you have treats and he wants them very badly, but he is also afraid of you. So while he will run up to you very closely, he truly does not want to be anywhere near you, yet, and that is why he is barking like a banshee would bark if it was a shiba.
To make friends with him:
Take your treats and yeet them across the hall.
When he runs over, keep yeeting.
And yeeting.
And yeeting.
Yeet one more.
There. He understands you are a good thing but he doesn't need to be up in your grill to get the treats now.
Yeet one more, again.
Ok. Let him come up to you. DISREGARD HIM ENTIRELY. Ignore his existence. He is nothing to you. Trust me, it'll work.
Casually accept he does, in fact, exist.
If you want to engage him, and you don't have to, quietly and calmly kneel down.
Put your hand at his shoulder. HIS SHOULDER. NOT HIS HEAD YOU FOOL. Shoulder.
Then. With the patience of a monk, you may engage in shoulder scritches, moving to neck scritches, moving to ear scritches. DO NOT REACH OVER HIS HEAD YOU FOOL. I told you so many times to go from the shoulder. Always the shoulder.
There. Now you get it.
You may proceed with entering one foot further into his house. Just don't move too quickly.
OH NO YOU MOVED TOO QUICKLY QUICK START YEETING AGAIN
@elvent You totally get the exercise here. Thank you for your rendition! I was laughing with recognition all the way through!! So glad for this group. And introduction to the word “yeet”!!
@elvent I have found my people!!!! My dog's user manual is also "pretend the dog does not exist, even if he is barking piercingly enough to strip paint, he is no more noticeable than a piece of dust on the floor. YEET. THE TREATS."
@elvent "He is nothing to you" is killing me. I say the same. I feel like cats would be great at dog training because they're so aloof
I give guests a run down of the rules if the dog is hyped up/nervous that day - a family friend once joked my dog is like a gremlin with all the instructions haha!
@romans82 I've tried this and it does work but only if everybody in the household will do it. Which my husband won't.
We don't have a lot of visitors but when people come home I try to get everybody to do the "no look no touch no talk" he will not do it.
Keep the dogs get rid of the husband.
My dog loves people after he meets them the first time and go happily greet them at the door and sometimes is way too excited so he’ll jump. The problem is he’s a pandemic puppy and thinks everyone coming over is already a friend so when he goes meet the new person and realizes it’s a stranger he might get startled and bark.
@te15 Mine is the opposite even with people who have been here multiple times she gets very anxious. Plus I just think it's a good idea to teach them, no attention until they are calm.
We have also been working on sit and stay when the door is opened. You don't get to go out just because the door opened. As I'm trying to do this my husband doesn't wait and just opens the door and leaves it open.
@hakatz Yes, part of the training is to only receive attention when calm but I swear it’s easier to train dogs than people.
A trainer said we should use the same methods with people, reward good behaviour, make mistakes less likely to happen and avoid punishments. I’m trying
@te15 And there in lies the problem. If even one person is out of sync with what you're trying to do, it doesn't work. The thing is we've done this with every dog we've ever had, these are our 10th and 11th dogs. I'm not trying to do anything different.
@xlaurax Now he's been taking our 2-year-old pit mix out with him early in the morning, because he leaves before 6:00 a.m. and no leash, so nobody's out there so he thinks it's okay. Yeah great until the neighbors cat happens by or a car or scooter or dog or motorcycle and then he's gone. He makes me so angry.
@hakatz Oh I’m so sorry to hear this. We had two dogs before Fletcher and they were runners. Everyone that lived in the house new if a door or gate was left open i was going to come unglued! And one of them was a fearful dog and although never bit a human, i absolutely couldn’t stand it if she accidentally got out. The Doggie Gods smiled on us and nothing happened the few times she got out but I cracked down hard. Easier with kids than with a husband though
@xlaurax Now he's been taking our 2-year-old pit mix out with him early in the morning, because he leaves before 6:00 a.m. and no leash, so nobody's out there so he thinks it's okay. Yeah great until the neighbors cat happens by or a car or scooter or dog or motorcycle and then he's gone. He makes me so angry.
