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AAkasha -> RE: Dog: Insecure pet problem (8/30/2007 9:30:13 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BitaTruble
He's doing okay in the room but I can't let him scratch and bark at the door and ignore the behavior or I won't have a door left, so I do have to go in and distract him from it and generally a pat and redirecting him to the window works for a while. After about 20 mins or so, if he's been really good, Himself or I have been going into the room and telling him what a good boy he is so we're trying to reinforce the positive while preventing the negative, although we can't ignore it either. We'll get it balanced. I'm already so happy that he's taken to the room and been able to be by himself even though we haven't attempted to actually leave him alone in the house yet. Okay, so it's only been few times in the room by himself but since he's 'never' been happy alone, that's a vast step in the right direction!
Celeste
You've been getting great advice but I'll add one thing if someone has not. When you leave him in the room and he's barking, crying or scratching to come out, make sure you don't let him out and praise him until he's being quiet. Otherwise he will think that making noise or scratching means he is going to be let out.
Give the command "QUIET!" or whatever you use to tell him to be quiet, and then when he's quiet for 5 or 10 minutes, let him out then and praise him. Be careful of comforting/petting/rewarding behavior when it's not what you want, the dog doesn't understand that kind of psychology and just realizes he's being rewarded when he's barking, nervous, upset, etc.
Even though you are having success with the room, I'd still recommend crate training if he's already been exposed to that.
Akasha
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