I hope all of you remember my dog, Kusy, who my family adopted three and a half months ago. Since I am his main trainer, I have decided to start keeping a monthly log of his progress, starting today. Once a month I will recap what he knows, what he has learned, and what we need to work on in the coming month.
{I have been wanting to share this photo of Kusy going raspberry-picking, for ages. He goes into our tiny raspberry patch and forages for leftover berries. It is quite amusing to watch! I apologize for the blur.}
Commands, Tricks, and Behaviors Kusy knows:
Kusy obeys the commands sit, give paw, and beg. We are working on having him obey consistently without him having to first see that you have a treat. His best trick is without a doubt begging. Being a Beagle, he absolutely adores food. So whenever someone is eating, or preparing, food (especially in the morning) he runs from person to person and starts begging without any command or hint from a human! He just knows there is food and starts to beg. Sometimes his effots pay off and we drop him something. It is absolutely hilarious to watch. I'll try to make a video of it to show you guys.
What Kusy is learning:
At the moment we are working on several tricks and commands. Down, walk (like heel), stay, and come are our main priorities. I am also teaching him to roll over, spin and push a door closed. Kusy is also not allowed in most of our house. He likes to try and cross the forbidden doorway, though. Earlier we have just relied on yelling and the trusty spray bottle full of water, but that didn't eliminate the behavior and just taught him to retreat when he saw someone approaching angrily. I have decided to try a postitve reinforcement method instead. When I cross the doorway, I have Kusy sit and tell him to stay. I wait for several minutes before returning, providing a treat and lots of praise, and releasing him from the stay. I have only just tried this, so I haven't seen much improvement yet, but I suspect he will get better as I continue the training.
What We Need to Work On:
There are three main issues we have to work on. First, and foremost, is the extreme seperation anxiety. Kusy barks and howls and whines whenever anyone leaves, even if he isn't completely alone. When my mom, brother and I leave to work/school, my dad stays at home. He is sleeping where my dog can't see him. So Kusy barks and howls until my dad comes out to yell at him. Kusy knows that by barking and howling someone will come out to yell at him and he will know he's not 100% alone. When he really is alone, he barks, knows no one is there, squeezes out of his crate, and often urinates/defecates indoors. That's why I'm asking my dad to give up some sleep now to be able to get more sleep later and try this: sit outside the doorway to Kusy's room quietly without Kusy knowing and seeing him and wait until at least 3 seconds of quiet before coming into the room. This way Kusy learns that barking won't have anyone come to him. I hope this will work, but my dad doesn't really want to try it. He just wants to sleep. I hope I can convince him to try this out for a week or two at least, until Kusy learns that barking won't bring people running.
The second issue is carsickness. Ninety-five percent of carsickness in dogs is due to stress rather than motion sickness. Kusy used to vomit a lot whenever in the car, but now he usually only pees into his crate and then whines the whole way. Because of this issue, we can't take Kusy with us anywhere, but leaving him alone isn't much of an option either. This is a HUGE problem, as you could imagine. By desensitizing him to the car, showing him it is a good place through treats, and going on short drives to fun places, I hope we can get him to at least tolerate the car.
The third issue is fear of many things and slight aggression, based in fear most likely (he once snapped at someone, although that person was fingering/grabbing his snout while Kusy was growling at his to stop and back off). Kusy doesn't like men and visitors to the house, and is scared of everything from chirping crickets, to kittens, to balloons and that spiderweb decorations people put outside around Halloween. He is also scared of people we meet when they ask to pet him. With treats, though, anything can be remedied. Kusy also sometimes get too rough in play and tries to mouth humans.
Wish us luck, please! If you have a dog and would like to do a log like this too, I would love to read the post so please leave a link.
