Well, as my post title says, I hardly know where to begin. Maybe a little background before I actually describe the problems . . . My wife and I adopted a 5 ½ year old neutered beagle from a beagle rescue group. All we knew at the time was that he had apparently grown up in one home for 5 years but for unknown reasons had been given to a family for adoption. They kept him for one month but he constantly barked and behaved aggressively towards their family’s cat. The family then brought him to the rescue group.
We knew when we got him that we had some problem areas. He responded to some basic obedience commands but was otherwise pretty undisciplined. He pulled on his leash and was extremely difficult to restrain when he saw other dogs while walking. He was obsessed with food and constantly came into kitchen and dining areas to try and get food, with or without anyone being present.
I was the primary trainer and was easily able to eliminate a good deal of the problems very early on. However, his behavior was still problematic plus he started to show some other issues of which we had not been told. For instance, his obsession with food included eating his own poop. If he was in the backyard and eating something that we wanted him not to eat, he would bark very threateningly when we approached. He has bitten me on two occasions on my hand, skin not broken, when I went to take it away. The same thing would happen if he threw up in the house or backyard, that is, he is determined to eat his own vomit.
We decided to get some professional training. We asked our vet for some recommendations. We settled on a local outfit with two trainers. They offered both individual in-home training as well as group classes. After evaluation, they strongly recommended the use of a pinch collar. Initially we said we did not want to go that route and said we would hold off. However, soon after their training started we tried it and then decided to keep it.
We made good progress through the training. I continued to bring him to classes for quite awhile after the individual training was over. By the time I stopped going to the classes, we had gotten to the point where we could take him to a nearby park and take him off-leash . . . something we had only previously dreamed about.
Ok, finally last piece of background . . . when we got him, he was fairly aloof and remained unconnected for quite some period of time, not surprising given his recent history of abandonment. But slowly and surely things began to change. At this point – he is now seven – he is extremely attached to me and somewhat so to my wife. We had actually hoped for a dog that would be equally attached to both of us. My wife is incredibly loving and giving to him and never takes out any disappointment on him. This is in keeping with her nature.
So, why am I posting this? We still have the total obsession with food. He will often get completely over-excited about wanting food, maybe after being in the backyard. He will go around and lick all of our hardwood floors as an example. The big problem is when we let him out at night to do his business and then maybe he finds something or gets a scent. He will not want to come in and will start barking incessantly. If he as actually found something or maybe has his own poop, he acts very threatening. Interestingly, if we are out walking and he happens along some poop or poops himself, I can verbally steer him away from it. So I guess there is something about his territorial nature combined with his food instinct that really ramps up his excitement. By the way, he is fed healthy, but not an excessive amount of food twice per day. Oh . . . he has killed two squirrels and one bird in the backyard and then has eaten whole all of them.
I am not able to use food as a reward in his training. As soon as it comes out, he loses focus on whatever task is at hand and just starts panting, salivating, and jumping around to get at the food. I tried teaching him to delay his food approach but I think his heightened state of arousal was not conducive to learning.
I am also concerned about his attachment to me. He basically follows me around the house when I am home, which is a good deal of the time. He will often approach me and start licking my face all over, sometimes very forcefully. He will do this as much as 10-15 times per day. He does not complain when I leave but immediately starts barking when he hears me returning and then accosts me as soon as I am in the door. He will also do this with my wife, minus the licking. He almost never licks her.
I have started limiting some of this licking. I am starting very slowly but intend to cut it back to whatever is reasonable, although I really don’t know what that might be. I know he loves me and wants to express it, but it seems like he is also expressing issues around dominance with this behavior. He definitely displays other such behavior. He will occasionally try to hump my leg or arm. He will also do this to others. From the beginning, I have regularly engaged in a lot of the alpha techniques I see are recommended here. No doubt they have helped, but apparently I need to change things in some way.
He has a very strong aversion to rolling on his back. I can only get him to do it when he is very relaxed and maybe on the couch with me. The professional trainer was sure this was a dominance issue and was convinced he could fix it. He put the dog in a position so that he would have to push back to maintain not going over. The idea being that it is the dog who decides if and when he will roll over. He said he just did this with a huge dog who “gave” in after a short time and that was the end of the problem. I told him you may be underestimating the ferociousness of our dog. Well, he was at it for over an hour and eventually it was him who had to give.
There is so much more I have left out but back to the food situation one more time. I had engaged in some of the training I often see recommended where you start feeding the dog out of your hand and then slowly put some in the bowl and so forth. No matter how much or little was in the bowl, whenever I would out my hand back into the bowl, a warning growl would appear. The trainer’s answer to this would be to use the collar to extinguish the behavior.
Well, I had done this as he recommended for when it was time to wake him up and get him off the couch to go to bed. He is really groggy and he would take his time, often lingering past when he was awake. He had taken to making the same warning growl as with the food bowl. I used the collar and gave him a light pinch when he first growled. After one or two times, the growling completely stopped. However, one time soon after, without any warning, when I woke him, he just turned around and bit my hand. I now have grave doubts about trying to eliminate warning growls. BTW, I have since trained him to respond to the off command and that problem is no more.
I know there will be some people here who will strongly object to the use of any such collar. To offer some explanation, not a defense, I would add that our dog does not in any way fear the collar. In fact, he will give a wag of his tail when we put it on. It was explained to us that the collar should not be used as aversive training and we have been very careful to try and follow that principle. We trained him to use the signal and as means of getting his attention and redirecting his behavior. I think we got way from that using the collar when he awoke on the couch and the result was not good. At this point we now only use it when we go on a walk outdoors where he will be off-leash. It is a safety just in case he follows his nose and gets in trouble.
Sorry if this rambled too much. Here is a brief summary of the major problems/issues:
1. Obsession with food, especially in the backyard. Unable to remove items safely.
2. Dominance issues, over-licking, unable to roll over. Not unrelated to food issues.
Thanks so much in advance for feedback and suggestions.
