Shadow’s owner contacted CPT due to concerns regarding aggressive posturing between Shadow and persons and dogs residing within the household. The behavior became prevalent after Shadow’s owner relocated from South Dakota to Hall County, GA. To ease the financial burden of her move, Shadow’s owner moved-in with her sister, her sister’s adult son, her sister’s […]
If you have a dog that is reactive to people or dogs when on-leash, we encourage you to contact CPT. A properly designed and implemented behavior modification program can quickly work wonders in creating a dog that is a much more pleasant walking companion. As a result, you will become happier with your dog and your dog will have a happier quality of life, since you will likely walk him/her more frequently- without sneers, grimaces, and snide remarks from the neighbors, who will appreciate and admire the progress achieved by you and your dog.
To compound the difficulty in designing his lesson plan, T-Bone is deaf. Therefore, due to a busy work schedule and the complexity of his training, our client opted for CPT’s board training program.
To compensate for T-Bone’s hearing impairment it is essential that we start the board training process with relationship building. Before we commence intense training, we need T-Bone to trust the trainer, to feel secure amidst the trainer, and to receive indisputable enjoyment from playtime and sustenance activities with the trainer.
When Steve and Brittany first contacted CPT about Shamu, their 6.5-year old Great Dane, they were worried about Shamu’s reactivity and apparent object guarding when Brittany walked Shamu in the neighborhood. They also were concerned about destructive chewing that originated from Shamu’s separation distress.
If all goes according to plan, your dog will calmly and cooperatively walk on a loose leash. Subsequently, both you and your dog will receive more pleasure and bonding from your neighborhood walks. Moreover, when you begin to receive more enjoyment from your walks, you will probably walk your dog more, which increases your dog’s quality of life.
Optimally, to best modify your dog’s inappropriate chewing behavior, we need to consider the preceding causal factors as the primary behavioral problem while concurrently addressing the inappropriate chewing behavior as a secondary symptom. In addition, until the behavior is modified, we need to prevent the continuation of the behavior by establishing management procedures that may include supervision and/or confinement. We may also need to develop a system of active, semi-active, and/or passive punishment that consistently and immediately disciplines inappropriate chewing if the preceding management system is not sufficient in preventing recurrence of the behavior. Lastly, using positive reinforcement we need to prompt the adoption of acceptable replacement behaviors, which in simple terms means chewing intended chew and play toys, rather than the windowsill, furniture, or TV remote control. By taking a properly designed four-pronged approach (origins, prevention, punishment, and encouraging replacement chewing activity), we should effectively modify the behavior.