ktgrok Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 So...in the continuing saga of the hound puppy we never should have gotten (and that you all warned me about): His obedience training is going very well. He now heels on a nice loose leash for our walks, even in the high distraction areas like walking from the parking lot to the dog park! It's not the gorgeous sparkly competitive heel of a border collie or australian shepherd, but it's definitely a "hey look, that dog walks so nicely" heel. He even remembers the automatic sit more often than not. He also has a decent sit/stay and down/stay and he knows "place" and "kennel" and is doing pretty well there. Working up to being able to have him stay even when I leave the room. His recall is very good, not quite excellent, and again not fast and showy...he does things at hound speed, lol. But he is doing great. In the house he is now almost always either in his kennel or on a down stay or in "place" on his bed. Or at at least confined to the room I'm in with a baby gate so I can make sure he doesn't destroy anything. So that's going well. We did get him a larger crate so he has tons of room in there. (48"long and 30" wide). Right now he's confined to the family room with me. He's no longer allowed on any beds, mainly because he jumped up on one while the baby was lying on it and about landed on her. He's super clumsy and could have hurt her. That incident was the big impetus for "puppy boot camp". In full disclosure, he is also now wearing a remote collar with both vibration and electric stimulation modes. I was VERY hesitant to do this, but in total honesty it was get this dog under control FAST or he needed to go. And realistically, we are his 7th place. Chances of him finding his forever home in yet another place was unlikely. But I did a lot of reading and research, and the collar has settings from 0-100. It's currently set on level 5. I tried it myself before putting it on him and I can't even feel it until it gets to level 13. So I'm not shocking the crud out of him. At low levels it feels like a TENS machine more than anything. He finds the vibration way more aversive, and I do use that for stealing cat food and for digging holes (he's unearthed pipes out there, I'm worried he's going to dig up some wires or something). The collar lets me correct him from across the room when I have a baby nursing in my lap. We still also use treats, praise, etc in training. I know many people are totally against said collars, and even against punishment/corrections in general, and in an ideal setting I'd use positive reinforcement only. I've done that with other dogs. But my real life is not an ideal setting. He's a breed(s) known for being hard to train, and I've got 4 kids including a newborn that take up my time. And at this point better a few corrections and he gets to live happily in our home than sticking to ideal methods and giving up. Which was what was going to happen. My husband was at the point of actively disliking the dog as were two of my kids, and honestly, me too at times. Right now our biggest issue is he likes to break out of his crate. The new, bigger one is also no where near as strong as the old one. Sigh. He can unlatch the bottom latch. He also figured out how to push the side down to unlatch the whole side. It is now zip tied at the corners. Yesterday we put a padlock on the door and he broke off two wires and bent the door but didn't get out. It doesn't seem to be separation anxiety (I've dealt with that before) as he is calm when we leave, and relatively calm when we get back. None of that panic type freak out I have seen with dogs who are truly anxious. yesterday I figured out how to use my lap top and phone and Skype to spy on him when I leave. We first did it with me just out in the yard and sure enough, after a little while he got bored and started trying to paw at the door. I corrected with the remote collar and he stopped, sighed, and laid down. Later I actually drove away (but the kids and DH were home) and he was fine. Today I'll spy again when we all leave to see what he does. Luckily we have enough people in the family that if he does panic and it seems to be anxiety we can have someone home with him while we work on it. Leaving him out of the crate isn't an option, as he is too destructive. When he got out of the crate the other day he tangled himself in window blinds and could've strangled himself. The other time he escaped he chewed up the remote and had he swallowed the batteries could have needed surgery. Not to mention we kind of like our furniture and would prefer he not destroy it. He gets a mile or two walk a day, plus an hour of off leash play at the dog park, plus several sessions of obedience work each day. He has antlers, knuckle bones, and rawhides to chew. He also gets stuffed Kong toys but has to be the mood for those. Oh, and he hasn't been a bully to the brain damaged border collie in at least a few weeks. They actually get along nicely now. He's tall enough now I can pet his head without bending down at all, and is a very slender 60lbs at 9 months old. He's going to be big. And I'm starting to believe he might be a good dog, one day. (picture shows size of said hound dog...that bed is 48 inches long!) 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) Spendy but I know people who've bought these heavy duty crates Here's another one Edited June 25, 2017 by Pawz4me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) He's very handsome. :) Hounds are some of my favorite dogs. We've had several hounds over the years (three different types of coonhounds and currently have a hound/lab mix). I don't think any of them would have tolerated being crated. Our hounds have all been very outdoorsy and needed a lot of room and time to roam. Our current hound likes to spend most of his day out in our huge fenced yard, playing with the other dogs, digging craters, and keeping an eye out for passing deer and turkeys. He loves to sleep on our bed at night, but as soon as the sun comes up, he wants to be right back outside. Edited June 25, 2017 by Selkie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 (edited) He's very handsome. :) Hounds are some of my favorite dogs. We've had several hounds over the years (three different types of coonhounds and currently have a hound/lab mix). I don't think any of them would have tolerated being crated. Our hounds have all been very outdoorsy and needed a lot of room and time to roam. Our current hound likes to spend most of his day out in our huge fenced yard, playing with the other dogs, digging craters, and keeping an eye out for passing deer and turkeys. He loves to sleep on our bed at night, but as soon as the sun comes up, he wants to be right back outside. Oh, I should have mentioned that he does spend lot of time outside hunting lizards, burying and digging up his bones, sniffling around, etc. He's allowed out as much as he wants. I can't leave him out there when we are gone as I'm worried he will dig out and escape or drown in the pool (he ripped the screen patio around it.) He also spends a lot of his dog park time just sniffing/trailing. (its a big area not a small dog run) SaveSave Edited June 25, 2017 by ktgrok 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen500 Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 He's beautiful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Good for you for finding a method to allow this beautiful dog to live with your family! A friend of mine just did this for her TWO practically out of control dogs. As you said, the alternative to her using the collars was not her using the preferred training approach with her dogs - the alternative was much, much worse. He's a beautiful dog and I think you made a good choice!! Anne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 So he was fine for the first 5 -10 minutes. But sometime after that he pulled the blanket old stacked on to of the kennel partially into the kennel and tore it up a bit and bent the door of the kennel. Sigh. Guessing we need to work up to longer durations. And I lost track of him because I forgot to turn off sleep mode on my laptop. Next time I will turn it off so Skype will keep working. That way I can see when he starts acting up and tell him "no" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 So he was fine for the first 5 -10 minutes. But sometime after that he pulled the blanket old stacked on to of the kennel partially into the kennel and tore it up a bit and bent the door of the kennel. Sigh. Guessing we need to work up to longer durations. And I lost track of him because I forgot to turn off sleep mode on my laptop. Next time I will turn it off so Skype will keep working. That way I can see when he starts acting up and tell him "no" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 When you gave him a home, he was blessed with good luck. I think the Plastic crate we have is a Vari Kennel and the Wire Crate is a Kennel Aire. Not sure of the spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 When you gave him a home, he was blessed with good luck. I think the Plastic crate we have is a Vari Kennel and the Wire Crate is a Kennel Aire. Not sure of the spelling. Thank you! And yes, I should have gotten a name brand crate. I should have known $39 for a 48 inch crate was too little. Sigh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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