Dog training question

[Night Elf]

My dogs go ballistic when I pick up the leash. They jump around and bark loudly and it's hard to get the leash on them. Then when I do attach it, my dachshund runs to the door before I can even hold the leash. I think the dachshund is the instigator. If he didn't freak out, the other dog wouldn't freak out. How on earth do I train him to remain calm when I get out the leash? I'm really tired of this behavior. We do not walk them every day and I've read that if you do they get used to the leash. We got the dachshund almost 3 years ago and he didn't act like this the first couple of years. Why on earth would this behavior even begin, and can I get him out of it?

 

I found a dog trainer that has an obedience class and also offers private lessons. It's $300 for the private lessons. I am scared to put the dachshund into a group because he barks at other dogs and might lunge at them.

[beaners]

Have you tried taking the leash out over and over again without hooking it on the dogs?  Have you tried hooking the dog to the leash and letting him drag it all over the house but not go out the door? Have you tried walking in and out of the house a bunch of times instead of going for your walk? Can you hook the leashes up at the door? 

 

Does he have a really solid sit? Does he understand a clicker?  What have you tried so far?

 

 

[Swimtaxi234]

I suggest using the "Place" command.  I'm sure you can google it or find it on Youtube.

 

Before we feed our dogs, we point and say, "Place" and our dogs move to a special mat to sit and wait.  If we are cooking and they are underfoot, I have a mat in the kitchen and I point to the mat and say, "Place", someone at the door, etc.

 

LOVE using this command!   :thumbup1:

[Night Elf]

The only thing he can do is sit and that's with a food incentive. We're so laid back with our pets that we have never needed them to do certain behaviors nor have they had any bad behaviors. I did put the leashes on the floor in the living room hoping just seeing them would help. We just leave there all the time. It's been several months. One time I tried delaying using the leashes. I tried to put them on and when they went nuts, I laid them back down and walked away. They barked for 20 minutes. Then I tried again. They barked again for about the same time. After the 3rd try, I gave up and put them out in the backyard to hush them up. The dachshund has a very loud bark and even when I put the leash on he goes nuts. I don't know how long it would take him to stop barking if he was wearing the leash and jumping at the door.

 

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how to train dogs. I have tried the 'sit' command and both dogs will do that. I've tried 'stay' but that has never worked. I feel like I need a trainer but it's so expensive. I just looked again and private lessons are $65/hour or 3 hours for $180. When I take him to the groomer or the park, he barks really loudly at other dogs. I have to pick him up and turn him away. The groomer and my vet said that's typical dachshund behavior and didn't seem worried about it. When they were boarded when we went on vacation, they were in a separate outdoor yard for play time because he barked at the other dogs. That's pitiful.

 

The boy is a dachshund and is 4 years old. The girls is a beagle mix and is 9 years old. She's very laid back. When we had cats, she was more like a cat than a dog. She didn't seem to start acting like a dog until we got our dachshund a few years ago. But she's still way more relaxed than he is.

[beaners]

Go to youtube.  Type in "training ______." I recommend "clicker training ______," but that's a personal preference.  Watch a few videos.  Going with a trainer may be the best fit for you, but it's still helpful to know how things work.  

 

If you think the dachshund is instigating, put the beagle in another room or outside. It's easier to work with one dog at a time anyway. It takes time to untrain a behavior you've unintentionally taught, so I would expect to put some time and energy into it.  Make him sit before you put the leash on.  Clip it on and off a few million times. Rinse, repeat.

 

The "go to your spot" command the other poster mentioned is helpful too.

[Night Elf]

Now that i typed this, I was just able, for the first time in months, get them to remain quiet while I put on their harnesses and leashes. I had to sit on the floor and keep telling them to sit and it kept them calm. They did keep standing and I had to repeat 'sit' many times. But neither of them barked. I think I'll do that several times a day and see if that helps. I'd love to be able to take them to the park trail but I can't risk the dachshund going nuts at another dog. All the dogs I see on the trail are always so polite. They stay next to their people instead of pulling on the leashes and they don't bark at other dogs. My dachshund doesn't know how to walk on a leash. I've tried keeping a tight leash to keep him walking next to me but he just continues to pull. If I let him, he runs at top speed. My DH runs with him to let him wear himself out but he'll literally run a mile. We stopped there so I don't know how long he would have actually run. There is no such thing as a casual walk with my dachshund.

[Pawz4me]

I think if you can afford it even a few hours of a trainer's time would be very valuable.  As I'm sure you know, a trainer can teach you how to teach your dog.

 

It sounds to me as if the Doxie is what trainers refer to as a reactive dog.  You can Google that term and see if it fits.

 

Reactive dogs are challenging.  We can all give you tips, but with a reactive dog what you really need is a concrete game plan that you can follow methodically.  And a trainer who can actually lay eyes on your dog in action will be much better for that than those of us who can't actually see his behavior live and in person.

 

How much exercise does he get?

[Guest]

Mine used to do that, and the best thing we did in the beginning was to turn our back to her and ignore it till she calmed down.  Once she figured out that jumping around like a fool took our attention off her, she would start listening to the sit command.  Once she got that, we worked on making sure she knew "back". Basically...our dogs never go out the door in front of us.  They know that the routine is to sit, wait, and if they try to go ahead of us, they are told "back".  This helped with them not running out the door after small animals that would make their way into our yard.  

[Night Elf]

How much exercise does he get?

 

And this is where dog people get mad at me, but not much exercise at all. We take them for a short walk 2 or 3 times a week. They just make walkiing such an unpleasant ordeal that we don't like to do it anymore. I wish I could take them one at a time by myself during the day, but the one who is stuck inside howls and barks while the other one is outside. I could definitely use help in leash training my dachshund. I figure the first step is even letting me get it on and get him near the door without him totally wigging out.

[Pawz4me]

Dog people shouldn't get mad at you.  What matters is that more exercise, physical and mental, really can help behavior.  The old saying that a tired dog is a good dog is very true.

 

Exercise doesn't have to mean walks.  In fact, walks are great mental exercise for most dogs, but a human's normal pace is really only good physical exercise for the smallest of dogs, or larger older dogs.  Human walks, unless they're miles and miles and miles, don't do much physically for young, active medium/large dogs.  Do you have a fenced yard?  A longish carpeted hall (so he won't slip and hurt his back)?  For a dog as small as a Doxie, you can do a lot right in the house to give him extra exercise.  Fifteen or twenty minutes of playing fetch a couple of times a day can make a big difference in behavior.  Working on basic obedience skills and tricks is fabulous mental exercise, and that can *really* tire a dog out.

[Night Elf]

Dog people shouldn't get mad at you.  What matters is that more exercise, physical and mental, really can help behavior.  The old saying that a tired dog is a good dog is very true.

 

Exercise doesn't have to mean walks.  In fact, walks are great mental exercise for most dogs, but a human's normal pace is really only good physical exercise for the smallest of dogs, or larger older dogs.  Human walks, unless they're miles and miles and miles, don't do much physically for young, active medium/large dogs.  Do you have a fenced yard?  A longish carpeted hall (so he won't slip and hurt his back)?  For a dog as small as a Doxie, you can do a lot right in the house to give him extra exercise.  Fifteen or twenty minutes of playing fetch a couple of times a day can make a big difference in behavior.  Working on basic obedience skills and tricks is fabulous mental exercise, and that can *really* tire a dog out.

 

We do have a fenced yard and he used to run around the perimeter, but he no longer does that. However, he does have a circuit in my house where he runs at least once a day. The other dog stands in the middle of the room and just watches. :)

 

So, what do you recommend I do when he starts barking and running back and forth when he knows I'm about to put on his leash and take him outside? Today I put on the harness and then just sat down. He was fine. But I put on my shoes about half an hour later and he assumed I was taking him out. He started barking and running back and forth. I just ignored him and left the house. He was totally calm when I got home just now. If I had needed to put on his leash earlier, it would have been difficult because of the way he was acting. Is it wrong of me to harness him up like he's going out and then not take him out? He knows the harness means the leash and the leash means outside. I don't mind the association, I just wish he wasn't so exuberant about the whole process.

[ktgrok]

Get out the leash, they jump, you put it back. Wait a minute, get out the leash, they jump, you put it back. Repeat until they hold stil for a second, etc. You gradually get closer and closer to them with the leash.

[Night Elf]

Get out the leash, they jump, you put it back. Wait a minute, get out the leash, they jump, you put it back. Repeat until they hold stil for a second, etc. You gradually get closer and closer to them with the leash.

 

Okay, thank you. I'll work on that.