Keep away from these paws... training help needed

[skittledoo]

Ok I'm annoyed. I just wrote this super long thread and when I clicked Preview it erased it all and said I was no longer signed in... ARGHHH

Anyways... I'll try and make it slightly shorter this time around

You guys remember the thread I posted about Bamm's issues with having his paws wiped with a towel? He's fine with it when you wipe his paws after coming inside for a walk. But... you have to do it asap when you're still standing by the door. He'll occassionaly let me sometimes offleash, but not often. Basically when you try and wipe his paws or handle his paws sometimes he plays keep away or just plain shies away. I'm not sure if it's just a game to him or if there's any slight fear at all. He pretty much only does it if you have an object in your hand like a towel or something.

He does it when I have a brush in my hand as well. He shies away and wont let me brush him. When he does eventually let me brush him then he's completely fine. It's getting to that point that's the issue. I've been trying the click/treat method and lots of praise. He'll eventually give in, but then the next day when we try it we're back to square one. I must be doing something wrong right? I've been trying to work on this every day for a few minutes.

He's also started doing this when we leash up for walks. He LOVES going for walks. As soon as I have the leash in hand he gets super excited about it, yet will sometimes shy away when I try and actually leash him up. He'll turn his head away from the leash or back up a few steps, but as soon as I move the leash away he is right up next to me excited because he wants to go out again.

I need some advice on how best to tackle this situation.

[skittledoo]

I eventually want to start getting him used to being around water and on a boat. I do a lot of boating and hope that he'll eventually feel comfortable enough to come along. I was thinking about eventually getting him a life vest mainly for safety precautions if he was to fall out of the boat or something. My boss gave me a life vest for him that looks something like this:


I brought it home and need to find out if it fits him. Problem is that he's afraid of this too. I set it on the living room floor and walked away from it. He stayed away from it at first but slowly started to creep up to the vest. Anytime he touched his nose to it I clicked/treat. I taught him a touch cue. Basically I say "target" and point to the object or if he knows the objects name then I say "target ball" or whatever the object is. I started asking him to target the vest while it was still on the floor. He was fine with that. I decided I'd work on trying the vest on him later since I wanted to end this experience on a good note.

I picked up the vest to move it to my room and he jumped back away from the vest. oi vey... guess I have a little ways before I can check to see if it'll fit him ok.

I probably should work more on the above problems in the first post and then move on to work on the life vest issue.

[Dekka]

Snip shys away when you go to pick him up. I have had him since he as concieved, nothign bad has ever happened to him. And he loves being held, its that act of being picked up. If you go to leash him, or any 'grabbing' type things he turns into rubber noodle dog where any part shrinks away when you go to touch. I haven't c/t this issue much, and I likely should. (but once you have him, he's great) Watch Bamm's body language, is he playing keep away with you, or is he honestly upset about you 'invading his space'?

[Romy]

When you leash him do you have him sit? Strider gets really wiggly, and sitting forces him to be stationary. This doesn't really address his underlying issues though.

Maybe some of the fear is coming from not being able to see the object? It sounds like you have spent a lot of time desensitizing him, and once he realizes what the thing actually is he is fine with it. Has anybody ever checked his eyes out?

[lizzybeth727]

When you reach for him, are you bending over him? Bending over a dog is doggy language for "get out of my space." So by bending over and reaching out, your body language is actually telling your dog to go away - so he does. I like to teach short dogs to come toward me when I bend down - basically whenever you're training something (sit, down, anything), when I give the dog the treat I bend over and hold it in close to my legs. Usually the dog is so excited about having earned the treat, he doesn't really care that I'm bending over when I give it to him... and of course it changes the body language from "go away" to "come get something cool."