Just some behavior mod questions (re: Abrams)

*blackrose

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#1
These are so random and unrelated, but I have a few specific behaviors of his that I would like to change, and I was just curious if someone with more training experience than I had any words of wisdom to impart on how to go about fixing the behaviors.

1.) Barking while in a parked car.
He sleeps like a babe and rides wonderfully while the car is in motion, but as SOON as we stop somewhere he immediately gets extremely alert/anxious/watchful and barks at All The People. Even things he thinks are people - like road signs. Once we're out of the car, he settles down and is fine, it is just while he is in a parked car that he's obnoxious. Doesn't matter if we are in the car with him or if he's left alone (with Cynder) while we pop out for a second. He barks either way.

Ideal behavior would be for him to stay quiet (he can remain watchful for all I care) and only bark if someone actually approaches the car. I would also be happy with him just being quiet forever and never ever barking in the car again, period.

My plan: I was thinking of implementing a Look At That type scenario. Starting small - like just sitting in the car in the driveway. Treating. Maybe backing it out of the driveway and parking on the street. Treating. Eventually driving to a not-so-busy gas station. Treating. End goal would be to park in a busy parking lot and have him remain calm.
My question is, do I just constantly dole out treats regardless of his behavior? Jackpotting when someone comes close, even if he's growling/barking? I don't want to reward him for barking, obviously, but I don't want him to have negative associations with someone walking by in the distance, either?

2.) Meal times!
I'd love for him to "go to place" when commanded, even if something exiting is going on. I'd like to use this in different scenarios, but the first one I'd like to use it for is feeding times. He is an over excitable IDIOT when he thinks/knows it is his food time. He jumps in front of you, he barks, he runs circles around you...he's really, really, really annoying. I've tried just ignoring him when he offers the behaviors, but as soon as he realizes you're ignoring him, he stops and holds perfectly still. The second you move again he's back to being an idiot. Effectively, I think I've taught him that when I stop moving, he needs to stop moving to get me to start again - NOT that him being an idiot is what gets me to stop moving in the first place. Instead of him offering spastic behaviors, I'd love for him to channel that enthusiasm and hold a down/stay in a distant room or on a mat until he's released to eat. (He does settle and act like a normal dog if I just, you know. Don't feed him. But as soon as I head towards the food area with intent to feed him, he knows, and starts acting a fool again.)

My plan: I...really don't know. I figured I'd start with mat work (or maybe "room work" if that is what I decide to do with him) and go from there? Thoughts?

3.) Orienting to me as soon as we go through a door.
I have Control Unleashed which is really what gave me this idea, but I would lovelovelovelovelove if he were to immediately face me and give me eye contact as soon as he exited or entered a house door/car door. He turns into an overexcited mess in most situations and his brain falls out through his ears, so I figured that would help him reorient and focus while giving me something to reward vs curse at him as soon as we enter/exit a place.

My plan: Again, I'm kind of at a loss. I'm going to start enforcing that he give me eye contact as a default for going out into the yard and I plan to do some of the door exercises as described in Controlled Unleashed, but I'd be happy to hear anyone else's ideas! He's actually really good about eye contact while working when he's actually using his brain and focused on the task at hand, so the foundation is there...he just has his moments where he forgets everything he ever knew and acts like he's never had any training at all in his life, ever.

That's it for now, I think! I have two other issues I'd like to address at some point, but they are more general behavior and not actually a trainable task (I don't think), so I'll save those for another time. Any tips/advice/encouragement is appreciated! We've been letting a LOT of things slide recently and it's been showing. Doesn't help that he's also under exercised and pulling longer hours at home alone with Michael being gone. So I'm going to be making it a point to work with him more and get him back to being a relatively good dog instead of an annoying loud beast creature. LOL
 

Southpaw

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#2
For reorienting, what actually worked ridiculously well for Cajun was to start by just luring her back around to me. So when I'd get her out of the car for example, I'd lure her out of the car and then have her make a bit of a u-turn so she was facing the car again. I didn't ask for eye contact at that point, just gave her the reward, but usually after that she'd offer some sort of focus on her own anyway just because YAY FOOD. I did the same with the front door at home. We'd walk out, I'd lure a u-turn.

After a lot of repetitions of that, it just became automatic for her. It's getting out of the car when I appreciate it the most, she jumps out and then turns right back around and faces me. So nice because yeah, she used to just hop out and lunge to the end of her leash, and at that point it was more work to get any focus out of her.

Otherwise I suppose an alternative would be to wait for them to offer it, but I don't have much patience for that.

For meal times I generally just let my guys be bafoons, but Cajun's spinning in circles and tap dancing really grates on my nerves most days, so a lot of times I'll just put her in a down/stay somewhere while I get food ready. There's really nothing specific I did and it's nothing automatic, I'm just happy that I have some way of turning her off lol. Which is probably not helpful if you want this for other situations too :p Manners Minder. You should get a Manners Minder! "Go to place" is basically like, the whole premise of it! ;)
 

Elrohwen

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#3
I agree about luring back to you after getting out of the car or going through a door. Once that's pretty ingrained you can test it by waiting for the dog to turn back on his own, but I would start with the luring. It worked faster than I expected.

For food time, personally I would leave the room if he started acting crazy. Instead of just stopping, walk away and sit down for 5-10 min and then try again. You could also do a down/stay or a go to mat behavior.
 

*blackrose

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#4
I will start with luring to reorient, then! I prefer to lure vs shape regardless (I'm more comfortable doing so), so that will work out nicely. He's already used to waiting before exiting the door/car, but once he exits he stops paying all attention for a few seconds and I'd like that to change.

As for the feeding, I can't really exit the room as the main part of our house is pretty much all one big room. If I turn around and walk away (which I have done before) he just follows and acts a nuisance. If I turn around, walk away, and start actively doing something else he'll wait patiently and occupy himself in other ways, but as soon as I move towards the garage again he acts the same. He just gets SO HAPPY, which is fine, I would just prefer his happiness to be directed in a constructive way. Lol
 
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#5
What has worked for me with crazy at meals is two things

1. A strong association of eating in the crate plus crate games. If crate=food, getting in the crate will make food appear. Plus crate games means being in the crate makes him think self control thoughts.

2. Red light green light. Still dogs make the food getting procedure continue, crazy dogs make it stop. It sounds like you're doing this already, and he is stopping when you stop. That's a great start! Take a look at your timing, as SOON as he moves at all, you should stop again. It cm take a really long time at first, but if you have good timing,clear criteria, and are consistent, it usually works within a few meals.

Additionally, it might be easier to ask him to crate/place first and then get his food. Treat it like a down stay. Train get on mat, then train stay there while I take a step away, while I look towards the kitchen, while I pick up a dog food scoop, etc. Building the food routine a piece at a time.
 

DJEtzel

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#6
Since no one touched on the car behavior, I will just hit that one. I agree with what Southpaw said about the Orienting to you behavior and what Raegan said about the place exercise/meal times.

I would DEFINITELY do LAT training in the car, if you can. It's going to be hard if you are driving and going to be doing this, so if you had a friend/relative to drive the car and stop, that would be much preferred. Otherwise, I would load him up, start the car, back up the driveway ten feet and stop. Put the crate close to you in the driver's seat if possible, so that you can turn around pretty quickly and start training.

The idea for LAT training is that you catch them when they notice the stimuli before they react to it. If he starts reacting, you've lost your opportunity to reward, and you have to get him back below threshold, which will probably mean moving the car again to calm him down or waiting him out to calm down.

So as soon as you stop, and he lifts his head, pricks his ears, GLANCES (NOT stares, looks, or fixates out the window at something/anything) outside, mark and treat. Another glance, movement, etc. mark and treat. Rinse, wash, repeat. This is extremely repetitive, you'll think you are force feeding him treats, just make sure that he's noticing something between each one or it will be a little pointless. ;)
 

*blackrose

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#7
Thanks for all of the advice everyone! DJEtzel, thanks for taking the time to clear up the car scenario for me. I fully plan to just start in my driveway so he's able to grasp "the game" first before moving on to more stimulating areas. He tends to go on alert as soon as the car is parked, regardless of whether or not people are around, so I want him to understand the basic principles first before adding more criteria.

He's already starting to offer more consistent eye contact and (slightly) calmer behaviors more quickly now that I've been taking the time to actually work with him versus just going with it. I really put so much of his general training on the back burner for so long, it's rather embarrassing.

I discovered this morning that although just stopping and standing still doesn't affect him greatly, if I stop *and* make my, "Really? You just did that? You are disgusting" face (that is typically reserved for DH hahaha) while averting my face from his he immediately stops what he's doing and starts using his brain to offer alternative behaviors.
 

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