Wont go into chill out in her crate PLUS snapping

[chrisUK263]

I know I keep saying this but thatnkyou for all the advice. I'm going to sit down with the family tonight and go through some of the rules that we must follow with Jess i.e not leaver her alone with the children and the sleeping rule. Hopefully setting out rules this was will make them much easier for us all to follow instead of my OH or me going "What should we do"

Please don't think bad of me i've never had a puppy before, so this is a tough stage for me along with Uni work ect. But i break up for 4 1/2 month in two weeks so my full attention will be on getting Jess on the right tracks.

[chrisUK263]

Ok, so i've made a short list of the things I should try stick to correct this behavior of Jess's, if there is anything ive missed or need to amend please let me know.

- No stroking her head. Chest only to prevent nipping from being unsure
- long lead must be on at all times when in the house.
- Call her if you want to give her affection, If she does not come over then leave her alone.
- Never leave the children on their own with Jess always put her either in the other room or in the crate if unable to supervise.
- To get her from the sofa either use a treat to lure her away or a treat and a lead to get her down, when her paws touch the floor give lots of praise.
- Never stroke Jess when she is sleeping or eating
- Either hand feed all of her meals(children too, supervised) or place in crate.
- Never pick her up or pull her by collar to remove from a situation, use high value treats

[Mel]

I think that list is pretty good. One point I will make is what if it's the middle of the night, house is on fire, dog is asleep, your child goes to get the dog. What do you do? Leave the dog incase she bites or pick her up? Think about what if you had to pick up a sleeping dog and build a little of your training around that.

[Karma]

I think that list is pretty good. One point I will make is what if it's the middle of the night, house is on fire, dog is asleep, your child goes to get the dog. What do you do? Leave the dog incase she bites or pick her up? Think about what if you had to pick up a sleeping dog and build a little of your training around that.

While I agree with this, I think that's something to address once the rules are in place and being adhered to.  Once Jess is confident within her consistent handling, I do agree it is useful to gradually desensitise to general handling and ability to handle her whether or not she is asleep, but that's something for the adults in the house to do once Jess has started to trust her surroundings more.
And will probably come with age anyway - Honey hated any handling as a pup, but will now sleep on us... 

[Lilly23101983]

Hi,
Sorry i cant help with the problems you are having with the crate, but our cocker, Molly is very snappy when she is sleeping, also she sleeps on our bed alot and if we try to get in she growls at us but we have taught her to go on her bed, if we want to get in bed we just have to say 'on your bed' and she jumps onto her own bed, and we always give her a treat for this. May be trying something like this with the crate may help?

[PennyB]

- long lead must be on at all times when in the house.

use a house line - these are very light and longer than usual leads - one like this http://www.myvetmeds.co.uk/clix-puppy-house-line-2-5-mtr.htm

[chrisUK263]

ok so ive managed to get her to give up anything now performing the exchanges technique and i can go near her when she has food and toys. but the little boy walked past her to get a DVD and she started to growl. Do you think this is because she does not trust hi. Does he also need to perform the exchanges ?

[Mel]

If you buy the June edition of Your Dog magazine, there is a question on page 54 which is very much like your situation. It's not alot of text but will explain things to you.

If when your children go past the dog they can offer a small treat, but only with your supervision, your dog should soon see that good things happen when your children are around. Maybe every time your child runs past the dog you can throw a treat to the dog, etc. Then you can build up to the exchanges between dog and child. Children are unpredictable and your dog needs to get used to this unpredictability. It takes time though, but look out for the magazine.

[Hurtwood Dogs]

ok so ive managed to get her to give up anything now performing the exchanges technique and i can go near her when she has food and toys. but the little boy walked past her to get a DVD and she started to growl. Do you think this is because she does not trust hi. Does he also need to perform the exchanges ?

Yes he does, but in light of what's happened recently, I would strongly suggest not yet. It sounds like you are making good progress but taking it slowly will pay off in bucket loads. Don't push her until she is totally comfortable (for a good while) with you making exchanges - it should be totally natural to her and you before you up things a level and get the kids more involved.

Yes it's very likely she doesn't trust your little boy at the moment for all the reasons I've mentioned before - kids are unpredictable, move differently to adults and are, to be frank, quite untrustworthy at times Kids want instant results and will push dogs and experiment - they are only kids and it's what they do... Jess will know this even from the little time she has spent with you all. It's been a couple of days since she bit him so don't hurry things at the moment. YOU need to manage her at the moment and fully gain her trust, the kids need to take a back seat until things have settled down a bit. Then they can start doing the sort of exercises you have been doing but ONLY while you are supervising and they should still be kept separate at other times until Jess has grown up more and has developed more natural confidence around them.... don't rush things, this is a very long process She will learn naturally to be OK with them if you let her do it at her own pace and protect her from the children so she feels safe - I am not suggesting your kids are anything but normal kids with this comment, but some pups can't handle 'kids' until they've learnt more about humans and the world in general and from what you've posted, Jess needs to learn to trust you and have a bit of time to feel more secure in herself before you expose her to the kids too much again

Take a breather, concentrate on each good day at a time and most of all, take it slowly and carefully with all of them so everyone gets a chance to relax and gently get to know each other and trust each other over the coming months

[Ian Wright]

Grace will growl when woken up just like people get grumpy when woken up 
Grace will growl when i go near her when she is eating so i leave her so do the children 
Grace will growl when she has enough playing so we leave her alone and she will sleep in her create 
Grace is a normal cocker these are just warning signs to be left alone 
you must read your dogs signals

Good luck

[Jeanette]

ok so ive managed to get her to give up anything now performing the exchanges technique and i can go near her when she has food and toys. but the little boy walked past her to get a DVD and she started to growl. Do you think this is because she does not trust hi. Does he also need to perform the exchanges ?

What was she doing when "the little boy" walked past to get a DVD i.e. what room, was she eating, etc as just walking past should not warrant a growl 

[chrisUK263]

ok so ive managed to get her to give up anything now performing the exchanges technique and i can go near her when she has food and toys. but the little boy walked past her to get a DVD and she started to growl. Do you think this is because she does not trust hi. Does he also need to perform the exchanges ?

What was she doing when "the little boy" walked past to get a DVD i.e. what room, was she eating, etc as just walking past should not warrant a growl 

She was just stood near him and he walked past and didn't say anything to her or put his hand near her. it was very strange. In the event of her growling at something or someone what should I do? y-day when she growled at someone i picked up the long line and took her away into the kitchen (calmly) and then stood with her in there for a while then let her back into the room with me. Is this the correct thing to do also what if she has a treat an starts growling? do we leave the treat with her or take her away to another room away from the situation?  I assuming we don't do the latter for when she has food

[Karma]

While just walking past *shouldn't* ellicit a growl response, I can understand why it is in this instance, as Jess has already demonstrated she really doesn't trust the boy at the minute.  Hannah (Hurtwood Dogs) has given some fantastic advice and how to gradually rebuild this trust.

At the minute I would only give her long term treats in her crate, so the situation of her having a treat and needing to be removed from a situation shouldn't arise.  If she growls because she is guarding something else, I would get the person she is growling at to walk away, then you can work on distacting and exchanging the object as you are doing in your training with her.  This can build up to the person gently throwing some treats to Jess while she has a high value object (without getting close enough to cause a growl in the first place), but only once you have put in that groundwork!!