Over the last few months I\’ve been seeing two dogs who were a bit out of control. When I arrived for my first visit, the bigger fellow (a kelpie cross) was totally in my face – he rushed up to me, wanted to jump up, and was also nipping and mouthing at my hands a lot. I sat down with their mum and got the story. It turns out she had a new bub, about 6 months old, and they had had to spend a few months in hospital early on. So, as she told me, the dogs had had no attention at all, and had simply gotten out of hand.
I started to build some boundaries with the big fella – starting to gently teach him that he was NOT allowed to come into my space whenever he wanted to. I use a technique that i call \”outing\” them- so I teach them an \”out\” command, and hold the dog out of my personal space, or \”bubble\” with my body language, strong eye contact and commands until they stop trying to come into my space. Then I will invite them back in, but I am in control of when they are allowed into my space. (It sounds simple, but I would really need to teach you this in person to show you how to do it properly.)
After a bit of this work, I invited him in and started to do some hands on work. I have another technique I teach clients that involves gentle, deep, slow moving pressure applied with your hands all over the dogs body. It leads to remarkable emotional and behavioural shifts! Well – he wasn\’t at all into being handled- he wriggled, and jiggled, and tried to nip me, and generally carried on like a pork chop. It took a good half an hour of intensive, patient, loving work to get him settled into allowing me to work with him. All the while, I had to keep his little friend out of my space. It was an interesting dance! He was a lot better by the end, but still not allowing me to handle him as well as he should.
Then I picked up the little dog. She was a right handful, seriously trying to bite me, and very unwilling to be handled at all. So I simply held her until she calmed down, and then went back to gently easing into working more and more with intentional touch. Eventually she settled down, relaxed, and allowed me to work with her.
It was magic to see the difference week to week. On each visit they were both more responsive to commands, more respectful of our personal space, and more willing to allow me to work with them hands on. They had transformed from a pair of out of control, pushy, nippy, naughty dogs into model citizens. Their mum was very happy that they were easier to live with, staying closer to the house, not trying to get out and run away as much, and way more obedient. I was happy that they weren\’t jumping all over me, and the hand nipping had stopped too.
This sort of work is fantastic to settle dogs, especially if they seem to be out of control.