cushner@ttidcb.UUCP (Jeffrey Cushner) (02/09/85)
Referring to Mr. Lachner's reply to the question of whether or not to
buy a Husky, it seems that it might not be the breed's problem, in this
case, but the environment in which the dog is being raised.
When a dog "loses control of his bladder" due to being corrected or
is excited, that is called Submissive Urination. It is usually caused
by over correction on the part of the owner. This normally happens
more with a larger breed of dog whom the owner wants to "get under control"
at an early age and winds up giving the dog a serious case of neurosis.
In other words, the dog becomes extremely sensitive to the owner's mood
and pees himself out of fright if he thinks it's going to happen again.
As Huskys are hyper dogs by nature, this will happen sooner than with
other "mellower" breeds. Huskys, as well as other working and sporting
dogs, need to be exercised, especially when pups.
Dogs need to be shown new things in a very non-threatening manner if
they are not to be scared by it. The bathtub, if not presented to a
dog properly, and at an early age, can be an extremely anxious
experience. There are two fears here, the fear of being confined
in a small area with a dangerous substance, (water here), and the
fear of loss of footing in a slippery bathtub. I advise you to cover
the bottom of the bathtub in rubber non-slip mats when giving your dog
a bath. You might be surprised at the difference it makes!
A dog, unlike humans can not hold feelings in. (It's very unlikely
that dogs get ulcers) Instead, when a dog is anxious, he's got to get
rid of the feeling somehow. Anxiety manifests itself in habits such as
digging, barking, chewing, etc. Cropaphagy (sp) or eating ones own
feces can be one of these habits that develop like that. The best
advice I can give is to KEEP HIS AREA CLEAN! If it's not around he
can't eat it.
It's important that a dog be given substitute items to take anxiety
out on. Most of the time rawhide chewtoys, branches, even old cardboard
boxes will do the trick.
To have a well-adjusted dog, the owner must keep a careful balance between
praise and correction. The dog needs to know what he did wrong and what
he's doing right. If you walk in the house after work and see the couch
chewed up and the dog quietly munching on his rawhide chew toy, you
might as well forget about correcting him because it will do NO GOOD.
After all, he was doing, currently, what you had given him. If you
correct him, all that will happen is that you'll have a confused dog.
On the other hand, if you come home, find the dog actively chewing on
the couch, call him to you and THEN correct him, you can be sure that
it's the last time he'll come to you willingly! The moral is BE
CONSISTANT and COMMUNICATE.
As far as over correction, if you see the dog doing something wrong,
you get an angry expression on your face and the dog drops on his back
with his tail tucked between his legs, face in a wierd smile and neck
exposed, you can bet that you had better ease up on correction.
The rule of thumb for correction is: CORRECT THE BEHAVIOR, NOT THE DOG.
If a dog is corrected in a non-threatening way, then shown what is the
right behavior and is then praised for it. Most problems will fade
away quickly!
Well, I guess that I'll get off my soapbox now. Just remember that
any dog can be trained to be good. Some just take more time but
ALL dogs can be "bad" if trained improperly!
(I might add at this point that I'm a professional private dog
trainer and behaviorist)
Jeff Cushner
Citicorp-TTI
Santa Monica, CA
{vortex,philabs}!ttidca!ttidcb!cushner
>From: archiel@hercules.UUCP (Archie Lachner)
>Newsgroups: net.pets
>
>At the risk of getting flames from the Husky lovers out there, don't buy
>one unless you live in the country and have plenty of room for the dog to
>do whatever wherever. We have a half-Husky half-Shepard mutt who does some
>unexplainable things. At over three years of age, he still loses control
>of his urine when he gets nervous, like when we bathe him. Yet he will go
>bounding through oceans of muddy water (more mud than water) of his own accord
>with gleeful abandon. He also loses control when you scold him or catch him
>doing something he knows is wrong. He also has a habbit of eating his own
>feces.
>
>Our vet says these kinds of things are typical of Huskies, and that he'd be
>even more of a moron if he was pure-bred. The bottom line is that most
>Huskies are born brain-damaged, and that our mutt has just enough intelligence
>to be "dangerous."
>
>If you want more info, ask me about our efforts to house-break him in an
>apartment (ever wonder why puppies are so cute ...).
>--
>
> Archie Lachner
> Logic Design Systems Division
> Tektronix, Inc.
>
>uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,pur-ee,cbosg,ihnss}!tektronix!teklds!archiel
>CSnet: archiel@tek
>ARPAnet: archiel.tek@csnet-relaysjs@u1100s.UUCP (Stan Switzer) (02/12/85)
In article <271@ttidcb.UUCP> cushner@ttidcb.UUCP (Jeffrey Cushner) writes: > On the other hand, if you come home, find the dog actively chewing on > the couch, call him to you and THEN correct him, you can be sure that > it's the last time he'll come to you willingly! The moral is BE > CONSISTANT and COMMUNICATE. I agree, hovever ... NEVER, NEVER, call your dog and then punish, yell, or otherwise correct your him. He will learn that it is not a good idea to come when called. You must GO TO THE DOG and correct him on the spot. But, I have a problem with my puppy (a Westie) that I need some help with: When we leave home, we confine him to the kitchen and bathroom. We keep his bed in the bathroom, so we cannot close the door. He almost daily tears toilet paper off of the roll and rips it to shreads. I could just not put the paper on the roll, but I want to raise a civilized dog and I think that not tearing up things is a part of being civilized. Of course, he never does this when we are at home. Any ideas? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stan Switzer | Sometimes I think a Westie is a cross between a dog ihnp4!u1100s!sjs | and a pig. Wouldn't change it for the world.