My dog pulls people off swing sets. How do I desensitize her to them?

When going to the dog park, I recommend that as soon as she starts to pull, immediately turn around and go away from the dog park for at least 10 steps, then you can turn back and try again. When she starts to pull, once again turn around and take 10 steps away. Give positive reinforcement with treats when she walks by your side where she is supposed to. The goal is to teach her she will get to the park faster if she doesn't pull. Blowing leaves are often a big trigger, and dogs want to chase them. This can be harder to directly train for because the wind is unpredictable. One thing you can do is give Sie a command to look at you. This can be "look", or "Sie", or another word you choose. She should look at you, and not at the treat. She only gets the treat when she looks at you. But if she can learn to stop what she is doing and look at you and away from whatever she finds interesting, this can help with many issues. Then on windy days, you can ask her to sit as the leaves blow by, and stay focused on you. Any training issue requires time and dedication to fix. Be patient and consistent, and over time it should improve. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Desensitization and counterconditioning Desensitization is the process of taking a fearful stimulus and slowly exposing your dog to it. You have to start slowly and gradually increase the amount of stimulus that your dog is exposed to, until she is no longer responding negatively to the stimulus. Counterconditioning should be used in conjunction with desensitization. This is the process of pairing the fearful stimulus with a reward, such as praise or a treat. Your dog thus begins to associate the previously feared stimulus with positive emotions. An Example of Desensitization and Counterconditioning: Dog Afraid of Men In a spacious, neutral environment, like a park or large fenced yard, start with a man at a distance from your leashed dog where she does not cower, growl, try to run away or otherwise appear fearful. Make sure you have a good amount of high value treats to work with, which may be hot dog pieces, cheese, etc. Small treats given fairly constantly with proper behavior are a great tool. Adjustments to distance from the stimulus should be gradual and paired with constant treating while the proper behavior (i.e. lack of fearful behavior as described above) is maintained. Your dog may reach a point where she feels threatened and may display signs of fear toward the man, possibly even aggression. If this occurs, expand the distance and repeat the process. This technique can be adjusted and applied to most situations that cause your dog to be fearful. Conclusion Keep in mind that this is a process and will take some time. Have reasonable expectations of your dog and what is acceptable behavior within your family unit. Each fear will likely have to be addressed separately and may never be abolished completely. And as with any training exercise, it should be fun and a great way for you and your dog to bond! Adding obedience training or agility classes may make the process smoother and ultimately more enjoyable for everyone involved. For further information and help, especially with working with specific triggers, please contact your veterinarian.

Use plenty of positive reinforcement. Reward only good behaviors, correct negative behavior immediately. A head harness such as the Gentle Leader or Halti can be used to prevent pulling and to quickly correct negative behavior. To ignore distracts, she will have to be acclimated and desensitized to each one gradually. Expose her to one distraction for ever increasing periods of time until it no longer bothers her. Use praise and rewards as she progresses. Be firm and be consistent, above all, be patient.

I'm sorry to hear Sofie is having leash issues. One option to decrease her behavior is when she starts, come to a dead stop and don't allow her any slack on the leash to go forward. Use a short four to five foot nylon leash, not an extendable one. Every time she exhibits this behavior, stop where you are and refuse to go further until she is calm again. With consistency, this can improve leash manners. You can also use a gentle leader or no pull harness concurrently. If the behavior is persistent, worsens or is non resolving I would recommend you reach out to her regular veterinarian or a veterinary behaviorist. Good luck!

It sounds like Sie is unsure and anxious around some new people. If she seems uncertain or barks at them, just move further away and reward her with a treat for refocusing on you and coming with you. Over time, if you're consistent about this, she will learn to "check in" with you automatically when she sees someone she's nervous about - just continue to reward for his, and never force her to go closer or greet anyone if she doesn't want to. Ideally, it would be great if you could enroll Sie in a good reward-based training class in your area. This would help her learn some basic skills that you can use on your walks, and would also give her some experience being around new people in a controlled, positive way. You can search for a qualified trainer in your area here: www.ccpdt.org

It's likely that Darby is frustrated about not being able to get somewhere that she wants to go - you can help this problem by calling her name and encouraging her to go in a different direction, and rewarding with a treat when she follows you. Biting and mouthing is very normal behavior for a puppy this age - this is how puppies explore the world, and how they instinctively want to play. Make sure that she has a variety of different toys to provide an appropriate outlet for this behavior - long floppy rope or fleece toys for tugging, plush toys for biting and carrying, and smaller toys or balls for chasing and fetching. She should also have lots of different things to lay and chew on, such as bully sticks, rawhide chews, cow or pig ears, and puzzle toys such as a Kong stuffed with peanut butter. She will grow out of this behavior on her own as she gets older, but in the meantime, just redirect her to one of her own toys and use that to play with her instead. If she continues to get overly excited and try to bite, give her something to chew on (such as one of the options I mentioned above) to encourage her to settle down and relax for a while.

Poor pup! It sounds like you both would benefit from a basic training class for working on some leash manners, and to work with a trainer about desensitizing your dog to fearful things (such as cars on the road.) A harness such as an Easy-Walk no pull harness or a Gentle Leader is also a good idea so that she can't pull or tug you places or get herself injured. Starting walking on quieter trails that are low distraction and gradually increasing the amount of distraction and noise on walks can help as well, but it will take time. If she becomes too scared, going back to the walking bath she was less fearful on and working up from there is best.