GUINEVERE

Hey there;
My girlfriend and I recently stumbled across your site while looking up information for our young
Italian Greyhound, Guinevere, born 5/31/05. She looks strikingly similar to the IG you posted about
named Swanky! She not only looks similar, but also seems to have many similar behaviors.

She is a terror when she starts play biting. She has learned to start barking at us incessantly when
excited. She gets very upset when place her in her kennel to leave the apartment...in fact, I'm very
concerned about that because she seems to be rubbing a spot on the top of her nose raw while in her
kennel. She will not sleep through a whole night in her kennel...she wakes up sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times (but lately we've been working on helping her be a lot more comfortable in there...she has
been waking up two or three).

She has made great progress in house training--she will relieve herself outside as long as we are near
and the backdoor is open. If the backdoor is closed or we are not near her (i.e., we leave the room), she will almost always relieve herself in the house seemingly out of spite (even if the door is open!).

We have tried many many things to calm her play biting. We have tried to tell her no and lightly
restrain her and hold her muzzle lightly, but she will become EXTREMELY agitated and fights harder and harder until we can't hold her anymore. We've tried (and currently maintain) saying "ow!" loudly and ignoring her, which worked at first, but now seems to entice her to bite more...or, when she wants us to leave her alone, she will start biting I think specifically because she knows we will leave her alone. We will sometimes spray our hands, feet, clothes, faces, ears with bitter apple to deter her when she gets too hyper. Recently we discovered getting down and growling/barking gets her attention quick, but she will jsut start barking when we do that now.

Ok...this message is certainly very long. Rest assured, we keep trying everything we can to condition her behaviors, but we're getting stumped. I'm tired of having scratched wrists and hands, tired of her barking, tired of waking up in the middle of the night to let her outside (she does not have a UTI, the vet double checked), and worried about her little nose when we aren't near her. Could you help? Any suggestions? Also, I would love to send you a picture of her, too...

Thanks so much for your time.

SWANKY

read my professional response here...

Hi there,

i'll try to help as much as a person could over the
internet...

first, let me make a suggestion: try litterbox training.
because it's hella easy, and it'll free you
up from having to come home from all those great
parties early, it'll give you less anxiety and you
won't have to crate her all the time. i.g.'s are
small enough to litterbox train even in an apartment,
so i'd do that if i were you. if you have to use the
crate at night, just remember to never let her out of
there if she's barking. if anything, wait for the
second she stops barking to let her out, or else she's
training you to "come when called", and that's just
backwards. b.t.w, i.g's are notoriously hard to
housebreak. didn't know if you knew...

playbiting- basically whatever works is what you
should use as a correction.

some dogs laugh at bitter apple spray,
some of them run for the hills as soon as
they see you even motion towards the bottle. the
moral of the story is this: any given correction will
work for some, but not all dogs. you can read all the
dog magazines and training books on this earth, and
the suggestions sound like they'd work on paper, but
they, alot of the time, just don't. that's what makes
my brain burn up, with all the published material
about dog training, nobody ever tells a person that
their dog is an individual, with it's own temperament
and that it should be treated that way. they all say
things like, "if your dog jumps up on people, just put
your knee up into his chest. that'll work." well,
you know what? some dogs think that's hilarious, and
they'll express that by humping your entire midsection
instead of plain ol' jumping up on you. so take this
rant how you wish to, it's only my opinion, but
naturally, i think it's absolute truth.

so playbiting, round 2- you can try a spray bottle
with water inside it, you know the ones that have the
adjustable nozzle with "mist" or "stream". SOME dogs
hate it, some will open their mouths to let it all in
there. give it a try, it's easy.

you could try a shake can (empty soda can with pennies
inside, tape the hole closed). have it nearby, but
try your best to hide it. when she goes to bite you,
try dropping it "by accident" so it makes a loud
noise. if that isn't effective enough, you can shake
it in her face to scare her into refocusing and
reconsidering.

anything you use as a correction will have to be done
EVERY SINGLE TIME she makes the wrong decision
(biting). the idea is that the correction has to be
aversive enough for her to want to avoid it the next
time she goes to playbite.

you can try a citronella collar (remote controlled) as
a correction. this will more than most likely be
aversive enough for her to think twice.

when you come to know what she hates enough to avoid,
apply that thing everytime, and right after she gets
the bad thing, ignore her for like 15 minutes. the
reason why it mostly works is because that's what
another dog would do to her is she pissed him off
enough, except he'd use a snap or a quick, corrective
bite to shock her. then he'd walk away ("screw you").
that's what you should try, too.

i'm tired of typing, so this has to be enough to work
with for you. take care and be consistent, mmkay?

marlene
m@dropthatsock.com

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