Surprise Attack During Training Shocks Victoria | It’s Me or the Dog
Sammy is an incredibly ill-mannered and
rude animal he jumps he barks and it’s
just intimidating and often frightening
when I moved in my understanding was
that I would provide cooking cleaning
daycare for the boys the dog however was
not part of the original understanding
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I’ve come through the door and I have a
very large dog
lunging barking thank goodness he was at
the end of the leash because I think
he’d have been all over me he had all
right when you have guests then you come
in then you always have to put him on
the leash yes anyways yes he’s dead
I’m he’s mama’s boy all right so then do
you have a lot of people over I do not
have a lot of people over mostly because
of this has he bitten anybody he does
nip at people and he will get their
shirts and then their arm to make sure
they’re paying attention to him I’m
grandma nice to meet nice to meet you
too and welcome you have well it’s nice
to be here oh I see
okay downtown straight away where Mary
as he came up I could see Sammy jumping
all over her Sammy doesn’t really have
any sense of anybody else’s space there
are no boundaries if I was a guest
coming in how would you discipline him
if he jumped on me Marietta unleashes
Sammy to demonstrate how Sammy would
react hello welcome to my home it’s so
nice to see you Sammy yeah no okay no
all right that’s it we’re going
that’s it timeout I am so frustrated
having to deal with this beast every day
just to get him to behave Jennifer and I
tend to disagree about how to manage the
training of the dog this is creating a
lot of tension between jennifer and I if
this puppy does not learn his boundaries
I’m an advocate for him finding a better
home okay later on Jennifer’s best
friend stops by to share her experience
with Sammy I know it’s okay it’s just
general as soon as Sammy saw Jennifer’s
friend who’s also called Jennifer the
hackles went up on his back he launched
at the door barking and growling very
very uncomfortable you pull him back a
little bit woman come on Anais Sammy
it’s okay it’s okay I just moved here to
this house about two months ago and I
feel like I haven’t been able to have a
social gathering or invite people over
because Sammy is you know kind of
demanding to limit her interaction with
Sammy during the day Marietta often
leaves him outside on the porch this is
kind of Sammy’s cave so to speak all
right and so how long does he spend here
during the day sometimes hours and hours
and hours as much longer than I would
care for but I don’t have an alternative
spending hours on the back deck like
that what’s he to do no wonder his
behaviors crazy when he comes back
inside well I’ve had a very interesting
day observing you and Sammy within the
first five minutes I could see what the
problem was to be here oh I see
okay downtown
there’s no doubt about it that Sammy’s
out of control Sammy is not getting a
lot of mental stimulation or physical
exercise he’s spending most of the day
out on the porch and that’s not great
for any dog to use that porch as a
timeout place well no Monday doesn’t
want to go out there because it’s his
punishment place as well mixed messages
mixed signals there is a serious lack of
boundaries in this house I think he’s
out of control because from the time he
was a puppy and entered the house he
never received the discipline that he
needs and as a result you know you have
a dog with problems
this dog is completely insecure he’s not
saying get out of my house is my house
he’s like get away because I’m not
comfortable with you and it’s dangerous
starting really obedience training 101
with with Sammy and here’s the thing he
loves biting on his leash when
previously the family have played with
Sammy trying to get the leash out of his
mouth his bad behavior is being
validated it’s great game so just drop
it boring walk away boring walk away
good now actually just by dropping the
leash or walking away Sam he sees that
grabbing onto the leash has negative
consequences okay when he comes back to
you ask him to sit hey Sammy sit good
good Oh take the leash good boy I want
Jennifer to realize what is rewarding
for Sammy and even Jennifer’s attention
is rewarding even an eye look is
rewarding
I want Jennifer now to actually make
Sammy work for his rewards see me
good boy nice Sami was really beginning
to respond through this training Sami
didn’t bite at the leash anymore
Sami was listening to Jennifer that’s a
good sign
good boy now that Jennifer’s assuming
more of a leadership role Victoria wants
to work with Marietta and hurt
ineffective forms of punishment the only
way that timeouts are effective is if
the dog is put out there for a minute or
two and then brought back into the room
but I don’t think that’s been happening
has it no time outs of this beam out
there and how long does he stay out
there till one of us remembers to bring
him back in okay and so the timeout is
devalued because the dog finds something
else to do poor Sammy has mixed messages
about the porch first of all it’s a
place that he spends most of the day
then he’s put out in the porch when he’s
being punished so of course he doesn’t
want to go outside what I want you to do
is walk to the door have the bone go out
with him okay sit good boy
give him the bone go back in now how
easy was that was enjoyable for all of
us nice good boy and if you want to get
the bone away from him just make a trade
with him
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okay shut the door shut the door wow
this is how on the edge he is now he’s
getting protective over his phone so
we’re gonna have to think of something
else to get him out here the really
worrying thing about Sammy’s bites on me
was that he didn’t just bite once and it
was real intent to harm
I gave Sammy very clear back off signals
backed away from the bone I turned away
and he didn’t listen to prevent further
escalation Victoria has Jennifer put
Sammy on a leash now I have an I don’t
know I’ve never seen him get at all
defensive has he ever shown
protectiveness yes I’ve seen him do that
once with Tyler he did that once with
Tyler why didn’t you tell me why didn’t
you tell me that that is so important I
need to know that sort of stuff I’m
telling you I’ve asked you has he bitten
anyone Sammy’s behavior has been
unpredictable there are just so many
instances that I could have thought of
I didn’t omit anything on purpose and I
didn’t it didn’t even cross my mind till
that exact moment after a little more
discussion it becomes clear that Sammy
has a history of possessiveness over
bones we’re not even gonna touch bones
anymore so guys I want you to go over
there what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna
do some doorbell training when Victoria
said we were gonna do
doorbell training with Sammy my initial
reaction was oh no she has no idea what
we’re all getting into when you hear the
doorbell you’re like oh who’s at the
door
but he’s like who’s of it I want Sammy
to become so desensitized to the sound
of the doorbell that when the doorbell
does ring and there’s a guest there
he doesn’t have such an intense reaction
– I’m gonna have a person that is going
to press the door remotely and I want
you to wait for Sammy to be calm and
when he’s calm you’re gonna walk towards
the door and open and show them that
there’s nobody there and on cue
Sammy reacts
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one more time reading about asked him to
sit Sam Soon we’re saying look at me
look at me and I take over as suddenly
progressed I then wanted Jennifer to
work it work that brain so that he could
really concentrate on just by doing
simple sit good boy
wait wait okay now take him to the door
and show him that’s nobody let’s go each
time the doorbell is pressed
Sammy’s reaction significantly lessens
by the six or seven time we rang that
doorbell exercise Sammy was relatively
calm in fact I want to say incredibly
calm compared to his usual demeanor get
his attention
take him sit sit and eventually there is
no reaction
Sammy’s purpose was really good with
this training it just shows that when
you show a dog that is another outcome
to a trigger it takes pressure off that
dog Sammy doesn’t need pressure he’s
responding so well this is the potential
I want to pull out yeah I know he can
follow this direction if I’m consistent
with it I’m loving how the overall
training is going I’m hungry for more I
want to know everything I can do to help
us and help us on get his attention
later in the week Victoria checks in on
the family’s progress
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as she promised victoria marietta is
taking Sammy on regular walks while
jennifer is at work I still have to
learn to control him a little bit so he
doesn’t pull me I don’t want to slip and
fall down and that won’t be good for
either one of us
very impressive Marietta this is
important in building trust with Sammy
and the extra exercise is gonna do him a
lot of good okay let’s go Sammy wants to
play with the leash
but Jennifer refuses to be part of his
game Jennifer tries the doorbell again
and this time Sammy pays absolutely no
attention to the Bell Jennifer has seen
small amounts of progress where there’s
a long long long way to go in an order
to keep guests safe and also the boys
say for various circumstances I believe
that Sammy has to get used to wearing a
muzzle on the way that I desensitize a
dog to a muzzle right is that I put a
decent sized piece of treat at the end
of the muzzle here okay
so that the dog puts its nose of its own
volition will go oh okay
when Victoria introduced the muzzle I
was actually pleased because I think it
can help keep that aggression under
control well we don’t want to use it we
may have to use it
I want Jennifer to be able to work with
the muscle daily not just when guests
come in the house which it’s ultimately
for but just during the day so really
it’s no big deal that Marietta is really
good when he has that on lots of praise
give him lots of lots of encouragement
so if you do that now good boy you can
take it off him now just take it off but
he doesn’t get a lot of attention when
you take it off so when Mazal comes off
it’s not very much attention the muzzles
on loads of attention now that Sammy is
desensitized to the muzzle Victoria
wants to use it as part of a new
greeting ritual at the front door much
much less reactive than he was before I
was so pleased by Sammy’s reaction to
the doorbell trigger Jennifer had
clearly been working hard at it then
Jennifer removed Sammy to the back room
before answering the door okay
that was much better with the doorbell
why don’t you have a seat on this part
of the couch okay a chat room oh man
okay good good
I want Sammy to be able to smell the
guest but I don’t want him to make the
decision about whether he’s gonna go for
the guest or not oh boy good oh good he
walk away boy okay good get him to sit
back boy good boy sit the whole scene
ended with Sammy being on the sofa but
his bottom towards me rather than his
teeth he was comfortable with my
presence so comfortable in fact that he
could turn away from me I really feel
confident now that Jennifer can do this
without me and that when gets do come in
she’s gonna be much more confident Sammy
is gonna be much calmer and the guest is
going to be safe
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