This little guy, despite his uber-cute face, doesn’t just have the puppy crazy five minutes. He gets the full-blown crazy 24 hours.
Why they booked a dog behaviour advice visit
His owners were getting conflicting advice from trainers, other dog owners, neighbours, etc. and none of the ‘commonsense’ stuff worked. They wanted an evidence-based consult so they booked a behaviourist session with us. They are experienced owners but this was a pup who came with a different set of instructions and they needed professional help.
What was the problem behind that puppy’s behaviour?
As ever, the issue was multi-facetted. In behaviourist consults, you get tailor-made advice based on your individual situation and your individual dog.
After a conversation with the owners, it turned out that the issue was a mix of:
- Breed tendencies (Labrasharking!)
- Over-stimulation
- Sub-optimal mental challenges
- Sub-optimal timing when trying to distract him from unwanted behaviour (which led him to be effectively rewarded for it)
- A vicious operant conditioning cycle whereby, understandably, on the few occasions that the dog was quiet and didn’t t bite people’s ankles, etc., he would naturally be left alone. Result? Dog also works out that being quiet gets him ignored.
- A dog who, due to his difficult behaviour, ends up only occasionally being allowed to chill with his family, which creates another vicious cycle whereby being in the living room becomes extreme special and over-exciting.
Tailor-made dog behaviour solution
I have left them with a clearer idea of what’s going on, concrete steps to take, a line of support back to us for 6 weeks if they need it, and detailed instructions.
The following protocol was central to our advice. We hope it is also useful to you!
How to book a dog behaviour advice session
We give our behaviour advice consultations in Dutch, English and French in The Hague and vicinity.
Meer informatie over gedragstherapie kunt u hier vinden.
Vrijblijvend informeren over gedragstherapie
You can find more information about our behaviourist visits here.
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