K-9 Manners: House Training A Stubborn Dog & Dealing With Aggression

We're talking with animal trainer Mary Green of K9 Manners & more to talk about some behavior problems or issues you may have been struggling with, with your dog.

Autumn: All right, we're gonna start off with our first question. It's from Heather. She says:

"My seven-month-old Boston Terrier will refuse to go to the restroom outside, she can spend an hour outside, outside, only to come inside and still use the restroom. What do you think?"

Mary: There's so many reasons that could be happening. But I think she gets outside of the environment, just the interesting things in the environment kind of take over. So what we would recommend is to take her out on a leash, right? And so as soon as they come out from confinement, if she has been created, or anytime they wake up, you need to take him outside to go potty.

So, you take her outside and take her out on a leash. And then if she goes potty then you give her then she can have freedom then Right? Then she can go and explore the yard. If not, then you bring her back inside and she has more confinement, take her out like 20 minutes later, and try again. But I think they just get out there and they get you to know, nature is so strapped everything but what I need you to do. Exactly, exactly.

Autumn: All right. The next question is from Ashley. Ashley says:

"My six-year-old Jack terrier refuses to bathe and get a haircut, he will try to buy and get aggressive if we try to do either. I'm not sure if something happened at the last grooming that he didn't enjoy probably grooming itself, right?

Mary: Probably the process, you know, he's like 'I have no autonomy in this situation. I'm not happy about it.'

So I would definitely desensitize the dog in just very slow little increments to all of the things that can happen. But for bathing, for example, you can take a product, it's called a licky mat. And it's just a little silicone thing that looks kind of like a trivit that you would put under a hot plate and it's got all these little indentations and so forth, and you smear a little spray cheese or peanut butter or something interesting in there.

So, you try to make it like an enjoyable experience for that. All right, so they're licking that while you're, you know, maybe starting to put them in the bathtub or where you're going to grill them. If you're taking them to a groomer I would definitely recommend getting the dog acclimated to wearing a muzzle desensitizing because you've turned on want to be bitten, not want to grow. It is not fun, you know, in no way shape or form is that fun?

So, if you can desensitize them to wearing the muzzle then it's not such a big deal. We call it a party hat. Let's get your party hat on. And we put it on for a little short period of time and we like just make more of a celebration, I guess out of it than a punishment. So might try some strategies like that. No, that

Autumn: Our next question is from Jennifer. She asked

"I have two Great Danes and they fight for attention. No surprise there. Now get this they aren't aggressive but don't like it when I pet the other one. She wants to know if is there something I can do to help it?

Mary: No, actually, there's probably not because if you ask the dogs, they probably all want to be an only child when it comes to attention. Right?

They always kind of jockey for attention. I would I would suspect since she said they're not really aggressive to each other that is just kind of a little ritual that they've developed. So teach each dog to sit and wait sit and stay and have you have to be seated for petting. Right.

At my house. We do what we call the cookie line and everybody has to sit and they have to wait in line for their treat. And I have a year-old puppy who thinks she shouldn't be able to just jump up and grab from the others. She's learning though you have to sit and wait in the line.

So attention is earned. Attention is a reward for the dog. So teach them to sit and wait to get that attention.