Automated pet training...

I've been trying to train the dog to stay out of the dining room and kitchen ever since we got it. The only thing the dumb mutt has learned is to stay out when I'm around. The second I leave its in. Yesterday I was out mowing the back lawn when I looked through the dining room window I saw the dog on the table eating pizza. The second I ented the house the dog bolted from the dining room. It hasn't learned to say out, it has learned to get out when I come in the hosue. Don't bother suggesting the the dog be banned from the house, I've been around and around with my wife about that one, and since I can't dump the dog off at the pound because my kids would be rather upset, I need to come up with a way that deters the dog when I'm not around. I spoke with a dog trainier and found that this is common, the stupid beast doesn't get that a boundary has been crossed but rather only learns to avoid a person in the area.

I'm thinking of mount two photo-eyes, one low and one just above the height of the dog. If the lower eye is blocked but the upper one is not then the dog just went into the dining room kitchen. If both are blocked then a person went into the dining room. I can get one of these electronic dog whistles intended to repel dogs and trigger it whenever I detect that the dog has gone into the area.

I don't know if anyone else has done anything like that and I'm open to any suggestions except killing the dog - something I would love to do to this stupid mutt, but its unfortunately completely out of the question - why is is that the more scraggly and stupid the dog is the more kids get attached to it?

Alaric said:

... dumb mutt

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Alaric said:

... I saw the dog on the table eating pizza.

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I don't think he was that dumb was it your pizza or your kids? If it was yours then he was smart, if it was your kids he made a mistake

Get a shock collar, you can set it up in your kitchen, when he gets close to the door...give him a little, after a few times he will stop, they have low/low ones

If you have a crawl space under your house you could set it up in what ever rooms you wanted

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The shock collars have a tone (warning), I had a friend that had a lab, that would walk up to the edge of the property were the 'shock line' was...he would lay down on the ground and make the warning tone sound...until the batteries died, then walked across the 'invisible fence'...smart dog

Alaric


What sort of dog is it and how old is it ? Reason i ask is if its still young you stand a chance of training it properly but i suggest proper dog trainging classes, if its old and set in its ways you have about as much hope of re-training it as you would the wife!

The shock collars work very well, my friend has 2 lurchers that were causing an annoyance to the neighbours as they were kennelled outside and started barking at 4am. The noise pollution people came round one morning and measured the barking and told the owner (my friend) that if they didnt stop barking they would have to go!

He got shock collars that shocked the dog every time it barked when in the kennel and now they never bark at night, the collars have had no batteries in them for two months now and the dogs still havent realised it!

If the shock collar doesn't do the trick you could try training the family not to leave food out where the dog can get at it. Of course, if the dog has learned how to open the refrigrerator, you're in trouble.

I remember a dog trainer on a radio call-in show one day when a caller asked for advice about keeping the dog from eating the cat's food. The trainer's advice was to forget about trying to train the dog. It seems that cats are notorious about being finicky. Consequently cat food has all sorts of flavor enhancers in it to entice the cats to eat it. Dogs, on the other hand, will eat (or roll in) just about anything that smells good to them. Their definition of what smells good is quite a bit different than yours or mine. The flavor enhancers in cat food smell irresistably good to a dog. The best you can hope for is to train a dog not to eat the cat's food when you're around. As soon as your back is turned...

Steve Bailey said:

I remember a dog trainer on a radio call-in show one day when a caller asked for advice about keeping the dog from eating the cat's food. The trainer's advice was to forget about trying to train the dog. It seems that cats are notorious about being finicky. Consequently cat food has all sorts of flavor enhancers in it to entice the cats to eat it. Dogs, on the other hand, will eat (or roll in) just about anything that smells good to them. Their definition of what smells good is quite a bit different than yours or mine. The flavor enhancers in cat food smell irresistably good to a dog. The best you can hope for is to train a dog not to eat the cat's food when you're around. As soon as your back is turned...

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Depends on the dog and the how well they have been trained, my last three dogs never ever ate the cat food even when left home alone with it on the kitchen floor, they never went upstairs and never pinched stuff off the kitchen table...

Move dining room table outside
Only feed the wife and kids outside
Dog will quickly realise food sourse is outside
So problem solved


There is probably a serious down side to this but it eludes me for the moment

geniusintraining said:

Get a shock collar, you can set it up in your kitchen, when he gets close to the door...give him a little, after a few times he will stop, they have low/low ones

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...if only it were possible to get these for the inlaws...then after they leave, I won't have to restock the fridge!

I use a petsafe radio fence here. I string a wire where I want the dogs to be forbidden and they wear collars. The only trouble with my male dog Rocky, is that he is smart enough to understand that if he sprints across the boundary, he will be safely out of range before the collar switches from beeping to shocking. As long as I keep the gate closed he never even thinks about leaving. It can be set to shock without warning but I haven't had the heart to do that. Now, Rocky is mindful, but not scared, of anything that looks like a white boundary flag, a red wire or beeps...

http://www.petsafe.net/pet_containment/pet_fencing_prf3004w.php?L=1&PROD_CODE=PRF-3004W

Ah yes fond memories of ex dog and ex wife.

In marinas there is always ONE person fond of ducks geese or seagulls and insists on feeding the damn things. Then you get the birds on the docks and the dock covered with droppings.

Then there are the people who bring their damn dogs down and are too lazy to take them to shore for head call - so the dog dumps his load on the dock. The bigger the load the closer to the center of the dock. Clean it up ?? forget it!!!!!!!!.

Not too sure who to shoot first the animal or the person.

Dan Bentler

leitmotif said:

Not too sure who to shoot first the animal or the person.

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the person

I have several dogs (1-lab 1-dane 2-shepherds) any dog can be trained... people on the other hand, its not worth it...just shot'em

If the lazy a$$ person would of taken the dog to the proper place to do their duty or had the decency to clean up the mess, there would be a lot more 'non-pet' owners that would like pets, trust me I love dogs....but I hate dog $hit, again I have 4 and one is really big

I grew up on a farm and as a kid I remember we had a problem with one of the cattle dogs, it would get in amongst the chikens and would eat their eggs (depriving us of breakfast) my father decided on a (what he thought suitable course of action) basically he connected a wet hessian sack to ground, sat a plastc sheet on the sack and craked a couple of eggs in the center of the plastic, he then placed a bare conductor from the electcric fence into the raw eggs. I remember watching form the kitchen with dad as the dog found his surprise to make a long story short he (the dog)came back later that night and didn't want to go nearthe eggs again.

Have you tried leaving a "trap" pizza say one does with a liberal coating of chilli powder out for the dog ?

Have you tried leaving a "trap" pizza say one does with a liberal coating of chilli powder out for the dog ?

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A lot of dogs love chilli - I have a twelve month Dobermann pup and my wife dropped chilli flakes on the floor. Ate them and came back for more - every time she gets the flakes out the head goes on the work bench looking for them.

The head reaches the work bench no problem at all by the way - big boy!

We used a company called "Bark Busters" to train our dog.
This company is active in some areas of America, so it may be worth looking up. They also have a lifetime gaurentee (dog's lifetime) and will return to re-train whenever needed for no extra cost.
The training involves using a length of chain and throwing it hard next to the dog and yelling "Bah" whenever he does something wrong. Works well. If he sees me pick up a chain, his behaviour suddenly improves.

As for chilli, we tried pasting our watering system with it to stop him from chewing it up. He just licked it off, and got real sick. We thought he wouldn't do it again, but as soon as we put it back on, off he went. He was in such bad condition after that thought he was going to die.....

Just a BUBBA thought

Dogs are animals BUT they have feelings. They need to "understand" what you are telling them. In many ways this applies to your children too.

Children will do the same thing: an example may be eating out of an ash tray BUT you have slapped their hand etc so they do not eat from it when you are present BUT may when not.

As my signature says, involve me and I understand, that applies to dogs too.

It just takes time