Ep 091 Dogs That Can’t Hold Their Licker

A dog that licks excessively can be annoying.

Today, discover how to ignore, praise, and correct this behavior in your dog.

In this episode, you will learn the importance of learning to ignore undesirable behavior from your dog.

Show Highlights

• Today, you get a special treat. We are going to talk with the Infamous Tam. I have talked about Tam and Sandy many times on the show and today you are going to get to meet her.
• The main reason she is on the show today is because there was a question about one of the big behaviors that we have had to work on a lot with Sandy.
• Also, I would like you, the dog lovers, to hear about the process of working with a dog that was not the sweetest easiest dog to work with at first.

• I am going to let Tam describe her relationship with Sandy.

• How old is Sandy?
  • 2yo
• How long have you had her?
  • Since she was 8 months old
• When you first met Sandy, what were your thoughts and why did you pick her?
  • I saw her from a dog shelter site and was interested. I wanted a medium size dog. Bennie went with me and when I first met her I knew she was the dog that I wanted. She was very cute and sweet with me. I have never been a dog person and I never thought of getting a dog until we started dating.
• What have been some of the challenges you have gone through since adopting her?
  • I would leave her in the crate when I went to work and I felt guilty. She would poop in the crate. Once I started trusting her in the house, she did much better.
  • Jumping up – on the girls and on guests.
  • Licking – realized that Nicole was allergic to dog saliva and we needed to really work on it. Before, I never really thought it was a problem.
• What have you done to work on the behavior?
  • Started with correction, giving lots of praise when she would accept petting and loves and avoid the licking.
  • One thing that I had to do was to ignore the behavior and ignore her when she would lick. The licking did not bother me, and I get it that ignoring a behavior is the best correction. If she approached and licked me, she got ignored for a long time.
  • I also had to be aware when she was approaching me and was keeping her tongue in her mouth. The great thing and the thing that I feel that may have accelerated this process was that Nicole would correct when she did it to her. She kinda got a good-cop, bad-cop workout.
• Describe what it was like for you the first year with Sandy.
  • Did the training and did NOT follow-up. Behaviors did not seem to get better.
  • I have now made it my goal to get back to the basics, and I have learned how important physical touch is in the training process.
  • She still has trouble discerning play and excitement with the girls.
  • Have really understood the balance of praise, motivation, and correction.
• Since reading the book, what would you say was one of the best take-aways from that information?
  • How dogs view the hierarchy.

Homework

For your homework this week, you will learn how to work on ignoring a behavior like licking or any other behavior can be ignored, for that matter.

• In order to really get a dog to start a new behavior you first have to be aware of two very important things:
  • When is your dog doing the behavior you DON’T want?
  • When is your dog making a choice to do what you DO want?
• A process to practice ignoring your dog.

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