eldred
New User
Aug 17, 2004, 11:14 AM
Post #3 of 3
(825 views)
Shortcut
|
Re: [SeanYoung] Thai Ridgeback Behavior
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
Hi Sean. This information that I hope you will read is only based on our experience as a Thai Ridgeback owner and not as a trainer.Please do not take any offence , as we are only trying to help ... I may not be a dog trainer,but I have a Thai Ridgeback who had massive aggression problems to start with when we first had her. Our bitch was 12 months old when we took her on.She came from a dutch breeder who never socialised,walked,taught,house trained her.She was caged and beaten violently.Since then she has a fear of tall dark haired deep voiced men.She will show this fear through aggression with men like this,growling and barking,backing off and generally looking ready to attack.She also had a fear of black dogs.From where she came she used to get attacked regularly by a black TR bitch. Because all of this happened at the developmental stage in her life we realised it was going to take a while before she would not fear men like that,maybe like in humans we shall always have that deep seated uncertainty about someone we have learned not to trust. I took her to dog training classes.I am SO GLAD i did. I have heard and seen that Thai Ridgebacks are very easy to train if you have a good trainer(ours doesn't tell us to beat the dog,but to use our body language and voice to the max!)We know what the TR is capable of so did not want to enter into a fight with one! Our bitch came on a treat,all the trainers said how much she had improved over the few weeks I trained her(once every saturday)and sticking to the training at home. You have to be confident.This breed will know if you are not confident.If it thinks you are not in control it will sense it before other dogs,remember it is a primitive breed.Imagine trying to train a wild Dingo?It's just like that. The first thing I learnt is that if you train any dog on a hungry belly,they will work harder to get rewarded.They are more likely to listen to you as long as you are firm loud and confident with your voice,you must stick to the same commands(one word for one command)to get the best from this dog and keep in under YOUR control. We have two other dogs we had to introduce the Thai to.She nearly repeatedly ripped of it's ears and eyes because we were inadvertently highering the status of the lowest ranking dog!We nearly gave our TR up,but because we are trying to promote the TR here in England UK,we thought we should work harder.We realised we were highering the rank by letting the lowest dog sleep on the sofa,our bed,feeling sorry for him because he has cancer.BUT when we realised this was happening,(it made sense) we treated all dogs equally until we could see who was getting priorities in different situations,so we could treat them accordingly.We just made sure we were Alpha Male and Female,then we saw the status of the dogs fall into place.Hard work. Now our TR is so fond of the lowest ranking dog she wants to play with him and lets him try to mount her!She loves us to pieces,licking us endlessly unless we growl and bare our teeth(mad I know but it works).She is so affectionate and loves hugs and whispering in her ear.Even picking her up regularly shows her we are the bosses.WE are in control.We dont let her into all the rooms and she has to be called into the room before she crosses the door line. We are still learning.We have all come a long way.Our TR is now nearly three years old! Remember,it is like trying to teach a Dingo! Be careful,as they like to hunt things too,if they get loose,don't be surprised if they kill a cat,dog,lamb,sheep.You have to be so responsible with one of these.Think 'wild dog!'
|