deercat wrote:Hi there does someone own a Czechoslovakian wolfdog?
If yes what is your experience?
- I don’t personally own one but my neighbour has a adorable eight year old called smokey that I walk/dogsit occasionally. I can’t exactly help you with the puppy timeframe as Smokey was given to them when he was around three or four [because their friend couldn’t keep up with his needs]. We think he became destructive after not being given enough exercise/things to do, and so they had enough and gave him away.
My mum does animal behaviour on top of police work so she spent a week working with him to see how he was since even though Czech’ wolfdogs are fully domesticated the owners wanted to make sure he didn’t have any issues with others. He was a proper sweetheart with other dogs, though he did get very protective over the man that owned him and that caused a couple of issues with him and bigger dogs that ran over to say hello. - if they got too close to the man he would snap but [and I’ll double check later] I think he’s grown out of it as he’s gotten older.
Smokey is very intelligent and once he’s bored he will use that intelligence in ways we’d rather him not [such a slearning how to push open a lock on the gate to the chickens etc..] so you definitely would need to keep him entertained with loads of toys and treats and perhaps puzzle games? Especially when you’re out the house.
He’s also fine with living with other dogs, they have a slightly older lab mix [charlie] and Charlie and smokey act like brothers and they’ve never had an issue. Though I do think that some wolfdogs may need introducing as a puppy, so Smokey could have been an exception to that.
- if you have any questions feel free to send me a pm and I’ll talk to my neighbours about smokey if you’re interested in anything else c:
- oh, forgot to mention. shedding. I’m sure smokey sheds more fur than my rough collie. He needs a lot of grooming just to get out the loose fur in summer.
- I’ll edit this with a response to TedTed’s question just give me a minute c:
TedTed13 wrote:My yorkie, Tippy, was not socialized when she was younger, so she is scared of other dogs. She isn’t aggressive or anything, just tries to run and/or hide. Would anyone have tips on how to get her to at least tolerate other dogs?
- So, there’s a few things you could do to help her out but I do some local work in dog behaviour and help people out with dogs [that are aggressive, scared, social anxiety, fear of something, destructive etc..]. So I’ll tell you what helped with me personally.
In my experience of working with dogs frightened of other dogs [normally long term fosters/rescues mind you] I find that [and it’s common sense that] dogs will bite and lash out if they’re forced into another room with a dog with no way of escaping, as it’s a very natural defence if you’re cornered and frightened. So when I see poeple try get dogs used to others by holding them close to eachother or shutting them in a room it just sets the dog back, so I would recommenced not doing that aha.
Now it’s slightly different because I help other people’s dogs so I’m not their 24/7 like you would be with your kiddo. I take advantage of the fact that I have a very soft and obedient large dog [my rough collie logan]. So I firstly start out just be sitting with the scared dog in a park, or a field where other dogs go but there’s still plenty of space [so I wouldn’t recommened sitting on streets and busy pavements where dogs don’t have enough space.] I’d do that for only half an hour or so, rewarding even when a dog just comes into view. Then that’s repeated for a few weeks, maybe even a month or two.
You will have to be confident in turning others away however, some dog owners will approach and I find it’s easier just to tell them that the dogs shy and will bite since telling people that the dog is scared of others doesn’t seem to work unfortunately. I do this because I don’t want the dog to get overwhelmed so soon as it just sets back progress and stresses them out, and at the end of the day we want the poor kiddo to be happy.
After awhile they’re more confident and you start increasing the amount of time you’re out, so I normally do a week at thirty minutes, another week at forty five and then an hour, then two hours and leave it there but it honestly depends on how quickly the dog is progressing. So sometimes you need to stay at the half an hour stage for a bit longer or even a bit shorter, etc..
The next thing I do with the dog is give them a few days break if avoiding other dogs and then I’ll have the owner of the dog hold the dog in the same park/field and I’d come in with Logan. Logan can hold a stay at a very large distance and do it for a lengthy amount of time if I asked so bear in mind you’ll probably have to find a good dog, or atleast a quiet one that you could tie to a tree for awhile and they’d be okay with it.
I’d then leave Logan a fair distance away [still in view] go say hello to the dog, give them treats and praise and let them sniff me [as I’m now covered in another dogs scent]. Then very slowly I’d start to bridge the gap between them over the course of days/maybe a couple of weeks. Then I’d be sitting next to Logan, with him in a down [normally on his back giving him a tummy rub ] so he doesn’t appear as a threat and let the owner approach with the dog, if they’re not interested in saying hello or even going near Logan then we backtrack a couple of days and just keep increasing the reward [using positive enforcement to show that dogs are good and mean treats].
I normally hit a block right before they meet Logan and they refuse to go any further, so it’s handy to have something like chicken as their treats and you just throw it near them, ‘luring’ them a bit further towards you. The I tend to have to move away from Logan slightly and the dog will happily come and sit with me since I’m now associated with treats for them. Then you just keep working in bridging that gap.
The key to that stage is making sure the dog only sees the other for a couple of minutes and then we part ways, both dogs getting bucket loads of praise. Then you just increase the time minimally for the next few days/couple of weeks until the dog is comfortable with the other.
Congratulations now you have a buddy system. The next stage is simply showing having the extra dog [in this case logan] interact with other dogs [now you’d normally start with smaller dogs] and then little by little the nervous dog will start joining in with Logan in saying hello or even standing behind Logan but still near the other dog. Then it’s just a case of lots of treats and time.
Then you just slowly phase out the other dog in the picture until they’re comfortable on their own with their owners.
The main things that can be a pain for some people with this way of socialising a scared dog are:
- you need two people
- you need a well trained, calm and friendly other dog
- a lot of time and treats
As Tippy is your own dog, you’d need to find a friend or neighbour that is willing to lend their dog and even their time unless you have a friend/family member willing to help you out for a while.
