Encounter with a Stubborn Dog
Common words for these types of dogs are defiant, dominant, stubborn, stupid, untrainable. I have worked with many dogs from all different situations and have yet to encounter a dog that wasn’t trainable. Until now…
I had been working with this Boston Terrier/Chihuahua mix that seemed eager to do as was asked, but he wouldn’t. Not for anything. I tried food, toys, playtime, games, ending of a training session with the slightest little hint of doing as I requested. Still nothing. He would give a bit of a wiggle but stood there as though he had no ability to see, hear or smell.
He had been getting treatment for some minor skin issues (oily coat, and a couple scabs but nothing horrible). Multiple tests had been run on this dog trying to figure out what was going on with his skin. Just like with his response to training, there wasn’t anything to be found to solve the issue. I decided that a rest from training was in order as clearly, he wasn’t going to be doing anything new any time soon and I needed to go back to the drawing board for ideas.
I had stumbled on an article a few months into the break that talked about autoimmune diseases in dogs, the various effects it can have on them and how difficult it can be to diagnose them. This can often appear as a skin issue that can’t be resolved. Sometimes a treatment of steroids will reduce the issues with the skin and as the body stabilizes and the medication is reduced to a very low amount, you will either see the problems come back, or they will continue to improve. I was curious. Though tests on this “stubborn dog” for autoimmune had come up empty, I thought it was still worth a try. Since he was my dog and I already had the medication (Tinker my Chihuahua was already on it for Endocrine immune disease) I didn’t see the harm in giving it a try. It was a bit of a rocky start as it turns out he wasn’t drinking much water, so he started vomiting. Once I figured out the cause of the vomiting, I started adding water to his food to boost his water intake. That worked and he began drinking more on his own as well.
Within a week, he seemed happier, more energetic, less nervous and his skin was improving. The dose of medication was reduced, and he continued to change. Suddenly, he was back to sitting to have me remove his collar and leash. And then everything else began to change. I restarted his training. He was thrilled to work for his kibble and in just a week went back to doing sits, downs, roll over without any hesitation. He was then taught two new tricks just to test if he really was ready to learn again. In two days, he learned to spin in circles, jump strait in the air and then ended the week with a sequence of behaviors: Sit, spin, down, roll over, sit, jump, down. He would finish by holding the down but wiggling from the excitement. He was ready and more the willing!
You might be asking if I think there is ever a case of a stubborn, stupid, dominant, defiant or untrainable dog? No, I don’t. I think what we have are dogs that either are not motivated by our rewards (whatever they may be), are frightened by the training methods we use, or our body language. And there are even the situations where the dogs just don’t feel well. There may not be a diagnosis to determine the issue just yet. But don’t write off a dog because you aren’t finding ways to communicate with them, keep trying. I promise, once you find the answer, the reward is greater than a dairy queen ice cream cake!
