Animal trainer Mary Green of K9 Manners stopped by to answer some behavioral questions from viewers.
She spoke with Autumn Bracey at News On 6 at noon.
Autumn: We’ll start with our first question. It’s from Lisa. Lisa says, “My six-month-old Newfoundland is so happy to see me, but he jumps up and almost knocks me over. I don’t want to scold him, but that could be dangerous.” What do you have to say today?
Green: I know, and he’s just so boisterous and happy and loving and saying, “Mommy’s home, I’m so happy.” But this is a big dog, and he’s going to get bigger. So my advice is to really reinforce the sit. Maybe even send him off to get a toy. Don’t pet him until he sits. Teach him a really solid sit for treats. Have some treats by your door, no matter which door you come in through. Have them ready so you can reward him. Most dogs learn early that they can sit and get a treat. So that’s what you want for him. The treat is to be petted by Mommy, so be really low-key in your greeting when you come home and just don’t make a big deal out of it. And hopefully you can get that sorted out before he gets much older.
Autumn: They said they can weigh about 80 pounds.
Green: They may be big guys. But they are beautiful, sweet dogs.
Autumn: OK, let’s move on to the next question. This one comes from Pat. Pat says, “My dog is too big for me to lift into the tub, but he’s afraid to go in and I’m afraid he’ll bite me. What are my options?”
Green: Yeah, that’s kind of scary. So, first of all, I would say maybe you shouldn’t do the grooming and bathing yourself. There are a lot of good mobile groomers that will come to your home, and they’re very skilled at handling dogs without getting bitten, right? So I would maybe practice teaching him to go up the stairs, or a lot of little ramps and pet stairs that you can get to teach him how to walk on. Sometimes you can start feeding them in the bathtub. I know it sounds weird, but if you put the dog bowl with food in the bathtub, then they have a really good incentive to figure out how to get in there on their own, and then it’s not associated with a bath. So you might want to try to associate the bathtub without a bath before you move on to that. But maybe you should consider your options and ask someone else to do that task for you.
Autumn: Can you put something over their mouth to stop them from biting?
Green: You can muzzle them, but that’s a last resort. That causes a lot of anxiety and stress in a dog, so in those situations we muzzle as a last resort to keep everyone safe, because I believe you can train the dog to wear a muzzle. We teach them to wear a party hat. We call that the muzzle. And we make it a big, you know, a, you know, a happy experience. But we don’t just muzzle a dog and then make the stressful situation worse. That just makes the situation more stressful.
