# I need advice for my Catahoula female.



## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I have a 3 year old female Catahoula. She has been a pretty good farm dog except for the incessant barking at everything that moves, and her need to chase everything that moves. I trained her out of a lot of that, but now she is doing a couple of things that alarm me quite a lot.

1. She actually bit the cable installation guy. Not hard and didn't break any skin, but she put teeth on him. She mouths people who don't correct her, like my 6 year old grand daughter. She has not used teeth hard but has left marks. This is new, she never used her teeth before, just mouth.

2. She has gotten bold enough to go right into my large chicken coop and she takes eggs, and I sadly suspect, eaten at least 3 new chicks. 

I can not correct her hard, physically. She was picked up off the road by my husband a couple of years ago after the truck in front of him ran her over and kept going. Her pelvis and both hips were crushed, we had an Orthopedic surgeon fix what could be fixed. At some point in the next couple of years she will have to lose her right hind leg, it is not improving at all and she is off of it most of the time now. So correcting her by anything but voice or physically removing her from what she is doing are my only options, and I am not always around when she goes into the coop and steals eggs. 

I am already going to chicken wire the fence around my coop, right now it is a barbed wire fence we constructed to keep my mini horses out of the chicken feed. Other than that, what can I do to stop the behaviors that this dog is showing? She is spayed. The only real change is that my dad came out to stay for 10 weeks and he allowed her to do things I do not allow, like coming in the kitchen every time anyone was in there for petting and he never corrects the dogs for anything, so when he saw her behaving badly she didn't get corrected. Now she is a monster, and I am at a loss?


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

aoconnor1, I'm sure you already know she has decided she is the one making decisions. This can be corrected WITHOUT words and/or physical contact to the hip area, though it takes a strong physical state on the part of ALL humans around her, one that is CALM AND ASSERTIVE...not emotional.

I invite you to watch a few episodes of "The Dog Whisperer" because that Mexican has worked with all kinds of handicapped dogs and of all ages. What ultimately makes the difference in the dog's behaviors is the physical/emotional state of the humans around that dog.

Now with that being said, doing what you can to protect the fowl when at times you are not around will, of course, take care of that egg/baby chick situation. Then your calm assertiveness in "blocking" your Catahoula from escalating to the point of wanting to put teeth on anyone is important. I suspect you can do this with physical contact (just a light touch) to her neck...not her hip area. This would get her attention and then you would need to stay still and calmly wait for her to relax so she will learn that relaxed state she is noticing in you is exactly what you are expecting of her.

[I believe I wrote about correcting my LGD at times when she was wanting to practice dominance. Believe me: Nothing but a calm manner of being on my part would have worked!]


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

motdaugrnds said:


> aoconnor1, I'm sure you already know she has decided she is the one making decisions. This can be corrected WITHOUT words and/or physical contact to the hip area, though it takes a strong physical state on the part of ALL humans around her, one that is CALM AND ASSERTIVE...not emotional.
> 
> I invite you to watch a few episodes of "The Dog Whisperer" because that Mexican has worked with all kinds of handicapped dogs and of all ages. What ultimately makes the difference in the dog's behaviors is the physical/emotional state of the humans around that dog.
> 
> ...


Thank you. I should have clarified the physical part of correction...for this dog in particular a "sit, stay" command is difficult because she simply can't sit or lay down comfortably (unless she lays flat out on her side), and a "sit, stay" is generally how I train my dogs to respect and listen to me instead of paying attention to whatever they are ignoring me over! I initiate a sit/stay with the "leave it" command, then bring them to me at a "come", and then ask for a sit/stay until they have relaxed and are focused again on me. It is how I have always trained my dogs.

This particular dog, my dad (who thinks HE is the Dog Whisperer Extraordinaire), feels sorry for her because of what she has been through in life. I had a difficult time enforcing anything with any of my dogs while my dad was here, he undermined my training by being accepting of their rude, aggressive behavior instead of correcting it immediately. He has gone back home now and I am having to work all of my dogs again to get them back where they were. This female Catahoula is the hardest one to get back in line, she is obnoxiously uninterested in listening. I kept her in the barn all morning with me while I fed and did chores, by the time I was finished up she was listening very well and responding right away to my voice commands without hesitation, so hopefully she is back in the saddle so to speak, and ready to behave normally again. 

Sigh.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

You apparently have a very sensitive and intelligent dog; thus, it sounds as though TIME WILL HEAL...


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Try rewarding her for what you want her to do. Teach her leave it, then go out with her and tell her leave it when she eyes the chickens, give treat and praise when she looks away. When you think she is going to mouth someone, give her a treat and praise before she mouths them. You may even consider giving her something to do besides mouth people, like whisper or put her nose on their hand. If you are interested at all in operant conditioning or positive training, look up clicker training. It is all about rewarding the dog (or person) for correct behavior rather than punishing for wrong behavior. It works very well for dogs that have been abused, and very well for owners who are new at training.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

Thank you to both Maura and motdaugrnds, both posts are helpful. I have had dogs my whole life, but never a Catahoula! This dog is a puzzle, and she has taught me many new ways to put things together for her to understand and respond to

Today was her best day in nearly 3 months. I kept her by me all day long, she was very humble after the first stern, but not angry or touch, correction. I ask for a specific response to commands, then give a pat or "good girl/boy" release for an obedient response. This particular dog has been an issue, she was a complete nut until shortly before my dad came to stay...I had just really gotten her under complete control when he arrived. He refused to follow my direction in handling my dogs, and I was angry with him when my girl began misbehaving badly and he would not stop his handling of her. It was very frustrating to watch, but when she came around so well today, I have hope that all is not lost. But...NO more company here that will not adhere to my rules! Sheesh.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

ROFL Sounds to me like your dad needs a bit of your "sit/stay" training....ROFL


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

motdaugrnds said:


> ROFL Sounds to me like your dad needs a bit of your "sit/stay" training....ROFL


Lol!!!! No joke!


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Catahoulas are bred to work for themselves. Part of their jobs is to hunt wild hogs and keep the hog busy until the hunter arrives. I suspect you probably have either an Australian shepherd mix or a catahoula mix. They can look like full blooded catahoula with short hair. In any case, my dogs work hogs. One is a recently arrival and the other one works hogs.


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

motdaugrnds said:


> ROFL Sounds to me like your dad needs a bit of your "sit/stay" training....ROFL


Training humans to train the dog is usually harder than training the dogs.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

TedH71 said:


> Catahoulas are bred to work for themselves. Part of their jobs is to hunt wild hogs and keep the hog busy until the hunter arrives. I suspect you probably have either an Australian shepherd mix or a catahoula mix. They can look like full blooded catahoula with short hair. In any case, my dogs work hogs. One is a recently arrival and the other one works hogs.


She is a pure Catahoula. The woman who lived in the house near where our girl was hit is a breeder, she wouldn't claim this dog when she was hit because it was obviously going to be a lot of repair work=money. She has several that look amazingly similar to our girl Duh. So we are sure of what she is...she will run hogs on our property, but with a bum hind end, we control her from doing so because she could easily be taken out by a large boar should she get in a spot. She doesn't have the hind end mobility a hog dog has, she can run fast but can't reverse in a pinch, and her left hind leg is nearly useless. So while she may sound like a mix because she is t on hogs, it is actually because of her nearly fatal encounter with a jerk in a truck. 

She is a hard worker though, and she keeps this place hopping with her bark. She runs my mini mare and stallion, and gets in trouble for it every single time, but she goes back for more. She didn't do that before my dad came to visit, but she picked up on his not correcting her at all and started a lot of very naughty behavior pretty quickly.mi am working it back out of her, and she is actually doing better than I thought she would! 

Thanks for the post. All info is good.


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

aoconnor1 said:


> .......
> 
> She is a hard worker though, and she keeps this place hopping with her bark. She runs my mini mare and stallion, and gets in trouble for it every single time, but she goes back for more. She didn't do that before my dad came to visit, but she picked up on his not correcting her at all and started a lot of very naughty behavior pretty quickly.mi am working it back out of her, and _*she is actually doing better than I thought she would! *_......


This where your prior training with her is showing thru! <thumbsup>


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