I don't wanna get dressed!!! Counterconditioning

Chili would become VERY upset when I tried to put clothing on him after he hit about 9 months old. Luckily he has great bite inhibition and while he was not biting hard, he was still very upset. A dog with lesser restraint would have drawn blood

So I decided to teach him to put it on himself, not to just tolerate it or force him through it. If your dog can "give paw" he can put him own t-shirt on, with help of course. So this behavior is a combo of counterconditioning, and chaining. I am clicking not just for his behavior, but for my behavior, my touching him, fiddling with the shirt, etc.

The first clip is him having a MILD reaction . I did handle him rougher than normal to elicit the reaction, I don't usually do this or recommend it, I do however feel it was needed to illustrate the stress signals, the hard stare, the lip lick, all that preceed the growling and biting and to prove that he indeed had an issue to begin with.

the last clip is me going through the steps to put his shirt on and at the end is the finished behavior...note the dog's different body language when I let him CHOOSE to put the shirt on, vs me making him do it

If your dog has a similar issue, you can do the same steps, just many more reps. Chili has done this before and it took about 3 sessions to get a shirt 100% on him without him biting me.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clicker
• training
• counterconditioning
• hand
• biting
• clothing
• sweater
• tshirt
• dog
• chihuahua
• rescue
• your
• hold
• handing
• growling
• put
• hands

[wmlgts]

Great video! This will be very helpful for many owners and their dogs!