My Dogs obsession...

Question
The dog in question is a 3 year old poodle.

I also 2 pet rats and one hamster (the rats in one cage, the hamster in another). She is obsessed with small animals. (Rats, mice, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, ect.) This is why we have to leash walk her, because she will stay on command, sit on command, and heel on command, unless she sees a rabbit or a some other wild animal. Then she is completely one track minded. Nothing can snap her out of it at all despite all the training she's been through.

And it's only the small animals. She loves to play with other dogs, she likes to meet but is generally afraid of cats, and she is extremely gentle with babies. My cousin has a 9mo. old baby girl who is in the ear pulling and climbing stage, and she doesn't even yelp. She just sits there and takes it patiently. In general she's a great dog.

We keep the rats and hamster in the "rat room" (which is basically a small library where we keep our books and DVDs.) We try to be very vigilant about keeping that door closed so she can't get in, and keeping her locked in my bedroom while the rats and hamster have out time to play.

There was one time she did get into the room while I was cleaning, tried knocking the cage off of the counter it was on, scared one of my rats out of the cage, caught him, and took off with him. No matter how we yelled "Drop it" or slapped her on the butt or the nose, she wouldn't drop him. Finally my mom cornered her, my sister grabbed the dog and I caught the rat which she dropped when my sister grabbed her.

The rat was no worse for wear, not harmed at all through the whole ordeal, but we were not happy about it so we brought her back for training. The trainer gave us techniques to use to help stem her obsession... but it didn't work.

today my sister wasn't thinking and left the door to the library open. When I came in from walking her, I saw my dog take off and I was right behind her trying to yell commands. by the time I rounded the corner, she had a dead rat in her mouth.

now, I can't say for sure she killed him. It happened so quick... I was right there on her heels... The cage was not askew nor open, which means the rat had to have been out of the cage. All we can think of is the rat escaped and either was injured trying to get out of the tiny bars and died (he was always skittish) and my dog picked up the carcass, or he escaped and my dog was lucky enough to catch him right away and killed him instantly. (I prefer to think of it as the previous. that he got spooked, tried getting out of his cage, and died escaping.) But enough was enough so we went back to the trainer.

Finally my trainer recommended using a shock collar to shock her every time she goes near the room where the rats stay. We are completely against shock collars. Especially since she's a rescue. So we said no. Then she recommended a spray collar that sprays citronella I think it's called... same effect, only non-painful.

But I can't find any information on how safe it is. So I thought I'd come online and see if anyone else had any suggestions. I don't want to terrorize her into leaving the remaining rat and hamster alone, but I don't want her to hurt them either, accidentally or not.

Answer
Greetings, and thank you for contacting All Experts,
Sounds like you have a challenging case on your hands! In order to understand her behaviors a bit closer, as you may already know the Poodle is not just a pampered pet sporting outlandish haircuts, rather this dog has a history of being a versatile working dog used to perform a plethora of tasks ranging from cart-pulling, to show ring master. One of this breeds main tasks was also to retrieve game from water, indeed the name ''poodle'' derives from the German word "pudeln" which means ''to splash in water''. This breed's coat indeed has a history of being clipped that way to protect the poodle's vital organs and joints from the bitter cold waters, and reduce the chances of snagging. Some areas instead were left purposely with hair to keep the dog warm.

In order for a dog to retrieve well and be a good bird dog, it must have a certain level of prey drive. Now, all dogs have a good level of prey drive but in certain breeds this is much stronger since they have been selectively bred to have such drives in order to be good hunting dogs. So, you must understand to a certain extent that her prey drive is in her genes, you may never be able to take it away, but at least you can try to manage it to your advantage. So what I am trying to say is that you should not expect her to be left in a room full of rats and trust her. Her instincts will eventually kick especially if she knows you are not around to correct her.

So what I would suggest to do is to not remove her prey drive but to orient it towards you. You want to be the center of her attention where all the good things revolve around you. You must therefore become more interesting than a squirrel, rat, mouse, or anything that crawls. How do you accomplish that? By offering things that in a dog's mind are superior or at least almost equal to rats, mice, squirrels...

You do not need the stay on command, sit on command, and heel on command for this exercise. Instead, you will have to focus on the ''leave it command''. I will provide a step by step guide here on how to get her to focus more on you and learn to leave crawling critters alone. I have two Rottweilers at this time, trained using the ''leave it command'' and they live with 16 chickens and one day I forget them outdoors, and they were laying down peacefully, surrounded by the chicks, we were so proud of them! Of course, I would never purposely leave my dogs around chicken alone and unsupervised, dogs are still dogs and chicken are still chicken, those primal instincts may be buried but they will always be there!

Here is my step by step program for you which you can give a try. I am also against the e-collar or citronella spray collar, as these training tools only tell your dog what NOT TO DO, but do not give her an alternate behavior to DO INSTEAD. This is putting a dog for fail in my opinion, you want to put your dog up for success and give an alternate behavior so perform. I would leave the e-collar only as a treatment of last resort when all other training methods have been exhausted.

How to Train ''Focus'' and  ''Leave it''


1) As a first step I would recommend a good training tool to prevent her from pulling towards any critters you meet on walks. I like to use an ''Easy Walk Harness'' by Premier. This harness has a front attachment that helps prevent pulling and lunging behaviors. It can be a great training tool.

2)Start by investing in the tastiest treats your dog knows. These are 100 dollar treats, treats your dog would die for, examples are slices of hot dogs, freeze dried liver, steak, boneless, skin less chicken,oven cooked chicken livers..Keep small bits of these treats handy by putting them in a fanny pack or treat pouch that goes around your waist.

3) Now work on this exercise: make a sound with your mouth, anything, a whistle, a smacking noise, just not words. Place a treat at your eye level and as soon as your dog looks at you, give the treat. Repeat-repeat-repeat. The sequel is as such: you make sound with your mouth with treat at eye level/dog makes eye contact/you give treat. Do it 10-15 times until your dog gets a hang of it. Timing is of the essence: the second he looks at you the treat is delivered.

4) At some point something wonderful will happen: your dog will look up at you in the eyes automatically when you make the noise in anticipation of the treat. By doing this you have taught your dog to focus on you using classical conditioning. Work on this exercise also when your dog is across the room, make the noise with your mouth to grab her attention and run to you for a treat. Now you can apply this exercise successfully to change a bit his attitude around furry critters.

5)Keep her at a distance from a cage with a rat or hamster (keep her muzzled if you cannot trust her, even with the rat caged). You want to find a distance from where she does not react, so to work under the threshold. You then make the noise with your mouth, if she looks at you in the eyes you deliver the treat. If she is too aroused to take your treat she is too near and you need to work her farther away.

6)Now, get gradually closer and closer over the course of a few days and see if you can still get her focus. When she is close to the cage, and is getting too close say a firm ''leave it'' accompanied by a small tug to the leash. Then make the noise with your mouth and the moment she looks at you, give the treat and throw a party, with lots of treats and belly scratches. You need to be the most entertaining thing in that room other than the rats.

7) I would then invest in a squeaky toy that looks like a rat or mouse. Attach it to a stick with a string and have a friend move it around the room and exercise on the leave it command, followed by your focus exercise. Your goal is to have her capable of listening to your leave it command, despite the toy is attracting her and arousing her. Always praise and make a big deal for listening to the leave it command.

8) Leave the squeaky toy in the middle of the room, step back and right when you see her getting close to it, say ''leave it'' and make the noise with your mouth from across the room. You can also try to leave the toy unattended and hide somewhere in the room and secretly watch her. The moment she sneaks to the toy say ''leave it!'' followed by the noise of your mouth. If she comes to you, praise and give her a bonus (that is a handful of treats) and lots of fun! If you do this often, the fact she thought she was alone and you caught her in the tracks will stick in her mind, and she will start thinking that even though it looks like you are not there you are still there! Ultimately, she should feel like you are ubiquitous and omnipresent!

One note of caution: Never let her have the toy to play with, this toy is for training purposes only, and must be treated as if it was a real mouse you want to protect.

9)At this point, if she is doing well, it is your call if you ever want to expose her to the real thing. You should keep her muzzled if practicing this and on leash, with the tastiest treats. You can also ask the ''leave it'' and focus exercise when on walks, if she does not listen, simply wriggle the treat in front of her nose and then drop it on  the ground. Not many dogs will leave a treat on the ground since it is readily accessible while prey must be caught.

Words of caution: Never leave your dog unsupervised with other critters or animals
and never trust your dog around any animals!

The citronella spray collar is safe over all, it works by delivering a sudden spritz of citronella which dogs dislike and works on startling the dog to discourage certain behaviors. Its noise, smell and sound are what makes it effective. I would choose this over the e-collar if need be, but as mentioned earlier it only teaches her what not to do and not what to do instead. I hope this helps, but please consider that only much can be done when we are working against drives that are instilled in the breed after years of selective breeding. So hoping to keep her in a room full of rats, is a bit like asking a lot, but controlling her when need be may be something much easier to accomplish. My very best wishes!


Disclaimer: Please consult with a dog behaviorist if your dog is displaying aggressive behaviors. Only a dog behaviorist may see and assess behaviors and offer the most appropriate behavior modification program tailored for your dog. Use extreme caution and make safety your top priority. By reading this answer you accept this disclaimer and assume full responsibility for any of your actions.