So, three day's ago I brought home a dog for my girlfriend and me, we'd been on the lookout for one for a while and couldn't wait to finally have a dog to call ours. A friend of mine just got a rescue dog about a week ago and we have since adopted it now that she's found out that she's pregnant (but thats a whole other story) and since it's a rescue dog she can be quite skittish.

She's a Jack Russel, look's exactly like the dog in the mask and she's called Paton (pronounced like satan, but with a P) and since she was abused she's not very well trained. She literally cowers and lies shaking on the floor like a leaf at the prospect of going outside if it's raining or windy, she rarely does her business outside so we're going through news papers like crazy while trying to encourage her to go out, the problem is, the dog I had when I was a kid was a retired 3 year old Border Collie who I got off a family friend when it broke it's leg and was too badly injured to work on the farm again -- it was already trained up and confident (though not near roads, considering) so we really have no experience in house training an animal. One great thing about her though is how affectionate she is now that she's in a loving environment, she even licked my nostril yesterday and she cant get enough attention.

We're signing up to dog training classes but the next intake isn't until January next year and we wanted to get a head start. I know a lot of people on the forum here are avid dog owners, I was wondering if anybody had any tips on training such as different methods and tools (like whistles, clickers etc) if anything just to build up her confidence before the dog training class.

With rescue dogs, they tend to be wary at first, but don't try to overly coddle or baby it. Shows you're upset (or weak), and therefore the dog gets upset, and bad things happen. As an owner, you need to establish you are boss, and lead by example.

For outside potty training, I'd say go outside with your dog.

Training for now, leash and treats. Dogs do well with positive reinforcement, and treats are perfect. Also, try to socialize your dog (people and dogs). For this, as the boss, you're the one who interacts with the person and dog first, then Paton. This establishes it's okay to interact, and when your dog behaves acceptably, give her a treat and tell her she's a good dog.

If you dog does something bad, don't bring the fury of god (it's already skittish as is), but you also need to establish that's not an acceptable act. Also, it has to be established immediately. Dogs have a small attention span to these things. By the time you try to discipline your dog well after it did something wrong, it may think you're punishing it for something else.

When she cower and shakes just pat her and continue to do so until she feels comfortable with it, try it at different times of the day so she eventually forgets the link between the hand and abuse.
My dog used to be scared to go outside, now he opens the doors and goes himself, put the leash on her and give her sometime to come out the door by herslef, if she stays put pick her up and place her outside the front door. Prevent her from rentering, and if she calms down go a walk, make the walks short, but long enough to do her business, and then start taking her out longer walks. Maybe take a toy or biscuits she likes, my dog can't refuse food I assume yours may be the same.
Don't let her get into the habit of licking your face, jumping on you or furniture excessively, this will make her think its normal and eventually she won't stop when told and will assume the position of top dog. My friend has this problem with his dog, he showed it too much attention with close to no discipline and now the dogs out of control, and became so fat it had to lose wait or it would die.
When she does the toilet inside give her into trouble, take her outside for it, and anytime she does the toilet outside give her a treat to help associate going outside with doing the toilet.

Hope some of this helped
Dogs > Cats <3

Great advice and feedback guys, I've bolded what i've already been doing and will carry on doing as such. I do have an issue with the furniture/licking though -- she does it a lot and I can't seem to get her to stop. One issue I do have is, how do you even discipline a dog? Without being aggressive or physical obviously.

I've been thinking of using a clicker with a treat to reinforce her good behaviour and a dog whistle with discipline for the oppossite, would that work?

There is no much else besides physical IMO.
Just don't go over the top, never punch or kick a dog : :nono:

When my dog was young he would have the licking problem, my dad dealt with that by:
1. Pushing the dog back, holding him in place by his collar and letting go.
1.5 If the dog stayed or went away nothing further was done and it would be the Number 1 thing he'd do if it happened again.
2. If the dog moved towards his face after he let the collar go, the dog would be slapped on the nose and then held back by the collar, repeating 1.5.
3. The dog would usually get one or two more chances and a hit on the nose each time he failed, then he'd be dragged to his bed and told to stay until we thought he learned his lesson.

4. If the dog was successful he was congratulated with "Well Done" and "Good Boy"s.
Try to get the dog to associate words with positive/negative feedback or basic commands, sit, come here, bed.
You would need to use your hands in helping teach these meanings by pointing etc.
Teaching it to sit on command would be great for teaching it discipline. I taught my dog how to do it by saying "Sit" and pushing down on his back gently over several days/weeks, now I don't even need to say it to him when he comes to see me

Ah great so basically the naughty step for dogs

Almost the exact same

I don't know what a clicker is, but yeah a treat every now and then, and pats for good behaviour
I don't know how affective the whistle is tbh, again, yeah discipline and bed for bad behaviour.

You seem all set now, just need to get all this reinforced and never let the [censored] think shes incharge.
This is the first time I have ever used "[censored]" in the proper context.

It's a lot of work, every time you think it has to go outside. You got to take it outside. Basically you have to have disciple if you want your dog to have discipline. Generally a light hit can work, but I've found social isolation works just as well. If they do something bad lock them away in a boring room with no people. They are social animals after all. Then again that's not always an option depending on where you are. I know my dog dreads being in the room alone, hence why he doesn't break too much rules, if ever.

I don't think locking it away in a room would do it much good, it would come away from that room emotionally broke. Its been abandoned before so reinacting that fear inside it would be rather foolish, though it might work with another dog you've had since birth, maybe.
I'd say its better to send/put it in its bed and leave/ignore it until its time to come out, and say sorry But make sure it stays in bed until you say so otherwise.

This dog is untrainable :') Her previous owners used to lock her in the garden for hours on end and beat her if she barked to be let in, so she seem's to associate "outside" with "punishment", so taking her out at all can be difficult, if you go near the door with her she just rolls over onto her back and refuses to move, we're having a really hard time building up her confidence to get her out of the house so she can do her business. When she does like to go out it has to be daylight and not raining, and when we do she never poo's/pee's no matter how much time we give her and where we are, we litterally walked around a park for two hours encouraging her to do her business and within 5 minutes of getting back home the kitchen floor had a new smelly decoration. We have been letting her out into the garden though lately, with her for the first five minutes then unattended for the next ten, then we praise her when we let her back in and try to give her treats -- another problem we're having is that she's an extremely fussy eater and everything we've tried to treat her with (meaty bites, doggy chews etc etc) she's ignored and/or turned her nose up at, so we're having a hard time even rewarding her for the good progress she is making. So far the most progress we've made is not sleeping or sitting on the furniture and staying out of bedrooms which we decided where offlimits as soon as we got her.

All dogs are trainable with determination.
When she toilets inside make sure she knows shes done wrong by giving her into trouble there and then plus pointing out what she has done wrong. I don't remember how my dog became house trained besides the normal paper on the floor and having his nose shoved near enough in it so he knew clearly what was wrong.
When you go near the door and she rolls over, give her encouragement and lower yourself to her level by crouching and holding yours hands out.
I don't know how much time your willing to spend to have her pee/poo outside but maybe go to a place with other dogs, let her see them doing their business and don't return home until she follows suit.
If she refuses treats just pat her and award her with attention, this would save money too, she may have been lead to her punishments by treats so shes refusing to fall for it here. Leave them near her dinner or other places she likes though and see if they get eaten eventually just 1 at a time though.
At least you're making some progress with teaching her. We still can't get our dog to learn that lesson but he's became too old to learn it now, though he knows its bad and goes into his bed instantly when caught he doesn't realise he's not allowed up at all ??

managed to get her to eat her treats -- tried soaking them in gravy first, you would have thought it was never in my hand she ate it that fast

the only way is forward

Hmmmm gravy :drool: Ohh yeah that works on dogs too.
Now you have your equipment fully ready, treats and gravy are the way foward.

I know all my dogs absolutely would die for some peanut butter.

Now that I haven't tried, I know my last dog loved it since it used to try stealing my PB sandwitches at any given opportunity.

Also, about what I meant when you want to appear as the boss. I find that being stern, but not angry/shouting/yelling, to work. You have to sound like you are in control, and worthy of being followed. Dogs respect power, as they're animals that live by a ladder system of social hierarchy (unlike cats, which tends to be wtf). Of course, you don't want to hit your dog, you just need to show you have a stronger will. Also, dogs can sense things a helluva better than you can. You have to feel in charge.

We've had a couple of rescued dogs over the years. One we have at the moment was very skittish when she first came to us. She was so bad that you couldn't even call her, not even a 'c'mere!' It would send her running off to hide. It's mostly just a matter of getting them used to you completely and letting them get used to the idea that you can't hurt them. Another thing is not to push them too much too fast. Don't keep trying to shove her outside if she doesn't want to go at all, or else she will start to associate going outside with negative experiences. It may even take a long time before she even wants to go outside. Our adopted dog Tui used to be absolutely petrified of going inside. No matter what, you could not get her to step a foot inside any form of shelter. It's taken over a year to get her used to it. So the most important thing is just patience. You will need a lot of it. Also, learning what your dog responds well to, as it might be a little out-of-sync with what most other dogs respond to.

Good luck! These dogs make amazing companions once they've adjusted.

Will agree that rescued dogs can be a nervous bunch but after a solid month or two they'll calm down. Had 1 rescued dog for about 7 years then had to put her to sleep due to medical problems. Got another rescued dog who took about a month but he's as happy as can be. Only problem is he's a hydrophobic and hates the water which is strange since he's a blacklab border mix.

As mentioned when rescued dogs get nervous just pat them on the head till they feel comfortable. Another thing is just be yourself around the dog being happy and such they'll pick up on you. Dogs are very synced to their owners reacting accordingly to varying degrees and above all else learn to listen to your dog. Just look at your dog for a second and develop a friendly relationship with them as a companion/owner it'll help you out a ton. My dog already has a few quirks which help me to pick up on what he wants. IE sitting near the edge of the kitchen when it's 11:00 am and he wants a daily treat.

I actually have to disagree with patting a dog when they're nervous/upset. It tends to teach them that feeling upset is "ok" or trains them by giving them affection that they should remain in a nervous state.

Do you have a fenced yard? If so, I would open the back door and go out there - just a couple of feet - with Paton's favorite treat/toy. Just sit there, quietly and be as calm as possible while offering her that treat. If she comes out, quietly praise her, as getting too excited could possibly startle her. Just a normal "good girl" and give her the treat. I also wouldn't pet her at the point, unless she comes to you looking for physical affection. It may take some time for her to associate outside = good. Also, when you finally do get her out in the yard and want her to go potty - say so. Dogs actually do associate words with the action. I use the term "potty" to get my dog to tinkle, so if I want her to go before coming back inside I will use that term and she'll go do her business before trying to come back. I trained her by walking around the yard with her and repeating it over and over, and when she would go, I would praise her with a "good potty!" and a treat. (She's extremely food driven so you'll see the "gave her a treat" a lot in my training process. lol)

Also, avoid milkbones and other high calorie treats if you are using them to train. Unsalted, plain, fat free rice cakes are great as they're low calorie and yet for some reason dogs seem to really like them.

If she jumps up or licks too much, I never physically hit my dog. Instead, I use the bed option or ignored force. If she won't stop jumping or licking someone, I tell her no forcefully and use an "ah ah" sound. If she doesn't listen, I grab her collar and put her in another room until she calms down. If it's just me (and I do this to other people's dogs too) and they are in my space after asking them not to be, I gently push them or pick them up and put them on the floor (if they're little dogs up in my lap) never getting upset if they jump back up.. I just do it again and then block them when they try to get back up. Or if the dog is larger, I stand up and cross my arms and turn my back to them. Eventually, they learn not to do that. You may also have to ask people to ignore her when they first come in to help associate calm behavior with reward.

The biggest thing you have to remember is not to get frustrated and angry. The calmer you are, the more the dog will respond in a positive way. But you have a long road ahead of you to gain this particular dog's trust as she has a lot to get over. (I will NEVER buy the idea that dogs don't hold on to their pasts.) But I really want to stress: If she was abused, hitting her in any way - no matter what - will set her back, not help her move forward.

Edit: Also, having a set schedule helps both you and your dog. When they get in sync with their new day to day routine, they tend to do better as well.

Do the Cesar Milan thing with the rib jab. Works wonders with women so why not dogs?

She's so tiny it would probably punch a hole through her.

Well I do have good news, she has suddenly transformed overnight, with the aid of gravy soaked meat chunks she cannot wait to get outside and do her business/play. She still wont go to the bathroom when on her lead but in the garden she does which is a huge relief. Hopefully once we're able to let her off her lead in public parks without the difficulty of getting her back on it we can make her more open to using walking time as bathroom time as well, I just hope she doesn't fall back into old ways. The biggest problem we have is that she tests each one of us in turn with things like jumping up/licking/sleeping on furniture and eating without being offered. Me and my girlfriend are really being the "Alpha" of the family to her, she know's not to break rules in front of us but my girlfriends mother is Schizophrenic so its quite hard to explain that rules are in place for a reason, since she thinks that we're being overly abusive for tapping her on the nose and sending her to her bed, but luckily the more we show her what's right and what's not the less she tries to push boundaries even around people she knows she can get away with it.

I'd just like to thank you all for your excellent advice and reassurance, I've saved every post in this thread to a word document to reference. Let it not be said that the BGSF folks don't know their stuff when it comes to doggies apart from blademaster of course

If I can get her to sit still long enough I'll try to get a picture of her in her "Kangaroo" pose which she's adopted now that she knows its wrong to jump up on us. Possibly the cutest thing in the world so far.

Wait, I was right? WOOHOO!!!! j/k

Great to hear all the advice has been working out very well, and that your new companion has transformed very well overnight. And always remember, it's a dog, not a person. You have to treat it like a dog, for they do operate on a different level of social interaction, and really do not understand how humans operate (we're just too darn confusion!)

lol I swear, food driven dogs are the easiest to train! (I want my dog to do something all I have to say is "you'll get a rice cake..." and she's off and running.)

Glad to hear she's doing so wonderfully.

My dog hates going outside in the rain but otherwise loves the outdoors. She doesn't like getting wet for some reason, hates baths too. Doesn't seem to mind the cold too much, but sometimes she'll be quick about #1 & 2 and run back inside if it's frigid out.