Dog Health Questions: Help, any ideas for this persons problem? Dog Training.?

I adopted a wonderful wiemeranier from PACC This weekend and first of all wanted to thank them for such a wonderful dog. His original owner could no longer take care of him but I am hoping to contact the original owner for some help. The dog has had some training and one of the things that he does is sit down in front of me and lift his paw up which is supposed to signal something. I tried food, taking him out to the bathroom and just shaking his hand but the act does not seem to relate to any of those actions. If anyone may know what this means or may know the original owner please let me know. I want to give this beautiful dog the best home I can and knowing what he wants and how he has been trained will really help. Thank you, J

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Firstly congrats on your new rescue and well done for having a rescue dog and giving him a loving forever home :-)

To the subject:

In my house, if my dogs were to put thier paw (or any part of their body) onto me no matter what position they are in (i.e. sitting, standing, etc) then I consider that to be rude and bossy behaviour from my 3 as they are demanding something and that in my house is not allowed. If my 3 do this then they are pushed away and ignored with no eye or verbal contact.

However, this does not mean your dog is being bossy and demanding. Some people will train their dogs to do similar things to make them aware of something specific - like a guide dog would most likely be trained to make their owner aware of a potential danger, etc. I would advise that you try to get into contact with the previous owner and ask if the behaviour your dog is exhibiting to you is something that she has trained him or not.

If he wasnt taught that behaviour then I strongely suggest you put a stop to it and just simply gently push him away and then ignore him as you don't want him to start to think that he can get what he wants by being dominating to you. Remember he is in a new environment with new people so he will need to work out boundries and also him place in the pack so he will test you and anyone else in the household for how you handle different situations and also look out for weak points in your behaviour/body language so stay strong, calm and confident to him otherwise you may end up being bottom of the pack and he will think he is leader and then you could end up with behaviour problems.

Best of luck

Edit: Just read another post here saying that you dog will need at least 2-3hrs of exercise a day. I'd like to say that I have 3 siberian huskies which are also known to have a high exercise requirement. Yes exercise is important to any dog no matter what breed it is but this doesnt mean that every dog has a specific number of hours exercise a day! Someday my 3 dogs may have a good 3-4 hours, spread out, exercise in a day whether it would be a walk, running in the harness, or just some training around the house, etc and yet somedays they may only have about 30mins exercise a day. And no matter how much exercise they have had they will still sleep throughout the day when they are not on a walk or doing training, etc because they are fully relaxed dogs and they know they haven't got to worry about anything as that is my job to ensure they're kept safe and out of harms way and if they are needed for anything then I will call them to me. A happy, relaxed dog with no stresses will sleep in a fully relaxed state for 17-20hours a day, no matter what breed of dog they are :-)

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• maybe he wants affection. my lab does the same thing and it means she wants attention.


• My Border Colie does this, she wants me to give her a good scratch, a cuddle,and a kind word, she is just letting me know that she is still there and that I stll love her. She will then go and lie down reassured. Awwww


• it could be a trick it does. try a treat or scratch it's stomach. My lab, Sammie, rolls over all the time when she wants food or attention.


• Its not necessarily a trained behavior it is pretty common attention seeking behavior in dogs.


• Do NOT contact the original owner. That is way out of line.
  
  The paw thing is not a trained thing. It's just something dogs do. It doesn't mean anything, just let it be.
  
  If you want to learn more about the training, take a private training session with a real trainer. They can eval the dog and get a basic feel for what the dog knows and what it still needs.
  
  Remember that this Weim is going to need 2-3 hours of work and exercise a day. Be sure you plan for that in advance. They are very very active dogs. They are not dogs that tend to do well being left home all day or with an inactive family.


• I do not think that it is out of line to contact the original owner. He loved this dog very much but could no longer afford to take care of him due to being laid off. I am sure that the original owner would be happy to know that his dog has found a good loving home. Wouldn't you want to know that a dog you were forced to give up was going to be well taken care of?