Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys.. a lot of you here know Kaiser's story so I won't go into that. If you don't know the latest developments, hop on over to the mixed breed board for a minute.

Anyway, I'll withhold my opinions until I get some feedback here..

I don't know all of the details but I have the main idea. IT seems to be a resocialization process with a couple of additions.. Basically it starts out with teaching the dog to hold things in his mouth on command. When he has this down then training moves gradually toward more environmental stimuli. Strange places first, then the noises and sights of cars, then people, and eventually kids from a distance (Kaiser's petrified of kids). There are other intermediate steps worked in but I don't know them.

From what I can tell you teach the dog to hold a pen or something similar in his mouth. When you get into situations that he may consider stressful you ask him to hold the pen and make sure that he knows that no matter what, he is not to drop that pen until you say so. I guess the point is to have him concentrate on a task instead of on the stimuli (as well as teaching him not to open his mouth). The entire program uses nothing but praise for rewards (no food) and involves no punishment or harsh treatment of any sort..

There is much more to the program but I don't know what it is yet. I'm not doing the training but I trust the men who are so I'm not concerned. But just from that, has anyone heard of this before? If anyone has any thoughts or opinions I'd love to hear them..

This may not translate really well, and may sound odd, but I used a similar method on an aggressive monitor lizard a long time ago. As long as that lizard had his "securtiy sock" in his mouth, he was easy to manage, I could clip nails, do practically anything I needed to do to him- including let people touch him.

As long as the method does not promote fear (which it sounds like it doesn't), it's worth a try. Kaiser is smart enough, it may actually be the training you are looking for. Good luck and keep us posted.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

That is encouraging, I've known some pretty nasty monitors

My thoughts were pretty much along the same lines.. It's all based on positive reinforcement, and if it's done slowly enough shouldn't expose him to anything he can't handle. He is a very smart boy so hopefully he'll be able to pick up on it fairly quickly..

It's generalizing it so that he understands it applies to all people and all handlers that I'm worried about the most. He has always listened to my dad immediately, I just hope we can work through it enough that he'll start to understand he needs to listen to me that way as well..

It's better than the other option, so we'll give it a shot anyway... At this point there really isn't anything left to lose..