Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Mattie, it occurs to me that I may have unintentionally offended you with my posts. If that's the case, I apologize. I didn't mean to imply that you were in any way remiss in your training choices, nor that you are in any way required to explain or defend them. In fact, given the very challenging ci...

Finally, chili oil burns. Victoria has specifically made a point of avoiding, for example, collars that spray citronella or puffs of air as not positive reinforcement. I would say chili oil falls into the non positive training camp myself, but I imagine the moderators can clarify further. Now, one ...

Why make work for yourself and put your dog under a lot of stress when putting a box up will solve the problem? There are other more important behaviours to sort out that really need work putting into before saving the mail. It is impossible to train every problem at the same time, when we take dog...

Emmabeth, thanks for the training suggestions. That was very much what I was looking for.

Emmabeth, your point is well-taken. Thank you for articulating it so clearly. It's not my dog, so I can't comment on how regularly someone is actually home to govern the interaction, but I see your overall argument. For those times when people ARE home though and can structure this interaction, howe...

All you have to do is either: Put a wire cage around the inside of the letter box Block the dog's access to the front door Install a mailbox outside. Right... but this seems an option of last resort (and in at least one case very difficult to implement - the house floor plan does not easily allow s...

A dear friend of mine has a small dog (not sure what breed) who insists on attacking the mail as the delivery person feeds it through their mail slot on the door. It's gotten so bad that apparently the post office has written the family five letters, culminating in a threat to not have mail delivere...

I think (though I could be wrong) that Manny was a rescue, wasn't he? And I remember Shayna was the one starting many of the fights on the couch and during walks. We have two resident dogs in our own home, and we generally have one foster, which means our dogs often see a new dog every week or so. A...

BoxerJojo, it sounds like you're getting lots of great advice here so I won't add to that... but I just wanted reiterate that you're doing a great job. Reaching out to ask for help, and reconsidering how to do things so that Jojo better understands what he's supposed to do, are really brave and time...

I have a terrible leash biter/puller, too. She's a terrier basset mix (we think Jack Russell Terrier) who's a rescue and just joined our family about a month ago. Even though we know it's a behavior that must be corrected, it's actually pretty cute when she grabs the leash and "walks" hers...