# Im Afraid to use my hose! Help



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

Ben is a maniac for hose water. he gets this glazed look and shoots over to the end where the water comes out--if my hand is on the nozzle--or between him and the nozzle--watch out. He has really hurt me. 
I can't use it to water my garden or fill up the birdbath if he is out. any ideas on how to get him to treat it as a normal thing?


----------



## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

This sounds like Sage. If I have something to do I just take the easy way and put him inside. If I don't mind him getting wet I put him in a stay and do what I needed to do. We have not done this very long so sometimes he breaks his stay and I stop spraying put him back in a stay and repeat as needed. Then when I'm done let him him play with the hose. By then he has calmed down a bit and bites at the water but is not jumping over my head and biting the spray nozzle. If he is getting too close to me I stop spraying water and tell him to back off. Slowly he is improving but he is still insane right when the water comes on.


----------



## paulag1955 (Jun 29, 2010)

Shasta is the same way...she goes mad for the water and my husband doesn't help AT ALL because he likes to play with the hose with her. When I'm trying to water my garden, I usually tell Shasta to sit and leave it. She will eventually get bored and wander away. But I always call her over when I'm watering the hanging baskets so she can bite at the water that drips out...it's like a reward for being good about the hose. It's taken quite a bit of work to get her to this point, though.


----------



## Caledon (Nov 10, 2008)

Dakota loves the hose too. I put her in a down stay when I don't want her to get wet 

When she was younger she was the same way with the vacuum, and the rake and the snow shovel. 

It was work to get her contol herself around these items but I showed me that I needed to, and could work on her impulse control. 

The hose and the snow shovel are the hardest because we do play with her with these items.


----------



## Wolfiesmom (Apr 10, 2010)

Wolfie loves it too, and I have to put him in the house while I water.


----------



## GSDAlphaMom (Jul 20, 2010)

Three of my five are nutso over the hose. I use to enjoy watering my flowers, landscaping but not with them around. They make is sooo stressful. I now put them up and they whine and carry on watching me out the back window but it sure takes teh stress off of me!


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

put him in the house when you're
usuing the hose. my dog loves the 
hose also. my GF an i often go to the yard
for him to play with the hose. my neighbors
daughter comes over and squirts him a lot.
if i don't want my dog in the spray i say
"leave it", "no more", "that's it" and he leaves
the hose alone. i could also tell him to "stay"
but i don't need to use that command.

take sometime out for your dog and let him
play in the water. why didn't you think
of putting him the house when you're usuing the hose???


----------



## Doubleyolk (Aug 5, 2011)

Our last GSD,also named Ben did the same thing! It was a real problem and I would only use the hose when he wasn't around.


----------



## Snickelfritz (Feb 21, 2007)

I had a half black lab and a half german shepherd that used to attack the broom, rake, vacuum anything that moved in my hands. He didn't care about the hose, but he was a maniac when it came to those things. Some guy came to stay at the Hotel I worked at and he had a black lab hat on. I was talking to him about this problem, because he was a trainer/breeder. He suggested when I got home to take the broom or rake, start to use it and when Ralph, my dog started to go after it, to slam it on the ground start yelling at it, telling it it was a bad rake, hit it, scream at it anything to make as much trauma as you can to the object.

The goal was to make the dog feel sorry for getting the rake in trouble And it worked. I don't know if it's because lab's have different feelings, or what. But you might give it a try. It couldn't hurt, you'd just look like a fool the way I did when I was beating this poor rake up, and the neighbors thought I was the lunatic.


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

for me it's easier to say "leave it",
"no", place him in a "stay". if my dog 
wasn't trained i would put him in the
house and crate him if necessary.

ummm, does a dog feel sorry because you're abusing
a rake in front of him?? :crazy:



Snickelfritz said:


> I was talking to him about this problem, because he was a trainer/breeder. He suggested when I got home to take the broom or rake, start to use it and when Ralph, my dog started to go after it, to slam it on the ground start yelling at it, telling it it was a bad rake, hit it, scream at it anything to make as much trauma as you can to the object.
> 
> The goal was to make the dog feel sorry for getting the rake in trouble And it worked.


----------



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

why didn't you think
of putting him the house when you're usuing the hose???

uuuhhhh.....I did.


----------



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

why didn't you think
of putting him the house when you're usuing the hose??? 


uuuuuhhhhhh.....I did.


----------



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

It was work to get her contol herself around these items but I showed me that I needed to, and could work on her impulse control. 


Caledon-yes I know it means I have to work on his impulse control-that is a good point. It just is very scary when he goes for something with all his might and one of my bodily members happens to be in the way.
He loves to play fetch with his rope, so I have been working with him to drop it and then sit at a distance of about 3 feet away from me so I can safely throw it. I then move the dropped rope with my foot coser to me.
before I insisted on this distance he would sometimes change his mind about the "drop it" and go to quickly grab it again. I have been hurt that way too.


----------



## Snickelfritz (Feb 21, 2007)

Like I said, my dog did! He was a GSD/Lab mix though so like I said, I don't know if it will work for this dog but it did for mine. 

Just another suggestion is all.


----------



## TechieDog (Jan 13, 2011)

Kato instantly goes into drive when I use the hose. If only I could find a way to use that for training.


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

ummm, you thought of putting him
the house when you're using the hose.
can i safely say you thought of it
but you didn't do it. :crazy:
i could be wrong but i'm thinking
if he's in the house when you're using
the hose he won't be in the way. 



FlowersGSD said:


> why didn't you think of putting him the house when you're usuing the hose???
> 
> uuuhhhh.....I did.


----------



## paulag1955 (Jun 29, 2010)

doggiedad said:


> ummm, you thought of putting him
> the house when you're usuing the hose.
> can i safely say you thought of it
> but you didn't do it. :crazy:
> ...


He won't be in the way, but he won't be learning anything either.


----------



## TankGrrl66 (Jun 29, 2010)

I had the exact same problem as you do. The glazed look, obsession, and close call with fingers.

In fact, putting my dog in the house did nothing. He would pace around the house trying to get out and to the hose. He has made the screen door FLY. Obviously 'just putting him inside' was not the solution for us.

It took almost a week, but it worked. Here is what I did:

-I stopped letting him snap at the water, or even stare at it. I started putting him in a down stay on the patio next to the hose and rewarding that. 
-Then, I simply picked up the hose. I rewarded him when he remained in a down stay while I picked up the hose.
-Next I moved on to actually turning the hose on. This is the icky part, bc that was when it pushed him to not take toy/food rewards. He was getting too worked up no matter how much I tried to make it boring! :crazy:
-After that I repeated each step until he knew what I was asking when the hose was being used.

I put it all together on the 3rd day after having 3-4 sessions each day. This time he had his prong on, with me handling him and a friend using the hose. We went through all the steps, rewarding him at each one. He stayed focused until the water from the hose hit the ground. As soon as he tried to get up and pounce on the hose, I corrected him. Hard. 
It took 2 times, and then he thought twice. I made listening to me the fun way too! As soon as he listened when the water was splashing around, I took him inside and gave him some ham 

He caught on pretty quick. 

After a few days of having him down stay with the water, I started letting him snap at it on command after a long down stay. I only did this bc I knew this is what he really wanted. He also has to back off into a down stay after playing with the water.

Now I just need to do this with the weed wacker and the cat


----------



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

oh for heaven's sakes doggiedad.....read paulag 1955 ---what he/she said.
yes i have put him in the house.
yes i have accidentally used the hose when he was out,
yes, i know he can be put in the house,
yes i have done that 
yes i know i can do that

anything else u need to know??????

everyone else seems to know what i am asking/talking about-sorry - but whatever.............................................

am just trying to get ideas on how to train him NOT TO DO IT.

ummmm is that enough info?
thank u


----------



## FlowersGSD (Feb 27, 2011)

thank you tankgrrl66--am going to copy and paste what u advised-HOW HELPFUL!


----------

