Question about a new Puppy
Comments (0)This is a recent question from a reader of my site:
Question:We have an 11 year old Bichon who has been queen of our house. We recently added a puppy to our household and the Bichon is refusing to eat or have anything to do with the puppy or us. She even growled at the puppy and has NEVER growled at anything, including babies who pulled her hair. What do you make of this situation? My husband is so upset he wants to give the puppy back.
Answer:Your Bichon is obviously stressed out by the new addition to the family. Stress does different things to different dogs. In your case it has caused your dog to stop eating.
First of all, don’t worry about your dog going off her food unless it continues for a long time. Dogs have a strong survival instinct and I have never heard of a dog starving himself.
Second, don’t coddle her. The natural reaction of many people would be to coddle a dog like this. The problem is that you would be coddling her frame of mind. Right now her frame of mind is that of stressed out and nervous. If you coddle her you would be sending her the message that acting like this is okay.
Third, try some obedience with both dogs. Obedience is very calming and soothing for dogs and reinforces the bond with the owner.
Fourth, giver her time. If she is very stressed it may take her a while to get used to the new pup in the house. Don’t give away the new puppy, you made a commitment. Train both dogs so that you can restore happiness for everyone.
Question about a Puppy Mill Dog
Comments (0)The following is a recent question from a reader of my site:
Question: I recently adopted a puppy mill rescue dog. She is a Yorkie-mixed breed. All I know about her is she is that she is two years old and was kept in a barn with other breeding females. She was not even given a name and is quite shy and timid, but has a sweet disposition.
The problem I am having is house training her from peeing and pooing in the house. No matter how many times I take her out and no matter how long a time she is out, as soon as she comes in, she pees or poos. We have bonded and I love her, but I’m afraid my husband may want to get rid of her as she is destroying the hard wood floors. Please help if you can, I want to keep her.
Answer: The key lies in convincing her that it is okay to go to the bathroom outside. With puppy mill dogs this is often difficult but here are a few tips:
1- Load her up on water and then take her outside. Wait as long as it takes for her to pee outside. When she does give her a great deal of praise and treats.
2- Supervise, supervise, supervise. Dogs can only go to the bathroom in the house if they are allowed to. If you see her do it you must quickly correct her. Keep her on a leash in the house so that she can’t sneak off and go to the bathroom. If she tries to do it in front of you quickly give her a few firm tugs on the leash as you quickly rush her outside.
3- Try my matchstick trick for house training a dog.
Good luck.
No need to accept bad behavior
Comments (1)In dealing with dogs and dog owners every day it is inevitable that a bulk of my conversations revolve around dogs. There are several phrases and philosophies that I hear from time to time. One of those phrases is, “Oh, he does that because he is a puppy.”
One thing I really help my clients to understand is that, yes, your young dog is jumping, chewing, nipping, peeing on the floor, pooping on your rug, etc. because he is a puppy. I then go on to explain that although these are very natural puppy behaviors they are not acceptable puppy behaviors.
A lot of people reading this may say, “Well, of course they aren’t acceptable. I know that.” The reason I write this, though, is that many people have consigned themselves to the fact that they are going to have to put up with a year of hair pulling, teeth clenching moments before they can actually enjoy their puppy. I think that many believe that part of raising a puppy is just putting up with these horrible behaviors as training and age begin to take effect.
I am here to say that it is important to recognize the limitations of a puppy mind when you begin training. There is no need, however, to allow yourself to fall into the mindset that you just need to accept certain bad behaviors. There are solutions to every negative puppy behavior. Some take longer to implement but none of these behaviors need to be accepted.
I encourage you to seek out the best methods. If you have been working on a specific puppy behavior without success for a time realize that you must seek out a different method, not throw in the towel and hope the puppy ‘grows out’ of the bad behavior.
Good luck with your puppy training!
A Dalmatian housebreaking question
Comments (0)This is a question from a reader of my site:
Question: I was wondering if you could help me? I have a five month old Dalmatian who is deaf or believed to be as the previous owner told me. She was house trained and doing really well with it but then my husband went away and she has gone backwards. She was fine for the first few days but now she urinates everywhere and anywhere. She only urinates out side if she has a walk even though she has access to the outside all day long. She still pees around the house if you go to get her lead to take her for a walk.
She is also biting everything. I give her a bone to try and discourage it but although she loves the bones she still chews everything. She also has a thing about jumping up at my children and nipping them. It only happens now and then with my youngest child but its all the time with my eldest.
I’m at my wits end and don’t want to be telling my dog ‘off’ all the time. I would like to enjoy having a dog although its very hard to at the moment. She still gets attention and her regular four walks a day please could you help me?
Answer: Sounds like you’ve got some work on your hands. Here are some tips:
- A five month old dog that isn’t house trained should never even get the chance to go to the bathroom in the house. A dog of that age should be either under constant supervision or in a crate.
- The easiest way to supervise at this age is to keep the dog on a leash at all times. If the dog is on a leash you are in a position to correct her if she tries to pee in the house of if she tries to jump or nip at your children.
- Keeping the leash on her will eliminate her excited association with the leash that causes her to pee.
Good luck.
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