Let me just preface this by saying: I love my puppy. I love the way she chases her tail. I love the shape her mouth makes when she chews on her bones. I love the way her butt moves when she trots. I love her speckled black nose. I love that her ears have stayed soft as she loses her puppy fur. I love the way she stretches her paws out when she first wakes up. I love how pretty her markings are. I love how her tail wags when she's excited. I love that she gets hiccups all. the. time. I love that she is curious about the world around her. I love when she randomly jumps in my lap to be pet. I love that she loves water. I love her attempts at playing tug of war. I love how she bats around a ball. I love all the kisses she gives me when I come home from work and get up in the morning. I love that she's discovered her reflection. I love how sweet and innocent she looks when she's sleeping. I love my puppy! But she drives me absolutely crazy!
She's so naughty and stubborn. I feel like I've exhausted every form of discipline and training. Spray bottles, saying 'no,' positive reinforcement, time outs, teaching her 'off.' None of these things have worked with her. She's completed puppy school and is ready for the intermediate class. I decided to wait a month until after we move to make sure I had the time, attention, and, well money. Even the commands she's learned, she's begun to only listen part of the time. She's developed really bad habits such as counter surfing, noshing on my undies, harassing the cat, attempting to steal food from our plates, jumping on us, chewing on shoes and jumping on the coffee table to name a few. She used to charge and scratch at the bedroom door at night until I borrowed a hinged baby gate from my brother-in-law that completely blocks her from the door.
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We've tried crate training her but she has really bad separation anxiety. Every time we leave her in it, whether for an hour or 4, she poos in it and gets it all over herself. She cries, howls, paces while she's alone. We tried playing soft music, giving her lots of toys and chewies to keep her busy, covering it with a blanket, putting our other dog in a kennel next to her, and even giving her a t-shirt I slept in. I shower her with toys and different kinds of bones that she only loses interest in days later. She bites us often, especially now that she's cutting her molars, sometimes it feels as though she'd rather bite us than her bones.
On top of all these things, I think the worst problem is that she refuses to poop outside. Or rather, she refuses to be house broken! She pees on about 95% of her walks but turns around and pees again 30 minutes later in the house. I will give her this though, she very rarely goes in random spots in the condo. In other words, she almost always uses the puppy pee pads. There was a time when she didn't even do that. She's 5 months old, shouldn't she have a stronger bladder by now? I would think she would be able to hold her pee for longer periods of time. Ugh, this dog!! I'm ready to trade her in for a new version.
3 comments:
You should totally check out Cesar Millan's website:
http://www.cesarsway.com/
And specifically his book on raising pups!
http://www.cesarsway.com/shop/How-to-Raise-the-Perfect-Dog-Paperback
Craig has worked wonders with Pepper, his methods honestly work. Cesar has a way of explaining his techniques that emphasize the best way to break habits that Lola has formed.
Watch a few episodes from his show "Dog Whisperer" on hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/dog-whisperer
Hope that helps! Sounds like you have your hands full. :0(
Thanks for the tips! I plan on d/l the book as soon as my replacement Kindle arrives.
After Tori played with a husky pup today at Petland (because she is desperate for animal lovin's) I asked the lady checking on us about her. She said as an owner of a husky, that they are virtually un-trainable. They will always require constant attention and correction and lots of exercise was important. (she mention 2 mile runs everyday with her 2 yr old)
I mentioned the training classes and her response was, they don't work. What you're experiencing apparently is common of the breed. (she mentioned hers pulling the grates off the stove and throwing them around...even with being "trained" not to do these things...)
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