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Yes, we feel terrible about how much time she is crated but not sure about leaving her out while we're away, especially while we're still housebreaking her. She does an awesome job of not going in her crate so I think going back to gating her in the kitchen like we did when her bladder was too small to last while we were at work would only confuse her in regards to housebreaking. I'm just going to make more of an effort to take her to the dog park more often and get her exhausted. We've tried the Kong with the spray kong cheese inside along with some kibble but she basically just licks the cheese out and could give a poo poo about the treats packed in. Busy bones are sometimes fun for her but they only last 20 mins. We've started rotating the toys she has so they seem new and it seems to work.
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Dec 6, 2012 23:41
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I Might Be Adam posted:Yes, we feel terrible about how much time she is crated but not sure about leaving her out while we're away, especially while we're still housebreaking her. She does an awesome job of not going in her crate so I think going back to gating her in the kitchen like we did when her bladder was too small to last while we were at work would only confuse her in regards to housebreaking. Toy rotation is good to keep things novel, good work. And as I said before, I'm a snot, so it's completely unfair of anyone to beat up on you for the long crate times as you're clearly doing your best. I think you really need to look at some treat dispensing toys though. My personal favorites are the Tug-a-Jug and the Kong Wobbler, but I actually use this one daily and love it. If she's not interested in kibble that you put in there, start feeding her meals out of it. If this still doesn't garner interest after a day or so, the game is either too hard, or the reward isn't high enough. If you suspect the latter, take a half cup of her food, mix in some bits of cheese and slice up some hot dog. Put all of this in a ziplock bag and shake it around for a few minutes. Then put it in the fridge for about an hour or two. Then load this into the treat toy and try again.
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Dec 7, 2012 01:15
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MrFurious posted:I regard them as relatively ineffective. They might work in the very short term, but they do not work in the long term. Same is true for the citronella collars. I will always recommend using the odorless spray instead of the citronella spray. I don't think it's fair for a dog that considers the spray a punishment to end up smelling like the spray for a long time. Besides I prefer not to have my apartment smell like the spray either.
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Dec 7, 2012 06:53
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Riiseli posted:I know of only a couple of dogs, which have quit barking due to a sonic device. However citronella collars very often provide a long time solution. My Naru has barked with a citronella collar maybe twice about seven year ago. I can still get her to quiet by showing her the collar (I rarely do this, but it works). Healy on the other hand has emptied one of these collars by bark bark barking as a youngster. Luckily she grew up and doesn't a collar anymore. That's interesting that you and a life less have used the collars effectively. I never really considered them because I thought they were generally ineffective and would malfunction and punish the dog for nothing, stuff like that. I've hit a brick wall with Psyche's barking though. It is mostly now not anxiety-driven, but habitual and just part of her watch dog routine. I have been consistant about interrupting her, but my timing is just not good enough. So this may be something I will try. However, I would not want her to wear the collar non-stop as she is a very talkative dog and she has barks that are completely unrelated to her watch dogness that I wouldn't want to punish her for (during play, mainly). You say that you can just get the collar out and it is effective...did you use the collar all the time at first? Do you allow barking during play? Basically I am wondering if I can use the collar as needed (leave it on when she is just laying around or the times of day when she normally is most barky) rather than just leave it on or if that will just confuse her and be ineffective. There is a definite difference in her barks and I feel like she may be able to understand it like she understands that mouthing is okay during play but not otherwise. But I'd like to hear what others have experienced before I go ahead with it.
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Dec 7, 2012 16:15
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Kiri koli posted:That's interesting that you and a life less have used the collars effectively. I never really considered them because I thought they were generally ineffective and would malfunction and punish the dog for nothing, stuff like that. An unwanted byproduct of Pi's citronella experience was that a friend's dog became terrified of Pi. Every time my friend's dog approached Pi, Pi started barking, which in turn activated the collar. It only had to happen twice for my friend's dog to learn that approaching Pi = horrible smell.
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Dec 7, 2012 16:46
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Riiseli posted:I know of only a couple of dogs, which have quit barking due to a sonic device. However citronella collars very often provide a long time solution. My Naru has barked with a citronella collar maybe twice about seven year ago. I can still get her to quiet by showing her the collar (I rarely do this, but it works). Healy on the other hand has emptied one of these collars by bark bark barking as a youngster. Luckily she grew up and doesn't a collar anymore. We bought the Sonic Egg last night just to give it a go. While we haven't had a thorough testing period, we noticed that when she did bark in her crate last night, it was 1 or 2 barks and then she stopped. My test with her barking this morning was opposite. She didn't even notice it was going off when she was barking at me to pick up her toy and play with her. We're going to give it a couple of days to see if has an effect but so far, my theory is that when we're around, she's not going to be bothered by it.
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Dec 7, 2012 17:13
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With Mega, I only first used the collar whenever I suspected we'd have some barking. Heck, I even pretend-knocked at the door to cue a bark to prompt the collar spray. After the first week or so I only put the collar on her when I left the apartment as that was my primary concern.
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Dec 7, 2012 17:14
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I Might Be Adam posted:We bought the Sonic Egg last night just to give it a go. While we haven't had a thorough testing period, we noticed that when she did bark in her crate last night, it was 1 or 2 barks and then she stopped. My test with her barking this morning was opposite. She didn't even notice it was going off when she was barking at me to pick up her toy and play with her. Honestly I can see using the device for barking at night (not sure if it works, but hey). The barking during play bit I think you can largely solve without that device by teaching her that barking during play gets her toys put away. If she keeps being an jerk about it, just leave the room. The device reviews also mention that loud sounds, talking, etc can activate the device, causing the dog to be confused as to what is going on/ what they did wrong. I would suggest being selective about it, and trying to treat each of the kinds of barking a little differently. Also, how much do you reinforce going into the crate/ "going to bed" with your dog? I spent several weeks doing crate games, slowly introducing the crate, and increasing crated time alone. He always gets/ got lots of treats for going to bed and I think it really helps. My dog loves his crate and will put himself in there if I stay up to late. I think a lot of the problems you are experiencing are due to your dog spending a lot of time in the crate and having excess energy. Have you also considered giving him limited run of the house?
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Dec 7, 2012 17:26
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wtftastic posted:Honestly I can see using the device for barking at night (not sure if it works, but hey). The barking during play bit I think you can largely solve without that device by teaching her that barking during play gets her toys put away. If she keeps being an jerk about it, just leave the room. The device reviews also mention that loud sounds, talking, etc can activate the device, causing the dog to be confused as to what is going on/ what they did wrong. I would suggest being selective about it, and trying to treat each of the kinds of barking a little differently. A little back story. For the first couple of weeks, we gated her in our kitchen during the day and night and she was ok with it. She used training pads to go to the bathroom. Then we started crating her at night and I would get up in the middle of the night to let her out and use the training pad. After a week of extending how long she was in her crate, she could make it all night. She never had an issue with the crate until we tried to start house breaking her for the past several weeks. Now that she spends her day time in the crate as well as the night, she's reluctant to going in the crate. As always, we give her treats when going in and I usually only have to walk her to the crate and say "get in your bed" and she'll go in and I reward her. Lately though, she knows that it's bedtime and has resorted to crawling under the couch so she doesn't have to go. This behavior started along with the barking in the middle of the night which she never really did. I'm afraid if we don't crate her, she's going to think it's ok to eliminate in the apartment since we're still having problems with that. I know she has too much energy. I took her to the park last night and she got a lot of running out and she was very good for the rest of the night. I don't personally think she barks an ungodly amount but when you have a neighbor complaining, what can you do? I'd really like to know when our neighbor is bothered by the barking the most. This complaint was anonymous but we're pretty sure it's the woman next to us. We're signing her up for obedience classes very soon as she needs some basic problems worked out and hopefully we'll get a hold of her barking.
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Dec 7, 2012 17:40
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I Might Be Adam posted:A little back story. For the first couple of weeks, we gated her in our kitchen during the day and night and she was ok with it. She used training pads to go to the bathroom. Then we started crating her at night and I would get up in the middle of the night to let her out and use the training pad. After a week of extending how long she was in her crate, she could make it all night. She never had an issue with the crate until we tried to start house breaking her for the past several weeks. Now that she spends her day time in the crate as well as the night, she's reluctant to going in the crate. As always, we give her treats when going in and I usually only have to walk her to the crate and say "get in your bed" and she'll go in and I reward her. Lately though, she knows that it's bedtime and has resorted to crawling under the couch so she doesn't have to go. This behavior started along with the barking in the middle of the night which she never really did. Yeah, it sounds like she's starting to go sour on the crate. I can see your concern about improper elimination in the apartment. How far along are you in house breaking? Either way, there's got to be a balance that you find for her. Either you make sure she's so absolutely bone tired when she gets in her crate that she passes out, give her something to entertain her in the crate, or reduce the amount of time she spends in the crate. Its possible that if you pen her in a limited area she might also start viewing that as a den area and avoid eliminating there....but I'm not a huge expert. I've never house broken a dog while working a full time job, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice on it.
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Dec 7, 2012 17:58
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We're about two to three weeks into house breaking her and she's doing great as long as we're watching her. Unfortunately, where we gated her before is where she was using the training pads so if we go back to gating her during the day, she'll probably resort to eliminating where the pads used to be. That's something we don't want since when she does have an accident in the apartment, she's having it at the front door now. We're going to have to resort to really wearing her out every day and I'm probably going to have to start giving more of an incentive for going to bed. It's tough, we really only want the best for her but you know, we're in that position where we wish we had more time (like not being at work during the day) to give. I know a lot of people say, "sounds like you just don't have time for a dog", but that's really not the case. We do spend a lot of time with her. We probably just haven't been as consistent with her training as we could be.
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Dec 7, 2012 18:34
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I have 12 week old boston terrier puppy. We live in an apartment in Seattle and I'm trying to figure out the best way to potty train her. For the past week since I've had her, I've taken her outside to this corner place where we have some nature for her to do her business but there's a few problems that I've ran into with it. Lately, I think she's gotten used to the corner (it's somewhat busy and that's another issue) and isn't as frightful down there so she's become a terrifying menace to me. She runs around, doesn't do her business and eats things and when I get close to her she runs away. It terrifies me to think that she's going to run into the street and get hit or something. I have a harness for her but when she wears it she doesn't move, she doesn't do anything. That corner spot is horrible and it scares me to make her go there (she seems fine with it) but there is no where else I can take her. This is my first puppy, so any advice relating would be helpful.
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Dec 9, 2012 02:05
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WASDF posted:I have a harness for her but when she wears it she doesn't move, she doesn't do anything.
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Dec 9, 2012 04:22
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WASDF posted:I have 12 week old boston terrier puppy. We live in an apartment in Seattle and I'm trying to figure out the best way to potty train her. For the past week since I've had her, I've taken her outside to this corner place where we have some nature for her to do her business but there's a few problems that I've ran into with it. Given that you're in Seattle, I might go with paper training or pee pads until she's old enough for full parvo vax. There's been a noticable enough spike in reported cases that it's made the news a few times and closed a couple of dog parks.
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Dec 9, 2012 04:32
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WASDF posted:I have 12 week old boston terrier puppy. We live in an apartment in Seattle and I'm trying to figure out the best way to potty train her. For the past week since I've had her, I've taken her outside to this corner place where we have some nature for her to do her business but there's a few problems that I've ran into with it. She's a puppy, and they all hate collars, harnesses, and leashes at first because they are brand new to it. She will get used to it over time. You need to STOP taking her out without a leash because she will eventually run off, and may end up in the road. I have no idea what is so terrifying about this corner aside from the possibility of her running off, but if that's where she wants to do her business and isn't some place where drug deals or murders are frequently occurring, keep taking her there. To help her become accustomed to the harness, leave it on her at all times. Go on little walks with her around your house to get her used to walking on a leash, and give her plenty of treats to reward progress. A lot of puppies go through a phase of resisting the leash because they're not used to it, but once you have her full shots done and start to take her on proper walks outside, she'll learn that putting the leash on means it's time for fun outside time.
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Dec 9, 2012 15:51
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She's 12 weeks old, you should be doing leash/harness/walk training already with her. Echoing what Serella said.
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Dec 9, 2012 20:52
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 Mannnnn, I swear I'm getting really discouraged. Every place or person we find that breeds poodles turns out to be a puppy mill. There's a woman that drives to the shelters and takes all of the small breed dogs to sell them. There are no reputable breeders in my area and those I find out of state want a lot of money. So I guess my options are either, A: Suck it up and pay $2k-3k for a well bred puppy if I want one so bad. B: Give some evil person money for a puppy. C: Wait for years to find the dog we want from a shelter and hope it isn't snatched by a seller. Every time I consider B the "backyard breeder" I talk to pisses me off beyond belief. I called a guy today and when I asked him about the personalities of the parents he just told me "Well, we don't go around them dat much, uh I can tell you we used the bitch to breed malti-poos awhile back". What sucks is that it seems most people I know that have dogs just get their pets from puppy mills without a care in the world and their dogs seem great. The poodle we baby-sat months ago came from a pet store so I know it originated from a mill and she was great too. It's like no one gives a poo poo how the parents are treated. As long as they get their dog and they get to be happy, and this experience has almost convinced me I should do the same thing. I think I'm going to convince my wife to go with A and just drop the extra money for a good puppy. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Dec 11, 2012 |
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Dec 11, 2012 00:45
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Orange_Lazarus posted:
Are there breed rescues you could consider adopting a poodle from?
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Dec 11, 2012 00:51
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There are a few and we check every day, all of their poodles are usually over 8 years old and usually have a lot of problems. I think the main issue is is that we're looking for something really specific and we're trying to be moral about it. I think I'll just be more patient and maybe something good will come along eventually.
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Dec 11, 2012 00:58
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It's really worth it! While you're waiting for something good to come along, why don't you just save a bit of money every month? Then at some point, you'll have enough for the good puppy and it'll all be moot.
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Dec 11, 2012 02:29
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Can you look out of state at all?
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Dec 11, 2012 03:26
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Not sure if this is the exact right place for this, but I am looking for some advice! I have an awesome 2yo Sharpei/pit mix Starbuck whom I rescued last April. We moved into our awesome home this summer with a big, fenced yard (1.25 acres total). Starbuck is really good with other dogs and we have lots of doggie playdates with our friends. She's never had issues with another dog. So, because we have the room, we were thinking of getting Starbuck a playmate. We are looking at a 3 y/o lab retriever who is being fostered through a local rescue. The question I have is how much difference are two dogs compared to one? I know with cats that two doesn't make a huge difference. Starbuck is really low maintenance, friendly, non invasive and my best bud. I have a lot of time to dedicate to training - I work mostly from home and Starbuck is never alone for more than 5 hours (though she could go longer, I just have the option to be home more often). We own our home, so there's no worry of landlords or anything (no HOA). Financially we are not super rich or anything, but we have a decent savings (I have a Starbuck fund). Basically, is there anything I haven't considered in looking for a second dog?
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Dec 11, 2012 07:04
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I think I'm going to convince my wife to go with A and just drop the extra money for a good puppy. Alternatively a breed-specific rescue is a good way to go, too. flyable I found having two dogs to be both less and more work. My guys shed, so the amount of hair at least tripled (they pull it off each other when playing). Costs double, of course, as does the time you spend on training them. But on the other hand, the dogs do keep each other company and not all attention and activity has to come from you anymore. They interact with each other in ways that just aren't there in a human-dog relationship and it's fascinating to watch. If the dogs do well on leash, exercise is no more work than with one dog.
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Dec 11, 2012 09:46
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Rixatrix posted:
Ahh yes the hair! Well he is black... which, uhhh, goes better with our black leather couches? I don't think we can resist this face. We have a HUGE yard, so I don't think exercise will be a problem. He plays fetch, and we had a doggie meet and greet at the house and the two tuckered each other out pretty well. I think we are going for it
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Dec 12, 2012 02:36
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So we found a woman who said she lost her job and couldn't keep her poodle puppy (that she just bought) anymore. We were lucky enough to be the first people who said that we would take a look at her before she took her to the pound. The only thing that pissed me off was that the lady obviously smoked a pack a day and the poor thing smelled like a cigarettes. I was calling her "Nickitine" (we were going to name her Nicki) until we got home and got her bathed. My wife had already setup a kennel in our guest bathroom a few weeks ago and I was surprised that the poodle adapted to our kennel so quickly, she cried a bit at first but went straight to the kennel after a few minutes and went to sleep. I'm thinking of renaming her Bourgesita but I'm not sure if it will fly with my wife, the puppy seems to like it though.
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Dec 14, 2012 23:33
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Orange_Lazarus posted:So we found a woman who said she lost her job and couldn't keep her poodle puppy (that she just bought) anymore. We were lucky enough to be the first people who said that we would take a look at her before she took her to the pound. The only thing that pissed me off was that the lady obviously smoked a pack a day and the poor thing smelled like a cigarettes. I was calling her "Nickitine" (we were going to name her Nicki) until we got home and got her bathed. Aww I am glad the pup found a good home instead of being left at a shelter! Nikki is a cute name. How would you pronounce Bourgesita?
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Dec 15, 2012 01:32
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Orange_Lazarus posted:So we found a woman who said she lost her job and couldn't keep her poodle puppy (that she just bought) anymore. We were lucky enough to be the first people who said that we would take a look at her before she took her to the pound. The only thing that pissed me off was that the lady obviously smoked a pack a day and the poor thing smelled like a cigarettes. I was calling her "Nickitine" (we were going to name her Nicki) until we got home and got her bathed. Did you get vet records for the animal? Where did the animal originate from? Is this a mill dog or from an actual breeder? (The latter is highly unlikely). I don't need to know the answers to these questions, but you do.
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Dec 15, 2012 02:17
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Orange_Lazarus posted:So we found a woman who said she lost her job and couldn't keep her poodle puppy (that she just bought) anymore. We were lucky enough to be the first people who said that we would take a look at her before she took her to the pound. The only thing that pissed me off was that the lady obviously smoked a pack a day and the poor thing smelled like a cigarettes. I was calling her "Nickitine" (we were going to name her Nicki) until we got home and got her bathed. My last family dog was a black standard poodle named Nikki! She was great, so I can attest that's a pro poodle name. Good luck with your pup! I submitted a couple corgi rescue applications last week, so hopefully I'll be posting more in this thread before next summer.
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Dec 15, 2012 02:25
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Engineer Lenk posted:Given that you're in Seattle, I might go with paper training or pee pads until she's old enough for full parvo vax. There's been a noticable enough spike in reported cases that it's made the news a few times and closed a couple of dog parks. Interestingly enough, half of the cases reported by ACCESS were from ACCESS employee dogs. At my dog daycare we haven't had any parvo cases pop up(but we also implimented new policies for the time being, like not accepting puppies under 16 weeks). Not saying that people shouldn't be really careful though.
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Dec 17, 2012 19:38
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I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate thread for this, but I couldn't find a better one! My wife and I have spoken to a bunch of breeders about getting a mini dachshund puppy, and one has finally become available. However, the breeder said that one of his (I think front) paws is turned in slightly. She said it came from "foetal cramp", where he was squished into a difficult position while in the womb and it's slightly hampered his pre-birth growth. The breeder said she's seen it happen before and it usually sorts itself out by around 8 weeks, but I just want to get a second opinion. Is anyone here familiar with this sort of thing, and would it normally hamper the dog's movement and development? Apparently he's moving around fine on it, and it's gotten a bit better in the week since I last spoke to her. The breeder herself seems very reputable; she only breeds show dogs and has been breeding dachshunds for 15 years. She's already said she won't sell him to us until we've seen it in person, and that if we're not happy after purchasing we can always bring him back.
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Dec 18, 2012 04:02
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Ok, new update on our Corgi's barking and crating issues. I've increased her exercise and the amount of attention so her barking has gotten better while we're awake and in the house. What's gotten worse is the barking during the night in her crate. The Sonic Egg no longer has any affect anymore so we're going to return it. Two nights ago, she decided that 6am was time to get up when normally her time is 7/730am and last night, it was 3am. We just put her on some anti-biotics so I think that may have had something to do with it because she was extremely thirsty when I let her out. I had to sleep on the couch for the rest of the night while she slept on the floor next to me. She seems to go to bed without many issues if she has a kong but she's waking up more frequently through the night. She also doesn't fight about going in the crate, sometimes she voluntarily walks in and sometimes I have to set her down in front of the crate and she'll walk in. We'd like to just ignore her barking in the middle of the night to make her deal with it but I'm just so afraid that it's going to bother someone and we're going to get another complaint. This is so strange since she never had a problem sleeping alone all night until we started crating her during the day. I guess we're going to try the Citronella spray collar.
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Dec 19, 2012 16:35
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You are not likely to have any different results with the citronella collar than you did with the sonic collar. Are you giving her a frozen or filled kong at night when you put her to bed? If so, of course she's thirsty at night. You work crate games with the Kong during the day in short periods to make the crate a happy place. At night, you give her a small amount of high value treats to keep crate value up, but that's it. You're already having trouble with potty training, don't make it harder on yourself by feeding her at bedtime. Right now the impression is that she actually needs to get up because she needs water or has to go to the bathroom. Limit food per the housetraining guide. If you are certain that she doesn't need anything, then you have to ignore it. Eventually, as it stops working, she won't bother with it anymore. That said, it has obviously been working for her for several weeks, so you have a long road ahead of you.
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Dec 19, 2012 16:46
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What time are you putting her to bed? Are you exercising her right before bed? Our corgi used to BARK early in the morning- like 5/6am, when wakeup time was 7am. He loved going in his crate, he just wanted to wake up earlier than us. We tried a bunch of stuff, including trying to keep him from snoozing in the evening, making his crate more comfy, pushing his bedtime back to 1am, covering the crate, etc. Eventually he grew out of it and now he just very quietly whines for 20 minutes or so before we usually get up, but that is easily ignorable. We had to ignore his early morning barking for almost a year though before it got better.
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Dec 19, 2012 16:57
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She gets exercise anywhere between 630 and 9. She usually goes to bed between 930-1030. I'm going to try to keep her up in the evening before bed so she's extra tired. I give her a kong with peanut butter before bed and that usually gets her through the night but she just started this early morning stuff. I'll look into crate games and reference the house training guide again. We usually make sure that she eats dinner and has a potty break before putting her to bed. I didn't think the kong with peanut butter/kong stuffing was hurting. The good thing is the holiday break coming up, I'll have some consecutive days off from work to try and work with her all day. It's been rough on her with the potty training and our work schedules but we do see signs of improvement here and there.
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Dec 19, 2012 17:36
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I Might Be Adam posted:I didn't think the kong with peanut butter/kong stuffing was hurting. It's very rich and very salty, making her likely to need water or go to the bathroom. It's not a good treat right before bed, but the intent was good.
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Dec 19, 2012 21:15
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Whats the best say to introduce a puppy to cats? My best idea is to put them on opposite sides of a baby fence for a while. Is that a good/bad idea, and/or can someone add something or expand on the idea? I'm getting a large breed dog, but as a puppy. Should I just get a huge crate and section it off as it grows? Or should I get a smaller crate and work up?
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Dec 27, 2012 04:30
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Cats can easily jump a baby gate. If the cats are dog savvy, that could be a decent idea, but if the idea is to keep them actually separated it won't work.
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Dec 27, 2012 06:59
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Psychobabble! posted:
I'd buy one crate and section it off. I found old milk crates handy for this if the crate doesn't come with its own sectioner.
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Dec 27, 2012 16:14
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Help us with our new puppy. I've owned labs, great danes, and mutts for as long as I can remember. My grandfather had a German Shepherd on his farm when I was growing up that would follow me everywhere. Twice this dog put his life on the line to protect me. Once he attacked a copperhead snake that was within striking distance of me and the other time he had to get stitches in his face and tongue because he fought a groundhog that popped up 5 feet from me. My wife and I had been searching for a GSD puppy and were in the process of trying to find a breeder we like (we both like the old school large GSDs). Unfortunately, I mentioned our search to my mom and she surprised us with an 8 week old GSD for Christmas. We promptly named him Duke in honor of my grandfather and his dog (Grandfather passed away 6 months ago) Here is Duke, 8 weeks and 17 lbs  I did end up meeting the breeder after Xmas, father is a retired police/narco dog and mother is a working farm dog. Not bad, similar to what we were looking for. 8 weeks, far too young for my taste. So now comes the issues and questions. Wife's biggest complaint is that the dog never will cuddle. We can and will run him ragged chasing a ball or playing with our Cocker Spaniel/Pekinese mix. You can put in on your belly to cuddle and he will whine and struggle until he can get away and then he will go lay down by himself and nap. She wants him to be more affectionate. Honestly, every dog either one of us has had was always willing to lay with us and take a nap. Is this something he will grow out of? I also see that we probably got the puppy pack leader as you can tell he's a little alpha dog in the making. Flipping him on his back and placing a hand over his chest makes the dog scream bloody murder. It sounds like Im killing him. He also doesn't respond well to a loud low no, where every dog I've trained always has immediately recognized that this is not a good sound. He kinda just ignores it and goes on about his business. Wife's calling the vet today to schedule an appointment to get him snipped and running up to Petsmart to find out when their next puppy obedience class is. More info, doing good in a crate. No issues so far. I work from home and the wife works from 8 to 5. We are coming up with a set crate schedule. Any recommendations for training this little alpha dog. It's been about 4 years since I trained a puppy. back then it was a strict crate schedule. Play this time, out this time, food this time, etc for the first year. Also did the leash to the belt loop for a while with the last puppy. We weren't quite prepared, we were just selecting the breeder for our new puppy and figured we had a few months of research on training and new training techniques before we got one. Also, for GSDs, how long should we wait until we start doing jogs with him? We both run a few miles each morning and would love the dog to accompany us when its time. Our other dog doesn't run in a straight line and is too lazy to take with us.
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Dec 27, 2012 18:36
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| # ? May 14, 2024 19:36 |
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ShadowStalker posted:I also see that we probably got the puppy pack leader as you can tell he's a little alpha dog in the making. Flipping him on his back and placing a hand over his chest makes the dog scream bloody murder. It sounds like Im killing him. Well, he literally thinks you are killing him. You're posturing over him as a disciplinary tactic in a way that is almost entirely used when one animal is about to die, and even as a puppy he knows that. Concepts like 'pack leader' and 'alpha' are outdated methods of training that can really be harmful to your dog, especially with a breed designed to protect/guard like a GSD. He's not being 'alpha' when he resists this technique, he's simply saying 'Please, don't hurt me! I don't know what I did!'. Keep this up and he'll assume that everyone, everywhere, will always hurt him out of nowhere and he'll never know why. Soon, he could start biting to respond to that fear. You should check out the OP of the training thread and the OP of this thread for some tips on how to reform and update your ideas on training so you can successfully shape Duke into a calm, well-behaved adult, instead of increasing his neurosis and possibly creating a danger for yourself and everyone around you. 'Dominance' theory and Cesar Milan tactics aren't used by many professionals, and the few that do use them are usually underinformed and sometimes abusive. It's been denounced by virtually every major association of dog training and veterinary behavior, so tell whoever taught you to do that that they have decades of reading to catch up on.  quote:Also, for GSDs, how long should we wait until we start doing jogs with him? We both run a few miles each morning and would love the dog to accompany us when its time. Our other dog doesn't run in a straight line and is too lazy to take with us. With large breeds, the consensus is to wait until their growth plates have fused, which is usually around 1.5-3years old. Don't run them too hard or too often before then, because it can be damaging to their hips/joints and you have a breed that is particularly prone to poor hips and joints. Did his parents get any kind of health testing? OFFA/PennHip, anything like that? Working dogs are great to breed, but with a dog like a GSD I'd be EXTRA EXTRA concerned about health testing, just because they're like, the poster dog for health problems relating to hips and joints. As for him 'not wanting to cuddle', he's an active working bred dog and it's unlikely he'll ever settle down according to your wife's needs, at least not for a few years. He's gonna need serious, strenuous daily physical and mental stimulation for 2-4hrs at a time, every day, for the next several years until he calms down enough to be lazy around the house, if ever! He just may not be that type of dog. Then again, he could go through his puppy crazies and decide he'll be a lap dog at 6 months, you never know. But he's still always going to need to be exercised in an intense, mind-working fashion, every day, just to wear him out to get to that point.
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Dec 27, 2012 18:59
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