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New, worried owner seeks advice and help
Well, to put things simply, I am feeling quite overwhelmed, worried
and frustrated right now. I'm a first time dog owner with his first puppy and I'm trying to do everything as best as I can and I'm having a pretty tough time. I've been thinking about getting a dog for years and have been seriously planning things and preparing myself for about 5 months to try to really do things right. All my life growing up I had cats but always wanted a dog and when I recently graduated college and got a job where I only work mornings I decided now might be a good time to try to spend with a dog. I've read about 10 books on dogs, puppies and obedience including Patricia McConnel, Ian Dunbar, Pat Miller, the Monks of New Skete, Matthew Margolis, Barbara McKinney and others. I've also watched a few videos, and spent a good amount of time reading up on training and obedience on the internet. I also took the past few months to work on the house a lot, building a new 6 foot gate, patching up the backyard gate and around the patio, routing cables around the house, reorganizing shelving and in general trying to puppy proof and prepare as much as possible. Well, to just jump right into it, after months of research and searching, talking to breeders and going to a dog show and reading and buying things, I finally got my little Brittany puppy last week Saturday. I picked him up at LAX and began my foray into the world of dogs. The first week has gone by and honestly, I'm pretty much a wreck right now. I've been feeling guilty and worried that I don't know what to do and am setting things up poorly, and my roommates and friends who had dogs growing up can't seem to offer me too much advice as all their puppy memories are from when they were children. I'm trying to steer my course on a positive training route and chose to forgo the training collar and jerk/release methods in favor of luring, rewarding and using a lot of positive reinforcement. So far, some things have gone well. The house training is going quite well with only 3 accidents in the first week, and night time has gone well. The two main problems that I'm trying to deal with though and that have me pretty concerned are biting and crate training. Gimli is all about mouthing and biting everything. I've never had much contact with puppies before, but this little guy seems to experience the whole world with his mouth. And unfortunately besides trying to bite or chew everything in the whole house, he also has been biting hands, wrists, ankles, and feet and snapping a lot. So far what I've been trying to go with is to develop good bite inhibition and also try to redirect him to his toys. For the bit inhibition thing, I have been making a loud yelping noise and immediately walking a few steps away from him when he bites me hard, I then give him one of his chew toys and encourage him when/if he starts playing with it. After a week though, he is still biting a lot, and biting hard. How long, and after how many loud yelps should he be expected to tone things down. I'm trying to get him in a puppy playgroup but the one that seems to be the best shot for me might not start for another week or two. I also have been trying to get him to meet a lot of people and have had a lot of friends over and try to be consistent with the yelping with them, but I think they might not always be loud and consistent enough with their yelps. I'm also worried about taking him places to meet other people and especially children, but I'm worried about him hurting someone. He has made lots of little scratches that break the skin on my hands and I'm worried that he could do that to a kid too. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this technique that they could share? Other ideas I've read are mainly for trying to stop the biting like sticking my fingers down his throat, flicking his nose or pushing his gums onto his teeth. From what I've read, it seems bite inhibition is really important and I'm worried if I try to just stop the biting I might run into problems in the future. The other biting issue is his biting and chewing of stuff around the house. When he runs around the room trying to chew everything he sees I try to distract him, either trying to call him over, waving around one of his toys or hit something in the room, trying to make a loud noise to startle him and stop him from what he is doing and then immediately hand him one of his toys and say "chew toy" to try to focus him. I am also leaving his toys including a Kong I stuff with kibble, peanut butter and treats, a rope toy, nylabones and pieces of towel with treats tied in knots in his crate during the night and day when he is confined to try to encourage him to chew them. He is getting a little better with this, but lately he seems to just work himself up chewing and running around until he gets really aggressive and I can't to distract him or get him to redirect toward a chew toy. He gets all growly and starts going off on my comforter or the carpets, vertical blinds or curtains. If I try to hand him his chew toys or toss them near him, if he stops what he is chewing, he seems to often go after me or my hands. Any advice or experience anyone could share with this? The other main concern I have is with the crate training I am doing. From all that I've read, it seems like crate training is the best way to go and I'm doing my best to make it as smooth as possible for the little guy. At first I tried using the airline crate that he came in. I cleaned it out real good with deodorizer as he had made a mess during the plane trip and put in a towel and a blanket, toys and some treats in it and left it in my bedroom with the gate open the first two days. I would move him into it when he was sleeping and would direct him into it when we came inside, using the word kennel as he entered it. He would often look for the treat inside and I would praise him as he entered, sometimes closing the door for just a few seconds and giving him another treat if he stayed quiet. As I began to try to lengthen the amount of time with the door closed though, he began to get really upset. After about 30 seconds or so he would begin to panic, making lots of terrible noise and pawing, and pacing. I was worried that the crate might already have a bad association from the airplane trip and decided to try to start over with a wire pen. I got an adjustable wire pen with 2ft by 30inch panels and made a 2x2 box for him and draped a blanket over the top. I had been having him sleep tethered to the bed foot by my head in a little bed which he had been doing very well, so I put the pen around the bed where he seemed to be comfortable. I did the same thing with toys and treats and short closed door times with him and it seemed to go a lot better then in the airline crate. I closed it for the first long period of time at night and things went very well with only a very little bit of whining. Oh, and I was also giving treats when I began, when he would stop whining and settle down as I sat next to the crate or lay down next to it. He now seems to do pretty well if he goes in and I close it while I am in the room with very minimal whining every once in a while. However, when I leave it is a totally different story. Shortly after I am out the door he breaks into a total fit, barking, yelping and whining, making all kinds of noise that make my skin crawl and makes me feel really guilty. I have tried leaving for very short periods of time, going in and out of the closet or the door and coming back during short breaks in the crying. When I had to start going to work this week though, things have not been getting better. I've had roommates and friends come over about 1.5 hours after I leave and 3 hours to let him out to go to the bathroom and play with him a bit, and I get back home a little after 4 hours from when I leave in the morning. He has not seemed to get any more comfortable yet though and barks most of the time I'm gone. This morning when I left him sleeping to go eat a bagel he began totally freaking out as he heard the sliding glass door close. (I live in a sort of back house that is connected by the patio to the main house with the kitchen in it) I'm really worried that I'm instilling a lot of anxiety in him and that things are not going to get better but worse as time goes on. Is this normal, and how long can I expect it to go on? My friends and roommates can continue to help me for the next few weeks, but I am unsure how to proceed with this. Can people please share some opinions, advice or experiences that they had to try to help me out. Any reassurance or advice would be very helpful in making me feel better about things. Thanks in advance. Adam |
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