At wits end with puppy
Discussion
We have a roughly 9 month old jack Russell x shar pei x basset hound puppy and we are having massive dramas with her.
We are not new dog owners but we are running out of ideas and patience.
When we first got her she was very very nervous, she would hide all the time and we had to sit her in a crate in the middle of the lounge to force her to socialise, she has since then improved a lot but is still very jumpy and nervous. She also has a problem with some other dogs, if another dog approaches her she instantly goes into panic mood, tail between the legs and hunckered down on the ground and if the dog continues to approach her she has been known to snap. Other times she will run to join other dogs with no rhyme or reason seemingly to which dogs she likes and which dogs she doesn't.
She is also a massive chewer, anything is fair game, shoes, children's toys, her bed, rubbish nothing is safe, we cannot even go out without it being inevitable that she we have destroyed something when we come back. We tried putting her in the crate but she destroyed that and got out to destroy the kitchen.
She also steals food up to the point of jumping onto my one year olds lap to eat the food off her plate, this has resulted in my daughter panicking whenever the dog walks into the room.
The other problem we have is she is constantly barking at my wife, going crazy and throwing herself at her, not aggressively but it doesn't stop it is constant when she sees my wife. She does to some extent listen to me but my wife can exert no control over her.
We have read everything we can find, sought the advice of dog behaviour experts and have followed there advice as much as is physically possible.
We have tried ignoring her behaviour, punishing her, everything we can think of or have been advised and nothing is working.
I am a soldier at a very busy unit, my working hours are completely unpredictable, I can go to work at 8 in the morning and not return until 2 in the morning which makes going to regular puppy/dog training classes impossible. My wife is three months pregnant and we have a 5 year old and a 1 year old and currently my wife is feeling rediculously stressed which is not helpful with a baby on the way. I am also due on a course for 7 months in November and as it stands there is no way that the dog can still be here when I leave.
We really don't know what to do, when we take her on walks she is the perfect dog, it is just at home she is impossible!
We are not new dog owners but we are running out of ideas and patience.
When we first got her she was very very nervous, she would hide all the time and we had to sit her in a crate in the middle of the lounge to force her to socialise, she has since then improved a lot but is still very jumpy and nervous. She also has a problem with some other dogs, if another dog approaches her she instantly goes into panic mood, tail between the legs and hunckered down on the ground and if the dog continues to approach her she has been known to snap. Other times she will run to join other dogs with no rhyme or reason seemingly to which dogs she likes and which dogs she doesn't.
She is also a massive chewer, anything is fair game, shoes, children's toys, her bed, rubbish nothing is safe, we cannot even go out without it being inevitable that she we have destroyed something when we come back. We tried putting her in the crate but she destroyed that and got out to destroy the kitchen.
She also steals food up to the point of jumping onto my one year olds lap to eat the food off her plate, this has resulted in my daughter panicking whenever the dog walks into the room.
The other problem we have is she is constantly barking at my wife, going crazy and throwing herself at her, not aggressively but it doesn't stop it is constant when she sees my wife. She does to some extent listen to me but my wife can exert no control over her.
We have read everything we can find, sought the advice of dog behaviour experts and have followed there advice as much as is physically possible.
We have tried ignoring her behaviour, punishing her, everything we can think of or have been advised and nothing is working.
I am a soldier at a very busy unit, my working hours are completely unpredictable, I can go to work at 8 in the morning and not return until 2 in the morning which makes going to regular puppy/dog training classes impossible. My wife is three months pregnant and we have a 5 year old and a 1 year old and currently my wife is feeling rediculously stressed which is not helpful with a baby on the way. I am also due on a course for 7 months in November and as it stands there is no way that the dog can still be here when I leave.
We really don't know what to do, when we take her on walks she is the perfect dog, it is just at home she is impossible!
She was walked to and from school every morning until she became too badly behaved outside the school gates as well as frequent runs with myself and walks with all of us on Salisbury plain which is right on our doorstep.
The amount of exercise doesn't seem to matter, I took her out once and ran her until she couldn't actually run anymore, ten minutes after getting home she was found chewing on the hoover
The amount of exercise doesn't seem to matter, I took her out once and ran her until she couldn't actually run anymore, ten minutes after getting home she was found chewing on the hoover
Cfnteabag said:
.........She also has a problem with some other dogs, if another dog approaches her she instantly goes into panic mood, tail between the legs and hunckered down on the ground and if the dog continues to approach her she has been known to snap...........
How much socialisation has she had? Sounds like she needs a lot more. How young was she when you got her and how much other dog interaction has she had since then?Cfnteabag said:
She is also a massive chewer, anything is fair game, ...........
Puppies chew. Bored puppies chew more.Cfnteabag said:
.............., sought the advice of dog behaviour experts and have followed there advice as much as is physically possible.......
That phrase could cover a multitude of "dog borstal" type things! 
Has anyone seen the dog, what was their advice, why couldn't you follow it all (if thats what you mean)Cfnteabag said:
......which makes going to regular puppy/dog training classes impossible........
Understandable, it sounds a bit hectic round your place, but I think this may be the root of the problem. You have a horrendous breed mix there! No wonder you have issues. How old was she when you got her? I'm wondering why she was so nervous when so young.
She needs A LOT of exercise. 2 hours off lead a day type of thing. Lots of training and persistent with it to work her brain and to accept the stubbornness of the hounđ in her! Teach her tricks etc but make it all fun, putting too much pressure on the dog can increase anxiety.
Has anyone discussed drug therapies with you for her? There are some very useful ones as long as used appropriately, should be through a vet and with a good behaviourist.
How long has a behaviourist committed to her. Sometimes weeks and months are needed to obtain progress.
Finally ensure there is no medical reason. We recently considered referring a young dog with behavioural issues for an MRI.
She needs A LOT of exercise. 2 hours off lead a day type of thing. Lots of training and persistent with it to work her brain and to accept the stubbornness of the hounđ in her! Teach her tricks etc but make it all fun, putting too much pressure on the dog can increase anxiety.
Has anyone discussed drug therapies with you for her? There are some very useful ones as long as used appropriately, should be through a vet and with a good behaviourist.
How long has a behaviourist committed to her. Sometimes weeks and months are needed to obtain progress.
Finally ensure there is no medical reason. We recently considered referring a young dog with behavioural issues for an MRI.
The place we got her from, we found out later, was investigated by the bbc among others for being a puppy farm, when we went there it all seemed fine when we were there, clean and tidy, dogs all seemed healthy and friendly, majority of dogs and puppies were running free in the farmyard, our dog, Rosie was stuck to the tail of her mother, a full jack Russell, who was extremely nervous, the dad, a shar pei x basset was a very friendly dog. The breeding was apparently a mistake.
When we went on holiday we used the services of a dog sitter who looked after our dogs in her own home. She is also a dog behaviourist and while we were away she also had a lot of problems with Rosie, we had discussed these issues with her beforehand we didn't leave her there blind! Rosie was displaying dominant behaviour but it was confused behaviour, she is also described as being very clever and desperate to please.
We also engaged another behaviourist who came in and spent the day with my wife and Rosie to assess her and give us some guidance. Her assessment was that Rosie was trying to force her place as alpha female. She gave us a lot of advice and has continued to since.
We do have another dog, a 7 year old pug x lassa apso( excuse the spelling) but we have never had any problem with him. Another part of the assessment was that while Rosie has a clear goal in mind and will keep trying till she finds a way to get it while he is very much take life as it comes and jut accept everything.
What I meant by following the advice as far as possible I meant that the main advice we had was to completely ignore her if she behaves badly, this being pretty hard to do when you return home to find the contents of the bin spread around the kitchen with a dog in the middle!
When we went on holiday we used the services of a dog sitter who looked after our dogs in her own home. She is also a dog behaviourist and while we were away she also had a lot of problems with Rosie, we had discussed these issues with her beforehand we didn't leave her there blind! Rosie was displaying dominant behaviour but it was confused behaviour, she is also described as being very clever and desperate to please.
We also engaged another behaviourist who came in and spent the day with my wife and Rosie to assess her and give us some guidance. Her assessment was that Rosie was trying to force her place as alpha female. She gave us a lot of advice and has continued to since.
We do have another dog, a 7 year old pug x lassa apso( excuse the spelling) but we have never had any problem with him. Another part of the assessment was that while Rosie has a clear goal in mind and will keep trying till she finds a way to get it while he is very much take life as it comes and jut accept everything.
What I meant by following the advice as far as possible I meant that the main advice we had was to completely ignore her if she behaves badly, this being pretty hard to do when you return home to find the contents of the bin spread around the kitchen with a dog in the middle!
We have tried various foods and have seen various results ranging from extreme hyperactivity to what we have found gives the best results as regards healthy stomach movements(!) and temperament. We have also completely cut out left overs etc as we were advised
It is the hardest thing knowing how to react to her as she obviously knows she has done something wrong and we know it is just attention grabbing. But it is just the effect it is having on my wife and kids.
I wouldn't like to be thought of as irresponsible, when we decided to get a puppy I was at my previous posting which was a strict 8-5 job with very little time away but then the army being the army has moved me here which is the exact opposite!
It is the hardest thing knowing how to react to her as she obviously knows she has done something wrong and we know it is just attention grabbing. But it is just the effect it is having on my wife and kids.
I wouldn't like to be thought of as irresponsible, when we decided to get a puppy I was at my previous posting which was a strict 8-5 job with very little time away but then the army being the army has moved me here which is the exact opposite!
I'm sorry to be blunt but it sounds like you/your family do not know how to train a dog. I'll take this quote as a prime example:
Now that she is older and you have allowed her to develop so many 'bad habits', she is going to be 10x more difficult to train, require 10x more patience and 10x more consistence. Something which it sounds like you/your family are unable to offer at the moment.
There is no magic fix.
When you mention not having the time to go to training classes, you have to remember that training classes are there to train the human, not the dog. If you feel like you want to keep this dog and have the ability to fix the issues, get yourself along to one class and observe (preferably a beginners class so you don't see dogs after weeks of work) or book a slot with a trainer one-on-one to run you through the basics. Then take what you have learned and apply it consistently and patiently.
Cfnteabag said:
When we first got her she was very very nervous, she would hide all the time and we had to sit her in a crate in the middle of the lounge to force her to socialise
A crate should be a safe place for a dog to go to to get away from everything. You then ripped that safety spot away from her by "forcing" her to socialise. You should have been using positive reinforcement from day 1.Now that she is older and you have allowed her to develop so many 'bad habits', she is going to be 10x more difficult to train, require 10x more patience and 10x more consistence. Something which it sounds like you/your family are unable to offer at the moment.
There is no magic fix.
When you mention not having the time to go to training classes, you have to remember that training classes are there to train the human, not the dog. If you feel like you want to keep this dog and have the ability to fix the issues, get yourself along to one class and observe (preferably a beginners class so you don't see dogs after weeks of work) or book a slot with a trainer one-on-one to run you through the basics. Then take what you have learned and apply it consistently and patiently.
I don't want to cause offence but it probably will.
I agree with the poster above that you sound like you have no idea what you are doing. The poor dog is probably so confused she doesn't know what to do.
But also to me it sounds like you have given up, I read your op last night and it just seemed like you were posting for someone to give you justification to re-home the dog. To be honest after reading your subsequent posts I honk it would probably be in be dogs best interest as your wife and children are going to be the full time carers of Rosie when you are away and this relationship obviously doesn't work.
You should have done your homework in the breed traits of the dog you were getting and been prepared to have a dog with all of them, to me it seems you thought all dogs would be like your first dog and now she isn't you don't want to deal with it even though most of her behaviours will be in reaction to you and your family.
I agree with the poster above that you sound like you have no idea what you are doing. The poor dog is probably so confused she doesn't know what to do.
But also to me it sounds like you have given up, I read your op last night and it just seemed like you were posting for someone to give you justification to re-home the dog. To be honest after reading your subsequent posts I honk it would probably be in be dogs best interest as your wife and children are going to be the full time carers of Rosie when you are away and this relationship obviously doesn't work.
You should have done your homework in the breed traits of the dog you were getting and been prepared to have a dog with all of them, to me it seems you thought all dogs would be like your first dog and now she isn't you don't want to deal with it even though most of her behaviours will be in reaction to you and your family.
Blunt is fine I can do blunt!
I don't profess to know what I am doing when it comes to training dogs, I am an army mechanic and my wife is a nurse, hence we have found professional help in the past, it was a dog trainer who told us to use the crate in the middle of the room to bring her out of herself.
Previous replies are correct, we could probably give her more exercise and more stimulation and we will be exploring this. I wouldn't say that we have given up on her but my wife is very close and gets very stressed, she feels like she can't go out anywhere.
And you are correct we should have looked more into the mix of breeds but we went to a breeders and fell in love with a puppy, not an unusual thing if not the most advised course of action.
We are not expecting a magic fix, we are well aware a dog is even harder to train than a child! I was just wondering if anyone in the PH community, particularly those with a background in dog training, could give any advice, and all the advice that has been given so far will be taken on board
I don't profess to know what I am doing when it comes to training dogs, I am an army mechanic and my wife is a nurse, hence we have found professional help in the past, it was a dog trainer who told us to use the crate in the middle of the room to bring her out of herself.
Previous replies are correct, we could probably give her more exercise and more stimulation and we will be exploring this. I wouldn't say that we have given up on her but my wife is very close and gets very stressed, she feels like she can't go out anywhere.
And you are correct we should have looked more into the mix of breeds but we went to a breeders and fell in love with a puppy, not an unusual thing if not the most advised course of action.
We are not expecting a magic fix, we are well aware a dog is even harder to train than a child! I was just wondering if anyone in the PH community, particularly those with a background in dog training, could give any advice, and all the advice that has been given so far will be taken on board
If you want to keep the dog my advice would be to find a dog training group and go there, and if I were you I'd let your wife be the one to take her as she is going to be the one who spends the most time with the dog. They will teach your wife how to control Rosie and how to interact with her. If your wife has lost confidence in dealing with Rosie then the dog will pick up on this and it will make her anxious. I know with my dogs that when we had problems the more confidence I got in dealing with him the better he behaved.
Also practice what you learn in class at home and even get your five year old to do it as well so that Rosie knows she comes last in the pack. If she is pinching food from plates don't let her in the room while you eat, we have a child gate on the kitchen door to lock our dogs in the kitchen but so they can still see/hear what is going on.
Also practice what you learn in class at home and even get your five year old to do it as well so that Rosie knows she comes last in the pack. If she is pinching food from plates don't let her in the room while you eat, we have a child gate on the kitchen door to lock our dogs in the kitchen but so they can still see/hear what is going on.
Mental stimulation and more mental stimulation.
Lots of people fall into the 'more exercise' routine but that's not the solution and never will be. All that happens is you get a fit dog that requires more exercise and so on.
Find something your dog likes and work on that, fetching, swimming etc. Fly ball has been the saviour of many a dog.
Lots of people fall into the 'more exercise' routine but that's not the solution and never will be. All that happens is you get a fit dog that requires more exercise and so on.
Find something your dog likes and work on that, fetching, swimming etc. Fly ball has been the saviour of many a dog.
Mental stimulation and more mental stimulation.
Lots of people fall into the 'more exercise' routine but that's not the solution and never will be. All that happens is you get a fit dog that requires more exercise and so on.
Find something your dog likes and work on that, fetching, swimming etc. Fly ball has been the saviour of many a dog.
Lots of people fall into the 'more exercise' routine but that's not the solution and never will be. All that happens is you get a fit dog that requires more exercise and so on.
Find something your dog likes and work on that, fetching, swimming etc. Fly ball has been the saviour of many a dog.
Crate training would be a fantastic first step.
Imagine having her be happy to go into it at night, happy to be in it when you're out, and happy to go to it at any time commanded.
To crate train her now from how you have described will be a very, very long process given her history with it. From her point of view the crate is a horrible, scary monster. You have to change that perception. That could mean starting with a treat every time she goes in the room with the crate. Then when that's ok, a treat every time she looks at the crate. Then a treat every time she moves towards the crate. Then in the crate. Then in the crate with the door closed for a second. Then in the crate with the door closed for a minute. Then 5 minutes. Then with you leaving the room for a second. Then a minute. Then 5 minutes. And so on and so forth. Until she is happy to go into the crate and lay there quietly for as long as you need (max 6-8 hours if absolutely necessary).
Once she is happily going in, add in a command for it every time she goes in. We use "bed".
If at any point in the process, you think she isn't "getting it", you are progressing too quickly and should go back to the step she is comfortable with.
As I said, this could take a very long time. 12 months+ is easily imaginable for a dog starting from her position.
Imagine having her be happy to go into it at night, happy to be in it when you're out, and happy to go to it at any time commanded.
To crate train her now from how you have described will be a very, very long process given her history with it. From her point of view the crate is a horrible, scary monster. You have to change that perception. That could mean starting with a treat every time she goes in the room with the crate. Then when that's ok, a treat every time she looks at the crate. Then a treat every time she moves towards the crate. Then in the crate. Then in the crate with the door closed for a second. Then in the crate with the door closed for a minute. Then 5 minutes. Then with you leaving the room for a second. Then a minute. Then 5 minutes. And so on and so forth. Until she is happy to go into the crate and lay there quietly for as long as you need (max 6-8 hours if absolutely necessary).
Once she is happily going in, add in a command for it every time she goes in. We use "bed".
If at any point in the process, you think she isn't "getting it", you are progressing too quickly and should go back to the step she is comfortable with.
As I said, this could take a very long time. 12 months+ is easily imaginable for a dog starting from her position.
She is not scared of the crate itself, it is used as her place of sleep at night in our room with us, when given the command 'box'( we had to differentiate between 'bed' which is the dog bed downstairs and the crate) she will run straight to it and lie down. It is only if she is left alone in the crate that she will destroy it to get out
Cfnteabag said:
She is not scared of the crate itself, it is used as her place of sleep at night in our room with us, when given the command 'box'( we had to differentiate between 'bed' which is the dog bed downstairs and the crate) she will run straight to it and lie down. It is only if she is left alone in the crate that she will destroy it to get out
Then that's the stage you have to go back to and build up from. Is she fine for a second? A minute? 5 minutes? Is she fine with you out of the room/house for 1 second? 5 seconds? 5 minutes.Wherever your baseline is, you have to build it up incrementally from there. You can't simply leave her for hours if you know that stresses her out.
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