PROBLEMS...

[eggrolyn1223]

Don't get mad at me for this post..well, fine be mad I don't care..I just want my questions answered.
Duck is in her crate most of the day because I'm at school.When I bring her out after school, she gets really excited and jumpy.Then she starts nipping me when I touch her, even when she's sitting.And when I'm doing my homework, I give her a pig ear so she'll be busy.How do I keep her busy without giving her the whole bag of pig ears???Cuz I want her with me but then she keeps doing stuff like jumping on my chair, so what can I do to keep her occupied?(Toys don't work for some reason)Or do I just need to get her some more excercise?And she hates her crate so how do I make her like it even if she's in there for more than half the day?

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, there's nobody in the house that WOULD take her out, because her crate is on the 4th floor and she'd(the cleaning person my grandma hired)have to carry Duck down.She's kind of afraid of dogs anyways...Duck is still on the nipping problem so she couldn't take her..and she's scared to go down the stairs.Duck stays in her crate from when I go to sleep to when I get up, and then when I leave for school at 6:45 to when I come bac from school at 6:00.I play with her for about 20 minutes in the backyard after school, and the other time she is with me she eats pig ears.But after she finishes I have to watch her and then I can't do my homework until I put her back in the crate.So I'm trying to find a way to make her stay in one place when she's inside.She's always really active even after a 20-minute play time.I'll make the questions clearer:
1.How do I make Duck like her crate?(Remember, she hates it now)
2.How do I keep her occupied when I'm not watching her?(Like when I'm doing homework, and I can only give her a pig ear a day...and she doesn't like any of her toys for some reason)
3.How do I stop her nipping?(Telling her NO isn't working, dropping the penny can isn't working either, and anything that has to do with buying stuff from pet shops isn't gonna work either cuz there just aren't things like that here)
4.What's a really good game for her that will tire her out really fast?(Not fetch, because she doesn't like it)
Oh yeah, I have to stop her nipping before I can play with her, she made my finger bleed two days ago.(IT REALLY HURTS!!)
*****Duck doesn't like praise from me or even petting...I don't think she even likes my attention.When I try to pet her she starts nipping and jumps around and when she's eating her pig ears and I touch her she runs some other place to chew..I dunno...she doesn't like attention very much...weird dog...maybe because she was bred from a Chinesey Lab.They don't have the retreiving drive and they don't like water very much.Dcuk doesn't seem to, anyways.The people here don't generraly care if their dog is bored.

[eggrolyn1223]

WHOOPS, that was me..

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

hmmmm.....maybe Duck hates her crate cuz she's in it all the time? :-? Maybe you could keep her in your room until you come back from school?(make sure she doesn't destroy though! Then you'd be in trouble! :wink: )Or, errrr....I'm not sure....don't have this problem at home cuz my mom hired a housemaid for us,so she keeps Rowie "safe&sound" until I come back from school...I'm at school from 7:00 till 3:00...so even if Rowie were in a crate, she wouldn't be bored.....she stays either inside, or out......she has a doggie door..... :wink:

Ok, about the nipping, maybe it's cuz she gets bored, then when you come back, she gets so exited, she can't help herself? Rowie has the same problem, but only if we are away tooooooo long, like days...but she never made us bleed, so I'm not sure what Duckie's prob could be....

6:45 am to 6:00 pm? That's a loooooong time for school!!! And for a puppy to be in a crate! :wink: I thought 3:00 was bad!!!!!!!!! :o Do you come home for lunch? If so, gulp it down quick, let Duck out of her crate, then play with her until you go back to school..... :wink:

Well, i'm not so good in dog behavior probs....maybe the others could help? Anyone? :)

Oh, just been hit by an idea.... maybe Duck runs away from you, because she's scared you'll put her in the crate again? When Rowie used to be put behind the gate when guests came, she used to sense it and run away! After that, whenever we were near the gate, and I tried to pet her, she used to think that I was going to put her behind the gate and run away! We don't put her behind the crate now cuz I told my family how she hated it and how they better stop, so we don't now. :wink:

Also(I know, I know) don't worry about Duckie too much, she's just a puppy, energetic, hyper, that's what a pup is all about! :lol: She'll settle down soon.......believe me, I know! :wink:

Good Luck! And keep us updated!!!! :D

[mouseatthebusstop]

If possible a walk when you come in from school. The nipping could be her adult teeth coming though try giving her a frozen carrot. the cold will help ease her gums :) how old is she now?

[gooeydog]

First you need to get her more used to going up/down stairs. That way you can get someone to take her out once for you while you're at school. Does she destroy things when left loose at home or while you're sleeping? If not, start letting her out of the crate while you leave for short amounts of time, and work up to longer times. If she would be allowed to sleep on your bed, you can hook a leash to her (only use a flat collar for this), and put the handle on your arm. This will keep her from getting out during the middle of the night without you knowing. If she's not allowed on furniture, a 6-10 ft leash will be long enough for her to sleep on the floor beside the bed. These suggestions are not a good idea if you are a heavy sleeper, and sleeping on the bed may not be good for dogs with dominance problems. If you can get her used to going up/down stairs, you could set up a run right outside your door (if you don't have a fence), and the lady could just walk her down and hook her to the run for a little while. This would give her a chance to "go" and to run of a little energy if she needs to.

Duck probably is getting so excited when you pet her that she starts mouthing you, and since she's gotten away with mouthing for a while now, she's started mouthing harder. There are several ways to deal with this. 1. You can "yelp" everytime she mouths you too hard... this supposedly is what the mother/siblings would do in the same situation. It works well in some cases.
2. You can ignore her when she starts nipping/mouthing. Just keep doing whatever else you were doing, and pretend that you're unaware of her presence. This method works well on most dogs, but it can take a while before you see any improvement.
3. You can give her "time outs" when she nips/mouths. When she mouths you, give a "marker", like saying "too bad", or "oops", then put her in her "time out" area. This can be either a crate, a room, or put her across the room in a sit/stay or down/stay. The "time outs" should be short, only about a minute or two. This method also works pretty well for most dogs.
4. You can redirect her onto a toy/tug when she starts mouthing/nipping. When she nips, say "no", and immediately offer her a toy/tug. When she takes the toy, praise. This method works well for dogs who like toys or have high drive, so I don't know how well it will works in your case.
* By "When she starts to mouth/nip", I mean the instant her teeth touch you skin. If you wait until she's been mouthing you for a while, you'll only confuse her.

She's probably running away from you when she has a chewy and you touch her because she thinks you're going to take it from her. Behavior like that isn't much of a problem right now, but can develop into food aggression if it progresses. The "trade game" works well to get some dogs used to you taking things from her/touching her when she's eating. Give her a chewy, a few minutes later, walk up with another chewy (of the same type), and "trade". Take her chewy, and give her the other one. this way she'll see that you walking up to her, doesn't mean she's going to loose her chewy. "Trade" her once every time she's got a chewy, until she's completely used to you taking her chewys from her. Another way to do this if she gets "attached" to one particular chewy and doesn't want the other one, is to simply take the one she has, praise her, and give it back again. Repeat this the same as the other method, until she's comfortable with you taking the chewy.

How do you make her like her crate? There are several ways to do this too (seems like there's always several ways for everything :roll: ). First way: just put her in there... she'll eventually get used to it. Second way: give her a treat/tons of praise every time you put her in the crate, and basically ignore her for a few minutes when you let her out. This makes going inthe crate seem like fun, whereas getting out doesn't seem like as much fun, because they get nothing. This works for some dogs, other like their freedom a bit too much. Third way: Start this on a weekend... Close the crate door. She's not allowed in there. Put her favorite treats/toys in there, but don't let her in. If she still doesn't seem overly interested in going in there, then you get in it. Go in the crate, sit down, and shut the door (note that this only works if you can fit in the crate :lol: ). Act like you're having a great time in there, and that outside of the crate is no fun at all compared to inside. (This sounds really boring, but you'll find things to do. Read a book, do homeworks, play video games, whatever.) She'll probably want to go in there, but don't let her in. Spend about a 1/2 hr at a time in there, a few times that day, and leave the "fun" toys/treats in there(with the door closed), then open the door later. She'll probably go right in. Don't let her take the toys/treats out of the crate, they are "crate toys", and stay in the crate. She'll probably figure out pretty quickly that the only time she gets those toys/treats is when she's in her crate.

Tiring her out... see if you can find anyone in your area with a friendly, playful dog, and set up a playtime for Duck and the other dog. How old is Duck? If she's over a year, you can run with her (under a year their joints aren't closed and they can be damaged), or have her run beside you on a bike. Long walks will tire her out. Obedience, or any "mind exercise" is very tiring on a dog, so you might want to do some work on that. You may find that as she gets older she'll play with toys more. 20 mins a day isn't enough for a young dog. You may find that she gets tired quickly if she young (I don't remember exactly how old she is), so you might have to break up the play into several different sessions.

[science_doc]

Great suggestions :) I love this site I'm always learning something new! I don't know what the rest of you will think about this suggestion, but it helped my dog adjust to the crate while I went to work. I have to say I used this on temporary basis and it's not a good idea for overweight dogs. Also I have to admit this idea was put in my head by a vet tech. I don't have that much experience yet.

When I was first adapting our 1 year old dog to a crate, which she really HATED (stray from the pound). I used to take a large Kong toy and put wet food and little pieces of dry food inside the kong and then put the toy in the freezer overnight. When I was ready to leave for work I would sneek the toy into the crate, then give the dog the command to get into the crate, "go to bed", in a really happy voice. BTW I had to work with treats for 2 months before she would go into the crate on command, before that I had to carry her over and place her in the crate, but that's another story. Anyway she would get so busy working the food out of the Kong she wouldn't even notice me leave. Before that trick she would bark and bark and bark until I came back, bad for the dog, bad for the neighboors. I do have to comment that I would come home for lunch and take her for walks and play and training about the 2 months, so getting someone else to help you would really help. Please let us know how things are going, sounds like a tough situation.

[eggrolyn1223]

My mom doesn't live with me, and my dad goes to work until 5, then goes to computer classes..Duck is too small right now to walk up and down the stairs...I think she'd fall and break her legs...nope, not taking the chance.She is 4 months old(about).Thanks for all the advice, but I gotta go to school now, can't talk anymore..BYE!! :(

[Dad4duchess]

Don't feel bad , I have the same problem as you right now :cry:

[eggrolyn1223]

I just had a LONG playtime/walk thing with Duck, but in the yard she was always running around me in circles, and then she'd jump and bite me! And then she'd crawl between my legs and lie down...should I praise her when she queits down and just ignore her when she's biting me???(It really hurts, and she almost ripped my shirt)Or should I hold her muzzle like rowie-the-pooh told me?Saying No doesn't do any good for her.

[Hobbit]

This is going to sound a wee bit hateful, but it's not meant to be.

First -- she is 4 months old, that is 16 wks, or approx. 120 days old. She has been in this world for ONLY 120 days! There is a whole exciting world out there --- smells, sounds, things to do and she is stuck in a crate for 16 hrs a day. SHE IS BORED AND FULL OF ENERGY! Nothing is going to "WORK" until she gets OUT OF THE CRATE more. She doesn't want to listen because she has her own agenda and that is to burn off some energy and do something, anything before it's crate time again.

Gooeydog and everyone else that have replied to your posts have had some really good, no GREAT, ideas and training technique's. It mostly boils down too......she is a baby, she needs MORE time to play and LESS time in the crate for an extended period of time. I know you dont' want to hear this, but babies take time, patience and sometimes MOST of your time, if not all of a person's time. If a person wasn't or isn't (or can't) willing to devote the time needed then....they shouldn't have a puppy. Yep, that was brutal --- I'm just thinking of the pup.

From your previous posts, it is apparent that your family are NOT dog people. Why did you get a puppy now (knowing that YOU would be the sole caretaker)? Never mind, that is none of my business and is borderline nasty on my part. I'm just looking at it from the puppy's point of view.

I assume your building doesn't have an elevator?

[cairnmom]

I can see that raising my pup is going to be a ton of work so I can sympathize with you! I was laid off work last week and can see that maybe it was a good thing in several aspects! Now I can spend a lot more time with him.....I was going to come home at lunch everyday so he would only be crated 4-5 hours at a time.

Can you find a way to get home in the middle of the day? Not sure how old you are but maybe you can come home in the middle of the day? School sure is long in Taiwan....or maybe you just have a long commute? 12 hours is a long time. Could you possibly get a doggie play pen? At least he would have more room to romp around. You could put paper down on one end to go potty on.

Jessica

[eggrolyn1223]

I know you guys aren't meaning to be mean, and I know your doing it for Duck...my dad "thinks: he is a dog person...I've often asked why he doesn't ever touch Duckie....he told me he's gonna wait until she's older and less active...I don't think that's a real reason...meaning he doesn't really care about dogs..and I WOULD give Duck away to a BETTER home if there WAS a better home, but since there aren't, she's stuck with me.After I posted on the last one, I started trying to get her to calm down.I put her on a DOWN, and then tried to give her a treat...she tried grabbing, I said NO, didn't let her have it, and kept moving my hand when she grabbed...and she started getting the idea that she was supposed to "take" it nicely, not GRAB.So that's probably out of the way ...for now, at least.Nipping is a little less, since I ignored her when she nipped me, and gave her attention when she was calm.I did this thing where I gave her a big treat and started petting her, so it's like she's getting rewarded for being still while being petted...and I played with her for about 30 minutes in the yard...ran around in circles....kinda weared her out....gave her a pig ear....then training...then I just sat on the floor with her and petted her...she was all nice and quiet, lying down and all..TOMMORROW is FRIDAY!!!!!That means LOTS more time for playing with her...I already planned what to do tommorow:
First thing when I get back from school:play with her/walk for 20 minutes.
Then, feed .Then, back to the yard to pee and poo and a little more playtime.Then, 10 minutes training time(just reviewing all the stuff:sit, stay, come, down, beg, jump, and a new one- crawl).Then she'll be in the livingroom with me when I'm using the computer and doing homework.
Saturday:Breakfast.BIG walk in the park first thing in the morning.Then, when she's all tired out, to the pet store for a bigger crate(she can barely fit through the doorway now), food, treats, and all that stuff.When we get home, a little playtime, then some crate training.After that, LUNCH.potty break.playtime.10-minute training.computer-study time(for me), and plain resting time for Duck.After that, potty break, playtime, rest, postty break, playtime, DINNER, potty break, playtime.WOW, the day's OVER.well, maybe not THAT fast.
Sunday:something similar to Sat., except my friends are coming over to play basketball and Duck will be out in the yard with us(I'll be careful she won't get hit by the ball :wink: )
ANd then, MONDAY.AGAIN. :roll: :(

[eggrolyn1223]

Well, for what cairnmom said:
we were with the paper thing when Duck was really small, but then the Lab-size thing came in mind..Maybe she would stay in the bathroom...I was going to let her stay in the yard but since it's part garage, that WOULD NOT be okay.The door would open, Duck OUT, door close, DUck byebye. :( NEVER.Unless we could find a pen thing and fence the grass part for her.But then the cats would come and bully her.They are MEAN!!Yes, that is a long time to go to school, but it's life here.Actually, I'm counted as a pretty lucky one, since most of my friends have after-school classes, and they stay from after school till 9 or 11 PM.Then they come home and do hw and study...what a life.American students take their lives for granted....you guys would die if you came here..going home at 3:30 is just heaven-on-earth. :wink: :)

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

going home at 3:30 is just heaven-on-earth.

You got that right! We are not all Americans though! Hey, I got an idea, why don't you come over to OUR school! Rowie and Duckie could play toghether, and when we come back from school, Duck will be tired out, AND you will have more play time with her,(and do homework!) AND Rowie will be tired out, and I will have more time to my-self!! :lol: LOL!

:oops:oooops off topic sorry...

[gooeydog]

Do you have a carrier you can put her in so someone can carry her down the steps and outside for a break? 12 hrs is a long time for a young pup to be crated, and as she gets into adolesence, she's going to have even more energy. Is she "soiling" he crate, or is she holding it until you get home? At 4 months old, she should be getting big enough to negotiate the stairs. Put a leash on her (use a flat collar, not a "training" collar of any kind), and let her try it. Go at her pace, and if she starts going too fast or losing her balance, use the leash to steady her. Try to find someplace with just a couple steps at first, and work your way up to a full flight of steps, then two, then three, then four. If you really can't find some way to get her outside for a break during the day, look into getting an ex-pen for her in your room. They're bigger than most crates, so she'd have more room to play/exercise. If there's not room in your room, and you have a yard, you can buy/make pens. I thnk a lot come in 10' x 10' (about 3m x 3m), and have a roof and a door. They can be padlocked, and she'd still have more space/stimulus than in the crate.
Saying "no" isn't going to work to stop nipping, because that's just giving her the attention she wants. In effect, you're rewarding her for nipping you. Grabbing a dog by it's muzzle can do any of several things for a nipping dog... it can stop the dog from nipping. It can make a nervous dog even more nervous or handshy. It can result in a person losing a piece of their face. It all depends on the dog and the way it views its owner.

[eggrolyn1223]

She's still too small to go down..but she can go up..only 2-3 steps.She just runs up realy fast and sometimes trips..They don't sell those pens here...

[Guest Anonymous]

I don't like to crate my dogs but when I am in school Ricochet must go on one of them dog trolley things. He is a fence climber. He jumps right over our 4 foot fence :o and I don't think he is done growing yet he is gonna be 7 months the end of this month and is 22" tall. :o Soon he will be jumping 6 foot fences :o School starts here at 8:20 and gets out at 2:45 and we get a 45 minute lunch break. So he isn't on one that long. I would rather him be on it than hit by a car or taken to this dog shelter.

[Guest Anonymous]

I think that your dad really should take more of an active roll with the pup. If he's not taking more time to play with her and train then she's only going to listen to you and not him. Then what's going to happen when he's home with the pup alone. I think that the puppy should be out of her crate as long as someone is home. There is no reason for them to be crated when someone is there to supervise them. My dogs are also crated while I am at work, but we come home for lunch and they are let out to eat and play. Once we come home at 4:30 they are out of there crates until we go to work the next morning. You might want to buy a doggie bed and put it on the floor next to your bed so she doesn't have to be in her crate all night. Keep a couple toys near her, she'll learn to like them!! And when she tries to nip at you hold her muzzle and say no. Look her directly in the eyes when you do this. When she looks away, then she understands that she did something wrong. My dog Rocky used to try and nip at our ankles when we would walk him. Someone told us to use this method and after we did this with him a few times, he never nipped again. Give it a try, but be persistent. As soon as she nips grab her muzzle and say no. Don't stop or let go until she looks away from you. Give us and update on Duck's progress! Good Luck and be patient.

[corgilady]

Egg, I have an idea. What if you took 2 crates and put them together? Then at least your dog would have a little more room to move around. Good luck! And your right -- American kids would DIE if they had your schedule! My students brag to me when they have practiced their music for 15 MINUTES!!! :o I am not impressed!