Archive for the ‘behavior’ Category
Training classes offered
I have been working with the new owner of a doggy day care facility in Geneva, IL – The Water Bowl, on getting together a list of classes I will be teaching there. If any of you are interested, check out my training page.
And if you don’t find the class you need, let me know! We can see what we can do.
Dealing with dog Separation Anxiety
Here is a note I received from Chloe‘s new family, followed by my response to their separation anxiety issue:
My parents are the proud adoptive parents of Chloe! I am their daughter and live 5 blocks away and I love Chloe too! She has taken to my mom and dad easily. They are active seniors who stay home a lot. I am at their house often. Chloe is doing well and is adjusting quite well to her new home. She is a wonderful dog!!!!! Very smart!
She has only been with them for 4 days. During that time, the only thing we may need some advice on is helping her to separate when my parents leave the house together to go out for breakfast. They are only gone a couple of hours once a week. She has the run of the house. Chloe whines and howls when they are gone. She is not destructive in any way. Is there any way we can help her through this?
Roxane
Roxane,
Thank you SO much for the update on Chloe! I know many of my readers will be thrilled to hear that she is doing well in your parents’ home. I became really attached to her and would have kept her had my home and heart not been full already, so your words were a comfort to me.
Chloe has been through an incredible amount of change in the past 4 months. She was taken from a hoarders’ home with her 7, one-month old puppies and placed in a shelter for a couple of days. Then she was transported from southern IL to my home where she lived with her pups for another month. On a single day her pups all went to their new homes and was taken to her new (more…)
Update on puppy Rubi
This is from another of Willow‘s crew – puppy Rubi‘s family. Thank you so much for the update!! I love to hear how well she is doing…it seems that Willow’s pups are really smart!!
Sweet Rubi is getting so big. Her legs are growing and growing. People are shocked to find out how young she is because she’s so big. I make it a point to tell people that she’s a rescue. They’re shocked and tell me what a beautiful dog she it. Lets rescue more!!! 🙂 Rubi loves to go on walks and loves to play in the yard. She knows “sit”, “down” and “lets go” (instead of “come here”). She’s a really smart dog and we’re so proud of her.
She also loves her naps. She makes these grunting sounds when she lays down and goes to sleep. So cute. Oh, and those “puppy dog” eyes are to die for.
She does like to chew, chew, chew and eat whatever she can pick up. The bitter apple spray seems to be working mostly. Her 9-week vet visit went great and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. She’s still learning all the sounds and isn’t so sure about other dogs. We are working on that. She loves kids and still needs to learn that her teeth are sharp and they hurt.
She now sleeps through the night with no accidents and we hope this continues. She loves to eat and eats way to fast. We got this ball to put in her bowl and that has slowed her down about 20 seconds. We tried the bowl that has little compartments, but she figured out how to flip that over and spill the food all over. Any tips would be great for that. We’re really lucky to have such a well-behaved puppy and a quick learner. She’s our little cuddly lap dog…soon to be big lap dog.
I’ve attached a few pictures. There’s so many to choose from.
E- and D-
A little puppy Sugar
Here we have a note on puppy Sugar from Willow‘s group…
Sugar is doing great, she plays real hard and then crashes for a couple hours. She has had a few accidents in the house and I don’t know if she knows how to let me know when she needs to go potty. I’ve been reading on your website about cleaning with the natures cure (actually the product is Natures Miracle …and it is!) and I will try that, because she definitely goes to the same spots where she went before. I have a silly question that maybe you can help with. She loves to go out for a walk on the leash but it takes us an hour just to go down one block because she stops and stiffs and trys to eat flowers, plants and other things she shouldn’t. How do we get her away form these things, I don’t want to pull her so I usually run a little to distract her, if you have any tips that would be great.
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I am so happy things continue to go well! Yea!!
You know, some people have found that putting a bell or a small wind chime on the door for the dog to ring works…you teach them to ring it by making sure it is at “nose” level and then you ring it every time you take her out. Within about 2 weeks she will get the hang of it and ring it when she wants to go! Then you must always let her out when she rings, even if she was just out, just so she makes the connection. Then after a few weeks of that you can be sure she understands it. It is a pretty cool way to have your dog let you know she needs to potty without barking at you.
About the walking…puppies are like kids – they need to explore to understand their world. This exploration also helps their brains develop, so don’t be so quick to shut this down. Try to make some time for exploring and some time for walking. I find it a good idea to get out the door in a controlled fashion (dog at your side, not out in front of you) and keep that position for the first 10 minutes of the walk. Then give the command, “go sniff” and let her leash out to the full length so she can explore. Then after a few minutes of that tell her, “Let’s go, in close” and reel her in and start walking again for another 10 minutes, and then repeat. You will find that she gets the hang of those command words eventually. Like all training, it is all about the consistency and repetitions.
Let me know how this works out!
-Kristin
Progress report on Jessa
Here is a follow up note and progress report on Jessa as reported in a post a few days ago. Looks like things are looking up for them!
Yes, we are using Nature’s Miracle to clean all of her accidents and it definitely does work. The only spot she repeatedly pees in is by the door through which we go outside to potty, and those–I believe–are the “true” accidents…the times when she really was trying to tell us she needed to go but we missed the cues. Otherwise, she’s not a repeat offender in any one spot. I doused the couch with Nature’s Miracle after the incident and then took the cushion covers to the dry cleaners (which I’d been planning on doing anyway, cuz they were kind of stinky), and both seem to have done the trick.
So far this week, she’s doing terrific!! She has been really well-behaved, save a few crazy moments. She’s responding incredibly well to being gated in the hallway instead of crated. Even our dog walker noted a change in her happiness level. So that’s been good. And she has had only ONE accident. Yesterday, my husband had to work, so it was a normal day of alone time until the dog walker and then again until I came home from work. She seemed to be okay in the hallway, but it was pouring rain when the dog walker came, and Jessa refused to make outside. Our dogwalker left us a note saying she tried her best, but Jess wouldn’t go. So when I came home there was a dried puddle by the “going out” door. So I silently cleaned it and took her right out. I wasn’t upset at all, because I knew it wasn’t her fault. We had a nice walk and a fun romp at the dog park and she was great the rest of the night.
I’m purchasing the Easy Walk Harness today, then, as I’ve only heard great things about it, and I think that’s really the second key thing we need to work on. She’s gotten really good, though, with sitting before we walk out the door—she even did it without any prompting yesterday (only once, but still…it’s a start!!)—and she’s REALLY good about waiting on the steps for me to say it’s okay to run up or down. So it’s just the tugging that is the necessary correction to make.
All in all, things are on the up and up. She overall seems much happier and more fulfilled. We’ll see how she does next week when it’s a full work/school week for me and J- and she’ll be on a regular schedule.
I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again for all your help and advice!!!!!
Yea! Success! Now just keep up the good work. Expect progress to improve, take a step back, and improve again as you find the perfect “recipe” for success. But it seems clear that you’ve gotten a handle on most of the frustrating problems and for that I am so happy. Keep me posted!
Willow is having trouble adjusting
I received a note from the family who adopted Willow and is having some trouble adjusting. Here is her note and my response:
I need some guidance on some issues with Willow. We have some major potty training issues. I have been walking her on a leash outside to go to the bathroom. I try to take her out 6-8 times per day and usually she goes, but she is still peeing in the house. I have limited her to the main floor, but she continually pees in the living room. Even outside it is hard to get her to go sometimes.
She hates the rain and doesn’t want to go. She’s also still scared of the wind and strange noises. She’s generally very skittish about everything. She’s still scared to death of my husband. He’s trying very hard to ignore her and just puts his hand out for her to sniff him. Today we tried putting peanut butter on his finger and she actually licked him for quite a while. We’re going to try that for a while.
She’s also chewing up a storm. We have toys for her but she loves to chew anything in sight. I try to exercise her outside, but she doesn’t want to play fetch and I have some foot problems and can’t run after her. She is jumping on the kids and tends to “clothesline” them with her outside leash so they are somewhat scared of her. Any suggestions on these issues would be greatly appreciated. We just love Willow to death and she is very attached to me and the kids, but we need to make some progress on these issues. I am looking into a training class. Thanks so much!
I’m gong to try to answer all your questions, there are a lot here! But first of all I’m glad you are in love with her. She is a sweetie and I think once you get through this all you will all be fine. But this will take time – remember to think in terms of months rather than weeks. Most of the rescue dogs I have had take a full year until they feel really “part of the family”
First of all, have you made sure Willow doesn’t have a bladder infection? Also, did her stool check come back clean? I would definitely rule out any physical cause for the accidents. A few of the puppies still tested positive for coccidia and whipworm at their 9 week check ups so it is likely she may still be infected, as she was the one who came with those parasites.
