Doggy Downtime

Huckabees

Our 4-month-old, 5-lb schnoodle Fezziwig is really fitting in nicely as a member of our family. To help with housebreaking and staying out of trouble, we keep her in an exercise pen when we can't watch her and she is crated at night.

My concern is this: When she is outside her pen, she is moving nonstop - she doesn't sit down or leave the cats alone or have any interest in relaxing. Yet as soon as we put her in her pen she is more than eager to go right to her bed and lie down for a nap! She walks at least 30 minutes in the morning and has a wrestling match with one of our cats each day so I feel like she gets enough exercise.

Is this normal behavior for a puppy?

pawzaddict

She is probably acting that way 1 because she needs more exercise or mind stimulation (training) and 2 because she is not being exposed to these things while put in her pen...its like taking a kid to a playground...they are going to play and play and play because they feel that the time out of the house at the playground is just that...playtime. How often is she out of her pen? Do you do any training and games with her?

Also she is 4 months old and a schnauzer/poodle mix She is just a young pup

Huckabees

Currently she gets about 4 hours a day outside the pen. Right now it is a big production because when she's out of her pen she terrorizes our older dog Janie (age 11 years) and our cats, so we have to put everyone away to give Fezziwig free time. Her behavior toward Janie is so bad (jumping on her, biting her tail) that Janie has developed anxiety problems (soiling the house, and if we don't let her hide under the bed 22+ hours a day she starts shaking and barking). We're trying some techniques we learned from "It's Me Or The Dog" like removing her from the room for 5 minutes when she jumps on Janie and giving her treats when she looks at Janie and doesn't react. Other than that, they have to be separated. Another reason we don't give her more roaming time is because she pees in the house, and she often does it without warning (no sniffing or circling). She barks to get out of the pen to go outside, but in the house she has no signals. It's really frustrating.

Training has been a tremendous challenge. Fezziwig is a smart dog but she's stubborn, easily distracted, and impulsive. She knows how to sit but that's about it, and unless she knows she's getting a treat out of the deal, she won't do anything we ask her to do. Also she will not focus on me or my husband when we are out of the house. Still, we work for about 15 minutes a day on reinforcing "sit" and making her wait nicely for us to let her out of the pen instead of charging the door but mostly she just does a lot of jumping. It's like we're starting all over every day though. I've never trained a dog before so I feel like my timing might be off and I might be inhibiting her learning. She starts puppy kindergarten tomorrow so hopefully my husband and I can learn how to do this better and engage her more fully.

I have never had a puppy before and I feel like I'm doing everything wrong. I don't want to mess this dog up and turn her into a bigger bully than she already is but I feel so discouraged. I'm definitely not a lazy owner either but I don't have a whole lot of energy since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. What other advice can you give me?

pawzaddict

Oh no...this is NOT enough time out of a pen! She needs waaaaaay more time out!

You need to supervise more. Have her leashed to you at all times. She really cannot teach herself you need to teach her. It takes time and you really just need to supervise non stop.

Has she ever been punished for going potty?

She is a young puppy and needs patience and more than 15 mins a day just to be let out of the pen. You really need to play with her to get her energy down then try training. I suggest you watch "kikopups" on youtube for tips on training with treats and check out the threads on this as well.

I think longer than 4 hours out of her pen is needed. If this is really causing your older dog to become stressed and anxious you may need to find a new home for the puppy

Huckabees

THANK YOU for the advice. Kikopup's videos and some other dog training videos on Youtube helped me teach Fezziwig to go to her bed and lie down on command today, and she actually had a nap outside her pen!

Fezziwig spent 6 hours in a row outside her pen. First I let her out to pee and then wore her out playing Fetch before we worked on training to lie down. Tethering her to me not only kept her from wandering off but also kept her focused and controlled her desire to run after all the cats. Even Janie spent some time in the family room with us (I had to sort of force her to stay by enticing her with a bully stick and locking her in with us, but she eventually laid down and relaxed with it).

I feel a lot better knowing she is trainable and not just an uncontrollable menace. What a relief!

pawzaddict

YAY!!!! If she learned that in 1 day I think you got a smart cookie on your hands!!! Ty for not taking my advice as a personal attack, I mean well hopefully you can increase her time out of her pen soon enough with the play time to wear her out and training
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Huckabees

P.S. No, we have never punished her for pottying in the house. When we see her actively going (which is rare), we say "UH OH! OUTSIDE!" and then she stops, we walk her to the front door and bring her out, and she finishes outside.

Huckabees

Hooray! BTW I keep forgetting that because she's 5lb her bladder is super teensy and that she can't hold it for longer than a couple of hours like our older dog can. We're both learning. (;