I'm a bad dog owner!!!

ricomoss

...good thing my wife is a good one.

It's been almost 2 weeks and we're still working with Neela. Unfortunately my wife and I got sick this week so it's been difficult for us to keep up with her. I really, really hate having to keep her from visiting where other dogs go until she gets her shots. I want to take her down to the greenway and run and run and run until her little butt is so tired she'll sleep for a week. But alas, we must try and burn her energy in other ways.

I've taught her how to climb stairs. I'll run to the top and have her climb them. Then I'll run to the bottom and have her come down. This is a fantastic way for her to burn energy and get tired. I fear this will soon stop working as she gets larger...it'll start becoming far more difficult for me than her. haha

I have, on several occasions, hurt her. Totally by accident, but she has yelped nonetheless. I feel really bad when it happens but often I have no idea what happened! She's sitting on the couch...then *YELP* she's on the floor. What the hell just happened?

I've been eating dinner and feel needles penetrating into my toe. My natural reaction is to kick like Pele. Of course she yelps because I just cracked her in the dome. This one she is going to have to learn the hard way. I get bit and I drop bombs. It's a reactive instinct and it's not going to change.

My wife and I try and keep her up until 9:30 every night but when it's around 8:30 she wants to sleep. So, we play a game of keeping her awake for the next hour. It usually involves carrying her around and forcing her to climb on us. I'll lay on the floor and put her on my stomach and keep her from getting off which forces her to balance herself. Sometimes, while trying to keep her awake I pick her up from a laying position to her feet and she will yelp. Is she just scared? Did she actually get hurt? I can't imagine what could be wrong. That thing is fragile! My cats fall from a 15ft balcony all the time, land on their feet, shrug it off and go back up stairs to get on the balcony again.

I knew it was going to be difficult raising a puppy and thank god my wife is helping. Having been around cats all my life I realize dogs are so much more difficult. Anyone who has more than 1 dog is a trooper. Anyone who decides to have children must be outside their own mind!

It's difficult for me to train her too because I can't see an ounce of intelligence in her face. We work on sitting, walking with a leash, biting and getting in and out of her kennel. It's all a blank stare...

With my cats I see the intelligence. Their body language tells me so much about what they are figuring out, what they are keeping an eye on and what bothers them. The dog...nothing - just a blank stare of stupidity. I really don't like it. A lot of it has to do with learning how a dog works, I know this, but I'm really having a hard time.

I'm not going to give up on her. With the proper training and patience I know she can become an awesome dog. I've just been getting a bit overwhelmed.

fawkese1

well, have you ever watched a movie in a foreign language, without the subtitles? you have a far better chance of understanding what is going on then a completely different species, who is still just an infant btw, does of figuring out what is going on in your world... i totally understand what you are feeling, but try to take deep breaths and focus on small accomplishments, it takes quite a while to train a dog, but if you consistently use positive methods, and take baby steps, you will eventually find yourself and the dog communicating much better...
as far as the biting your toes kind of thing, she is trying to engage you in play. not trying to lecture you, but imo it is really unfair to expect her just to figure this out, you could very seriously injure and possibly kill a puppy by what you are describing, and tho i also understand the reaction thing (lol, ask my cat after he pounces me at 4am!) it is your responsibility to be aware of her, especially now, if you cannot keep an eye out for her then perhaps it would be safer to kennel her during those times? otherwise, try to redirect her playful energy to toys, before she nips you...
dogs yelp from pain or fear, so you are either hurting her or scaring her, my suspicion is that you are scaring her. not many dogs actually like to be picked up like this... maybe instead of trying to keep her awake this way, you could try to engage her in a toy? or maybe you could give her a short nap when you are eating dinner then try to get her to play a bit after, she'll probably stay up a bit later then...
as far as the training is going, what are you doing to teach each of these things to her? for example, how are you teaching her not to bite? to sit? to go in and out of her kennel? what are you using to motivate her? how are you letting her know when she has got it right? if you break down your training methods/process, i'm sure that lots of us could give you some good tips again, put yourself in a foreign place, where the creatures don't speak the same language as you do (not even the same body language) and think about how hard it would be for you to figure it out... make sure that you are breaking things down for her, try to look for teeny little steps in the right direction (like when you play hot and cold, getting warmer...)
i would start looking for a puppy class ASAP... this could really help you out and neela too!

i don't think you are a bad dog owner... a bad dog owner wouldn't even be concerned... i think you are an inexperienced one tho, and even as an experienced dog person, it is sometimes overwhelming... puppies are a lot of work (like kids!) i really recommend training classes for your situation, that way you will have a pro showing you how to do stuff and helping you out step by step, i would also recommend looking into some dog sports in your area, if you think she has a lot of energy now, just wait a couple of months... dog sports are a good way to burn that energy off... otherwise, flirtpoles frisbee, fetch, jogging (you have to be careful how much impact you put on growing bones ) and biking are all good ways to help your dog to get a good work out.... anyway, hang in there! you have stuff to learn, and so does little neela... you two can learn together... and remember, we're here if you have questions...

mydoggy

really like your post

unintentional training...

of course, you said you know cats better, but let talk about dogs body language after a year from now?

the great thing is that you have your wife with you and everything will be ok with your dog. Every day youll learn more and more about dogs...

Criosphynx

god I remember those days...I stepped on Chili so many times I finally got a cat bell and I haven't since.

as far as picking her up... Are you just lifting under the armpits? Chili would yelp when I did this too, I think it stretches the skin just a tad to much and it hurts, try lifting with one hand on the chest and one in the crotch area and see if she still yelps. If so, som'thing might be scaring her


have you looked into clicker training? All puppies are sort of "blank stares" until you start engaging their minds! Heres a vid of Chili @ ten weeks old
YouTube - 10 week old puppy doing tricks

I had been training only about a week here. They really are capable of all the cognitive things you see adults do, at a really young age. @ 3.5 months he had som'thing like ten cued behaviors he could do with distractions around!.

Maybe start with som'thing simple like a spin or a touch...their brains are forming still, so you can actually make your puppy SMARTER at this age by training him.

ricomoss

I know, and that's why I feel bad about it. I would never intentionally hurt her. This particular incident she bit into a sore on my foot and I didn't even have a cognitive reaction...I just drew back in pain and she happened to be in the way. The good news is she hasn't bitten me since - not once. So, I guess she kinda figured that one out. haha

I know she'll grow out of this soon but right now she seems to play for about 90 minutes then sleep for about 45 minutes. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (potty breaks in between)

The problem is that she starts getting 'done for the night' around 8:30. Well, we don't want her going to sleep that early because she'll be waking us up at 2am needing to do some business and wanting to play. We've found if we can stretch it out to about 9:30 before she goes down we can get ready for bed and get at least 6 or 7 hours of sleep before she wakes up. Seriously, that last hour nets us an extra 3 or 4 hours of sleep!

I can't engage her with toys during that hour. She is completely uninterested in anything but sleeping. The only way to keep her 'engaged' is by forcing her to stay standing.

We've talked to the vet about it and are told we are doing very well about how we train her. We use key words for specific actions (sit, bite, etc) and reward her with a mixture of praise and treats. We don't always treat for when she eliminates (mookie) but always treat when she sits.

When she bites on something she's not supposed to we say "bite", pull her away from what she was biting on and put a toy in her mouth. Then we praise her for chewing on the toy.

Since we don't really take her anywhere just yet the potential leash problems haven't arose. We leash her when she goes outside to mookie and try and leave the leash on sometimes when she's in the house so that she's used to it. We may leash her to a chair while we are making food or cleaning something so she doesn't get in the way or wander off.

I know the methods will work but, like I said, I have no experience with dogs and can't see improvement because I don't know what to look for.

Our vet talked to us a bit about this too. There are a few she recommended in the area that we are going to look into. The problem is that she still doesn't have all her shots so we can't really take her out and about too much yet.

Ultimately I'd love to get her the good citizen thing but I'm not sure we'll have the time for that kind of training.

I try not to lift her this way...but I'll often rearrange her this way. Does that make sense? If I pick her up I usually get a grip on her mid-section and lift straight up to where she's resting like a monorail on my forearm. Sometimes she gets in awkward positions and I have to rearrange her before picking her up. This is usually when I'll try and get a grip under the armpits...not to pick her up but just to turn her around a bit.

The problem isn't that she has too much energy it's that I can't take her out anywhere to help her burn it off. Once she gets the 12 week shots I think things will be a lot easier in this department. My wife and I are pretty active and it's depressing being cooped up in the house all the time. We'd like to go out for a run but she can't do that yet.

Yes, and I thank all of you. This place is great for me to get advice since I am a complete puppy noob.

fawkese1

i hope so...

this makes sense, totally, what i mean is more like keeping her awake longer earlier in the day then allowing her to nap longer around dinner time, if that makes sense, so lets say she falls asleep around 530-6ish, try to keep her awake then... stretch out that time frame then give her a nap during your dinner time and when she wakes up again, it may be easier to keep her up...

not to beat a dead horse or anything, but clicker training, done right, makes this process go by much much faster, it really shortens the time that it takes for the dog to figure out what you want....

re-directing is good this will take a while tho...


look for very small improvements... for example, every time she chooses to play with a toy instead of something that you don't want her to play with, that is an improvement
i *think* that puppy classes are ok after the second round... not positive, but all the puppies have to be vaccinated anyway... you can take the dog out a bit before they get the third round, but you need to avoid areas with lots of dog traffic, it is ok to take them places to meet people tho... if you have any friends with dogs that are UTD on shots and well mannered, you can try to arrange some play time for her with them... otherwise, it is really important that she meet and has a good experience with lots of different people...

lol, yeah, i understand that, i'm just saying that her energy level will increase quite a bit as she gets older and is able to stay awake longer, etc... how old is she now? sorry, can't remember, but you can't have much longer to wait? anyway, hopefully you can survive until then (lol, i think you'll be ok tho)
i'm glad that we could help you out...