[amarendis]

Hello, I recently found a dog when I was walking in the park. I put up flyers, talked to the people who ran the park, put up and thoroughly searched the internet for her parents. No one has gotten back to me.
So, being a sucker for animals of all kind, I decided if no one calls, I'll take her in.
She appears to be about 3-4 months old and a pit bull-boxer mix.

My problem is her attitude. She gets super nippy, even when told 'no' firmly, or if she persists past my patience level (I am a patient person), I walk away and ignore her for a minute before resuming what we were doing. I have given her herbal ice cubes, frozen towels, and various chew toys, but she just wants to chew on hands.
When I'm home, she never has any accidents in the house - but if she's home with my boyfriend, she has 1-2 accidents in the house. And she can't handle being alone if she's awake. If we put her down in our bedroom (where she sleeps at night, and is perfectly fine) she howls and whines and barks. She even scratches at the door.
I'm looking into obedience school, but haven't found one my schedule allows me to attend as of yet. We go on log walks every morning, and I try to take her for one when I get home from work - but she's very paranoid once it's dark and only wants to go home. I think it was because she was abandoned
Does anyone have any suggestions? This is the second dog I've ever had and am at a loss of what to do. I try to be patient and work with her, but she terrorizes the other people I live with as well as the older pharaoh hound that we live with.

 

[Larkspur]

She's not yours yet, so don't get too attached. It is illegal to keep a dog that you find without properly going about attempting to find its owners. This includes visiting a vet to scan for a microchip and calling or visiting shelters, animal control, the humane society, etc. and asking about any missing dog reports that may fit. Different areas have different probationary laws. There is a legal holding period in which the dog remains in custody for the original owner while all stops are pulled to find them. At the end of that time, the dog then is allowed to be legally adopted.

1. Take her to the vet and scan for a chip.

2. Call or visit your local animal organizations and ask about reports.

3. Consider surrendering her to Animal Services for the holding period (usually, you legally have to do this). You can always ask them to call you first if the period is up so you have first rights of adoption.

4. Any flyers or online ads you post should not have any identifying information on them aside from sex, size, area found, and possible breed. No photos, no specific descriptors. Fake "owners" can just call up and say that the dog is theirs. Anybody who calls should be able to describe their own dog to you.

 

[Sha]

I'm going to suggest my normal thing... check out Before You Get Your Puppy and After You Get Your Puppy by Dr Ian Dunbar. I'm on mobile currently, so I can't link, but if you go to the downloads section of Dog Star Daily, you'll find both for free.

Specifically in regards to the nipping, most folks seem to have the most luck with immediately redirecting to a toy, and if that doesn't work, giving the pup a "time out" to calm down. Not giving attention when she's nippy is also a good plan, but saying no really doesn't mean anything to her.

Good luck!

 

[amarendis]

I immediately took her to a vet after finding her and unfortunately no microchip.
I have also contacted the animal services in my area alerting them of her presence, as well as the park I found her at.
I removed the collar and didn't say her gender on the signs, so that if anyone contacted me I would have questions to ask.
The only reason I haven't taken her to animal services yet is because pit bulls are illegal in the area I found her - as well as the neighborhood being notorious for dogs being dropped off at.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Sha]

Also, if you're doing long walks and lots of training, she might actually be over-tired and over-simulated. I'm no expert, though. I just know puppies actually get tired out pretty quickly.

 

[mathilda]

In Germany you'd call the police in that case.
they then take the dog with them to one of their kennel and the owner has time until the next morning to get their dog...if they don't it will be brought to a shelter.

if the breed is forbidden in your area, I'd even more make sure to report it, since if you don't, they'll think it's your dog and you'll end up getting prosecuted for it.
parallely I'd contact a Pitull-rescue and ask if they'd help taking the dog, in case there no owner for the dog. then talk with the officials if it would be okay to give the dog to the Pitbull-rescue.

not get to attached to a dog that isn't yours, especially if you can't keep it because of the breedmix.