I've been a dog owner before, but it's been over a year since my dog passed away, and my fiance and I have just adopted a 7 month old hound mix.
I had some misgivings about her young age and her energy levels but her foster mom reassured me that she was the picture of perfect.
I don't even know where to begin. Obviously, I'm in the process of signing up for training, but that's not an instant fix.
She knows "Sit" and "No" and is mostly housebroken. She's very easily distracted and so I'm having a really hard time keeping her attention on me when I give her any instruction or training at all.
I took her on two long walks today, but we don't have a fenced in yard or a dog park, so that's about the amount of exercise I can give her. She spends a lot of the day resting, curled up snoozing in 3 hour chunks of time, but in between she's racing around our tiny apartment, flinging her toys across the room and wanting to play. I wouldn't mind engaging her in play a couple times a day, but she doesn't know where her toy ends and I begin, and so her teeth keep landing on me. I've tried yelping when that happens, and I've tried a firm no, but she's still (after 3 days) hasn't figured out what my hand or leg or whatever body part feels like.
I'm feeling really guilty in my ability to give her what she needs, and finding that I keep putting her in her crate because I can't handle the energy, and then I feel guilty about that.
Any suggestions for what I can do to stick it out until she's had some training? Or am I just really in over my head?
I had some misgivings about her young age and her energy levels but her foster mom reassured me that she was the picture of perfect.
I don't even know where to begin. Obviously, I'm in the process of signing up for training, but that's not an instant fix.
She knows "Sit" and "No" and is mostly housebroken. She's very easily distracted and so I'm having a really hard time keeping her attention on me when I give her any instruction or training at all.
I took her on two long walks today, but we don't have a fenced in yard or a dog park, so that's about the amount of exercise I can give her. She spends a lot of the day resting, curled up snoozing in 3 hour chunks of time, but in between she's racing around our tiny apartment, flinging her toys across the room and wanting to play. I wouldn't mind engaging her in play a couple times a day, but she doesn't know where her toy ends and I begin, and so her teeth keep landing on me. I've tried yelping when that happens, and I've tried a firm no, but she's still (after 3 days) hasn't figured out what my hand or leg or whatever body part feels like.
I'm feeling really guilty in my ability to give her what she needs, and finding that I keep putting her in her crate because I can't handle the energy, and then I feel guilty about that.
Any suggestions for what I can do to stick it out until she's had some training? Or am I just really in over my head?