Dog Advice Needed
 

Ok, so i have a year and a half old Bepherd (Half Beagle Half German Shepherd Dog). Overall she is well behaved. She is very affectionate towards me, my wife and our friends. She sleeps a decent ammount, plays with her toys etc. She is fully house trained. When we leave her alone in the house while we go to work or school she is perfect and when we come home she is very happy to see us and the house is in perfect order. However there are two problems i would like to try and correct, but i am unsure how to.

Problem 1 is that my wife usually leaves home at 6am as she teaches. I usually do not get up until 8am. In that 2 hours every morning my dog attempts to destroy the house. She gets into paperwork eats it up, eats DVD cases, PSP cases just generally destroys our personal stuff. It might help to say we do live in an Appartment, but we also do walk her a lot so she gets out of it a ton. But during this two hour time period she goes on a rampage i guess. By the time i wake up, the floor is covered with torn up items. I would prefer not to wake up at 6am as i know that would fix it as she never does this in front of us, but i am wondering if there is any other solution. We have tried that Bitter Apple, but it hardly deters her. Any advice here?

The other is the typical she gets way too excited on walks when she sees other people/dogs. Not in an attacking way, just overly excited. Whats the course of action here.

Any questions let me know, and feel free to add your own Dog questions as well.

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Has she been spayed?

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Idk how you feel about sticking her in one of those dog cages for two hours until you wake up, but that would take care of your problem. If you would feel guily, you could try it for just a week, who knows maybe she'll get the idea. I've heard bepherds are smart. No, that last part is a lie. I just like the word, bepherd. lol

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Sheagle

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Does your wife take her for a walk before she leaves the house? How late is her last walk the night before? If she needs to go outside to take care of business, that might be what's causing the early-morning stress.

Also, crating could be a solution here. We have two small dogs who are out during the day but sleep in dog crates. I thought it was kind of strange at first, but my wife, who's a dog guru (she's done literally hundreds of hours of training, etc. with the dogs) talked me into it. It's actually not cruel at all -- the dogs like having a safe space all their own to go to, and they'll literally run into their crates when it's bedtime.

As for the walking issues, we had the same problem with one of our dogs. Our solution has been to carry a pocketful of dogs treats and as soon as we see another dog approaching, get our dog's attention with the treats and keep rewarding until the other dog has passed. After a while, the dog starts mentally connecting "another dog" with "I'm gonna get food," and looking to you as soon as another dog show up. Because they're anticipating/concentrating on the food, they forget about the other dog. When this starts happening regularly, you can taper off treats a bit, and just reward intermittently to reinforce the behavior.

If you're interested in at-home training stuff generally, Google "clicker training." It sounds goofy when you first read it, but it's really easy and has worked wonders with our dogs.

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Can you confine her to the kitchen with baby gates?

Also, try getting a Kong and fill it with frozen pumpkin pie filling. It's good for her, and she'll spend a long time trying to get it out.

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For problem 1, my guess is the dog is just full of energy after sleeping all night and is trying to release it. I'm guessing your wife isn't taking the dog for a walk before leaving the apartment at 6:00 AM?

For item 2, you should watch the Dog Whisperer. It is on the National Geographic channel.
link to show

I've used a log of his techniques on my dog and they work great.

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We do have a crate and we have tried it. She sleeps at night in the crate and during the day on the couch. When we tried crating her in the am the second my wife leaves at 6am she would go crazy and would bark and scratch until i let her out. She usually goes number 1 at about 10pm-11pm before i go to sleep, then at 6am right before my wife leaves. Is it possible shes tearing things up to go number 2? Usually she goes around 8am and 6pm for number 2.

Yes she has been spayed.

As for the treats while walking, great idea, i will certainly try that out.

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We do have a crate and we have tried it. She sleeps at night in the crate and during the day on the couch. When we tried crating her in the am the second my wife leaves at 6am she would go crazy and would bark and scratch until i let her out. She usually goes number 1 at about 10pm-11pm before i go to sleep, then at 6am right before my wife leaves. Is it possible shes tearing things up to go number 2? Usually she goes around 8am and 6pm for number 2.

Yes she has been spayed.

As for the treats while walking, great idea, i will certainly try that out.

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How long did you try crating? They are stubborn as hell at first, until they realize they can't get their way. I have a new puppy, she was miserable in the crate for a bit, but eventually has settled down some.

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I guess not for too long, her crate is near our bed as our APPT. is small and she would wake me up instantly with all the noise. So after a week or so we stopped.

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How long did you try crating? They are stubborn as hell at first, until they realize they can't get their way. I have a new puppy, she was miserable in the crate for a bit, but eventually has settled down some.

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My biggest problem with that has been that, since I'm in an apartment, I can't just have the dog barking at 6am for hours for a couple weeks until she gets used to it. It's not fair to the neighbors.

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The only time our Husky tears up anything other then an odd piece of paper is when he needs to poop. Hes eaten holes in the wall, chewed a windowsill off, and shredded carpet all cause he needed to [censored].

Also your dog isnt getting enough exersise. "walks" dont cut it. Dogs need to run. If you dont jog or your wife doenst jog then its totally negligent, since you have no yard for the dog to run in, to not hire someone to run the dog at least a few times a week. You can find these people on craigslist among other places.

Does your wife feed her before she leaves? Does she take her out for more then 2 seconds?

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It just sounds like she's getting fired up when your wife wakes up and she's ready to go. Is it possible for your wife to walk her before she leaves, then put her back in the crate? Does your wife feed her before she leaves? Maybe don't feed her until you get up. Somehow have to get her in the routine that wife leaving at 6 does not equal the start of the day.

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she needs to poop and take a walk. youre proly not walking here enough anyway if thats all she pees and poops. esp for a puppy.

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Try putting a blanket or towel over the crate. She may be waking up when your wife turns on the light. If she still thinks it's night outside because it's dark inside the crate, she may be more likely to stay relaxed.

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+1 for clicker training

At first you'll think "this can't possibly be as effective as these people are saying". Then after you try it for a few days you'll be like "holy [censored] this is the holy grail of teaching tricks to dogs".

Just make sure you understand when to click and when not to (i.e. click after your dog comes to you, but you never click to 'call' your dog to you)

Also if she's not tearing things up at any other time of the day then it sounds like she's probably got some energy/anxiety in the morning... probably nervous about shatting inside.

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My wife attempts to take her for a "long" walk at 6am but she never goes number two then no matter how long the walk is for. Also we walk her a lot more then 2x a day. She gets at the least 6-8 walks outside. When i say walks it includes playing outside, letting her run around, jumping around etc. Its not just a short walk and thats it.

When i wake up at 8am she calms down right away and usually lays down right next to me for a few hours. Then around 10 or so she basically gets up and tells me she has to go. Maybe i need to take her for the long walk at 6am? Maybe i just need to take her at 8 even if she doesnt "ask" me? But how would that prevent the two hour window?

Her crate is covered with towels and blankets so once shes in shes quiet, except for when we tried the 6am-8am thing.

Whats odd is, there are times when due to delays or whatever i don't get home until 8pm instead of 6 and the house is fine. I walk her right away, she goes no problem, but the house is untouched.

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I'm all for more exercise. It cures so many dog problems. I saw that dog whisperer guy teach a couple dogs to run on treadmills. It was pretty awesome.

As for the excitement, what the problem exactly? Is she pulling on the leash too hard? Or barking too much? Or just being overly happy? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Desensitization will help some; she can't be excited all the time and eventually it'll lose its appeal. But giving her a new focus is great, too. She'll love learning new tricks (sit, down, stay, etc.) and working on those in high stress situations will help her chill out.

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How long did you try crating? They are stubborn as hell at first, until they realize they can't get their way. I have a new puppy, she was miserable in the crate for a bit, but eventually has settled down some.

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My biggest problem with that has been that, since I'm in an apartment, I can't just have the dog barking at 6am for hours for a couple weeks until she gets used to it. It's not fair to the neighbors.

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i would take her out of the cage once she started
barking... whack her with a rolled up section of newspaper...
stuff her back into cage. throw blanket over cage for no daylight.

if she continues to bark, usually, merely rustling
the newspaper will get her to be quiet.

if not, take her out, whack her a few more times with
newpaper, back in she goes... repeat til she gets the idea.

i recommend just whacking her on her back with the rolled
up newspaper. the noise and gesture is what gets 'em, not
the pain.

when you finally take her out after she's been quiet,
reward with treat.

i suppose the dog whisperer may have a different plan,
but i would bank on this one.

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these are both easy to fix

problem 1, wake up when your wife leaves, stay in bed while you are asleep, then wait for the dog to get into [censored], and catch her in the act and discipline her. shouldnt take more than a time or two and she wont do it anymore

problem 2, is pretty much do exactly what the dog whisperer does, which I guess is hard to explain, so DL some show clips or whatever, but when you are walking her, you keep her on a short leash and right next to your side so that you are leading and not her, when she comes in contact with other dogs or gets excited or whatever and starts to do anything other than walking forward like she should be doing, you correct her with a sharp tug on the leash (you need a choke collar for this) and a voice correction. Wont take long and this problem will be fixed too.

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4,

I have a ten month old that has a lot of energy. She does a lot of what you say as well.

For us, it tends to boil down to exercise. If she gets enough exercise then she is fine. If we don't take her on a long walk, a couple shorter walks, a run, or a trip to the dog park then we know that we will pay for it later.

She also has pretty bad separation anxiety. This also depends on exercise. If she doesn't get enough today then tomorrow morning when my wife leaves for work she will whine and bark. If she has enough today then she will go back to sleep after my wife takes her out to pee and feeds her. If she is bad, when my wife leaves I get up and sleep on the couch and she sleeps on it. She doesn't sleep in our room at night, so if either of us are sleeping on the couch she tends to sleep by our feet.

So the main advice is to make sure she gets enough exercise.

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The first problem is almost definately separation anxiety. It's pretty common in Shepherds. I don't know how to fix it, but she's not tearing up the apartment because she needs to take a [censored].

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Idk how you feel about sticking her in one of those dog cages for two hours until you wake up, but that would take care of your problem.

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This is a really terrible way to treat your wife, even if it means that dog would stop chewing stuff up.

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Cesar Millan can help you too.

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I'd suggest having your wife put her in the kennel from 6am until you wake up. If she barks...tough. You gotta keep her in there, give her plenty of things to chew on. She'll start to fall into the pattern of kennel @ 6am...

I'm in a very similar situation. We've got an 8 month old shephard mix spayed female and live in apartment...my gf teaches and leaves early, and I don't wake up until 8 to leave for work.

But after my gf leaves, she sets Sascha up on the bed and she sleeps aside me until I get up at 8, walk her, and put her in the kennel all day while we're at work.

It was really tough for us to come to grips with kennelling her all day, but the folks at obedience school said she can't have the place to herself when we weren't home because she would begin to feel as if she owned the place.

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Try crate training when you can tolerate some barking i.e. not at 6:00 am. I have three big dogs including 2 bloodhounds who definitely have a mind of their own. I have them crate trained. I'll admit I use bribes i.e. I give them a little treat when they go in the crate. Don't really have any problems at all getting them to obey.

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I agree with the advice to use a crate. A lot depends on the dog. Like I said in the other post I made give them a little treat when they go in the crate. Also you might want to consider giving them something to chew on when they're in the crate. Not all dogs will chew in their crates but many do. Sounds like your dog needs some structure so give it to him/her. Make it something the dog likes (such as a treat and something to chew on) and that should work most of the time.

On the walks just use corrections. You might try socializing your dog with other dogs and people as well. Dogs actually do like hanging with other dogs. It takes some work but can be well worth it. I've got a male bloodhound that's not quite 2 years old and is 95 pounds. He is the most social dog I've ever encountered so when he's out on a walk every person and every dog is his brand new best friend. My wife and I have had to do a lot of work in toning that down so it isn't necessarily easy. My experience is that problem 1 is much easier to solve than problem 2.

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Yeah dog parks are awesome and a lot of fun. Not just for the dog, but you get to see and pet all kinds of different dogs and play with them.

To the OP: If you get a kennel, make sure it is plenty large enough for the dog to sit up in without crouching their head, and big enough for them to lay down in (not necessarily stretch out, but lay down).

We were using a tiny miniature schnauzer's kennel but our dog grew out of that and so we bought her a large $60 kennel.

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Yeah dog parks are awesome and a lot of fun. Not just for the dog, but you get to see and pet all kinds of different dogs and play with them.

To the OP: If you get a kennel, make sure it is plenty large enough for the dog to sit up in without crouching their head, and big enough for them to lay down in (not necessarily stretch out, but lay down).

We were using a tiny miniature schnauzer's kennel but our dog grew out of that and so we bought her a large $60 kennel.

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Yeah definitely make it comfy and also consider crate pads.

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You have a dog and it sits in a cage all day? [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Not a cage, it's a den. Do canines such as wolves occupy dens in the wild?

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Not a cage, it's a den. Do canines such as wolves occupy dens in the wild?

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"Intellectually dishonest" has been getting thrown around a ton in the last few weeks, but this is pretty much textbook, right?

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Not a cage, it's a den. Do canines such as wolves occupy dens in the wild?

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"Intellectually dishonest" has been getting thrown around a ton in the last few weeks, but this is pretty much textbook, right?

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No, why would you think that? I read some posts here about covering the crate, making it dark, etc. Sounds like making it like a den to me. There's a variety of different types of crates too as there are some that are basically closed on three sides. One of my dogs actually puts himself in his crate at night when he's tired and wants to go to sleep. Spending time in dens is a natural part of canine behavior. And no I don't keep them in the crates all day either.

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You have a dog and it sits in a cage all day? [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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We were told by Man's Best Friend that you aren't supposed to leave puppies out while you are gone all day, as it fosters bad habits and makes them feel like it's their place instead of yours, as "pack leader" as Cesar Milan would say. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Hey, when we found her she was 2 pounds, had fleas crawling on her eyeballs, and was about to be thrown into a ditch by some kids. I like to think she's come a long way and that we treat her very well. She's now 33 pounds, goes to the dog park once a week, takes regular walks, gets all kinds of awesome bones and toys to chew on, visits the vet regularly for any sign of illness, and gets a full bath every Sunday night after she crawls in the mud at the dog park.

So if you are passing judgement on me for leaving her in a giant kennel for 8 hours a day, and letting her sleep on our bed at night, please look at the big picture. Her life is so much better because we've found her, and it was what we were instructed to do during her $800 week of professional dog training.

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We keep her crate nice and padded with some nice blankets that she likes to sleep on. We also put in a chewy stick or two and some of her toys when she goes in, but i never see/hear her using them when she is in the crate. Like i said, we leave her out during the day while we are at work because she is perfectly fine during the day. Nothing is ever moved or out of place when she is left alone in the house. It's only when i am upstairs sleeping and she is downstairs alone. Perhaps she is trying to get my attention? I think i will try walking her at 6am and going back to sleep and if that doesn't work i guess we will try crating again. I would be fine with letting her sleep in the bed, but that freaks out the wife.

As for the walking, i thought about doing it Dog Whisperer style, but i heard its rather cruel by some people so i still have not tried it. Thoughts?

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I would be fine with letting her sleep in the bed, but that freaks out the wife.

As for the walking, i thought about doing it Dog Whisperer style, but i heard its rather cruel by some people so i still have not tried it. Thoughts?

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Can't you just let her lay on your bedroom floor and close the door so she doesn't get into your stuff downstairs? And why would sleeping on the bed freak out your wife? YOu said she's potty-trained, and if she doesn't have fleas, then there is no problem with her sleeping on top of hte comforter. It's not like she's under the cover, wiping her ass across your wife's pillowcase. lol.

At obedience school they gave us a "choker chain" for her. It's a loose chain that you just yank up on with the leash swiftly and in a normal voice say "no.". They said never yell at her. Just say "no" calmly, simultaneously while pulling up on the leash swiftly. It doesn't really hurt them, but it gets their attention, and through behaviorism, they begin to learn what a calm "no" means. And yeah, try to make her walk aside you. If she goes out in front, pull up and just say "no".