Bad behaviour getting worse :(

[Christine and Daisy]

Hi All:

 

I am saddened that my puppy whom I've only had for one week is beginning to exhibit some really negative behaviour. She is 4 months old and keep jumping up on the couch where she is not allowed. Everytime we catch her up there we tell her "NO" and grab her collar. Usually she gets off on her own. I did a search on the site on couch jumping and couldn't find anything that supported ways of keeping her off as the majority of people allow their dogs on.  I would love to have her on the couch but at the moment, I believe, she is thinking she's Alpha which we are trying to discourage. She's not sleeping in our bed either.

This new behaviour that we are getting a really good taste of is whenever she's on the couch and we ask her to get down she doesn't listen to "No" or a hand clap. We can't even reach her to pull her off with her collar as she darts back and forth away from us. At one point we were both trying to grab her and she started growling at us! Finally one of us grabbed her collar and my husband said "No" to which she responded by running frantically around the livingroom jumping up on us and biting us like crazy. Bites that hurt with her puppy teeth. He took her by the collar over to her crate and put her in because we didn't know what else to do with her, she was totally out of control.

 

This is our first dog, we read books and we watched a well known dog trainer (not Cesar Millan) show beforehand. At the moment we are doing obedience lessons with her daily. I get up at 5:15 am to start her day with a walk, then she goes out two more times/day. She has a backyard to run around in, we play ball with her.  We are affectionate with her. I just don't know why she's acting his way all of a sudden or how to handle it. I really need some pointers with how to deal with her acting out behaviour.

 

Thanks for any tidbits!!

 

 

[shelly]

Hi Christine! We have ALL been through this horrible period.. She is testing her limits... others have more 'training' than I do, but I can tell you what I have done that seemed to work... first of all don't let her have free reign of the house. Keep her tethered to you on a long leash while in the house. Make her wait to exit the house after YOU, and make her enter after you too or use the stay or wait command when entering until YOU say she can go in. Do the same when you feed her.... make her sit and stay until you give her a 'break' command when you put her food down. all of these techniques will prove your dominance which is what she is testing right now. Tori did ALL of what you mentioned. I can truly picture the dodging back and forth to avoid your grasp. As far as keeping her off of the couch... there are clear plastic 'sheets' called scat mats that are available (you can google it) they are supposed to work great... they have little nubbs on them that 'bother' them when they jump up. Good luck and try not to feel too discouraged... right now I am sure you feel very upset, but this will pass and one day you will be helping someone else out who is going to go thru; the EXACT same thing - while your dog is sitting calmly by your feet! :O) !

[Christine and Daisy]

Hi Shelly:

Thanks for your ideas. I feel so much better now. Here I thought she was turning into a mini monster. It's so good to hear she's normal :) and seeing how far she can push.
Since I have two adult cats, the behaviourist that came over yesterday told us to take down the 8 panelled gate we had stretched across the room separating the kitchen/dining area from the livingroom. Daisy was living in the kitchen area and my cats had access to the other area but it wasn't really working. The cats kept jumping the boundary to get outside (they are indoor cats but walk around the backyard) and the puppy was jumping into their side whenever I would leave her area. The area was so wide that we had to put low heavy boxes on either sides to keep the gate up, which of course Daisy figured out how to step on to get over. Then the cats would give chase and attack. So it was becoming a big headache with my 36" plastic Iris fence. The behaviourist said that the only way to get the pup and cats to find some tolerance with each other was not to separate them any longer so they can work out their differences. Daisy is not allowed access to the entire house - she has never been to the basement and we have blocked off the upstairs and the large den. The only space she does have is the kitchen/dining (access to backyard), livingroom plus front entry and that's where her crate is.

Since I read your post I have kept her on a leash throughout the house. She has half chewed through her Lupine 4 ft lead, so I am using my cat's 6ft one until I get a replacement.

I am going to look into getting scat mats first thing tomorrow!

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

you can also just buy the type of office mat that goes on carpet, so that chairs can roll on them, you just put it upside down on the couch with the pokey things pointing up.

[Christine and Daisy]

Once I looked up the scat mats I realized that I cannot use them because I don't believe in 'shocking' the dogs with any voltage of electricity. I just can't do that. They're like my family members and I would never do that to my sister or husband so why my puppy?

I'll think about the office mats but now that I have her on a short leash, maybe we've nipped the problem in the bud!

[shelly]

Oh I agree!!! the mats I saw had the plastic nubs like Minga & Malu mentioned... in fact, Tori has a barking issue when guests come over and someone suggested a shock collar and I just WON'T do that either! ~ sorry... didn't mean to suggest that....I think the tethering will help a great deal... it did with Tori! this will pass.... HOLD ON!
:O)
Daisy sounds a lot like Tori... she would seem to get more rambunctious the more I said NO... and bark back at me... little bugga' these dogs are really too smart for their own good! LOL

[Holly Doodle]

It sounds like you may be giving her way too much freedom. She's probably still too young to fully understand boundaries, so you may need to keep her out of the living room for now or keep her tethered to you so she cannot jump up on the couch. We didn't let Holly into the living room until she was fully potty trained and past her chewing stage, baby gates worked great. Also, if you invited her up on the couch even one time, she's probably confused as to why she cannot get up there now. Remember she's still a very young puppy, and from my experience they don't respond well to negative reinforcement. Holly responded very well to positive reinforcement, we used a lot of treats! We tried the yelling "no" thing and pulling her by her collar and it only made her more defiant. They feed off of your energy also so if you're not calm she won't stay calm. Be consistent and don't let yourself get frustrated. I'm sure you'll get lots of great advice, Good luck!

[Christine and Daisy]

This will be along the same lines of the reply I just left for Shelly, but I wanted to acknowledge your reply. We actually had Daisy on alot less freedom until yesterday when the behaiourist came over and said we had to get rid of the boundaries or my adult cats would not learn to tolerate her. It makes it so much more of a challenge when you throw cats in the mix! One of my cats (the 11 year old grump) has started pooping on our bed to let us know how much she is NOT enjoying the newest family member. We have only lived in our brand new house for one month so it is pretty disappointing to find poop in the corner of the closet, on our bed two days in a row etc. Hubby rubbed her nose in it this morning so I hope she learned a lesson.

The behaviourist told us to buy a taller metal puppy pen to put her in when we need to leave the room or cannot watch her. We bought a new one with a height of 42" and it's sitting on a piece of linoleum in the dining area. We haven't used it too much because she was on her best behaviour all day. She didn't bark & whine when we left her outside in the yard for a few minutes or inside the house when we stepped out to hang some baskets. We used it last night when we had company over as she's afraid of people she doesn't know.

Yes, I am noticing that she doesn't respond well to negative reinforcement! I am going to try to not say "NO" as much anymore and start rewarding her for when she's good. We both took her out tonight and had a nice little walk together. I brought some treats and rewarded her a couple times with affection and "Good girl" comments. Then we brought her home and put her to bed.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

You really need to get your hands on the book How to Behave so Your Dog behaves!! This book is going to help you ALOT. Some of the puppy behavior can be attributed to the humans giving mixed body language. Dogs are very good at reading body language and sometimes the verbal signal you are telling them and the body signal are two different things. Another great book is "The Other End of the Leash" by Patricia McConnell. If this is your first dog, I HIGHLY recommend you begin reading these books right away.

You can say NO to your dog. But a good way to get this to work, for instance, she jumps on the couch, you say NO (don't yell, just loud and low toned) then lure her off the couch with a treat and command "OFF" or something like that, then, when she is off, "good girl" give the treat and pets and praise. Repeat as necessary.

I would also recommend you NEVER rub any pets nose in an accident, ESPECIALLY not a cat. If you are not catching them in the act of the accident, they have NO IDEA whatsoever why they are being punished. And cats will become further agitated. You can buy a product called "Cat Attract" it is a litter you sprinkle in with their regular litter to help attract them back to the litter box. I would recommend this, as well as the wall plug in called "Feliway" it is a cat pheremone that helps calm new situations. Use this for about 3-4 months consecutively.

Hope this helps. I really really recommend you get these two books, they will truly help you right away!

[Christine and Daisy]

OMG, you have helped me so much with my cat behaviour! I have used Feliway many times before and it worked for us. We've used it for moving mainly - which is why I never thought to use it for this situation. I have a couple diffusers around somewhere. I have never heard of "Cat Attract" but will look into ordering it asap.

I questioned hubby as to why he rubbed the cat's nose in it later on and he said that on another occasion he came home to find urine on something a few years ago. When he found Callie she was running away from him because she knew she did something wrong. So he figured she had a longer memory. Well, I have to say it, but since then she has not pooped on anything and she was making a daily habit of it. I just saw her run upstairs now, I really hope I don't find any surprises.

I looked up Sophia Yin's book but it looks like it is being re-released in July so it's not available on Amazon where I buy all my books nor at the very expensive Canadian bookstore I am forced to shop at when Amazon fails. Both sites said to pre-order the copy. I did just buy two of Cesar Millan's books, but I will most definitely look into Patricia McConnell's book and order it today if it's online.

I will do every little thing possibly to help my little one integrate herself positively into our family! I just want to do the right thing and that's been my struggle as I didn't have the tools to do that. I have seen a big improvement from last night to tonight just from reading others replies and doing things differently. I just can't say enough how glad I am that this site exists!

Christine

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

How weird, I just ordered the Sophia Yin book from Amazon a couple of months ago. It wasn't directly from Amazon, but one of their dealers.....The Book Fair it was called. Very happy with their service!

[Holly Doodle]

I can't imagine having two cats when Holly was a puppy! That would make it a lot more difficult :).

[Lynne B]

I don't believe in the 'alpha' theory. If you want her on the sofa, let her on the sofa. If you don't want her on it, then remove her from it and if she tries to get back on it, body block her so that she can't get on it. If you can't be in the same room as her, then tether her or put her in her crate, if she gets on the sofa when you aren't around, then she just 'won' and set back your efforts of trying to keep her off of it

Your puppy runs from you because it's a game, in fact if she can get you to chase her, that's about the best game in the world to her. Why not just sit on the floor and offer her a treat and when she comes to you for it praise her, when she does it consistently - associate a word 'come' with it.