Help please with cats, chewing and shy pup!

[Christine and Daisy]

Hi all:

I'm newish to DK in general, and I just found this section about cats today. I was hoping to find help with my situation. Or if someone could point me in the right direction of where I could find good help, it would be muchly appreciated.
We brought home our 4 month old NAR on the weekend, (3 days ago). She's from a breeder in another province and had never seen cats from what I can tell. I have an 11 year old (Callie) and a 3 year old male (Jerry). Immediately, the 11 year old (she's kind of a grump) start making this awful singing sound when she first saw Daisy. They are separated by an opened puppy pen, into their own areas but can see each other. Everything seemed fine even with Callie making her threatening sound. My cats are use to going out into the backyard and cannot any longer with Daisy taking over that area. They started to jump over the wall into her area and she playfully chased Jerry out. He got away fine, he was freaked out and my older cat was crying the whole time, trying to protect him.

Today, my pup jumped over onto the cat side while I was over there. My older cat just went nuts and ran right up to her hissing and scratching I'm assuming. Daisy just played with her and didn't seem afraid but I was freaking out so things may have been different. It was extremely stressful for me, I yelled at my cat and picked Daisy up & put her over onto her side. The second I turn around, while trying to calm the upset cat, the dog jumped over again and the same thing was repeated!
I phoned my husband and he's going to have to come up with a new way for the pen to stay up. Obviously putting boxes on each side to hold the pen sections tight is not working. It's a wide area about 10 feet and there aren't many options for a space that wide. I'd like all animals to have room to move around.

I have had the toughest day with her. Today she chewed a chunk off my console off in my car while I am trying to get her accustomed to being in the car. I hadn't left her alone for more than 30 mins. She was in the shade in underground parking. My car is an '09 and I don't drive it in the winter so it has less than 30,000kms. It's practically brand new still with leather interior. I'm really upset about that and now she's chewing my diningroom chairs! There is visible damage showing and this is when I am sitting here on the computer watching her! I literally have to watch her every second of the day. It's very exhausting. I took a week off work to get her accustomed to her new home and it's been a huge challenge and it's only day 3. 

My cats are getting more and more jealous because I cannot be on their side, but when I leave here, there's damage. She chews on everything. We just moved into a brand new house on April 8th. It was just finished being built 3 days before we moved in. Guess I will have to buy bitter apple and put that on every single surface available.
On top of all that, she's so shy that no one can pet her when we go out for a walk. She is afraid of everyone she hasn't met. It has only gotten worse since I brought her home. Everyday is worse than the last. I am not babying her in any way. I have not picked her up while she's afraid of something at all. I have only picked her up to cut across the cat section to get to the front door and when she's not wearing her leash outside my car type thing. I feel like I am not affectionate enough, but I know that a big problem is too much affection. I've barely touched her at all and I feel guilty about that. I pet her when I reward her for good behaviour.
The breeder let me know after I asked about her shyness that yes, she was aware of that and her sibling (sister) was the same. The boys are not shy at all. Since the problem is getting worse all the time, I really hope that someone has any pointers for me about the shyness, the chewing or the cat situation...please help, I am almost desperate! Thanks

[Cheri & Bonny]

Ah, Adina, you so eloquently put into words what I was trying to say about having a shy puppy! Socialization is the key, and letting the puppy let you know and leading the way when meeting strangers. At first, many of our walks were done slowly -- if she was afraid, we'd stop and let her watch whatever it was that she was afraid of. She'd soon lead the way in this -- she'd stop and sit and watch if she was afraid. Then we'd take a few steps toward the object/person and stop again. We did this at the park for about 5 minutes once, watching a man practicing tai chi. I let him know what we were doing and he continued his practice. Same thing at the playground with kids. Eventually the fear subsided, the growling stopped, and we could walk more normally. We don't need to do that much now, except when we run across some grating or different texture on the ground. I knew when I'd succeeded a month ago when we walked by a group of 7 year old girls. One asked if she could pet the puppy, I had Bonny sit, and the girl started to pet her. Then 4 of her friends came running over from behind me and before I knew it, they had the puppy surrounded and all of them were petting her. Bonny just sat calmly in the middle and gave them all kisses. Really blew me away!!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

These are all good ideas for socializing a puppy and helping her get over her shyness. The first step, though, is for the dog to learn to trust you and develop a bond with you. No dog can get over shyness toward the outside world without first having a feeling of safety and security in her own home with her owners.

[Adina P]

Very true.

[Christine and Daisy]

Yes, I so do understand that now!! Things have been so much better since I've become more affectionate. I have to stress that I wasn't ignoring her before, I don't want people to get the wrong idea, I was giving her affection, but now I am doing it much more in the car and in the house etc. Her personality has changed in the last 24 hours. She is also still settling down in her new household I have to add.
I took her to the vet today, she was fine. As long as people don't walk right up to her and try to pet her she usually calms down and some people can pet her. I was with a friend before the vet who had a 2 month old baby and 100lb dog. Eventually she got over her nervousness and we had a great time at the fenced in dog park.
It was only when we came home, she was back in her fenced off area with me and a painter came along with a ladder and started climbing up the side of the house that caused her to start shaking! Poor thing. She ran over to the pen gate and tried to jump over it, which would've been bad news as my cats are over there. I calmed her down and eased her into her crate, covered her with a sheet and haven't heard a peep out of her. She was also extremely tired as she had a busy day and received her rabies vaccination at the vet's.

I'm having an animal behaviorist come over on Saturday to give hubby and I some theory lessons on dogs and an hour on training. It should be interesting! She will help a lot with the shyness and ways to cope so Daisy will stop the growling that she's been doing! Wish me luck!

Thanks for all your help, Karen. I cannot say how thankful I am that I found this site, yesterday I was feeling totally helpless, today I am feeling way better and I have an affectionate dog that is loving my attention! I love her to bits already and it's only been since Saturday that she arrived. I know there are great things ahead for us.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that! You will have lots of ups and downs over the next year, but as long as you love your pup and work hard to help her grow into the wonderful dog she's meant to be, you will get through the crazy puppy madness. And you'll always find help and support here on DK!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

This is great news!!! It sounds like you are doing all the right things. Good luck and keep us posted!