Kingdom of Pets

Posted by puppylove
Feb 7, 2008

Hi everyone,

I just joined and am out of my mind seeking advise as to what to with my 5 month old Miniature dashchund/coon hound walker mix puppy. When I got her 4 weeks ago, she was the sweetest thing.... for the first couple of days. :rolleyes: Then I believe she took on the Alpha dog role! :eek: This is my first puppy, I had a adult dog before, but got her at the age of 3 years.

OK, here is my problem.......
She will run off with my kitchen rugs and pull her blanket out of her kennel and chew them. I give her a firm NO! She barks at me, I try the SHHHHH!, snap fingers, point approach. She barks and jumps up to bite my finger. Basically any time I try to discipline her by telling her NO! she barks and goes crazy on me!

I have even tried over and over and over to take her down to submit and 99% of the time she will not stop trying to get away. When she does stop moving, I rub her belly. Sometimes the minute I let her up, she comes back and bites me. Any advise????? :confused:

Posted by MaxHollyNoah
Feb 7, 2008

Hi puppylove.

Puppies and dogs bark for reasons. There are different reasons, including enthusiastic, fearful, aggressive, bored barking, etc.

As I read your posting, I think your puppy is taking your "NO" as your attention. It is not necessarily she is taking the Alpha role. Some dogs are, and my border collies as well, vocal and others are not so vocal. Vocal dogs try to communicate by barking and we human beings take that as "aggression" or "not obedient" but I don't agree with that. Your dog has learned that she will get your attention when she barks. You are giving her attention by saying "No" (reacting to her barking) inadvertently thus it is reinforcing her bad behavior.

What I would like to suggest is that you stands still without looking at her when she barks. When she tries to take your kitchen rug, throw a ball and tell her to go fetch. If she brings the ball to you, give her a treat and throw it again. Do that for a good 15 minutes so that she will get tired. As she learns what she is allowed and expected to play with, she will probably lose interest in the kitchen rug. Again, hold still when she barks, no throwing balls. She gets to be played only when she gets calm. However, some dogs barks when they get excited so your dog might barks as she goes fetch the ball, like some border collies bark when doing agility, etc. But this kind of barking is different from barking at you so it might not annoy you as much.

Please give it a try and let me know how it goes. Good luck

Posted by puppylove
Feb 7, 2008

I think I may have figured out why she takes off with my rugs.... I watch her today and she seems to do this if I am on the phone, helping the kids with homework, on the computer... simply not paying attention to her! An attention seeker?

This evening she was on the couch and crawled off my lap onto the floor. Then jumped back onto the opposite end of couch I was on and for whatever reason she just barked and barked at me, even though I was just giving her attention by petting her when she was on my lap.

I guess one of by biggest frustration is the fact that when I try the "dog whispers" approach the Shhhh!, snap, point.... she barks and bites me! :mad: I only do this when she starts jumping on the kids and is nipping and biting at them and when she's barking at me or the kids. It seems to aggervate her even more. Any ideas on that one?

Puppy doesn't being told NO!