Comments on: Should I Keep This Dog? She Has So Many Issues!?

By: Yo LO! Aussie Grins

Yo LO! Aussie Grins — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:15:07 +0000

Enroll in an obedience class. It will teach you how to effectively give commands and help her understand how to respond to them.
Don’t give up after 3 weeks! With training, she might end up being the best dog you’ve ever had!

By: jaclyn

jaclyn — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:36:03 +0000

She’s a dominant dog. Is she a solid color cockerspaniel? It’s a common trait of the breed. I would keep her as long as she doesn’t bite. Humping people can be easily corrected. Humping toys, pillows, etc is harder to correct.

By: CoffeeCu

CoffeeCu — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:41:43 +0000

First it is a rescued Cockapoo… she has baggage cause she is a rescue.
Now, for your son and being scared. Have him sit on the floor with some of her fav. toys. He can also have some treats. (now she is not just protecting her toys she is also scared of him and the situation plus him being scared of her (she can read that). You sit with him on the floor. Have him call her. Encouraging her to come to him. Not him to her. Squeek a toy. Get her attention. When she comes, let her. (make sure she has no other toys to go to). When she gets close praise her. Good girl. Dont force her to be with your son. Just praise the coming close. The closer she gets praise her.. good girl it’s ok. Your son is also talking to her.
This will also help with the come issues. She doesnt trust you yet.
You can also sit on the floor with out your son. (she is a small dog). Tapp the floor and call her. I also click my tongue. My cockers are curious and will come to find out what it is. I then praise. I click call and praise when they come. I dont give them treats I want them to come for the attention and praise at first. You want your cockapoo to trust you so praise and attention first as a treat before you start giving her a tastey treat.
As for the humping, that is a dominate thing. My female tried it. I put her on the ground off of me and tell her NO. Humps pillows and other objects and i tell her NO. and take the object away.
4. Until you master getting and keeping her attention and trust any other training you can put on hold except the sit. When she comes to you have her sit. Pet her and praise. This may take a couple of months to get her to TRUST you and your family.
All kids should sit on the floor and let her come to them. The small dogs dont like hands coming at them from above. I dont want you to get discouraged. You can turn her around. Just be patient and consitent. She will be ok if you do.
Also make sure you give her a private place to get away from everyone. It is her space and dont let the kids bother her.
You also should look at getting a trainer to help one on one. It really is a wonderful idea…Ask your VET.
Good luck.

By: black18

black18 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:13:23 +0000

I think the dog doesn’t fully trust you yet after having her for only 3 weeks. Give it some time to gain trust. Walking is a good way. All of these things you are saying are not really that big of a deal.
1. It’s normal for some dogs to be protective over toys. You just need to let her know that the toy is YOURS and you are letting her play with it. If she misbehaves or shows agression, take it away for a while.
2. Get some treats that she likes. Have some one hold her while you go a few steps away. Show the treat, say come and then have that person let her go. If she comes to you, give her a treat. Just keep practicing that and sure enough you won’t need a treat for her anymore.
3. Humping is just a dominance thing. Once you gain the trust and show you are the dominant one, she will stop. If she humps you, say no and walk into a room and shut the door and leave her for about 1-2 mins. She will then know that doesn’t get her attention. If she continues to do this, just gently grab her and hold her down on the floor and don’t let her get up but once again, be gentle. This will show her you are in charge of the household.
4. Simple training can be hard. Make sure you exercise her before you begin the training. That way she has her attention on you and nothing else because she is some what tired. Once again, it’s just the trust. Get her to trust you and she will do what you tell her. Use treats as an incentive for her good training. Remember, simple things like, sit then lay are easier for dogs. Just keep working on it. She’ll get the clue.
Finally, good for you for rescueing a dog! You probably can’t tell but I guarantee you that your pup is so happy that some one has saved her! Just be patient with her. She has never had to live by rules before so she just needs to adjust! Don’t get rid of her. Just give it time and I promise you, you won’t regret it!

By: Rae

Rae — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:33:48 +0000

I have 33 yrs in rescue.
After 2 weeks, you start to see what types of behaviors you’re going to have to deal with. After 4 weeks, you can really see what you’ve got.
The biting would be the end for me – I have no tolerance for biting.
However, different people have different parameters.
Put a 6 ft leash on her and leave it on while she’s in the house and supervised. That way, when you call her to come, you’ve got a “handle” and can easily make her come. Also, you can pull her away from her toys and correct the “humping” behavior more easily.
NO FOOD TOYS – ever. No open food dishes – she eats when YOU decide.
Find an obedience class asap – akc.org lists clubs – go there and look for an obedience club near you. They will offer classes, and will have worked with a lot of rescue dogs. And they will help you.
Edit: For Rescue Member
Biting. This is why your rescue doesn’t adopt to families with small children. It’s simply impossible to predict what’s going to happen.
This is an internet post site. It’s impossible to tell exactly what happened between this dog and the child. Also, without the dog’s background, which the owner doesn’t have, she’ll never know if the dog has issues with children.
Animals are supposed to add to our quality of life, add to our family…. if a child is afraid of a dog, then that’s not happening. I agree that 3 weeks is almost no time at all, but that’s what the owner has to go on – and she needs to hear both positives and negatives.
This is a difficult situation to be in – to decide whether or not to treat and keep the dog after only 3 weeks.
I take only Large dogs that are completely out of control. The worse thing you can do to the poor things is to allow them to bite you – then they think they’ve won, and they only get worse. Placements and follow up are, as you know, extremely critical. And there are instances where the dog MUST be put down – agression towards children is one of those; agression with no apparant trigger is another.
Small dogs are easier – people will put up with far more from a small dog than they can/will from a large dog. Large dogs are simply too fast and too strong, and can do too much damage to take chances with.
Twice, I have taken rescues and turned them into top show dogs – one was extremely agressive and now does therapy work, the other was terrified of everyone and is now a happy Champion house pet.

By: tankstar

tankstar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:05:27 +0000

Get her some training. all these are very fixable problems. look up NILF training. Giveing up after 3 weeks, wow, poor dog. heart worm positive and all you care baout is how much money it will cost to fix her? Its her LIFE at state.

By: ebabycut

ebabycut — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:54:32 +0000

she is still pretty young and the fact that you just got her from a shelter 3 weeks ago proves that she probably didn’t have a home or if she did they didn’t train her. So i would say keep her for a little while more and then decide.

By: BJ'sBaby

BJ'sBaby — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:44:34 +0000

The dog isn’t going to be perfect over night. Training takes time and patience, especially when you are rehabilitating a dog. Do you know if the dog had been around kids previously? She may not know how to act around children, therefore is acting out of fear. For now you should be closely supervising your son when he is around the dog and making sure that he does not bother her toys or food until you get her some formal training. She has only been in your home for 3 weeks, she needs time to learn to trust you, she may have been abused at some point in her past so she is probably still a bit wary. Have you tried working with her on a leash with the come command. Leash her, let her walk away then offer a treat and ask her to come, if she doesn’t start towards you give a gentle tug on the leash and gently guide her towards you, once she does come give her the treat and lots of praise. Keep working with her on this and she will learn. Dogs are not immediatly obedient, they have to learn and with some dogs it takes more time and patience than with others. Our first dog would pick up on commands, but will only do them when she wants to, we had to be patient and consistant for her to be “obedient” Our Rottweiler picks up commands right away and continually follows them. It is just that they are different dogs with different personalities. See your vet about the humping he/she should have some suggestions for getting that behaviour stopped.
I highly reccomend getting a professional trainer. Owning a dog is not always easy or convienient, but if you are loyal to this dog and want to make it work, a professional will be able to get you the tips and guidance you need.

By: anne b

anne b — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:21:21 +0000

ROCK ON Rescue Member! I agree with you 100% on the biting. What kind of person works 33 years in rescue and knows nothing about dog behavior?
As far as this dog, I have read some “excuses” here in your question. It almost sounds like you don’t want to spend the time needed to train your dog and make her a great member of the family. If that is truly the case, it would be better to give the dog back now. If you wait until you have a bite incident, you may be signing this poor animal’s death warrant (based on Raes observation).
Maybe a rescue dog wasn’t for you. You have two kids, probably a job, and seem to not want to spend any extra time driving to a place that can help you train your dog.
I work rescue, and I always wish that people would just realize when they aren’t right for a dog and give it back before it is ruined, either by biting someone, or by picking up all kinds of bad behaviors from lack of training.
I would suggest next time you go looking for a dog, that you do all your homework, make sure you have the time to train the dog AND your kids, before you bring home an animal that will live with you for many years.
Breed rescue groups are a great place to get dogs that have had some training and have been assessed for behavior issues. These organizations usually have the dogs in foster care, so the assessments are genuine. You would still be saving a shelter dog if you went this route instead.
Think about it. This dog deserves the attention she needs to be a great family member, and that may not be for you.

By: The All Knowing Samantha

The All Knowing Samantha — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:21:03 +0000

It has only been 3 weeks since you got the dog and because she was abandoned or a stray it may take a little time for her to adjust to living with all of you. Try and introduce her to newer things slower, and make sure that your kids don’t make any sudden movements around her and are very sweet and gentle. I am going to suggest not giving up because if you take the time to really work with her she may actually turn out to be the best dog you have ever owned.