Frazzled!

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Tsunami22
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Frazzled!

Post by Tsunami22 »

Well, I haven't been on the chow forum in a couple of weeks. I've had my hands FULL with the puppy! I hope everyone is well but boy am I pooped!

I'm at my wit's end! I'm tired and frustrated and most days i'm SICK of having a puppy!!!

I feel like I've read so much about what the right thing to do is and have have tried my HARDEST to stick with it 24hrs a day/ 7 days a week! Her biting has gotten better but it isn't solved yet! Her house training is better but it isn't trustworthy!!! She'll sleep in her crate but hate every minute of it!!!! Her chewing has gone wild! Her jumping is out of control! I'm pretty sure she wants to eat my little sister for lunch!!!!

I feel like a frazzled young mom that doesn't know what to do and doesn't know what to do right and doesn't have anyone to help!

I've stayed consistent with a lot of positive reinforcement. When she's sitting and behaving is when I play with her, when she's jumping or crying I ignore. I give treats when she comes, I do the whole nice encouraging good dog voice when she does her business outside. I encourage her when she's chewing her own toys. When she has an accident inside I don't punish her unless I catch her IN the act, and even then, it's a sharp HEY! NO! and then into the bathroom (isolated punishment spot) for a couple minutes then outside to finish her business.

But she's WILD! Super hyper mega energetic puppy that doesn't listen, bites everyone, chews everything to bits (especially papers, especially important papers), pees in the house, and doesn't listen!!!!

My sister's chow was super docile and calm. She was easy to train, eager to please (in a very nonchalant chow way), and... more like a catsy chow. Penelope is... Penelope is every terror story i hear about OTHER kinds of puppies.

And even though I'm super frustrated right this instant talking about it, I never am with her! I dont get worked up or upset or angry or frustrated because I know that is communicated and just hurts things rather than helps them. I'm calm! I'm assertive! I try to keep a cool head and be consistent and focus on the positive!!! But I'm up to HERE.

I don't know what to do anymore! I'm not saying I'll give her up or anything... But man, I'm tired, i've been sick for like two weeks. Even though I've been everything I think I'm supposed to be she's seemingly getting worse instead of better!! I'm at my wit's end with this pup and I don't know what to do!

And I'm sorry I had to vent here, but I guess it's better than taking my frustrations out on her? But if she ruins another pair of shoes i'm throwing her away!!! (jk...)
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Auddymay
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Auddymay »

This too, shall pass. You need to wear your little Penelope out a little. Time to start leash training. You have a lot changing in your own life right now, with graduating. Now with Penelope, even more change in routine for you. Relax a little. You can do this, and put away your shoes.
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Coco Chow »

Penelope :shock: , what a naughty puppy!
Don't worry, you are not alone.
Do you mind letting us know a little bit about your Tasmanian devil?
How ols is she now?
For how long is she alone during the day?
When she does her business inside and you catch her in the act, it's good you say HEY NO! but after that, I would sent her outside right away without isolating her in the bathroom, she knows you're mad already and needs to finish her business now.
Some puppies are more energetic than other, you know a tired puppy is a good puppy, so you probably need to give her more exercice.
Why is Penelope able to chew shoes and important papers? They shouldn't be at her disposal! You need to puppy proof your house better. Her need to chew will pass when her teeth won't bother her that much, but in the mean time, you need to take everything important off the floor.
Do you live alone with her? Everybody in the house needs to make her follow the same rules or it will confuse her.
Also, you say she doesn't listen, but she's just a puppy who has so much to learn, be patient!
And good luck :wink: !
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Dogdad
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Dogdad »

I am sorry to hear you are frustrated with Penelope. It is good that you are venting here and not on her. I have never had chow puppies but the other puppies I have had, she sounds the same except for the biting, It is good you are reducing that behavior for everyone's good. Here activity level sounds to be as high as Maxines, ( little miss lets do zoomies at 2:00 everymorning. You can try walking her more often, perhaps teaching her to play fetch so you can tire her out. In Maxines case, nothing tires her out, you may have a high energy dog on your hands

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Zhuyos mom
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Zhuyos mom »

She may need a week at "Camp Pooh Bear". Miss PB says she has one open spot left in the month of July!

Shoes? As Auddymay pointed out to me a year and a half ago, "don't leave your shoes out to be chewed"!
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Zhuyos mom »

Penelope is about 13 or 14 weeks now?

Sydney, if you and Penelope are in town and want to meet up with me, I'll be happy to go over some training with the both of you. Just e-mail or PM me.

If the paper thing happens at the office and you don't have a crate there, I suggest you purchase a portable crate. Target has one for less than $20.00 and is good.

You should consider attending ChowFest without Penelope and pick the brains of all us chow parents there.
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Loha'sDad »

If you can---- walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk. On these walks, take turns leading. Let your puppy fully explore and experience its world with you providing leadership where necessary. Make sure it understands that you are numero uno and will be the final decision maker in all instances BUT give in often and just have fun! Pay close attention to your chow's sense of humor---- they are devilishly clever and will give you more laughs than you can handle if you are receptive to it. Although they see and hear everything, they could win an Oscar pretending not to when they want to. ALWAYS provide an acceptable chew toy IMMEDIATELY upon finding them chewing on something unacceptable and clearly let them know, in plain English, the difference. You cannot underestimate the intelligence of your chow. Handle it accordingly but, most of all, try to match the love you give with what you receive.

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Mochi_Yoshi
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Mochi_Yoshi »

I believe you are in Northern CA right? If so, you live in the most dog friendly state! We have so many parks and places that you can bring her. Bring her to the dog park every other day, it SERIOUSLY helps not only your sanity but also your pups. My 2 pups are 21 wks now, we bring them early in the morning for about 2 hours every other day at the doggie park, they have so much fun running around, exploring, peeing/pooping, and learning social behaviors from other dogs. Ofcourse, after getting home...they are out the rest of the day! Which we also plan our day this way too, like if we need to go out without them on a day, we take them to the dog park in the morning first so they get their energy out. Tired dog = happy dog and owner!

We give rawhide sticks (those little skinny ones), and we have plenty laying around on the floor so there's always one around them nomatter where they are. We also have toys and other misc chewing stuff all around the living room so they can easily grab one and not have to "find something" that is mine to chew and play with. We give them bully sticks that we get from Costco, cut it in half and give it to them at night for chewing and entertaining themselves before bedtime. I know it sounds like creating a horrible mess to live in, but it's only for so long during their puppyhood. If you have a yard/sliding door...consider a doggie door. Mine learned to use it within the first 24 hrs and have gone outside to do their business ever since. Yoshi did have accidents, but it was always on her cedar filled bed, so we learned that she must not like it....we just threw it out and never replaced it. If you don't have time during the day, consider doggie day care.

Are you feeding her the right food? There are foods that will give them too much energy, like too high in protein as I was told at a holistic pet store. I feed mine Kirkland brand puppy food and they great on it, but they do get a burst of extra energy shortly after they eat. (and here comes the bully sticks!)

It's a two way learning curve, you learn from your pup as much as your pup learns from you. Think of it as a game...how to outsmart your chow! If you know she's going thru a paper phase (mine is too!), remove all papers. If it's your coffee table stuff, get a box with a lid and put them in the box and put the box ontop of the coffee table so it's still easily accessible to you.

Hang in there! You are doing great! Think of this as your hard work to earn your rewards later...a lifetime of love from your chow. You'll look at her face later on and think "my, we have come so far." Think in her perspective, she's just a puppy, she doesn't understand why she can't have whatever it is that you're telling her she can't and she never will. You are ultimately asking her to obey you (for no reason to her) just because you said so...and THAT takes trust and plenty of patience. I recently told my husband this while he was rubbing one of the pups stomach, that just the fact that she was willing to turn upside down to let you rub her stomach should not be taken for granted, THAT is a sign of trust and love.

Enjoy it, cause there's gonna come one day when they won't want to play with you even if you ask or tempt them with the world's most amazing toy.

(Sorry for the long post...I know what your going thru...and if you want to meet up at the doggie park so they can play with my pups, just PM me)
You have to ask yourself "How can you say no to this face....?" Answer: when they chew on your favorite purse...
Tsunami22
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Tsunami22 »

Well, I don't have a lot of time to post but I wanted to say a couple of things:

First, thanks for all of the good advice and encouragement!

Second, I can't bring her to dog parks yet or even go out THAT much with her. I live across the street (literally) from a really popular dog park and my vet strongly suggested that I don't even walk her down the street until her vaccines were done! He suggested only closed yard playing. I admit, in the past week I've broken the rule and each day I'll take her running around the block. I figure the speed will not only tire her out more but will also stop her from smelling anything (infected other dog poo? Various wild animal disease holding stff

?)

In five minutes time, she's back to her hyper puppy antics.

To answer more questions: she's not really home alone much. I'm unemployed right now kind of (anyone hiring? Haha jk) so I'm home all day with her. I'll leave her alone in the room or the yard for an hour or so at a time if I'm watching a movie or eating but she isn't alone that much. She knows how to play fetch and will for about 8 mins. Until she's bored. She's got a kong, nylabones, and stuffed animals. All which she loves to chew. The shoe thing is new because I mostly puppy proofed everything or so I thought. In the past week we've both discovered that she's tall enough to jump up and reach where I've been keeping my shoes and tall enough to reach my second shelf and pull down some notebooks. So my shoes are higher NOW, little help that does the two pairs that I'll call our learning curve.

She's currently eating solid gold wolf cub, but I may switch her off to something else (stil undecided as to which). Ever since I switched she's been throwing up. Maybe once a day. It's mostly water and unchewed kibbles. Because she's acting normal the vomitting hasn't worried me too much, I just assumed it was the food switch. Either way, we have another vet appt. Tomorrow. I hate going to the vet. He makes me feel like a bad mom cause she's really head shy. I've tried training her to "say hi" which just means I pet the top of her head and give her a treat. After two weeks she still only let's me do it. Everyone else she runs away from.

I know I'm forgetting something... I'll try to postmore later.

She can be a really sweet puppy. And needless to say she's absolutely adorable. But she is SUCH a handful!!

Oh, and while I'm posting, quick question: I try to have her play with our other family dogs, james bond is a 1 year. Old english bulldog and tsunami is a 3 year old chow. But she's kind of... Vicious. She BITES! She doesn't growl or bark so I don't think it's AGGRESSIVE biting, more like out of hand playfulness. How do I train her out of that? I know the tactics to have her stop biting people (isolation and positive reinforcement) but what about dogs? I read that puppies don't usually understand dominant/submissive behavior until around 4 mos. Old. She's only 3. Will this actually change with age? As it is, I can't let her play with them (supervised, of corse) for more than 5 mins. Because she gets so worked up and latches on! She wasn't taken from her litter till about 9 weeks, so I thought she'd know at least a little of bite inhibition. I know it isn't good behavior AT ALL and I need to stop it!
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Boogie and Linda
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Boogie and Linda »

How do your other dogs react to her? They would probably be able to teach her bite inhibition if you trust them not to hurt her. Usually older dogs will let puppies know when enough is enough.

Boogie was awful as a puppy with the biting and those puppy teeth are razor shaerp. He bit through leashes and he also ripped holes in our pant legs trying to play. There is a good bite inihibition posting under the training session. We took Boogie to a trainer and when he did that to her she let out this high pitched OUCH! very loudly (I thought she was seriously hurt) then she stood up and ignored him for a few seconds. He was completely confused. Then she played with him again and when he bit she did the same thing. It didn't take long for him to think she was nuts and wonder what was going on. She had us do that at home to him and she also showed us how we were reacting to him before (especially my daughter who would complain and whine and try to get away from him) was actually encouraging the behavior.

And as everyone else has said, a tired puppy is a well behaved puppy. :wink:
Tsunami22
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Tsunami22 »

The two other dogs are normally the most submissive and docile dogs ever! James bond (e. bulldog) can be a bit of a beast but only because he's just this big, slow, slobbery, hunk of meat. He would never bite or hard, it's his weight i'm worried about. They get excited and he starts just throwing his weight around. One step and penelope could get really hurt! Of all dogs I wouldn't be worried about James Bond aggressively hurting her, but some how accidentally trampling her!

Tsunami was a bit of surprise because she's usually really great with other dogs. Chasing and never biting, and she's usually super obedient. But when we put her around penelope she's not like herself! She growls when penelope even goes NEAR her food when Tsunami barely growls and she's happy sharing her food or water bowl with other dogs or letting us put our hands in the bowl while she's eating. When Penelope tries to play and bites Tsunami just swats at her with her paw but mostly takes it. Penelope will try and bite her face and that's when Tsunami get's mad.

I trust both dogs completely not to bite her or aggressively fight her. Should I let them just play and put Penelope in her place? let them tell her when enough is enough?

And as for the yelping when mouthed or bit, I read that if you have a really high energy or what I'll call spunky puppy then the yelping could jsut encourage them. That the technique is usually most effective on sensitive or quiet or especially submissive dogs. I tried it on penelope and it worked the first time, everytime after that she barely noticed or cared.
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Sirchow »

The one thing I would add to what everyone has said is that it is also a matter of time and maturity with a puppy. What they don't get at three months will seem easy and part of their normal behaviour when they are four or six months or perhaps even a bit longer. It sound as though Tsunami sees Penelope in a different light to the other dogs she meets and this may be because she is now competition for your affections. I think that you will need to monitor the behaviours of the other two with Penelope and don't leave her alone with them to be on the safe side. The relationship between the two girls will probably take at least a year until you can see if they are going to be friends or not as it will change as Penelope s-xually matures.

It can feel as though you have to teach puppies everything asap but some things take a long time to become part of their normal behaviour and need some maturity to understand. The training will be on going for the rest of her life and as long as you stay consistant and know what you do and dont want her to do she will learn.

Could you try softening the kibble and letting it swell a bit. Then perhaps try to crate her for a little while to let the food settle. If she is as mad as you say it is not surprising some of it comes up again.

Most chows seem to be head shy. I suggest you let her sniff the vets hand low down - below her chin and then get him to approach her from the shoulder. Chows can feel really threatened when a hand is above their head.

By the way you sound as though you are doing a fantastic job so don't be too hard on yourself and try to chill out a bit while Penelope is crated for a while. She needs some down time on her own too!
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Re: Frazzled!

Post by Trooper »

So worth the time & patience - they grow up soooo fast & really do slow down! yes....DO slow down.
You will enjoy her for years to come. The biting will stop - they just want to latch onto everything and tug & chew - its the puppy in them - but as someone else already posted - All that too shall pass! Enjoy it!!
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