# Pika acting scared? Peeing Growling...



## Pareeeee (Sep 29, 2009)

I've noticed that sometimes when I tell Pika to "sit" or to "lay down" he will look all rebellious and slowwwwly sit or lay down, (after me saying sit or lay down about 100 times) sometimes urinating when I go to push his back end down.
Other times he does it happily and obediently?!!!?!

So here I am today asking Pika if he wants a treat. Of course he goes wild and happily starts doing his tricks. I was in the middle of teaching him a new trick but he kept doing a different one that he already knew, I would say 'no' and show him the trick again, giving him a treat if he did it right. I went to pick him up (since he was practically on my lap and I couldn't show him his trick) to push him away from me, and he growled and peed on the floor?!!!?! What the hey? 

So later on (after cleaning the floor) I go to get him to do just his normal tricks (since I figured maybe learning the new one frustrated him somehow) I tell him to lay down and he pees. I tell him to sit and he pees, and then starts shaking like a leaf. Now I cant get him to do anything, without growling or peeing.

Sometimes I just go to pick him up now and he growls and pees.

What on earth has come over him?!!?


----------



## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

He's terrified of you. 

How old is he?

Stop pushing him physically, and teach him from the beginning what you want. No "NO", no "head shaking". Just wait for him to sit and reward that. Then keep doing that until he has it down.


----------



## qingcong (Oct 26, 2009)

I agree, this dog is scared. The growling is him saying, "get away from me, I don't like when you do things to me" and the peeing is out of fear. It sounds like you're too overpowering to him.

Forget about whether or not he obeys your commands, work on improving your relationship for now. No touch, no talk, no eye contact. NILIF. When he respects and trusts you, he will listen better.


----------



## Pareeeee (Sep 29, 2009)

I guess I should have done some history first. My husband and I just got him over a month ago. He is three years old and un-neutered (soon to be neutered though)

When we first got him he had a lot of behavior problems (this is only one thing I have been struggling with) such as marking indoors (which we have finally remedied) and possesiveness of his bed. He would growl/cower at times. He was afraid of men (still is a little)
I worked with him to get him used to things such as sticks and brooms (which he was terrified of) and he will actually come up to the broom now when I'm sweeping instead of running away scared. I think he had a bad experience with someone at some time in his past.

The peeing and shaking is new though...something that developed in the last week or so.

PS: How do I stop him from doing some bad behaviors if I can't tell him "no"? Use a spray bottle or something?

PS again: I had more chance just doing some simple commands with him after the 'incident' today. I tried to act as cheerful and happy as I possibly could. He started out looking scared but slowly started to do his sit/lie down commands over and over. No peeing or shaking this time. Wish me luck for future...more advice encouraged!

NILIF?? should I know what that is?

EDIT: also, dunno if word filter is gonna edit this out - sorry if I'm not supposed to say this word. Married lady here and it don't bother me  

When he is in more of a growly / peeing / rebellious mood his penis is sometimes sticking out like he's aroused or something. What does this mean? Perhaps he is acting like this out of frustration since he hasn't been neutered yet?


----------



## qingcong (Oct 26, 2009)

Pareeeee said:


> PS again: I had more chance just doing some simple commands with him after the 'incident' today. I tried to act as cheerful and happy as I possibly could. He started out looking scared but slowly started to do his sit/lie down commands over and over. No peeing or shaking this time. Wish me luck for future...more advice encouraged!
> 
> NILIF?? should I know what that is?



That's great that you're making progress. Keep up the good work, try not to be overly cheerful, it could come across a little scary. When training, calmness should be your default. 

I wrongly judged your situation. I thought you had scared this dog with too much coddling, but it looks like his problems come from before you. 

What bad behaviors are you trying to stop? If it's the growling, peeing, or not obeying commands that you want to fix, you definitely do not want to yell "no!" or punish him in any sort of way. If it's about trying to keep him out of the trash can or something, you want to use a sharp sound (I use a hand clap) to startle him, and then body block him away from what he's doing. Generally, there's no need to get angry. Dogs aren't trying to make you mad, they just don't know right from wrong. It's unfitting to yell at them when they aren't trying to do anything wrong. A spray bottle will work, but you have to be close to them and before long the dog will figure out how to avoid the spray bottle.

NILIF stands for nothing in life is free. It means he has to work for everything good in his life. There's a sticky post on NILIF at the top of this forum.


----------



## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

You haven't had this guy long and it often takes a couple of months for their real issues to appear...they spend the first little while just trying to figure out where they are and why they are there so be patient with the little guy. I know it's hard and trying your patience, but this dog is scared and confused and any punishment you use right now, when he finally feels safe enough to tell you he IS scared and confused will only make things worse.

NILIF is great for developing routine and rules without being forceful and will help to have him "fit in". You must do a lot of gentle training and confidence building in a dog like this. Please check out the website www.fearfuldogs.com for information on training and behaviour modification and also check out the regular thread here on DF "the fearful dog thread". There are a lot of us here that have experience and it is a great support for the good and the bad days. Good luck.

PS...the fact that his redrocket is out is just a sign of stress or excitement. Strange things happen to the body in all animals under stress.


----------



## Pareeeee (Sep 29, 2009)

thanks again for your help. about 5 minutes ago I was getting him to lay down and he just peed again. kinda 'raising his hackles' as soon as I said the dreaded words "lay down"
I dont know what to do when every time I need him to lay down he pees. 
I'm becoming afraid to ask him to do anything since I really dont want to scrub the carpet anymore...

my dog has lay-down-a-phobia 

trying to remember if something bad happened to him recently when laying down or something... 0_o


----------



## Zen (Nov 11, 2009)

Pareeeee said:


> thanks again for your help. about 5 minutes ago I was getting him to lay down and he just peed again. kinda 'raising his hackles' as soon as I said the dreaded words "lay down"
> I dont know what to do when every time I need him to lay down he pees.
> I'm becoming afraid to ask him to do anything since I really dont want to scrub the carpet anymore...
> 
> ...


Why do you NEED the dog to lay down? To me what the person said before about just building a respectful relationship right now with the dog seems like common sense. Any training you do now will not be on a solid foundation, so why not get that first?


----------



## Westhighlander (Sep 28, 2007)

I would stop all commands for now until the dog trusts and becomes more comfortable with you. Take him on long walks, play games and randomly give him a treat for no reason except that he is a good boy. His body language should change over time and you can slowly start training again.


----------



## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

When you say "GETTING him to lay down" what does that mean? Are you touching him when you want him to lay down? If so, stop. Not only is this threatening but it's possible he has pain or discomfort and molding a down is not a good thing. 

I was also thinking, that it is possible that every time the little guy was told to lay down in his previous home it may have been when he was in trouble or about to be punished, so the 'down' itself may have become a traumatic position.
SO..yes, like everyone has said..don't think about asking him to down for now. work on your relationship with him first.

LATER try to RETEACH the down using another cue and a different body position from YOU. This means, instead of standing where you may be looming over him, do it from a sitting position, not facing the dog, having him at your side or something similar. He needs to reassociate his body position with GOOD stuff and a non threatening environment.

OR you can "capture" the down. THis takes watching and practice. Keep some really good treats on hand at all times, if he just happens to lie down while you are watching tv, making dinner etc, you mark it with a "yess!" and just toss him a treat. No cue. No molding. Just a yessss and a treat. Eventually he will start to feel safer and also start to understand what he's doing gets the reward and start offering the down. Then you can put it on cue.
Just my thoughts.


----------



## qingcong (Oct 26, 2009)

Pareeeee said:


> my dog has lay-down-a-phobia
> 
> trying to remember if something bad happened to him recently when laying down or something... 0_o


I doubt it has anything to do with laying down or the command "lay down". Does he sleep laying down? If so, obviously laying down isn't a problem to him. 

If you say the command "lay down" from 10 feet away, does he still get scared and pee? If not, obviously it's not the command itself.

I really think that right now, you need to learn to communicate to him in dog language that you mean no harm. Once you've accomplished that, then you can start teaching commands from the human world. 

How often do you walk him? The walk is a significant bonding activity, it means a lot more to the dog than it does to you. What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Do you go and sweet talk him and tell him what a pretty boy he is? For at least two weeks, do not give any affection. Your interactions with him should be business like. 

When dogs go into a new home, they need to know what the rules are, what they need to do to survive in the environment. Affection is the last thing they need. Do you think wild dog packs or wolf packs welcome a new member into the pack with constant affection? No, there is probably a bit of taunting and posturing, behaviors designed to set a natural working order in the pack.


----------



## Pareeeee (Sep 29, 2009)

I'm actually beginning to think something happened to him last weekend. We went to visit relatives and their little kids would NOT leave him alone even after me telling them to. Their parents were no help either. Anyway they were yanking on his leash and trying to scare him, trying to make him do his tricks, etc. UGH we are never gonna take the dog there again!!! it made me so mad. (ok my little rant is over, lol)

realized it was about then that he started acting like this.

Anyway, as for the last post, I usually do walk him but this past week or so I have been really busy (going places, working, etc. I'm frazzled!) and haven't had time to walk him. feel a bit guilty about that but dunno what I could have done. anyway I took him for a walk this morning and he seems to be feeling a little better about himself. I believe you're right about the walk.

thanks again for all your input.

PS: he was limping and we did find almost a half inch wood splinter stuck into his foot between his toes. dunno where he got that. pulled it out and put some ointment on.

just giving as much info as i possibly can. more things keep coming to me

'getting him to lay down' = saying "lay down" and doing the hand signal associated with it.


----------

