# my puppy is a jerk - long post, sorry



## mjellyicus (Jun 15, 2011)

ok, she's not a jerk. She's a puppy. But perhaps even in the puppy world she's a jerk.

We have a few big problems at the moment. She's 8 weeks old, a beagle, in a family with young children.

*Leash walking*. Will walk nicely only when it suits her, which is about 1 minute per sessions. Maybe. She was pulling so hard she surely hurt her neck (could seriously be a sled dog) so I've put her in a harness, which helped slightly. She pulls less, but has now added the stubborn digging her heels in and refusing to move bit. I've been handling it by: *Training on our own, no children to distract. *In a boring, clear area. *treats every few metres behind me, she has to sit first. *praise for the microseconds she heels perfectly *saying 'heel' to reposition her *if she tries to pull ahead I stop and wait *no confirmation of her digging in behind me, I've started exclaiming at the clouds and continuing. *no more than 10 minutes

When she's had enough she goes to the next problem. She also goes crazy when I attempt to introduce her to a new room, or wear a long dressing gown and walk past etc
*Crazy nipping*. Physically can't stay still, hands near her to unclip her leash and put her in crate for time out get nipped. I've tried yelping and ignoring, but she honestly couldn't care less. Fine, I won't pay attention, great, plenty of other things to do. Tried pulling her away with the leash, not hands or legs, but she thinks its great. I've even tried smacking her on the nose, but she still doesn't care. Reminds me of my brother as a child!

Obviously the approach I'm taking isn't working. She gets plenty of attention and outside time. She's in her crate with the door open and a playpen when inside unless its nighttime/timeout/we're out for a couple hours, then she's closed crated. Her den is next to my desk, and she sees plenty of traffic. Outside time is at least 2 hours total per day, playing catch, training, chewing etc, even short periods of being tethered in the sunshine (its winter, she loves this, until she gets lonely).
I think i'm alpha enough. I grr and she jumps away from socks etc, I lead the way in and out using wait/okay, I feed and groom her, she voluntarily does that alpha roll thing for me that I haven't taught her. She gets praise and eye contact at random calm/playing with her toys moments.

So....am I asking too much? If she's not learning to curb her behaviours now she's not going to be a very nice family dog, and you don't give up on family, so please help. What advice can you give that might help us? I'm not sure puppy preschool will help her, she's learned sit and we can work on the other simple commands ourselves. We have another beagle puppy in the extended family who we playdate with regularly, but he doesn't like her, they have actual fights and need to be separated. She starts them. Because she is a jerk.

http://flic.kr/p/9V3i5L


----------



## kelii36 (May 7, 2011)

When my puppy was 8 weeks he would buck around and cry on the leash, but I just patiently stood in one spot, and gave him a treat whenever he walked towards me. Sometimes it took a LONG time. We live in an apartment and I had neighbors coming out to see if I was killing him. Now at 15 weeks he walks very good for a puppy his age. He even ignores people for the most part. I didn't call my puppy or anything, I let him figure it out on his own. 
For the nipping, I would make my puppy sit everytime he did it.


----------



## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

Get a puppy trainer in or go to a class. You have expectations that are WAY more than an 8 week old can accomplish. She's not a jerk she is a neonate animal, just like a human baby..this has NADA to do with being alpha or anything else. She's teething, has no control over her bladder, little control over her impulse control and does not speak english. As much as training can and should begin at an early age, the human's expectations must be fairly controlled due to developmental stages in the pup. Expecting walking, expecting her to not grab your dressing gown (it's MOVING and is therefore stimulating) and expecting her to handle being handled without proper acclimation is not fair to you and not fair to her. You are already setting both of you up to fail at this.

Kikopup on youtube has some amazing early puppy training vids. Ahisma also has some good ones, like the silky leash video for teaching a dog or pup to give IN to leash pressure rather than go with the opposition reflex. Sophia Yin has some great handling vids and you can also search up on some "Crate games" vids to work on having the pup go in her crate without you needing to PUT her there. All puppy training at this age should be positive and instructional, not punishing. Your most important things to teach a pup at this age are to be handled, bite inhibition, basic recall training, socialization with the world and housetraining...that is more than enough to set you up to build on basic obedience behaviours here and there til her ability to learn and retain the info and focus more on you comes along. 

And throw out the alpha crap. It's bad science and sets up a bad precedent for a relationship with your dog based on respect.


----------



## Tolak (Sep 11, 2008)

Sounds like a typical 8 week old pup to me. If you saw any of my crew helping with my son's now 13 week old pup you would think fight at times, I know it's dogs being the best teacher of pups you can find. You're sending a ton of mixed signals, most likely the older pup in your extended family is not, use that pup as a teaching tool. Find other dogs that are experienced with pups, at 8 weeks that pup needs all the help with socialization skills it can get.

Those vids Cracker mentioned are good stuff, grab a cool drink, kick back & enjoy, you will learn quite a bit.


----------



## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

mjellyicus said:


> So....am I asking too much?


Yes.

8 week old puppies have nothing in their heads. An 8 week old puppy is an id on a rampage. That's why they make 'em so darned cute.


----------



## lisak_87 (Mar 23, 2011)

She's not a jerk, she's a baby! Puppies nip, go nuts, chew things, pee in inconvenient places, whine, howl, bark, cry, make demands, and don't have dog-dog communication skills yet. It is exhausting, it is stressful, it can make you want to give the dog away every other day... but it is 100% normal. From what you describe above, your puppy is well within the normal range of puppydom... I've heard some INSANE nightmarish stories from folks on here about their puppies.

Couple things to suggest:
What kind of harness are you using? I suggest using an easy walk harness or Sporn no-pull harness for those times when you simply CANNOT do leash training. When you DO have time/energy to devote to leash training, whenever she starts pulling you forward, back her up until she sits/lets the leash go a little slack, then you can move forward. Plus, you need to work on a "heel" or "with me" command OFF LEASH. Your puppy has NO idea that you don't want her to pull.

Puppies also aren't born knowing how to go on walks. Sometimes it helps to find an adult dog to go on walks together... puppy learns from the adult sort of thing.

As others have said, I highly suggest puppy classes AND interactions with adult dogs. That's how puppies learn to communicate with other dogs. When I first got Brady, he also seemed to be "starting fights"... and I was told he may NEVER be able to do things like daycare because of his intensity. I cried. A lot. Ask anyone here.

Brady now has better dog manners than some adult dogs I've met. And he goes to daycare and LOVES it there.

P.S.,

In my experience, the only time puppies stay still...is when you want them to move!


----------



## Irishman (May 13, 2011)

Only smack your dog on the nose and alpha roll them if you want them to fear and mistrust you. Nearly 100% of the time, the problem isn't the dog, it's the owner. I'm not insulting you. I was doing the same things and having similar issues. We try to use methods that are widely accepted, but widely accepted doesn't always mean 'correct'. As an example, when I was growing up, the method for house-training dogs was to rub their noses in the mess and smack them, followed by tossing them outside. Since dogs can't recall things they've done more than about 3 seconds ago, what we've done (in the dog's mind) is hit them for no reason, push their noses into refuse, again for no reason, and put them outside while obviously angry. So now the dog fears your approach, since they never know when you're going to become unstable and hit them or humiliate them, and they've associated going into your back yard with your anger. 

And I'd wonder why it always took months and months to house-train a dog. Now I do it in a week or two, max. 

If her nipping is that manic, try putting bitter apple or something on your hands that tastes bad. Also, any praise you give should be relatively calm. My mother tried to emulate me after I got her dogs to sit on command in a few minutes, but they wouldn't do anything she asked. It was because she was using a very high, excited voice like you'd use when congratulating a child for winning a game. It raises their excitement level too high, and then they loose control. For the leash training, do a specific search on this site for loose-leash training, or look up 'silky leash' training. Stay clear of sites and articles that have the word 'correction' in it. Correction-based training tends to cause fear and resentment in your dog.


----------



## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

What kind of dog is she? Just curious. I also got one of mine too early & had some of the probs you are experiencing (not saying you did, just saying your not alone lol) Izze made me want to pull all my hair out... 9 Yrs later she still has me reaching for my hair sometimes (just kidding ) but it is survivable. There are some great stickies on the top of this, the first time basic questions, & the general dog forum also that Pertain to your issues.

I also made my share of mistakes including using some of the methods Irishman mentioned, but I don't do that anymore, I use a los of privilege system that works pretty well for us but only after the dog understands what you are asking & that only comes with a lot & I mean a LOT of rinse & repeat LMBO.


----------

